Dear Stranger Read Free Page A

Sophie , he thought. I’m going to make sure you don’t forget our very memorable meeting.
    Their eyes met and held. He hadn’t been sure of their colour out in the garden, but now he could see hers were a dark green. Cat’s eyes that tilted slightly at the corners.
    It took him a moment to realise that the music had stopped and people were staring at them in speculation. He led her back to her aunt, who was deep in conversation with another woman and didn’t appear to notice Sophie’s return.
    “Until next time,” he said, dropping a kiss onto the back of her hand.
    Those lovely green eyes widened at the contact. Smiling with satisfaction, he took his leave.

Chapter Two
     
     
     
    After that first meeting, it seemed to Sophie that she saw the Earl of Dearbourne wherever she went. Balls, routs, even a dinner with one of her aunt’s friends. She did not, however, repeat the mistake she’d made on the night they met. He and Henry were clearly brothers, but she found it impossible to believe she had ever mistaken Dearbourne for his brother. As well as the differences in their features, there was something about the way he carried himself that commanded attention. An air of authority that his brother lacked. And the way he looked at her… Lord help her, but she was aware of him in a way she had never been with Henry.
    It didn’t help that Henry still hadn’t kissed her, which meant she was no closer to knowing whether she could accept the marriage proposal she knew was coming. The situation was, in fact, worse because now she couldn’t stop thinking about the earl and the kiss they had shared. She’d even started dreaming about him, and in her dreams he was doing deliciously wicked things that went far beyond kissing.
    Two weeks had passed and she was in her bedroom reading when a maid informed Sophie that she had a visitor. Her spirits rose at the news—it had to be Henry. She’d mentioned that her aunt would be away from home when she’d seen him the night before at the Henderson’s rout. Perhaps today would be the day he proposed. And, if he did, she meant to ask him for a kiss before accepting.
    Ignoring the uncertainty that assailed her at the thought of kissing him, she hurried downstairs to the drawing room, a welcoming smile firmly in place. That smile faltered, however, when she found the Earl of Dearbourne waiting for her. Her mind went immediately to the heated dream she’d had the night before and it was a moment before she could speak.
    “This is a surprise, my lord.”
    His smile was enigmatic. “You were expecting, perhaps, my brother?”
    The question flustered her. “He didn’t say he planned to call today.”
    It wasn’t a lie, but they both knew she’d been hoping for just that. She wanted to ask Lord Dearbourne what he was doing there, but was almost afraid of what his answer would be. A small part of her actually wished her aunt was home to act as a buffer for this meeting. When Aunt Jane had taken her in last summer, after her parents had died in a boating accident, she’d made it clear that, as a condition of being welcomed into the Turner family, Sophie was expected to act with propriety at all times. Given the freedom she’d experienced during her childhood and youth, she normally found her aunt’s constraints stifling. She’d initially baulked when her aunt had all but ordered her to consider Henry Hearst’s suit, but it hadn’t taken her long to discover that she genuinely liked him. Aunt Jane saw Henry as the answer to clearing away the last of the whispers that still surrounded Sophie because of her parents’ elopement. Dearbourne’s attention, however, was placing her chance of acceptance at risk.
    “I’m afraid my aunt is away from home,” she said, leaving unspoken the obvious—that she could not entertain him alone. She grew increasingly uncomfortable when he scrutinised her for several moments before replying.
    “And we both know you would never behave