Captives' Charade Read Free Page A

with me, Lady Sarah?” he asked stiffly.
    “Of course,” she smiled, hoping to find some way to console the poor lad as they walked onto the dance floor.
    How they managed to keep o ff each other’s toes was beyond Sarah, since both of them spent the time watching Stewart Chamberlain gracefully sweep Lady Juliana around the gleaming floor, dancing as if they had done this many times before. His dark head bending low to her fair one was a most disarming sight. For totally different reasons, it bothered Sarah and Jack that Chamberlain was such a superb dancer. And oblivious to all stares, Juliana was beaming, having the time of her life.
    How can she be so calm with his arm around her? thought Sarah as she plodded through the waltz. Well at least this is one heart I will enjoy seeing her break, she said to herself with uncharacteristic vengeance. Perhaps then he will not be so smug.
    As if reading her thoughts, Jack spoke softly above her head. “For a Yankee, he appears quite at home. I feel sorry for him if he thinks Julie’s fascination is real. She is only a little tart playing games,” he said with more conviction, obviously, than he felt.
    “Now Jack,” Sarah replied, feigning a cheerfulness she did not possess. “You know her too well to be jealous. And just think. You have her all to yourself save for these parties. Give her time. After all, she is only sixteen.”
    Jack sighed as the waltz mercifully ended. “I suppose you are right, Sarah. But there are times when I would prefer to punish her.”
    “Poor Jack,” Sarah commiserated, but she could not help chuckling, too. The thought of Lord Harrington ever doing anything to upset his love was so implausible, it was laughable. Squeezing his hand reassuringly, she excused herself so that he might be better able to recapture Juliana for the next dance.
    As she moved toward the terrace doorway, intent on taking some air, she pondered how her young sister had so easily captured Jack’s heart. How he suffered because of Juliana! Though when she was not in a position to flirt, Juliana seemed quite in love with her most persistent suitor. Since childhood, he was her staunchest champion, always taking the blame for the misfortunes resulting from her mischievousness. And no matter how often she shunned his devotion, Jack was always there to forgive her fickle ways.
    There were times when her a ffection for the lad almost made Sarah wish that she and Jack had been the ones to fall in love. They were kindred personalities – calm, intelligent, thoughtful – with none of Juliana’s selfish unconcern for feelings or consequences. But her joie de vivre, so much more compelling than their quieter natures, was one of the reasons they both loved her so much. Juliana was indeed a heartless madcap, but she also provided merriment and calamity to their ordinary lives.
    With a clarity that bemused her, for Sarah had not been consciously handsome stranger, she Chamberlain might just be the one suitor whose heart Juliana could not break. Despite her earlier reaction – prompted purely by vengeance – she truly doubted that Mr. Chamberlain had ever been the victim of any woman’s charms.
thinking of the tall,
believed that Stewart
    He was no callow youth, if she were any judge of age or experience. The rugged worldliness of his features suggested that thirty had passed him by. By his obvious sophistication, she surmised him to be the type who had sent more than one Juliana crying to their mothers. And not a few fathers declaring that he do the honorable thing and marry their darlings.
    Alone on one of the paths through her mother’s prized gardens, Sarah laughed aloud at the thought of anyone forcing that Yankee to do anything. Her one encounter with the stranger had already convinced her how absurd the idea was. Chamberlain was his own master, and pity the sorry fool who thought otherwise.
CHAPTER 2
    “Care to join me?” The quietly delivered invitation caused Sarah to