Beggars and Choosers Read Free Page B

he felt that he encouraged his wife in her fanciful notions of ill-health.
    â€˜Sherry, sir, madam?’ Robert, the footman held out a tray.
    â€˜As you well know from my previous visits to this house, I never indulge in strong drink,’ Morgan replied curtly.
    â€˜Thank you, Robert.’ Edyth took a glass.
    â€˜Thank you,’ Mansel took a second.
    â€˜Why don’t you three bright young things go and tell the orchestra what to play while Harry and I receive the guests?’ Edyth suggested.
    Harry hesitated for the briefest of moments. ‘Go ahead, Sali.’ He knew exactly what Edyth was trying to engineer and hoped that she wasn’t reading too much into a relationship he had been monitoring since Sali’s eighteenth birthday.
    â€˜You can’t take them all,’ Sali protested, as Mansel James pulled her into a corner of the deserted library and proceeded to write his name against every single dance on her card.
    â€˜Who says I can’t?’ His blue eyes twinkled with mischief and he continued to scrawl his signature.
    â€˜There are other boys –’
    â€˜Are there?’ He stood in front of her, effectively imprisoning her in the corner.
    â€˜I was going to add “who are coming to the ball”.’
    â€˜How can someone who looks so lovely be so hard-hearted?’
    â€˜I am not,’ she asserted.
    â€˜No?’ he questioned with mock gravity. ‘You refuse me your dances after stealing my heart in the summer. You disappear back to college in September for nearly three months leaving me in purgatory ...’
    â€˜That I don’t believe. I heard you took Harriet Hopkins to the Market Company ball.’
    â€˜Only because Aunt Edyth insisted I couldn’t go without a partner. And I only danced one dance with her. I didn’t hold hands. Not once. Or,’ he lifted his eyebrows, ‘try to kiss her.’
    â€˜You promised you wouldn’t say that word again. Not after what you did last summer.’
    â€˜You said you were going to forget about it.’
    Sali’s fingers wandered to her lips. She could no more forget the first kiss Mansel had given her – the first she had ever received – than she could forget her own name. But before she had time to recall all the emotions he had evoked, he bent his head to hers and kissed her again. A soft, gentle, warm kiss that made her spine tingle and tinged the room with a soft, pink haze.
    â€˜Marry me?’
    She stared up at him.
    â€˜Tradition demands that you give me an answer, not gaze at me open-mouthed.’ He gripped her hands in his. ‘Please say yes. There is an alternative, but I’d prefer not to think about it.’
    â€˜Mansel ...’
    â€˜You don’t love me?’
    â€˜You know I do.’
    â€˜Then I can speak to your father?’
    â€˜Yes. Please.’
    â€˜Remember your dance card is full.’ He kissed her again, and then he was gone.
    â€˜Sali, where have you been?’ Harriet Hopkins accosted her as soon as she walked into the large drawing room that her father had ordered to be cleared of furniture to make room for dancing.
    â€˜Checking the supper buffet arrangements with the housekeeper,’ Sali prevaricated, glancing around the room. Neither her father nor Mansel were there and, although she knew that they could be in the library watching the card players, or in the small drawing room drinking tea with her mother and the ‘ladies’, she sensed they were closeted in his study. It was desperately unfair. Her whole life depended on the outcome of their interview and she wasn’t even allowed to be present.
    The orchestra struck the final chords of a waltz and the dancers applauded politely before moving off the floor.
    â€˜... If he’s half as dangerous as they say, I’m surprised your father invited him into his house.’
    â€˜Who is dangerous?’ Sali asked Harriet in