Christmas Betrothals. Sophia James

number of people here. Do you expect any more?’ Her mind raced. If Lucas Clairmont did not come after sending her the invitation she would never forgive him!

      ‘A few of the neighbours will come tonight for dinner and Mr Clairmont will bring Lady Shelby down from London.’

      ‘Caroline Shelby?’ John’s voice had the same ring of masculine appreciation that she had heard in the tone of each man who had discussed the newest beauty on the London scene.

      ‘She couldn’t leave town any earlier so Nat asked his friend to wait and escort her.’

      Lillian felt the muscles in her cheeks shake, so tight did she try to hold her smile. If Clairmont had invited her here to flirt in front of someone else … Lord, the whole weekend would be untenable and she wondered how she might return to London without causing conjecture.

      No. Her resolve firmed—she would not turn tail and disappear. For five days now she had been walking on eggshells at every single social occasion just in case she should see him, her words rehearsed so as to deliver the nonchalant greeting she wanted.

      She needed to thank him for the flowers and move on to the next part of her life, and if memory served her well she knew him to be off to America in merely a few weeks’ time.

      Luc waited as the girl gathered her shawl and minced to the carriage. Her chaperon, a woman in her mid-forties, followed behind her. Lord, would they ever be ready to go? He looked at his watch and determined that Lillian Davenport should have already arrived in Kent.

      Would Nathaniel have told her of the reason for his lateness?

      Caroline Shelby placed her hand in his as she gained the carriage steps and kept it there long after the need lapsed. Extracting his fingers, he put his hands firmly by his side, sitting on the seat opposite from the two women and looking out of the window.

      ‘It should take an hour,’ he said with as little emotion as he could muster.

      Caroline giggled, the sound filling the carriage. ‘They say the St Auburns have a beautiful house?’

      ‘Indeed they do.’

      ‘They say if you rode from one end of the estate to the other it may take all of a day.’

      ‘It may.’

      The echo of Virginia loomed large. To go from one end of his property to the other would take a week and he missed it with an ache that surprised him.

      ‘I should love to see it on horseback. Do you ride?’

      He nodded, hoping she did not see this affirmation as an invitation.

      ‘Then we must find some horses and venture out,’ she replied and his heart sank at the sentence.

      ‘I have some business with the Earl—’ he began but she interrupted him.

      ‘But you could find an hour or so for a lady who has asked you?’ Her hand closed over his and the chaperon looked away.

      ‘Certainly.’ Luc resolved to make a large party of this sojourn even as he removed his fingers yet again from hers.

      Forty-eight long minutes later the St Auburns’ country seat came into view and the woman who sat next to Lady Shelby finally seemed to deem it time to haul the antics of her young charge in.

      ‘Your hat is a little crooked, dear,’ she said, deft fingers straightening the bonnet that had come askew when she had fallen forwards against him on one of the more rutted sections of the road. ‘And you really ought to replace your gloves.’

      The sight of the house as they swept on to the circular drive was welcome and it seemed as if many of the houseguests still languished in the glassed-in conservatory, enjoying the last rays of the sun. He easily picked out Lillian, her pale hair entwined today into one single bunch, simple and elegant and the white gown complimenting her figure. She had not seen him, but was talking to Cassandra and next to her stood … John Wilcox-Rice.

      ‘Damn.’ He swore beneath his breath, glad for the chance to vacate the carriage and escape the company of the irritating Lady Shelby and her dour chaperon.

      Nathaniel met him first. ‘Wilcox-Rice is here.’ A warning flinted strong.

      ‘I saw him.’

      ‘Should I stand between you?’

      ‘To keep the peace, you mean?’

      ‘He is rumoured to have offered for her hand. If you mean to pursue that gleam I can see in your eyes …’

      ‘Have patience, Nat. Any protection that you feel the need to give me will be relinquished in a few weeks.’

      ‘You think that you’ll be on that boat?’ A strange smile filled the eyes of his friend.

      ‘Of course I will be. My passage is booked and paid for. There is nothing to hold me here.’

      ‘Or no one?’

      Luc laughed suddenly, seeing where it was Nathaniel was going with this line of question. ‘I tried marriage once.’ His words were bleak and he hated the tightness in them.

      ‘Elizabeth was a woman who would drive anyone to the bottle. God knows why you still wear her damn ring.’

      Luc felt a singular shot of fury consume him. ‘I wear it because it reminds me.’

      ‘Reminds you of what?’

      ‘Never to make the same mistake twice.’ He grabbed a drink of fruit punch from the table as he moved away.

      Lillian turned as Lucas Clairmont downed a large glass of punch, the lot hardly touching his throat before he helped himself to another.

      He looked angry and she could not quite reconcile this man with the one who had sent her flowers and kept silent about a scandal that could easily ruin her. The bruising around his eye was largely gone and the velvet of his dangerous glance made her wary and uncertain. Caroline Shelby seemed bent on following him and Lillian could well see why she had been often named as the most beautiful girl of her Season. Wilcox-Rice beside her laid his hand beneath Lillian’s elbow in a singular message of claim and she saw Clairmont take in the movement.

      Caught between convention and other people’s expectations, she could do nothing save for smile, her practised speech of thanks buried under the weight of a careful control.

      ‘Miss Davenport.’ When she gave him her hand he held it briefly. The warmth of his skin made her start with the recognition of his touch.

      ‘Mr Clairmont. It is nice to see you once again.’

      He dropped contact almost immediately.

      ‘You two know each other?’ Cassandra was astonished.

      ‘A little.’ Her words.

      ‘Not well.’ His.

      Cassie’s giggles drew the attention of Caroline Shelby as she gained their small circle.

      ‘What a lovely party! I knew I should have left London earlier. If it had not been for you, Mr Clairmont, I should not even be here by now. I hope that I have not missed too much, for you all seem very festive.’

      ‘I am certain you are quite in time, Lady Shelby,’ Lillian returned.

      ‘Miss Davenport. How wonderful that you should be here. I have long admired your sense of style and bearing and your dress—’ she gestured to the white moiré silk ‘—why, it is just so beautiful.’

      ‘Thank you.’

      ‘My friend Eloise says you have your clothes made in England, but I think that cannot be true as the cut and cloth is just too wonderful and I said to my mother the other day that we should ask you about your seamstress and use her ourselves because …’

      Was she nervous, Lillian thought, switching out of the constant barrage of never-ending chatter, or just frivolous? She made the mistake