Free You Belong to My Heart by Nan Ryan Page B

if he knew she was at a party with Daniel Lawton. So she decided not to tell him. She wouldn’t lie to him. She simply wouldn’t mention it.
    The evening came, and Mary Ellen reluctantly accompanied her parents to the Lawtons’ lavish Christmas party, dreading the affair, wishing she didn’t have to go. Wishing she could stay home and Clay could come over and they could lie in front of the fireplace together.
    But she couldn’t.
    And he couldn’t.
    And they couldn’t.
    Light and music and laughter spilled out of the imposing Lawton mansion when the heavy cypress door opened and a British butler in full livery ushered the Prebles inside.
    Daniel Lawton, attired in dark formal evening wear, stood talking with a circle of gentlemen in the drawing room. He caught sight of a gorgeous blond girl in a long red velvet cape sweeping into the foyer. His fingers tightened on his stemmed glass of champagne and he stopped speaking abruptly, stared.
    “Please excuse me,” he said momentarily, set his champagne glass atop a passing waiter’s tray, and made his way through the crowd. He reached Mary Ellen as she was unhooking the stand-up collar of her flowing red velvet, fur-lined cape.
    “May I?” he inquired politely, stepped up directly behind her, and took the covering wrap from her shoulders.
    Mary Ellen turned about to face him. Daniel Lawton favored her with a wide, disarming smile, undisguised interest flashing in his green eyes.
    It didn’t go unnoticed by either the Prebles or the Lawtons that Daniel hardly let Mary Ellen out of his sight all evening. To the chagrin of the other young ladies present, the handsome eligible bachelor made no effort to conceal his attraction to the slender, golden-haired Mary Ellen.
    “Let’s take a stroll in the back gardens, Miss Preble,” Daniel said less than an hour after she’d arrived.
    “Don’t be absurd,” she replied tartly. “It’s freezing cold out.”
    Daniel leaned closer. “I can keep you warm. Come on.”
    “Certainly not!” She whirled away from him.
    Intrigued, enchanted, he spent the entire night attempting to get her alone. Mary Ellen was having none of it, but that wasn’t the way it looked to her pleased parents. Nor did it look that way to a particularly unhappy young woman who would gladly have gone a whole lot farther than a walk in the cold with Daniel Lawton.
    Green-eyed with jealousy, the voluptuous Brandy Templeton muttered beneath her breath, “I’ll fix you, Mary Ellen Preble. I’ll tell Clay Knight all about you and Daniel Lawton.”
    The collar of his dark wool jacket turned up around his freezing ears, his hands stuck deep into his pants pockets, Clay finally reached the pebbled drive of Longwood on that cold Thursday night in December.
    He began to smile.
    Lights shone from inside, and he was sure a blazing fire burned in the spacious parlor. He could almost feel its welcome warmth, could almost taste a cup of steaming hot cider.
    Mary would be surprised to see him.
    He rarely came to Longwood during the week. Even now, with school out for Christmas vacation, he had little free time. He was putting in full ten-hour days at the cotton office through the holidays.
    But tonight he had felt such a strong yearning to see Mary, he had finally stopped fighting it. He had to see her, to hear her voice, to touch her hand.
    His mother had looked up from her sewing and frowned when Clay shot out of his chair and announced—shortly after nine o’clock—that he was going to Mary’s.
    “Clay, it’s late. It isn’t a decent hour to call on a proper young lady. Besides, it’s too cold for you to be walking so far.” Anna smiled then and said patiently, “I know you want to see Mary Ellen. But the weekend’s only a couple of days away. Wait and go Saturday. Christmas.”
    Clay shook his dark head. “I can’t, Mother. I have to see her. I have to. You just don’t understand.”
    He went for his coat and was gone before she could say more.