Read Online Heather and Velvet by Teresa Medeiros - Free Book Online

squeezed both of their arms. “I knew you’d get along famously. My dear Sebastian and my dear, dear Prudence.”
    He met her gaze over the top of Tricia’s wig. As his eyes widened, a shiver raked Prudence’s spine. How could she have remembered the exotic attraction of his eyes without remembering the paralyzing danger that lurked in their smoky depths?

Five

    S ebastian could not take his eyes off Prudence.
    “Sebastian. Sebastian, dear, would you please pass the butter?”
    Tricia’s voice was no more than the nagging whine of a persistent mosquito. Sebastian handed her the gravy tureen. A table full of inquisitive eyes blinked at him. He jerked his attention back to Tricia and swapped gravy tureen for butter dish, chuckling feebly.
    “Forgive me, darling. The long journey has addled my wits.”
    He would have to take more care, he thought. It would not do for anyone to notice his intense preoccupation with the prim creature dining on the other side of the table. He silently cursed Tricia’s wretched sense of hospitality. She had invited not only the neighboring Squire Blake and his simpering daughter Devony, but the county sheriff, Sir Arlo Tugbert, to celebrate his arrival at Lindentree. If Tricia’s niece dared to speak, the sheriff would have more to celebrate than an engagement before this interminable supper was done. Sebastian picked at his smoked herringand satisfied himself with studying Prudence beneath the sweeping veil of lashes he had always detested.
    From Tricia’s description of her unmarried niece, he had fully expected to meet a bucktoothed hag. A perplexed frown crinkled his brow. He could not look at her without having the enchanting vision of a lass soaked with rain and breathless with laughter superimposing itself over her now flawless composure. It was like watching a misty water-color run over the harsh but simple lines of a pencil drawing. The effect was jarring. Sebastian gripped the crystal stem of his wineglass without realizing it.
    Her every gesture captivated him as he searched for some hint of that other girl, the girl who had haunted his dreams since that rainy night.
    She ate with head bent, seemingly oblivious to the bright titter of conversation and tinkle of silver on crystal. She cut her herring into tiny bits before tucking each neat square between her delicate lips. She ate so slowly, Sebastian began to count each chew under his breath.
    She paused between bites to push the heavy spectacles back up her slender nose. Her thick hair was caught in a tight chignon at the nape of her neck, and Sebastian felt unaccountably angry. What right did she have to go around looking like someone’s maiden governess? He hungered to loosen her hair, to drive his hands through it and see if its softness was as compelling as its memory.
    “Tell us about yourself, Lord Kerr,” said the squire, jerking Sebastian’s attention back to Tricia’s guests. “To hear our Tricia tell of you, it seems you are angel and saint rolled into one.”
    Out of the corner of his eye, Sebastian saw Prudence stop chewing. He forced himself to hold Squire Blake’s gaze and not glance at her. The squire was a heavy-jowled man who looked as if he had been stuffed into his starched cravat and exploded. A cauliflower wig sat slightly askew on his head. Rice powder clung to the deep creases around his eyes.
    “Like most men,” Sebastian said, managing to smile, “I fear I am more sinner than saint. You musn’t let Tricia’s admiration sway you.”
    Tricia patted his hand. “Don’t be modest, you silly boy.” She leaned forward, including the entire table in the charmed circle of her confidence. “Sebastian is a Highland laird. He has a sumptuous castle in the mountains which has been in the Kerr clan for centuries. It is simply the height of romance—soaring turrets, a moat, a drawbridge.”
    “And a dungeon, I hope,” Sir Arlo said. “No home would be complete without one.” His prominent Adam’s