Free Under the Kissing Bough by Shannon Donnelly Page B

mind of herself as daring and bold as he. Scornful, sweeping into and out of ballrooms. Proud and haughty. She twisted her mouth to one side. She'd be more like to trip on her hem if walking with any king, and she would be tongue-tied with terror if she even had to stand before Parliament to give them a good-day.
    "I would settle for simply not shaking like a blancmange pudding set on a trotting horse every time someone looks at me."
    He gave her a grin, and started to say something, but Lord Rushton had at last finished his speech and raised his glass. The toast was drunk and people began to press forward to shake Lord Staines's hand and wish him well, and give Eleanor sly glances that said, "And how did an insignificant girl such as you ever catch an earl's son?"
    Eleanor wished that she could die.
    It would be so much less painful.
    Instead, she clung to Lord Staines, pressing as close as she dared to his strong, tall body. She allowed him to answer, and she pasted on a smile and muttered inaudible words to anyone who addressed her, and she tried to keep up his game of making all these strangers and acquaintances into furniture.
    It helped, but nothing could ease the strain which left her temples pounding.
    At last she heard Lord Staines tell those around them, "Now you must pardon us. For I have obligations elsewhere, and I would rather take leave of my intended in more a private setting."
    One matron smiled coyly at him, and batted his arm with her fan, telling him he was such a rogue. And a red-faced gentleman in a brown coat winked knowingly at him. Eleanor's face warmed, but she did not care what excuse got her from the room.
    Lord Staines led her through the crowd, and she had to control her steps so that she did not seem to drag him to the doorway, even though she wanted to run ahead, pulling him with her.
    When they stepped from the ballroom into the empty hall that led to the front stairs, she let out a deep breath.
    Lord Staines turned an appraising stare on her. "We have run one gauntlet and survived. But I shall have to present you at court as Lady Staines after we are married, you know."
    Eleanor's relief faded. "Court? Oh, no. I never made it through my first presentation at the Queen's drawing room. That is why Emma came out this year, you know. So we could make our curtsy together. Her chatter kept me from being wretchedly ill this time on the drive to St. James's."
    His expression seemed torn between a laugh and disapproval and Eleanor knew that she should not have said all that to him. But a smile relaxed his face. "You shall have plenty of time to learn to be a countess, and I do believe I can instruct anyone in how to have an indifferent heart."
    She frowned at the bitter tone that lay under his words, and almost said something, but he stopped her with a touch to her cheek. Just a light caress with the back of a bare knuckle. A soft sweep beside her mouth, and a smile that stopped her heart for an instant.
    He gave her a short bow and turned on his heel, striding down the hall to the front entrance.
    Alone in the hall, she stood quite still, listening to his firm steps on the white marble, and to the low rumble of his voice as he asked the porter at the front door for his hat and coat. The heavy, oak front door opened and closed, and there was nothing but the faint music from the ballroom and the fading pine scent around her from his person.
    She put her hand up to her cheek, dazed, knowing that he had somehow bewitched her, and not caring that he had. He had not been disappointed in her. He had smiled at her. And he had saved her tonight.
    She could have danced a jig up the stairs to her bedroom.
    The click of a door latch scattered the daydreams she had started to weave. Someone else was leaving the ballroom.
    Eleanor fled at once to a shadowed alcove where the half-burnt candles in the hall did not cast any light. She squeezed tight behind a statue of Diana, for she simply was not up to any more