Rebel Waltz Read Free

He ignored her impatience, asked few questions, and came to the conclusion that his first impression had been the correct one.
    Banner was not innately rude, cold, patronizing, or even unfriendly. She was deliberatelytrying to provoke him. He hadn't a shadow of an idea why she wanted to, unless it was because he was interested in buying Jasmine Hall and she didn't want it sold. He let that thought rest in the back of his mind for later study, while the tour continued.
    There was quite a bit of activity throughout the house in preparation for the party. Servants in antebellum dress scurried about carrying flowers and linens and food, getting in one another's way and being stridently polite about it.
    And Rory was more than a little curious. “Jake didn't mention a party,” he said carefully as Banner was conducting him through the bedroom wing of the huge house. “I would certainly have waited until tomorrow to come if I'd known.”
    Banner sent him an inscrutable look. “You'll find a costume on your bed,” she said calmly.
    “What? But—”
    “Jake's always prepared,” she added cryptically.
    “I don't want to intrude,” Rory ventured.
    She ignored that. “There'll be a couple of hundred guests at the party,” she said, “and about fifty staying the night. Tomorrow morning we'll have a hunt; you'll find a riding costume in your closet. You do ride?” she added on a questioning note.
    “As it happens, I do,” he said, stung for the first time.
    She smiled an odd little smile. “I'll be sure to pick out a good hunter for you.”
    Rory looked at her suspiciously.
    Halting before an open door, Banner gestured inside. “This is your room. Your bags have been unpacked. If you need anything, just pull the bell rope. The party is scheduled to start in two hours; we're serving a light supper downstairs in the little dining room in thirty minutes. If you decide to skip that, there'll be food served during the party.”
    Half- expecting her to add, “Any questions?” Rory took a deep breath and struggled to hang on to his manners. And lost. “You don't like me very much, do you?” he said abruptly.
    “I just met you,” she answered coolly.
    “If you treat everyone this way on first meeting them,” he noted, “you must make a lot of enemies.”
    “Only my share,” she said sweetly.
    Rory strove with himself. “I don't enjoy being treated like a pariah, Miss Clairmont,” he said in the most even tone he could manage.
    Her smile was limpid. “Why, Mr. Stewart— we never invite pariahs to our parties.”
    “I wasn't invited,” he snapped.
    “Do tell.” She was still smiling.
    Rory glanced around, wondering with that unfamiliar savagery if there would be witnesses to imminent homicide. He restrained his impulses when he saw several couples at the end of the hallway descending the stairs from the third floor and apparently on their way to the ballroom. He noted absently that the men seemed to be wearing Civil War uniforms—Rebel Gray, of course.
    “There go some of your guests down thestairs. You'd better see to them,” he muttered. “They seem to be early.”
    Banner followed his gaze, and Rory felt more than saw her start slightly, as if in surprise. When she looked back up at him, there was an arrested, almost panicky expression in her green eyes. “Yes,” she said softly. “Yes, I'd better do that.”
    That look in her eyes bothered him. “Banner—” he began, hardly aware of using her first name.
    She interrupted him, her voice still soft. “If you have any trouble with your costume, Jake's valet will help you. Just pull the bell rope. I'll see you downstairs.” She hurried down the hall, silk gown rustling quietly.
    Rory gazed after her for a long moment, then shrugged almost irritably and went into his bedroom, wondering vaguely why the very masculine bedroom smelled of jasmine.

TWO
    B ANNER CLOSED THE library doors by leaning back against them, looking across the room at her