With One Look Read Online Free Page B

perfectly capable of imagining.
    "Then the lady was at a loss to explain Sebastian's presence there," he continued. "Sebastian reminded her of an earlier arrangement. Since she seemed unable to recall it, I suggested he ought to take his leave. It was about then that Sebastian challenged me and demanded that I name my weapons."
    "Oh, my goodness! And did you fight?"
    "Victor told me he had no desire to kill or be killed over such a ridiculous situation." Sebastian grinned at his youthful idiocy. "I thought him a coward and told him so."
    "Yes," Victor resumed, irritated as he remembered it. "And his insults grew louder and more passionate by the minute. Before I could back out, his shouts roused the house. The next thing I knew, the duke and two other gentlemen, along with a whole handful of footmen, broke through the door.
    "And then for some reason, the lady suddenly thought Sebastian and I were a danger to her person. As soon as she saw her father, she started screaming, accusing us of ... ah, intentions better left unmentioned. Naturally, the duke became rather upset, demanding justice for the thwarted
    attack on his daughter's virtue. Only to hear Sebastian tell him he was far too late, that his daughter had lost her virtue years before—"
    "You didn't really say that?"
    "I did have it on the best of authorities!"
    "And so that's it," Victor finished. "We were thrown together in an effort to escape with our lives. I have been unable to shake him ever since...."
    Through her laughter, Jade Terese wondered out loud if she should believe such an outrageous tale, only to hear Sebastian, with characteristic drama, claim his veracity was a matter of honor, that he would be gravely wounded if she doubted a word said.
    Listening to the benign banter, Victor twirled a straw in his mouth as he watched her. He was thinking he'd make inquiries about the lovely creature on the morrow when Sebastian, peering closer, waved a hand in front of her face.
    A hand she did not see.
    He looked to Victor for his reaction.
    Victor glanced down at the dog, his short lead, and then back to the beautiful eyes and the mystery there. Could it be? She seemed so graceful and attuned to everything that went on around her. Victor was shocked he had not noticed, but as he grasped the nature of the game she played— concealing her blindness with carefully practiced manners—he felt a curious lurch of heart. A less sensitive man might assign simple pity to the feeling but he knew better. It was as if he were a patron of the arts, presented with a beautiful painting and lured into appreciation and admiration, only to abruptly discover the ruinous flaw and a poor attempt to conceal it.
    Then inexplicably he felt a prick of anger. She might have carried a blind stick or mentioned that she could not see where her dog was, indeed see anything at all. To pretend she was normal all the time he talked to her seemed perverse, a folly only the youngest and most vain women might commit.
    Jade Terese was trying to make sense of the sudden silence that had come over their happy party when Sebastian said, "Ah, our horses. We must leave you, Mademoiselle Devon. My gracious lady." And with a click of his boots, he bowed. "I do hope we meet again."
    "Miss Devon, it has been a pleasure," Victor said next as he took her hand in his. With a last lingering look into the beautiful green eyes, he brought her hand to his lips for a kiss.
    Jade felt a curious tingling lift through her midsection. She forgot to breathe. The brief press of his lips brought a sensual warmth flooding her, revealing itself in color to her cheeks. "Au revoir, Monsieur."
    He turned and walked away.
    Jade Terese listened to his boots move swiftly to the theater doors before turning toward the street. He called quick orders to the servants; she heard him ride off with young Lord Sebastian. Victor ... Who was he? Why, oh why, had she not asked his surname? And how did he affect her like that?
    She smiled,