This Perfect Kiss Read Free Page B

and thought to warn you.”
    â€œThank you, Smolich.” Lord Camden seemed to consider his next words. He looked down at her. “You may reassure my grandmother that I am on my way inside. I would not have her disappointed.”
    â€œAye, my lord.”
    Lord Camden hesitated for the briefest moment. She couldn’t read him, but she sensed that his unaffected expression, like his appearance, was an illusion. The great hero of the Atlantic and West Indies, the Barracuda himself, was vulnerable to normal human emotion.
    â€œI have never hidden in the flower vines before.” He regarded her, trying to make out her thoughts. “But I have a feeling you have spent a great deal of time hiding and observing the world around you.”
    Placing his hands on her waist, he pulled her nearer, peering into her upturned face, trying to see behind the mask. It was to his credit, she realized, that he did not take it from her when she knew he could have. Remnants of music floated to her. “I will play your game, madam, but we will begin in the ballroom with a dance. Do you waltz?”
    The waltz was a new dance that had become all the rage. “I do.”
    He looked up the path. “There will be others in the yard,” he said. “I will leave first. You can follow when you are ready.”
    â€œYou do not wish to be seen with me.”
    â€œNay, my love. You do not wish to be seen coming from the shadows of the yard with me. It takes very little to ruin a reputation and even less to find yourself ostracized.”
    Her throat was suddenly tight and sore. She nodded, but as she watched him vanish in the thickening mist forming around her, she no longer felt so brave. A stone was in one of her shoes. She walked to the wall and leaned against the barrier to drag in breath. Removing her shoes, she lingered in the shadows as if the darkness had been a mask to cover the one she now wore. Her feet hurt. Everything hurt. It hurt to be a lady.
    â€œHe will turn away from you when he learns who you are?”
    For a moment, Christel thought the words had been plucked from her own thoughts. She whirled toward the path. Tia.
    A swish of silk and her half sister stood in front of her. The dress she wore was similar to Christel’s, but Tia was taller, her eyes darker. The white wig she wore covered chestnut hair. That they shared the same father only made Christel her enemy.
    â€œHe is betrothed, you know.”
    Christel had heard the rumors. He had come home to wed.
    â€œThe papers will be signed next week. I heard Grams and the dowager talking tonight.”
    â€œYou are lying.”
    Tia picked up Christel’s golden slippers from the wall. “And you are a thief.” She flicked gloved fingers over the gold painted pearls Christel had sewn into the molded fabric. “Did you get these pearls from my castoffs or Saundra’s? Or did you steal them from Grams?”
    Tears burned behind Christel’s eyes. “Give them back.” Please .
    Tia held one slipper over the stone wall. Christel gasped but stopped herself from leaping after it. “Lady Etherton will be furious that you and Saundra traded places tonight. These belong to Saundra.”
    â€œTell her then.”
    Christel knew Tia wouldn’t; Tia fancied herself Saundra’s best friend. Telling Saundra’s mother that Christel and Saundra had traded places tonight would only bring Lady Etherton’s wrath down upon her daughter.
    â€œSaundra will wed his lordship at summer’s end,” Tia said.
    Christel’s heart stopped with a thud. “I– You said the papers were not signed. You are only telling me this lie because you hate me.”
    Tia swallowed hard. “If I hated you, I would throw this slipper over the cliff so you could never go inside to dance.” Tears shimmered in Tia’s eyes behind the mask. She drew back her arm and threw the slipper over the wall.
    Christel