Free Beyond Innocence by Emma Holly

bow. An image of Miss Fairleigh fainting drifted disturbingly through his mind. He could almost feel himself catching her.
    "A disturbance of the stomach," Lewis elucidated.
    In spite of a rush of sympathy, Edward laughed. "You mean she's so frightened she cast up her accounts."
    "Yes, sir," said the valet. "Her courage has failed her. She swears she'll return to Keswick tomorrow, rather than make a fool of herself tonight."
    "Keswick?" With a frown, Edward submitted to a subtle rearrangement of his hair.
    "Her home village," Lewis explained and Edward experienced an illogical prick of annoyance that his servant knew this when he did not. "Duchess Carlisle is at her wit's end. She sent her footman over to see if young Lord Burbrooke can talk some sense into her, but your brother has already left for his
dinner engagement at the Brawleighs'."
    "Surely my aunt could"—"
    "She says it's a job for a man: the voice of authority appealing to the rational in a woman." Lewis looked as if he doubted this quality existed in female form. Then again, for the past year, Lewis had
been trying without success to coax the senior chambermaid into his bed.
    "I'll speak to her," Edward said, though he knew it flew in the face of his resolutions. "Most likely she only needs to be reassured she won't be left standing through the waltzes."
    "Yes, my lord." Lewis held up his waistcoat for him to slip his arms into the sleeves. The design was very plain, black with a smooth shawl collar and a satin back. It fit like a second skin.
    Edward ignored the tingle of excitement that warmed his spine. This mission of mercy posed no danger. After all, how appealing could a "prostrate" woman be?
    * * *
    "Brush your teeth," said Lizzie, holding out the tin of tooth powder.
    Florence buried her face in the pillow. She was never leaving this room. The Vances were expecting five hundred people at their ball. Her stomach lurched at the very thought. She'd been brave up till
now; she truly had, but this was too much to expect. Five hundred people! And Aunt Hypatia wanted
her to dazzle them. She'd be lucky if she survived.
    "Already brushed them twice," she mumbled.
    "Once more before you go," Lizzie insisted. "Duchess's orders."
    "But I'm not going. I'm not, I'm not!" She knew how hysterical she sounded, but she could not stop herself. She couldn't go. She simply couldn't. She might be pretty but she was hopelessly inept. With a groan, she piled the pillow over her head.
    "Honestly," Lizzie huffed, and Florence knew she'd put her hands on her skinny hips. "You make me ashamed to know you, Miss Florence."
    "And you should be ashamed," said a voice that had her bolting up with the pillow clutched to her chest, though her dressing gown was perfectly modest. Her hair was down. And this was her bedroom. And he was a man. All of which was enough to throw her into a panic.
    "Lord Greystowe!" she gasped.
    He sat very gently on the edge of the bed, as if she were an invalid. She thought he would take her hand but he only stroked the coverlet beside her hip.
    "Now, Florence ," he said, " tell me what has frightened you."
    He made her feel foolish by simple virtue of asking the question. But she wasn't foolish. No one understood how terrible this was for her, least of all this man, who'd probably never been frightened in his life. She plumped the pillow in her lap and sniffed back a tear. "Aunt Hypatia says five hundred
people are coming to the Vances' ball."
    "And?" he said, as if five hundred people were nothing. Her tears welled again, but now they were tears of resentment
    "They'll stare," she said, her nails curling into her palms. "They'll stare and they'll titter and they'll talk behind their fans as if I were a cow at a county fair."
    "Because you're pretty," he said in that same infuriatingly reasonable tone.
    "Yes!" she said, almost shouting it.
    Edward smiled and her temper abruptly snapped. How dare he mock her fears? Before she could stop herself, she