A Waltz in the Park by Deb Marlowe Read Free Book Online Page A

he’s gone, and the conversation will go from there.”
    His mouth twitched.  “You wish me to literally beat him to the punch?”  He raised a brow.  “I suppose it is a sound strategy.”  He stood.  “Come?”  He offered his arm.  “I’ll fetch you a glass as well.”
    She hesitated, wishing she could agree.  But he had his goal and she had hers, and she’d already taken a risk, sitting here with him.  “I’d like to, thank you, but I must resist the temptation.  It wouldn’t be wise.”
    He looked surprised . . . and perhaps a little insulted.  “It’s only a drink,” he said with irony.  “Nothing so binding as an actual set of dances.”
    Oh, she had wounded him, just a little.  She felt guilty, but also a small, quick zing of feminine power. 
    Still, she should make him understand.  “You said you’d heard my dreadful nickname, yes?”
    The corner of his mouth twitched.  “The Celestial, do you mean?  Or are there more?”
    She rolled her eyes.  “Yes, that one.  I know it’s ridiculous, but it’s also been helpful.”
    “It cannot have been easy to live with,” he surprised her by saying.  “You’ve far too much sass.  My mind boggles at the picture of how many times you must have been forced to hold your tongue.”
    There it was again, that warm rush.  The comfortable feeling of being known.   “You have no idea!” she laughed.  “But as tempting as it is to shock someone with a bit of deviltry, that sterling reputation is necessary to my plans.  So, while I don’t mean to insult you . . .”
    “You cannot be seen too often in the company of the wicked Vickers.”
    She bit her lip and glanced over at Rosamond and Sir Harold. They were the only ones left amongst the seating as her cousin played up her imaginary injury.  Everyone else had passed through the doorway open in the folding wall that allowed Lady Lisle to separate her long salon into two areas.  “Perhaps I’ll just walk you to the door.”
    He shrugged and offered his arm again.  With a little thrill she laid her hand there.
    An immediate flush started in her chest and began to climb higher.  How warm he was!  The heat surely affected her brain, because she began to imagine what that lean, strong arm might feel like without his linen and his very fine wool coat. 
    Too quickly—or at least before she could mentally remove any more of his clothes—they reached the end of the aisle.  To the right stood the doorway, to the left a screen across a corner, presumably hiding a servant’s entrance.  A pedestal stood between them, close to the screen, topped with one of Lady Lisle’s massive urns of fresh flowers.
    As they approached, Addy heard a small cry and caught a glimpse of a shadow darting behind the screen—and saw the pedestal shift and the urn begin to wobble.
    She opened her mouth, but before she could act, Vickers was there.  He caught the fragile urn before it smashed to the floor.  Unfortunately he could do nothing about the wave of water that sloshed out, carrying with it nearly half of the carefully arranged flowers.
    Addy jumped back, but the leading edge caught a section of her hem, wetting it through.  From behind the screen came a gasp of horror and a stifled sob.
    Vickers replaced the urn, but Addy approached the corner.  “It’s all right.  Truly.  Come out.”
    They waited.  After a moment a young girl slunk from behind the screen, head down.  Not a maidservant, as Addy had thought, but a gently bred girl, perhaps twelve years old, enveloped in a fine wrapper.  She lifted her chin as two fat tears rolled down her cheeks.  “I am so very sorry, miss!”  Her eyes drifted over Addy’s gown and the tears started flowing faster.  “Oh, your beautiful gown!  I do apologize.  I know I ought not to have come down and now look at what I’ve done!”
    “No, don’t fret!” Addy hastened to reassure her as she wrung out her hem.  “It’s only water.  It will