Free Finding Miss McFarland by Vivienne Lorret Page B

along in her attempts to avoid him.
    Still, knowing she’d been doing so on purpose—even employing a spy—irked him to no end. Therefore, when the coach stopped, he quickly exited the carriage, handing his sisters out one by one. Anticipation filled him.
    Once they were all out, Asteria linked her arm inside his, with Calliope and Phoebe leading the way. “Your sluggishness this afternoon seems to have evaporated, brother.”
    “I’m merely anxious to end the outing and have a moment’s peace,” he said, gazing ahead. From the looks of it, Miss McFarland had left the shop too quickly and was now being hailed by a store clerk, who hoisted her package in the air by the strings.
    With every step, Griffin kept his eyes on the tilt of her sea-foam green bonnet, a length of silver ribbon left untied and flitting about in the breeze. She wore a short jacket with a stiff collar in the same hue and a row of tiny buttons down the front.
    Those buttons stirred him anew, causing him to imagine unfastening them, enticing him to expose the delectably small firm mounds of her bosom beneath the layer of pale muslin she wore today. After their kiss, he’d memorized nearly every fine distinction of her form. Because of that, he knew she didn’t wear stays, which made those buttons almost irresistible.
    “Miss McFarland,” Calliope greeted. “What a pleasure it was to spot you from our carriage. My brother insisted we stop and bid you good afternoon.”
    The bonnet turned. The remains of a furrowed brow quickly dissolved as a seemingly practiced smile lifted the corners of her mouth. Only the barest hint of surprise slipped out by way of the soundless exclamation on her lips, but he saw it all the same. Those violet eyes skimmed across his sisters, one after the other, and then hesitated for the barest part of a second on his. Two dots of pale pink tinged her cheeks as she returned her gaze to the eldest of his sisters.
    The clerk bowed and disappeared back into the store.
    “Miss Croft. What a flattering thing to say,” Miss McFarland replied easily, in no way revealing the fact that she’d looked to be in a terrible rush only a moment ago. “Although . . . I have a younger sister as well, and I know that siblings breakfast on bowls of mischief each morning. It’s far more likely that you are here to see if my Haversham’s is superior to your Forrester’s—which it is, of course, in every way,” she ended with a grin that hinted at a dimple in her left cheek. When she reached up to tuck a flyaway auburn tendril behind her ear, his view was obscured.
    He would’ve liked to have seen the dimple again to be sure it existed. She seldom smiled in his presence—not with genuine amusement instead of with obligatory social politesse—and he felt that he’d just unearthed a great secret.
    “You are too clever, Miss McFarland,” Phoebe said. “Only Griffin ever calls us out for our penchant for mischief. You must have like minds.”
    “More likely, our siblings are quite similar,” she said smoothly, doing a better job at dissuading his sister’s evident matchmaking scheme than he’d done. “And speaking of siblings, I’m certain mine would enjoy a visit from each of you, now that you are on this side of town.”
    Asteria nearly clapped with glee. “That is a nice trick, inviting us to call when my brother could hardly refuse.”
    “Our carriage is at your disposal,” Griffin offered, unable to keep the smirk from his lips. There’d be no avoiding him this time. Her spy could not have prepared her for this circumstance. “My sisters and I will simply return to Haversham’s on a future outing.”
    Pink brushed Delaney’s cheeks again as she drew in a breath. “Apparently, my cleverness has already abandoned me. Truly, I was merely doing a service for my sister. She enjoys your company immensely. I never intended to imply she’d confided an interest in having your brother pay a call on her.”
    “Then he