Free Countess of Scandal by Laurel McKee

this together, we must act as such. For the good of our country."
    Eliza studied him over the edge of her glass. His face was set in most determined lines, his blue eyes dark. "Do you really think that? That we are all Irish?"
    He gave her a surprised glance. "Of course. Was I not born here, the same as you? My family has been here for over a hundred years. What else would I be?"
    Her gaze slid over his red coat. "You have been away a long time. Perhaps you have forgotten."
    He leaned closer to her, his eyes intense as he watched her. That warm strength of his seemed to reach out and surround her again, luring her ever closer and closer. "A man never forgets the things most important to him, however long he is parted from them."
    Eliza swallowed hard, her throat suddenly dry, her heart pounding. She gulped down the last of her champagne, remembering Anna's words. Do it now — while you can. But she had other work now, no matter how tempted she was to dance with him, to feel his arms around her again.
    "I think I would like a breath of fresh air," she said. "It is very crowded in here."
    Indeed, even more people had pushed into the ballroom during the dancing, a great horde seeking punch and lobster patties—and news. The buzz of it was like a flock of frenzied birds, flying around the treetops as the sharp-clawed cats drew near.
    "I could use some air myself" Will said. "Let me go with you."
    "Are you quite sure you want to be seen in my company?" And Eliza feared she could not trust herself with him.
    "A British officer in the company of Lady Democratical, you mean?" He grinned at her teasingly. "Someone needs to keep an eye on you. It might as well be me."
    Eliza laughed. "Good fortune with that, Major. I move very quickly."
    "Oh yes. I know."
    The long, narrow picture gallery, lined with paintings on one side and tall windows on the other, was filled with only a few couples, murmuring quietly together in the shadows. Starlight shimmered through those windows, etched with the cold brightness of winter. It was lovely after the heat and noise of the ballroom, but as Eliza walked along with Will close at her side, she wondered if she was not safer in the crowd after all.
    She paused before a landscape, a scene of pastoral idyll with haystacks and pretty shepherds and shepherdesses, and sipped at the last of her champagne. It was warm now, but at least it steadied her nerves.
    "You no longer care to dance, then?" Will asked. "I remember when you loved it"
    "I fear I am quite out of practice."
    "Lord Mount Clare was not fond of a reel, then?"
    Eliza laughed. "If it did not involve hunting or shooting, Mount Glare wasn't interested at all. Rest his soul."
    "A countryman, was he?"
    "To his core. Horses, dogs, and guns were his life."
    "He didn't care for books?"
    "Not unless it was a treatise on horse breeding. We didn't have a great deal in common, as you see." She smiled up at him. "But we rubbed along well enough. Especially when I was in Dublin and he was in the country."
    He smiled at her, too, yet it seemed somehow ... sad. "I've thought of you so often over these years, Eliza. Wondered what you were doing, what your life was like."
    "Dull, indeed, compared to yours, I am sure."
    "I doubt it Nothing is duller than the life of a regiment on a faraway island."
    "Oh yes. Warm sunshine, stretches of sandy shore, fresh, sweet fruit all year round—it sounds dreadful. I, on the other hand, trudged my way along through long Irish winters, with only my books to keep me warm."
    Will laughed. 'If you only knew how I dreamed of cold winters sometimes! Dreamed of..."
    "Of what?" Eliza asked softly, finding she longed to know his dreams.
    "Of home, of course."
    "Of course." But whose home? Whose version of Ireland? She drifted toward the window, staring out at the street below, dotted with lights from the house, then at the night sky, stretching on and on, forever it seemed. The moon hung suspended in that purple-black sky, like a