Free A Little Deception by Beverley Eikli Page B

his eyes raking
her salaciously.
    Helena tossed her head, only to catch the yearning look her
husband sent her from where he was engaged in conversation a few feet away. As
Charles took a step towards her Helena lanced him with a look of contempt
before feigning sudden interest in Aunt Alice’s description of her new bonnet.
Tiring quickly of the discussion, and having successfully deflected Charles,
she allowed her eyes to stray across the ballroom thronged with exquisitely
garbed, rich and titled people who knew not a care in the world while she,
Helena …
    Oh, but she was wasted on a sugar plantation far from the
world’s real excitement with a husband who was as exciting as a yam supper. And
oh, how Helena detested yams, though Rose claimed she missed the food of their island
home.
    Well, Rose was welcome to the West Indies—and Helena
fully intended that’s exactly where her sister-in-law would be returning. As
for herself… Helena was still working on the conundrum as to how she could
engineer remaining in England. Certainly for longer than the remaining several
months scheduled.
    It was in the midst of such ruminations, as she affected the
right facial movements in response to Aunt Alice’s puerile chatter, that the
glimpse of a familiar sardonic leer sent her heart free-falling.
    She spun round, her heart plummeting all the way to her
slippers as, with a laugh, he excused himself from his portly companion, a
clergyman, and stepped into clearer focus. For a moment Helena thought she
might faint.
    There he was.
    William the Conqueror.
    She sucked air into her lungs. Conqueror, indeed! After all
these years.
    She didn’t know whether to be filled with joy or fury. Her
vision blurred and she had to blink several times.
    Geoffrey Albright stood alone by a stone plinth, broader and
even more handsome than she remembered. His light-brown hair was a little
longer than he used to wear it but his look was just as she remembered:
confident, tinged with arrogance, as he surveyed the crowd.
    He turned, shock and recognition flaring in the depths of
his cool grey gaze. Geoffrey Albright, the man she loved and hated in equal
measure, right here in this ballroom, exuding all the familiar dash and heady
danger he had all those years ago.  
    Helena sucked in air as she gripped Rose to steady herself.
And as her world spun out of control she swore that someone would pay for all
she had sacrificed.

Chapter Five
    ‘YOU’RE
WHAT?’ Rampton looked at his brother as if Felix had just announced a trip to
Outer Mongolia.
    ‘I said I’m spending a few days in Kent. With the
Kenilworths.’ Felix helped himself to more kippers at the sideboard. Returning
to his seat, he smiled blandly at his brother. ‘I take it you’ve no objection?’
    ‘You’ve declined their last three invitations. I don’t know
why you suddenly choose to accept now. How long will you be out of town?’
    Felix grinned. ‘You must have noticed that sweet Cecily is
no longer a child. I actually failed to recognize her at Lady March’s
masquerade.’
    ‘You realize, of course, that if you accept this invitation,
you’ll be expected to have offered for sweet Cecily before the Season’s over.’ Rampton
didn’t know why he suddenly felt so angry. No, of course that wasn’t true, he
amended as he poured himself more coffee. He’d assumed Felix would be on hand
to paint Lady Chesterfield’s portrait and the fact he’d have to wait until his
brother had returned from his jaunt to the country was more than Rampton’s
already-tried patience could endure.
    Felix scarcely paused as he shovelled the food into his
mouth. ‘No, I won’t,’ he mumbled between mouthfuls. ‘Your problem, Rampton, is
that you think that when you’re handsome and titled, everyone is setting their
cap at you. Sweet Cecily could do far better than me, and she knows it. But the
glint in her eye told me she’d enjoy my little visit just as much as I would
and for exactly the same