Free Promise Me Heaven by Connie Brockway Page B

the pup’s head bent too close to the gleaming waves of auburn, her lips just parted in a laugh, her color high, quite suddenly, the smile died on her face and her color drained away.
    In a trice, Thomas was at her side, suavely cutting in on the young fool, who mustered a complaint. The look Thomas sent the idiot was such that his protest sputtered to a halt and he fled.
    Thomas led Cat through the final steps of the dance then returned her to the side of the room. “Well, m’dear. Do I have to call that young ass out or shall we let him continue to draw breath?”
    “Please don’t.”
    “I am only wondering what punishment to mete out. But since I do not yet know the crime, it makes just recompense rather hard to determine.”
    “I just want to leave the ballroom, Thomas. Please. Nothing was said or done that would cause the least amount of offense. I would count it a favor if you would take Aunt Hecuba and me in to dine.”
    “Of course, but Hecuba has already gone in to the buffet. She was thirsty. Her parting remarks were to exhort you to ladylike behavior.” He tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and led her through the double doors leading to the dining rooms.
    Hecuba was just quitting the room. She saw them and tottered over, leveling Cat a stern look. “I am retiring,” she said. “I have put about the information that you are here with your uncle. No one would dare question my veracity. Still, you’d best come up as soon as you have eaten. Fielding will be waiting for you.”
    “Yes, Aunt Hecuba,” Cat replied obediently.
    “You, sir. Mind your manners.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Thomas bowed, waiting to rise until Hecuba had left then leading Cat into the dining room.
    There, she spent most of the meal attempting to divert him from trying to discover what her foolish dance partner had done. That it was something relatively inoffensive was suggested by the ease of her recovery. Still, though he replied in kind to her quips, he was not to be dissuaded from his goal.
    Towards the end of the meal, he raised a glass of sherry and viewed her through its amber hue. “I think we must have a garnet-colored dress made for you, a ruddy one so that when you feel overset, as you do now, your complexion can borrow its color from the dress. Or so you might claim. It’s a dead giveaway, m’dear, that too thin flesh of yours. Now, desist with this mindless chatter. I’m sure it’s all very charming to the local swains, but I know you better and am accustomed to your conversation having a bit of pepper in the broth. Out with it.”
    Cat squirmed uncomfortably. “I would really rather not say, Thomas. But since you shall undoubtedly bully me until you are satisfied, I at least pray you withhold your lowbred curiosity until we are elsewhere.”
    He raised one brow. “ ‘Bully you?’ I didn’t realize my behavior was so reprehensible.”
    “Well, mayhaps you wouldn’t bully me,” she owned, a dimple appearing in one cheek.
    “Badger?” he asked, eager to see its twin. He was rewarded. She laughed.
    “Pester, harass, annoy, distress… persecute? Aye, I like persecute the best. Puts me in mind of Dumas. Only you’d swathe me in yards of silk instead of an iron mask. Wouldn’t you, Thomas?”
    “As you say.”
    “I say it’s time I resign myself to a stroll to my room, during which you will, no doubt, use all the diabolical methods at your disposal to have from me what you will.”
    “Really? I am agog. All I had hoped was for an answer to my question, and here I am to have all my dark desires granted. How munificent of you, Cat.”
    But she had learned in the last short weeks. She smiled at him, playing the game she thought they played, unaware of how the rules were changing all the while. “You can but try, sir,” she replied, a sudden low huskiness to her voice.
    Thomas reminded himself just in time to smile.
    Cat strolled from the assembly rooms at Thomas’s side, conscious of how