First Season / Bride to Be

First Season / Bride to Be Read Free Page A

Book: First Season / Bride to Be Read Free
Author: Jane Ashford
Ads: Link
should they affect her so strongly?
    Mrs. Brandon had murmured her daughter’s name and Anabel’s. Now she added, “Sir Charles Norbury,” in a voice thick with disapproval and concern. She had moved close to Julia’s side, and her stance made it clear that nothing would move her until she could coax the girl away.
    Anabel saw in Norbury’s eyes an appreciation of the situation that matched her own. A silent current of amusement passed between them. “Wyndham,” he said. “I knew a Julian Wyndham at Oxford.”
    â€œMy husband’s cousin,” replied Anabel.
    â€œAh.” There was a subtle shift in his gaze.
    â€œMy dear Lady Wyndham,” exclaimed Mrs. Brandon. “I did not even mention your sad loss. I beg your pardon. It was such a shock, Sir Ralph going off that way. Julia was much affected, weren’t you, dear?”
    Julia, whose entire attention remained on Norbury, didn’t appear to hear.
    â€œYou are very kind,” replied Anabel. “It has been three years now, and so we are over it, as much as we ever shall be.” Mrs. Brandon nodded sympathetically, and Anabel was a little surprised to realize that this now-familiar platitude was quite true. In the country, with her family and surrounded by objects that recalled Ralph, she had not really felt the fading of grief. Here it was clearer.
    â€œOh, Julia, there is Maria Kingsley, and her daughter, I believe. Come, we must speak to them.” She took Julia’s arm and urged her away. “You will excuse us?”
    Their murmured responses, and Julia’s frown, were swept aside in Mrs. Brandon’s determined retreat. Anabel wondered again why she was so eager to get away.
    â€œMy fault, I’m afraid,” said Sir Charles Norbury.
    â€œI beg your pardon?”
    â€œThe abrupt departure. I’m not considered a proper companion for young girls just out of the schoolroom.” He smiled, teeth startlingly white against his dark skin. “Thank God.”
    Anabel couldn’t help smiling back, though she was startled by his apparent reading of her thoughts and by his remarks.
    â€œWhy not?” she couldn’t resist asking.
    He laughed a little. “I’ll leave it to others to malign my character, I think. Will you dance?”
    The ball had opened in a rather disorganized way as they talked, and now a new set was forming. Anabel, intrigued, nodded and put a hand on his arm. She was a little disconcerted to find that it was a waltz.
    â€œYou haven’t been up to London before,” said Norbury when they were circling the floor together.
    â€œNo. We always preferred the country.” It seemed to Anabel that he was disturbingly close. She had waltzed at local assemblies countless times, but somehow this was different. Norbury’s arm about her waist and firm clasp of her hand seemed to make it a new experience, and she felt foolishly younger than her years.
    â€œReally?” He treated it as a joke, and Anabel was too preoccupied with her own odd sensations to correct him. “But you must have spent at least one season here. Perhaps we even met? Yes, I must have danced with you. My taste has always been impeccable.” He smiled down at her, his light green eyes glinting.
    â€œNo. I married out of the schoolroom.” She felt it a clumsy reply, and was again amazed at herself. What was making her so inept? Ralph had always called her a wit.
    â€œThat accounts for it, then.” Sir Charles was still smiling.
    â€œFor what?”
    â€œYou are quite the youngest and loveliest widow I have ever encountered, Lady Wyndham.”
    â€œWidow,” she echoed distastefully. “How I hate that word. It makes one think of…”
    â€œPrecisely. But you confound all the clichés delightfully.”
    Anabel had never met anyone who anticipated her in this way. It had always been she who surprised and amused her circle, her

Similar Books

Love Redone

Peyton Reeser

Footloose Scot

Jim Glendinning

The Silver Lining

Jennifer Raygoza

The Roughest Riders

Jerome Tuccille

A Horse Named Sorrow

Trebor Healey

Grapes of Death

Joni Folger

Into the Fire

Anne Stuart

Sorcerer

David Menon