The Burning Read Free Page A

beneath white blond hair.
    If only he wouldn’t grin like a dog that’s just tucked away a juicy bone! Angelica thought.
    â€œI have been looking all over for you. Were you and your cousin Liza gossiping about me?” James teased.
    â€œWe might have been,” Angelica replied coyly.She took his arm and allowed him to lead her to the dance floor.
    He danced stiffly, standing three feet in front of her, his grin frozen on his face, his silver gray eyes staring into hers. “Are the musicians going to play that new dance?” he whispered, leaning closer. “The waltz?”
    Angelica gasped and narrowed her eyes coyly at James. “James Daumier!” she cried. “You
know
my father would never allow evil waltz music to be played in this house! What a scandalous thought!”
    James frowned in mock disappointment. “I have heard that it is quite an enjoyable dance.”
    Angelica started to reply. But James turned away as another young man tapped his shoulder. Angelica immediately recognized her other young suitor, Hamilton Scott.
    â€œI believe this is my dance,” Hamilton told James with a polite nod. James made an exaggeratedly formal bow and, flashing Angelica one last grin, backed away.
    Hamilton had curly red hair and a face full of freckles. Angelica thought he looked about twelve. But he was nineteen, a serious young man with strong political feelings.
    While James liked to talk to Angelica about fashion and friends and the sleek thoroughbred racehorses his father raised, Hamilton lectured her on the morality of slavery and the trade policies of the French.
    â€œI wish you could dance every dance with me,” Hamilton told her.
    â€œI do not think my feet would survive it,” Angelica teased.
    She spent the rest of the evening dancing with James and Hamilton. She knew she should be having the time of her life. After all, it was Mardi Gras, and after this party there would be another party, and then another. But she found her mind wandering.
    Something was troubling her.
    When the party had ended and the last carriage clattered off into the night, Angelica walked past the servants busily cleaning up the ballroom and stepped through the French doors into the garden.
    It was a cool night, the air soft and sweet smelling. Paper lanterns with oil lamps inside cast pale yellow light at her feet. A heavy dew made the grass glisten. Angelica bent and pulled off her satin party slippers. Holding them in one hand, she let her stockinged feet sink into the cool wet grass.
    I should be thinking of James or Hamilton, she scolded herself. Then why does that intense-looking stranger keep filling my thoughts?
    I am eighteen, Angelica thought. Father wishes me to marry soon. He is impatient for me to decide between James and Hamilton. He will make me marry one of them.
    Do I love James? Do I love Hamilton?
    I
like
them both, she told herself.
    I like them both for different reasons. James for his good looks, his charm, his mischievous sense of humor. Hamilton for his intelligence, his seriousness, his caring.
    But do I
love
them? Do I want to marry either of them?
    Deep in thought, gazing into the soft lantern light, listening to the rustle of the breeze through the magnolia blossoms, Angelica took a few steps into the garden.
    She was too stunned to cry out when strong hands grabbed her from behind.

Chapter 3

    A ngelica gasped and spun out of her attacker’s grasp.
    â€œDo not cry out!” he whispered.
    â€œY-you!”
Angelica stammered, her heart pounding. “Who
are
you? What are you
doing
here?”
    â€œDo not be afraid. I will not harm you,” Simon Fear whispered.
    â€œBut how did you get into my garden?” Angelica demanded, her fear turning to anger. “Who
are
you?”
    â€œMy name is Simon Fear,” he told her, his dark eyes locked on hers.
    Angelica bent to pick up her shoes, which in her alarm she had allowed to fall. But she kept her