Free The Man in the Green Coat by Carola Dunn

father, sir, but it was quite otherwise with him. Many’s the time I heard Sir Cosmo described as a pillar of the Foreign Office.”
    “Hence, no doubt, the son’s unjustified belief that he is welcome here. Davis, send someone to find out where my sister goes this evening, and to inform her that I go too!”
    * * * *
    Lady Cecilia was pleased to learn that her stepson intended for once to do his duty by his sister. Dorothea, however, regarded him with mingled alarm and delight when he joined them in the drawing room before dinner. She thought he looked magnificent in knee breeches and ruffled shirt, but his expression was not appropriate to an evening of merrymaking.
    “We are going to a ball, Luke,” she said timidly. “You abominate balls above all things. Indeed, you need not come, for Mr Gardiner is dining here and will escort us.”
    “Did I tell you that I abominate balls?” Luke said, smiling. “That was a great exaggeration.”
    “But you do not care to dance, I know. You do not think that I will stand up with Lord Aintree, or Sir Hubert? I promise I shall not, since you dislike it.”
    “I begin to think you do not want me to go!”
    Lady Cecilia intervened. “She means no such thing, Luke! We are both happy to have your escort. It is entirely your own fault if your offer takes us by surprise, for the only ball you have attended this season was our own.”
    “And a frightful crush it was, ma’am!”
    “Yes indeed! Excessively gratifying when your father and I have rusticated for so long and you do not lift a finger to maintain your position in society,” she said with acerbity.
    To Dorothea’s relief, Mr Gardiner was announced. Luke observed him closely, decided that he was a milksop who was as little likely to attract his sister as to frighten her, and resigned himself to a tedious evening.
    Half an hour at the ball did nothing to revise his expectations. Dorothea had correctly diagnosed his dislike for dancing; since discovering, seven years ago, the extent of his father’s gambling debts he had taken no pleasure in play; and none of the cronies with whom he enjoyed political discussion had graced the event with their presence. As he dodged, for the third or fourth time, a matchmaking mama with eligible daughter in tow, he wondered if it had been wise to conceal from the world the depth of the family’s financial misfortunes. Apparently he was generally regarded as a good catch.
    His evasive manoeuvring had brought him close to the entrance, and he considered abandoning Lady Cecilia and Dorothea to Mr Gardiner’s care. However, his host and hostess were still standing there, greeting a few late arrivals. There was no way to sneak past without being seen, and it was by far too early to make his departure with propriety.
    Frustrated, he watched a group of two ladies and two gentlemen approach the doors from the hall beyond, wishing they were going the other way and he with them. He was turning away when he stopped suddenly with an arrested look and glanced back.
    With a shock of recognition, his eyes met Gabrielle’s.
     

Chapter 7
     
    Gabrielle went through the introductions in a heedless daze. She curtseyed prettily, thanked her hostess for including her in Lady Harrison's invitation, and moved on on Alain de Vignard’s arm without the least idea of what she was doing. The brilliance of the scene was lost on her—the gay music, twirling dancers, gems flashing in the light of a dozen chandeliers.
    Mr Everett here! And looking as elegant as any gentleman in the room. But had he really, as their eyes met, given the tiniest possible shake of his head, and if so, what did it mean?
    Was it possible that he did not recognise her in her finery? The apricot ballgown was certainly a far cry from the men’s clothes he had first seen her in, and her hair had been dressed by a fashionable coiffeur who had done wonders with the wreck she had made of it. Yet she was sure he knew her.
    She could only