Emily Hendrickson Read Free Page B

objection and Julian caught it in his.
    “Now, I am teaching you, and while I admit you are an excellent pupil, you have much more to learn,” he admonished.
    “I must agree with you on that score,” Chloe handsomely admitted with a sigh, tugging her hand free of his.
    Seeing she had a handkerchief in one hand, Julian pulled it from her and drew it across his lips. A hint of heliotrope reached his nose and he sharpened his gaze, surprised. Not the usual lavender scent? Bravo, he silently applauded.
    “Sir?” She frowned up at him with her hand outstretched for the handkerchief to be returned.
    “To draw the handkerchief across your lips is to signal you desire an acquaintance with a gentleman you espy across the room.” He showed her the movement again, inhaling the aroma of heliotrope as he did. “You may have observed a woman trailing her handkerchief over her shoulder.” He followed suit to demonstrate and was rewarded with an infectious giggle from Lady Chloe. “She is sending the message to follow her.”
    “Indeed!” Chloe took the handkerchief from him to duplicate his movement and shook her head in amazement. “I shall be watching the arrangement of handkerchiefs closely from now on. What a fascinating man you are, sir.” She deliberately fluttered her lashes at him.
    Julian stared down at her plain little face now alive with amusement. Those charming blue eyes with the hint of green danced with her delight in the situation, and he thought the grandmother a total fool for this girl showed great promise. Indeed, with that bone structure, she would grow in appeal as she grew older. That is, if she grew older, for he suddenly recalled a vicious rumor he had overheard about Twisdale. Lady Chloe ought not be subjected to such a man.
    “Sir?” she said in inquiry, placing her hand trustingly on his arm. “You thought of something unpleasant just now. I hope it had nothing to do with your problems.”
    “We must do something about your dilemma,” he said with a serious note in his voice that had been absent heretofore. Then he cleared his throat, reminding himself that he must not get serious about anything. “If you fold your handkerchief, it sends the message you wish to speak with the gentleman. Allowing it to rest against your right cheek indicates that your answer is yes, this in case he has asked you a question you dare not answer aloud.”
    “Goodness,” Chloe murmured with a smile, touching her handkerchief to her right cheek as instructed. She raised her gaze to meet his and suddenly the foolishness faded away. She became aware of alien emotions within her that she’d not experienced before this. There was a fluttering sensation near her heart that almost frightened her. She swallowed with care, then brazened a grin. “Did I do it correctly?”
    “You are rapidly becoming a little baggage, my girl,” Mr. St. Aubyn teased, taking her handkerchief away from her. “Had you a fan in your hand, you might raise the handle to your lips,” he said while watching her expression carefully.
    She slipped her fan from her wrist, then did as he had suggested. “Like so?”
    Julian felt an odd sort of stirring within him at the sight of those innocent eyes peeping at him from over the top of the pearl handle of the fan. Her rosy lips were pursed in imitation of a kiss and he knew the strongest urge to kiss her in turn.
    “It is a signal that you wished to be kissed,” he said, aware that his voice had dropped to a husky whisper.
    “Gracious!” said a sharp voice from the doorway. ‘I did not suspect that your talents extended to lessons in love to infants. Not at all the thing, my dear,” Elinor said in a silky voice that held a note of waspishness in it that Julian had come to abhor.

 
    Chapter 2
     
    Julian did not miss the horrified gasp from the young woman at his side. He wracked his brain to think of a reason why he should have been in secluded conversation with this miss. He suspected