A Certain Magic by Mary Balogh Read Free Book Online

the next. She might have come between them, Web and him. But she had not. It had been so very obvious from the start that she loved his friend. She had made his short life a very happy one indeed. Piers had been quite unable to resent her—or Web.
    It was strange to see her now with someone else. Strange to think of her with anyone else. She belonged to Web. He felt a quite unreasonable instinct to stride across the box, pick up the baronet and his chair both together, and set them down three feet farther from Allie than they now were.
    The thought amused him so much that he had to purse his lips again. And he caught Alice’s eye across the box and winked. She smiled back.
    If he had expected to have to entertain his young guest with coos during the interval, Mr. Westhaven was agreeably surprised.
    Three young gentleman with whom he remembered to have only the most passing acquaintance had decided that they were his boon companions and called upon him in his box. It was very civil and sporting of them, as he remarked to Alice before the play resumed, when he had the chance to exchange a few words with her. He could not imagine what he had done to earn such cordial treatment.
    All three young men exhibited identical surprise that their friend, Mr. Westhaven, was escorting a pretty young lady. They had not noticed her from the pit when they spotted their friend and decided to pay him their respects. But they all swallowed their disappointment at not being allowed ten minutes of the pleasure of his conversation, and set themselves to charming the little beauty.
    “Their kindness is overwhelming,” Mr. Westhaven said to Alice. And bending closer to whisper in her ear, he added, “Do you think they have heard of the fishy fortune?” 
    “Piers!” she said, and hid her explosion of laughter in a cough.
    “All three of them are notoriously light in the pocket,” he said.
    There was time to say no more. His three newly acquired friends were taking their leave and Miss Borden was feeling faint.
    “I shall take you outside into the corridor, my love,” her mother was saying.
    “Allow me, ma’am,” Mr. Westhaven said, extending his arm to the girl. “Do lean on me, Miss Borden. I shall promenade you outside in the corridor and you will be feeling more the thing in a moment.”
    “Thank you,” she said, looking up at him for a fleeting moment to reveal to his interested gaze a pair of fine green eyes. “I am being so foolish.”
    “Not at all,” he said. “The theater is almost stuffy enough to give me the vapors, too. Indeed, if you had not needed my supporting arm just when you did, I believe 1 would have needed yours.”
    “Oh,” she said, favoring him with an uncomprehending look from those eyes. Whoever had selected her gown, Mr. Westhaven thought with decided interest, had done so with the full knowledge that she had the bosom to do it justice.
    “This is your first visit to a London theater, Miss Borden?” he asked conversationally. “And how are you enjoying it?”
    “Oh, it is quite splendid!” she said breathlessly. “I thank you, sir. I just wish...”
    He bent his head closer to hers. Her dark lashes had a most interesting way of fanning across her cheeks. And those cheeks were flushed again. She was one of those fortunate females whose necks did not become blotchy when they blushed.
    “What is it you wish?” he asked.
    “I just wish Mama and Uncle would not...” she said in a voice so small that he had to lower his head even closer to hers. “But I am sorry. Please forgive me.”
    “You are forgiven, “ he said promptly. “But what, pray, was the fault? What do you wish your mother and your uncle would not?”
    She looked full into his eyes for a moment, her own large and troubled and trusting. Then she lowered them again.
    “Try to marry me to you,” she said.
    Mr. Westhaven resisted the urge to shout with laughter. It would not, no, it certainly would