Page 7 of Clarity

C larity stumbled but quickly righted herself and caught up to his step.

“Are you well?” Alex asked.

“Yes, my apologies. I don’t think I have ever before done such an egregious misstep.” But then she’d never been taken by surprise with such a declaration at the beginning of a dance.

“No harm came of it,” he assured her as the dance continued.

“Here? Tonight?” She glanced around.

He narrowed his eyes. “Tonight, what exactly?”

With exasperation, Clarity asked, “Are you saying you have found a wife here?”

“I might have. Obviously, I cannot be too hasty.”

“No, of course not,” she relaxed. “She is someone you have only just met.”

“Correct. Yet I hope after I call upon the lady at her home, I shall be able to satisfy all my questions and make a reasonable decision.”

“After a single visit?” she asked.

“I am not looking to fall madly in love with her over a cup of milky tea,” he asserted. “I merely wish to discern her sensibilities and her nature.”

“To make sure she has no sense of fun,” Clarity muttered.

“Pardon me?”

With a surge of exasperation, she puffed out her cheeks. “Do you think it’s hot in here?”

“A little,” he agreed. “But aren’t all such assemblies warm and stuffy? Isn’t that why you have a fan?”

“I can hardly draw it out while we’re dancing.”

“Do you wish to stop?”

“Yes,” she said. “I need some fresh air.”

“As you wish. I shall return you to your mother.”

“Oh, Alex. What harm can there be in escorting me, as an old family friend, out onto the terrace?”

He stared at her, but then he nodded. They walked off the floor and toward the rear of the ballroom. As soon as they stepped out into the foggy, sooty night air, Clarity breathed deeply and coughed, feeling better.

Why his announcement should have shocked her, she didn’t know. It couldn’t be because she’d allowed all her warm feelings for her childhood friend to take up a place in her heart. He was plainly not the same person. If she met him for the first time that night, he wouldn’t interest her at all apart from his appearance. And she hoped she wasn’t so shallow that she would ever allow a man’s face and figure alone to sway her.

She kept walking until they stepped off the terrace, where many were gathered on the warm night, and continued into the shadowy area beyond.

Alex halted. “We cannot go any farther.”

“Why not?” She knew, but she wanted to hear him say he might compromise her. It gave her a little thrill to tease the stuffy part of him. The youth she knew wouldn’t have cared a fig about societal morés.

“Strangely, you are doing precisely what the bachelors I was speaking with earlier fear the most, trying to trap me into an improper situation.”

“Trap you?” She was momentarily insulted, except she had too many young men buzzing around her like bees to believe he could be serious.

“Why on earth would I do that?” she asked. “If I want a husband, I shall simply say yes to one of the swells who already court me. I don’t need to trap anyone. I would be miffed by your insult, but you are basically new to London society and thus have no idea how popular I am.”

That should set him down a peg. Trap a man, indeed!

“Besides,” she added, “we are friends, and since you’ve judged me unsuitable, the last thing on earth I would want is to be forced to marry a man who doesn’t admire me.”

He looked doubtful, which was galling.

“Never mind. You may return to the ballroom. I shall walk on my own. In fact, I prefer it to your company.”

“No, you cannot do that either,” he protested.

Since she’d already turned away and started walking, Alex had to catch up to her. She kept striding over the grass toward the wall at the garden’s end, just to madden him. It was amusing to thwart the man who used to be the leader of their lively capers.

Finally, when there was nowhere else to go, she turned behind the perimeter’s hedgerow. It was the first time she’d been alone in a garden with a member of the opposite sex. She knew what was supposed to happen, what she’d been warned of by her mother. But that was with ne’er-do-wells and rogues. This was Alex.

Irritated, he growled, “We must go back.”

Grabbing her arm, he made her halt. However, instead of drawing her into an embrace and kissing her soundly as a rake might do, he scolded her.

“You are behaving like a hoyden. I must insist you return to the house with me. And I shall have a word with Lady Diamond about your behavior.”

She laughed out loud. “Oh, Lady Aston, I didn’t think I would be with you tonight.”

“That’s not funny.” He was visibly seething, staring down at her. She blinked back up at him and quickly sobered to see genuine ire in his expression. It made her heart ache.

“Oh, Alex, where has my old friend gone?”

Disbelief flashed behind his eyes, and something else she couldn’t identify. And then slowly, he drew her closer.

Not protesting, remaining silent, Clarity was curious to see what he would do even as her heart began to beat wildly. Were they going to hug as two people who had once been thick as thieves?

In the next instant, he dragged her up against him and took hold of her with his other hand, too, one clamped around each of her upper arms.

“What harm can come?” he repeated her words softly back to her, and then he kissed her.

Whatever she’d imagined, it wasn’t this. As soon as his lips touched hers, a scorching jolt sizzled through her, and her knees instantly went as wobbly as aspic jelly.

The kiss was blistering! When their mouths fused, a fiery trail blazed from her tingling breasts to the sensitive place between her thighs until her body was pulsing everywhere.

Unable to help herself, she reached up to wrap her fingers behind his neck and hold on.

A sideways tilt of his head sealed their mouths more closely, and as she gasped, his tongue slid between her lips.

His tongue? The unexpected added pleasure of his silken tongue sent shivers along her spine. At the same time, his hands left her arms to caress her back.

Acutely aware of the growing yearning inside her and relishing the searing heat of his firm lips, she sighed and melted against him.

And then he groaned, a noise so low and throaty at first that she wasn’t sure it came from him. If there had been bears in London, she would have wagered that was the sound one would make.

While her mouth was still vibrating from the hoarse sound, he abruptly released her.

“Good God!” he exclaimed. “Either you are incredibly na?ve, an idiot, or a wanton. Have you done this before?”

Not exactly love words! Putting her fingers to her tingling lips, she shook her head.

“I don’t believe I am any of those things,” Clarity protested, hearing a quiver in her voice. “I am, however, ready to return to the ballroom. Sadly, the garden has made me not a whit cooler.”

Surely, he would think that funny, how they’d heated up instead of cooled down.

But his expression was thunderous. He stepped aside and gestured for her to go past him.

“Hurry,” he urged. “And straight to your mother’s side. I will come inside a few moments after you.”

At Hyde Park in the early morning before it was fashionable to be riding, when there was no one else to see or be seen, Alex exercised his horse. He remembered being there with his father. They would come at a similarly quiet hour to have as much of the park to themselves as possible. Later, his father would ride with his mother, when the popular Lord and Lady Hollidge would greet their friends and make arrangements for dinners and picnics.

Alex had no one with whom he wished to do any of those things.

Yet he did allow himself this one fun and albeit dangerous activity. Kicking his horse into a full gallop, he tore from one side of Hyde Park to the other. It was glorious. He felt free and alive, like his old self, the one that had ruined everything good in his life.

And when his horse’s sides were heaving, he let it walk slowly back home.

He hadn’t called upon Miss Brambury after kissing Clarity, although he still intended to. He just needed to put a little time between the disturbingly sensual tryst with the eldest Diamond sister and the placid one he hoped to have with Miss Brambury.

Too many irons in the fire probably applied to one too many ladies on his mind as much as to anything else.

On the other hand, he knew he ought to hammer his iron while it was glowing hot. His aunt, who had known Miss Brambury’s mother for the past five years, seemed convinced the young lady was the best choice among those coming out this season. With Lady Brambury as his aunt’s friend, the path would be easy if he wanted to court her daughter.

Thus, the following day, he gave his card to the Bramburys’ butler and soon found himself seated in the viscount’s drawing room opposite the demure Miss Brambury. With utmost propriety, both the girl’s parents were also present, one on either side of her.

“The circumstances that have kept you out of London these past few social seasons have actually been a blessing,” Lady Brambury said after the tea was poured. “Our daughter was not ready to come out until this year.”

The message was unmistakable — if he had searched for a wife earlier, he would have missed out on this particular one. While Alex was confident another equally refined and capable woman would become available, it was exceedingly convenient to have found this one as soon as he had. He could stop going to those balls where unsuitable women like Clarity might tempt him.

Clarity, with her lovely face and kissable mouth.

“Yes,” he said, realizing a silence had fallen that he ought to fill.

“Your aunt mentioned your estate is a mere one county away from my own,” Lord Brambury remarked, as if this practical coincidence ought to make the union of his daughter with the Hollidge viscountcy a decidedly certain affair. “In Essex,” the man added.

Alex nodded but seeing that something more was expected, he said. “I have holdings in Suffolk.” The conversation was as boring as watching grass grow.

“Some fine fertile land,” Lord Brambury added.

“And close for visiting,” Lady Brambury added.

Alex took a second look at her parents, realizing they would become his new family, his in-laws, and consequently in his life forever after. They would be grandparents to his children. He considered their looks and their demeanor and could find no fault.

“Yes,” he said again.

But a small part of him was screaming no!

Miss Brambury nodded her approval, too, whether to the close proximity of the estates or the fecundity of the land, he didn’t know. Regardless, she held out the biscuit plate to him with a steady hand. Her manners were impeccable.

“Lady Aston said you were not yet in any way aligned with a suitor. Is that correct?” he asked, not wishing to waste time. He’d already done that at the Diamond household.

When any day could be one’s last, it was foolish to squander a minute on the wrong endeavor or the wrong female.

However, when Miss Brambury’s cheeks pinkened and her mother coughed, he feared he’d made a misstep.

“I say,” Lord Brambury spoke up. “It may be premature for you to ask such an intimate question, or indeed to press for exclusivity, my lord. We shall speak to our daughter in private about such an important step. Naturally, you are welcome to escort her around Town, in my wife’s presence or with a chaperone, and to dance at the next assembly.”

Perhaps he looked a little crestfallen for the next words were encouraging ones from Lady Brambury.

“Not to worry, my lord. This is simply how things are done. You must ask Lady Aston, and she will assure you it is.”

“Very well.” As far as he could tell, the delay was a customary formality. They spent another few minutes finishing tea and discussing the weather in detail, straying only so far into the political field as to wish the queen abundant good health, and then Alex departed.

All in all, a well-spent half an hour.

Hyde Park on a busy afternoon was a bright, colorful, crowded place. The Diamond siblings always enjoyed riding together, especially when Adam was in London as he was that month, and sometimes one or both parents came, too.

“Don’t you wish we could race our horses like in Derry?” Clarity asked, patting her horse, Bonny, who loved to be given her head every once in a while and had a smooth gait while galloping.

Purity shook her head. “No, I am quite happy to amble along and see people. If I were zipping by, I wouldn’t notice those flowers or that dashingly handsome buck over there.”

Clarity’s head swiveled. For an instant, she hoped to see Alex, the most attractive buck she could imagine. Yet all she heard was Adam’s laughter.

“I don’t see anyone,” Clarity declared.

“He must have dodged out of sight,” Purity said, then she too laughed, leaving Clarity unsure if there had been a dashing man or not. All three of them were constantly teasing one another.

In truth, she had been unable to drive Alex from her thoughts after their single fervent kiss. She felt warm whenever she recalled its intensity. His mouth, the pressure, his scent that had enveloped her, his hands on her body — all had been perfection. She hadn’t seen him since.

Not that she’d expected him to recant his statement about having already found a potential wife, one who wasn’t her! But after such a passionate encounter, she had hoped he would come calling if only to discuss the possibility of something more between them.

“I wouldn’t mind a race,” Adam broke into her thoughts, “but you’ll have to get yourself out of bed early. If we come when the mists have yet to clear and there’s still dew on the grass, then we can race.”

“Don’t encourage her,” Purity said.

“Pish,” Clarity told her. “It’s a grand idea, and we’ll do it the next morning when we’re not out too late at a ball.”

Fortunately, that turned out to be two mornings later. However, almost as soon as they began their plan, it fell into failure.

“Blast it all,” Adam said, dismounting. “The girth strap has frayed. I love this saddle!” he moaned.

“You love it so much you’ve worn it out,” Clarity declared. “I don’t mind telling you I am disappointed.”

“It’s not the saddle, muttonhead. It’s only one strap, but a damnably important one.”

“I’m your elder. Don’t call me a muttonhead and don’t swear, either.”

Adam laughed. “All right, but you don’t have to let it ruin your fun. Gallop to the end of the row, give Bonny a good run, and then come back.”

“You can take a turn afterward, if you wish. My Bonny won’t mind you atop her.”

“Wretched girl! You know I’m not going to use your saddle. What if anyone saw me riding aside like that? I wouldn’t live it down until I was an old man. Anyway, it’ll be practice for you, and I vow I shall still beat you next time.”

“I don’t need to practice to beat you,” she quipped. “Regardless, I shall go straight up and back.”

“Off with you then.” He slapped her horse’s flank.

Gleefully, Clarity urged Bonny, a lively jennet, into a trot, then a canter, and finally, a gallop. Hyde Park flew by as she bent low in her sidesaddle and held on. Unfortunately, her hat, which she had pinned herself, flew off within a few yards, but she looked back, gesturing to Adam to retrieve it.

In the next few yards, her chignon also came undone. She would have to speak to her maid Winnie about this. Pinning her hair in the same manner for a dance was not sufficient for a vigorous ride. Regardless, enjoying the sensation of flying, she laughed.

“Good girl,” she murmured, patting Bonny’s neck.

Approaching the far end of Rotten Row, Clarity spied another figure, a man on horseback, stationary, watching her ride.

Mindful of how far away she was from her brother and how isolated, she began to draw upon the reins and slow her horse to a walk. However, before turning and fleeing in the other direction, she had a delightful realization.

“Alex!” she exclaimed, raising a hand in salutation. Her heartbeat sped up accordingly at the sight of him, handsome and tall, sitting on a splendid gray Arabian.

After she hailed him, he started forward. Instead of appearing happy to see her, he wore his usual rigid expression of displeasure.

“What on earth are you doing?” were his first disapproving words.

“My brother and I like to race,” she explained.

Pointedly, he looked around and behind her.

She laughed, breathing hard, for somehow, even though Bonny had done all the work, the exhilaration of galloping always took her breath away. And unexpectedly seeing Alex added to her breathlessness.

“Adam’s saddle has a broken strap.” She shrugged slightly. “Therefore, it’s only me.”

Alex shook his head, and she knew his next words were going to be disapproving.

“Beyond the pale, as usual. Not just risking yourself by galloping, you are alone and at the mercy of any scoundrel who comes along.”

“Not yourself surely,” she teased.

“When it comes to you, Clarity Diamond, and your outrageous behavior, you could push even me to behave badly. You ought to be spanked.”

His words should not have conjured up a vision of herself bare, helpless, and willing, lying across his lap, but they did. Suddenly, she was very warm indeed.