Falling Stars by Loretta Chase Read Free Book Online

that Sally, after some initial difficulty, had given birth to a healthy, noisy, little boy.
    “You shouldn’t have waited up, all the same,” Julius reproved his brother. “It’s past three o’clock, and in a few hours the house will erupt into chaos. You may be able to sleep through the racket, but Christina will be awakened at dawn’s crack by overexcited children. By nightfall she’ll be too tired to dance at the Yuletide ball. In consequence of which, several gentlemen are sure to blow their brains out. Really, you’re most inconsiderate.”
    “It isn’t his fault,” Christina said before Marcus could retort on his brother. “I nagged him to tell me about Paris, then Greece, until he’s hoarse from talking. Moreover, the twins will never think of waking me. They’ll be too busy interfering with the party preparations and being tripped over by servants.”
    “And I shall ask the gentlemen to step outside to shoot themselves or hang themselves or whatever their disappointment moves them to do,” said Marcus. “We can easily collect the corpses next morning.”
    “There, it’s all settled.” Penny patted her husband’s cheek. “What a fuss you make over nothing, Julius. Come to bed.”
    Marcus kept by Christina as they trailed upstairs after the other couple, but he didn’t say a word. He continued on with her, walking to the guest wing, although his room was in the wing opposite. She should have pointed this out to him, and meant to, but she couldn’t find the right words. Every imagined sentence seemed to attach too much significance to what was surely no more than absent- mindedness. Marcus had said before that he was weary, and he did appear lost in thought at present.
    When they reached her door, she paused. “Thank you for giving me your company.” Her voice was carefully polite. “You were generous to indulge my curiosity, and very patient with my ignorance.”
    “One could hardly expect you to know what most of your government doesn’t. You at least ask intelligent questions. And your mind is open to new ideas.”
    The servants had left two candles lit in the hall. In the flickering light it was hard to read his face. The troubled expression she discerned might simply be shadows.
    “I like to learn,” she said. “I told you my life had been narrow.”
    “Yes, you did. I’d thought...” He looked away. “But you mean to make up for that, I see. It’ll be good for you to go abroad, and good for your little girls. I’m... I’m glad your great-aunt goes with you. She is Julius’s godmother, you may recall.”
    “Yes, I remember.” If her parents, rather than her great-aunt, had chaperoned her ten years ago, there would have been no stolen moments with Marcus Greyson in sitting rooms or gardens or woodland paths.
    “She’ll be an excellent traveling companion,” Marcus said. “She’s highly knowledgeable and far more liberal minded than most of her generation. Equally important, she’ll see that no one takes advantage of you. Innkeepers and shopkeepers, I mean. And guides. The Continent is a net of perils for the unwary.”
    He shook his head. “But I’m keeping you from your rest.” He moved to open the door for her.
    His coat sleeve brushed her arm, a breath of a touch, soft wool against her skin. For one pulsing moment they stood frozen, and the air between them warmed and thickened. Christina felt the way she had earlier when their gazes had locked: as though they were teetering on the brink of a precipice. She was afraid that if he gave the smallest tug, she would fall... and he was bending toward her. But he drew back quickly, almost in the same breath.
    He clasped his hands behind his back. “Good night,” he said.
    “Good night,” she said.
    Then he turned and swiftly walked away.
     
    ***
     
    The following day, while the two women dealt with the last minute frenzy of preparation for the ball, Marcus and Julius gathered greenery outdoors, with the dubious