Miss Austen's Vampire Read Free Page B

looked into the eyes of the lady, trying to formulate the most seemly apology, when he was most pleasantly surprised to see one corner of her mouth raise in a flirty half-smile. Her charms were growing.
    A servant entered the room and announced dinner.
    “Miss Austen, may I escort you into the dining room?” Gabriel offered her his arm.
    Miss Goodhaven’s eyes widened, her displeasure clear on her face. Francis, who had been watching the last minutes of the encounter, hurried to her side and offered her his arm.
    Gabriel could see that he was silently cursing him for his lack of grace and gentlemanly conduct. And Gabriel did not care.
    “Your Ladyship, might I thank you again for your kindness to me in arranging this dinner party,” the obsequious, middle-aged man sitting to Agatha’s left said for the third time since the start of the dinner.
    Gabriel recognized Agatha’s impatience, though she was trying hard to mask it. She waved aside his expression of gratitude, and turned to the gentleman on her right, to ask him some unimportant question.
    Despite the guest of honor’s fawning, the party at the table was a lively one. As they were seated, Gabriel had ignored the instructions to sit where his brother Francis now sat, and instead took Francis’s assigned seat, allowing Gabriel to spend the dinner conversing with the increasingly attractive Miss Austen. Miss Goodhaven, sitting across from him with Francis, was long forgotten.
    “I, too, have a brother named Francis, Mr. Augustine. A very dear brother. Though we have always called him Frank. Has your brother ever been known as Frank?”
    Gabriel stifled a laugh he was sure would offend Miss Austen. “I cannot imagine Francis ever being Frank. He has always been simply Francis. I am afraid, Miss Austen, our family lacks the imagination to come up with names of endearment. It sounds like your Frank is a lucky man to be held in such affection.”
    “Indeed, he is held in great affection. And you, I imagine, could only be known within your family by your given Christian name.”
    “Yes, and a few carefully chosen oaths on occasion.” Gabriel smiled at the surprise on the lady’s face, but when she laughed he joined her.
    Taking in the elegantly appointed room, Miss Austen remarked, “Your sister, the Lady Dartfourd, has a most prodigiously fine estate. I can imagine she is quite happy here.”
    At this comment the woman on Gabriel’s other side interrupted, “Oh yes, she made a most advantageous marriage when she married Lord Dartfourd.”
    Gabriel’s back stiffened at the rudeness of the woman. But before he could utter a word, Miss Austen replied, “I have never understood the term, ‘advantageous marriage.’ One hopes that all marriages are to the advantage of both parties. I personally believe that a marriage without love is no marriage at all. I am sure that the Lord and Lady Dartfourd have affection at the foundation of their union.”
    Pleasantly astounded by Miss Austen’s rejoinder, Gabriel turned to her as a smile spread across his face. To speak so in such company took a confidence few men possessed, let alone women. She had so gracefully and yet pointedly put the rude woman in her place.
    With the woman now silent, Gabriel tried to steer the conversation in a new direction. “So, Miss Austen, as we are not to discuss the writings of a particular lady this evening, perhaps I can instead ask your opinion of Walter Scott’s Waverly ?”
    Slowly Jane turned toward Gabriel, fixed her gaze on him, then blinked three times in quick succession. After taking a deep breath, she answered, “Was it not enough for the man to make his fame and fortune as a gifted poet? To be lauded throughout the land? To have his name spoken with such respect and admiration? Truly, what business did he have writing an excellent novel, thereby taking the bread out of the mouths of the rest of us trying to make our way as novelists?” She raised her brow and smiled