Regency 03 - Deception Read Online Free Page B

childhood. “Oh, my dearest friend!” She threw herself into
the other lady’s arms.
    Verena hugged her back with tears in her eyes and
launched immediately into speech. “I heard you were in Town, but I
had no opportunity to call upon you. The children were ill and
Connor’s a bear and the nanny needed help. I am so sorry about your
parents.”
    Levi stood by, forgotten by both young women in
their enthusiasm at being reunited. He cleared his throat. Verena
glanced up, her mouth forming a little ‘oh’ of embarrassment.
    “ I am sorry, Levi,” she said, lips
twitching in the most suspicious manner. By this time, they had the
attention of nearly half the assemblage. “Rory, permit me to
introduce Lord Greville. Levi, this is Rory.” She smiled. “I mean,
Miss Aurora Glendenning.”
    Levi bowed and Aurora curtsied as was proper.
    Miss Ellison looked at Aurora. She took the hint.
“And this is my friend, Miss Ellison,” she introduced dutifully.
Ellie curtsied and Lord Greville bowed again.
    “ How is it,” Levi asked with a
look of teasing, “that two such beautiful ladies have managed to
stand here all alone?”
    “ Oh, give over, Levi, do,” Verena
commanded, tapping his arm with her fan. “I haven’t seen dearest
Rory in nearly four years. Now leave us be.”
    Lord Greville’s thoughts were writ clear on his
handsome face. He was annoyed to be so readily dismissed, but ever
the gentleman, he smiled. “As you wish, my lady,” he replied
formally. He bowed again and, with one last teasing grin for Miss
Glendenning, left.
    She watched him walk away and felt her temperature
rise several degrees. Whoever said ladies didn’t suffer from the
same lustful feelings as women of the lower orders had bats in his
belfry. It had to have been a man. No woman could look at a man
like Lord Greville and not wonder what it would be like to be in
his bed.
    She bit her lip, startled at her own improper
thought.
    “ I declare you have not heard a
word I’ve said, Rory,” Verena exclaimed in exasperation.
    “ I am sorry, Doll,” Aurora said
with an apologetic smile. The look on Verena’s face told her that
her friend had noticed the source of Aurora’s preoccupation. She
flushed in embarrassment.
    Other guests approached in that moment.
    “ Levi was introduced to the
beautiful newcomer,” said a handsome man with blond hair and
teasing blue eyes. “Now it is my turn. Allow me to introduce
myself. I am Connor Northwicke. Verena’s husband,” he added at
Aurora’s look of incomprehension.
    “ You are married?” Aurora said,
wide-eyed. She hastily curtsied as Ellie whispered that he was a
marquess. “You are a marchioness?” she added then.
    Verena laughed and tucked her hand into her
husband’s arm after he had been introduced to Miss Ellison and
bowed to both ladies. “I am, although the title is the Marquess of
Beverley and Con and I choose not to use it.” A shadow passed over
her face but it was replaced with a bright smile. “It has been
almost three years now,” she replied, a happy smile directed at her
husband.
    “ Is it my turn yet?” inquired a
cynical voice just behind Aurora.
    “ Behave, Adam, or else,” commanded
a pleasant feminine voice.
    “ Or else what, my
love?”
    “ Oh, I don’t know,” she said in
exasperation. “Just, or else .”
    Aurora turned and found herself looking up at the
Countess of Rothsmere and Sir Adam Prestwich. She smiled
uncertainly. They were both so much taller than her that they
actually made her a trifle uncomfortable.
    The baronet bowed and lifted her hand to his lips,
bestowing a kiss there that had his wife scowling at him. A nervous
giggle escaped before Aurora could stop it.
    “ Adam, you are embarrassing the
girl,” his wife admonished. “She hasn’t even been introduced yet
and you are already flirting with her.”
    “ For shame,” Lord Connor added
with a twinkle.
    “ I know who you are,” Aurora
offered hesitantly. She smiled at the