The Rake and the Wallflower Read Online Free Page A

returned partners to their chaperons, then sought new ones. Thus it was easy to slip unnoticed into the card room.
    But he felt an unexpected tug of regret. She had talent, intelligence, and eyes that saw beneath the surface. Quite different from the usual society miss. Were she a man, they might have become friends.
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
    Mary shrank against the wall as the gentleman squeezed past. The light brush of his body made her heart pound and dampened her palms – a ridiculous reaction. She didn’t even know his name.
    But he was a handsome devil, with a long, rugged face, dark hair, and quicksilver eyes – beautiful eyes fringed with long black lashes. The rest was equally intriguing. His lean body topped her by a head, muscular enough to fill his clothes without padding. And his taste was impeccable – elegant cravat that did not impede his movement, blue jacket, white waistcoat embroidered in silver, and dove gray pantaloons clinging to well-formed thighs. Simple elegance that made the dandies crowding the ballroom seem overdressed. He must turn heads wherever he went.
    So why had she never noticed him before?
    Not that it mattered. He would forget a plain miss like her the moment he was out of sight — especially if he spotted Laura.
    But he did notice you , insisted the dreamer who lived in her head.
    “Only because I was drawing,” she murmured. And hiding.
    She blushed. Catherine would be appalled that she had been caught. And if she discovered the caricatures, she would likely confiscate the lot. Even the gentleman thought them dangerous, though he’d enjoyed them. But his warning echoed Catherine’s. And seeking solitude left her vulnerable. What if it had been Mr. Griffin who’d found her?
    Shivering, she cast about for a distraction and found it in her own behavior. Amazingly, she had spoken naturally, with hardly a stammer. No embarrassing truths or brainless observations, either. Somehow, she had felt as comfortable with him as with her family.
    The novelty reawakened dreams she had buried years earlier, dreams of marriage and children. Helping raise her niece had made those longings stronger, and observing the connection between Blake and Catherine reinforced the hope that she, too, could find love.
    She pulled her mind back to the ballroom, cursing. Nurturing that fantasy served no purpose. Even marriage was unlikely. No man wanted her. If anyone actually did offer, it would be for the dowry she would bring or because a widower sought help with his children.
    She shifted a palm branch so she could peer out. Griffin strode toward the stairs, the crowd drawing back to ease his way, as if they, too, were anxious to see the last of him. But he disappointed them, stopping to chat with Lord Hervey. Was he still seeking her?
    Laura was dancing. Catherine and Lady Potherby headed for the refreshment room. Her stranger was nowhere in sight.
    Her stranger? She castigated her dreamer for weaving absurd tales of love and white knights and happily ever after around a man she didn’t know. Instead of teasing herself, she should concentrate on surviving this Season without shaming her family.
    Voices rose as the music swelled, the loudest unmistakable. Lady Washburn had a voice like a buzzard, and her perfume could overpower a cesspit. She was avidly recounting her terror at being caught in last night’s opera riot. Nearby, Lord Hartford lisped a humorous account of Blackthorn’s latest insult to Atwater.
    Ignoring them, Mary opened her pad to a blank page, then cringed when the palms shook.
    “Stay away from Wroxleigh,” hissed Lady Smythe-Gower to her daughter Hermione. Mary held her breath, but neither noticed her.
    “We were only talking,” protested Hermione.
    “That doesn’t matter. He is a rake – a charming one, to be sure, but he has no interest in marriage. Do you want Sir Leonard to think you fast? He will not offer for anyone he considers improper.”
    “If rakes are so awful, why are