The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [90]
“If I’d realized I was going to come across a beautiful young lady on my walk, I would have had the innkeeper’s wife pack a picnic for us,” her companion commented as he urged her to sit on a boulder next to the water. “However, I suppose we shall have to make do with what I did bring. You have your choice of a peach or a pear.”
Suzette eyed the two items he’d retrieved from his pocket. She wasn’t hungry, but took the peach to be polite and the fellow settled next to her on the boulder, leaving enough room that it could not be considered improper.
They were silent, watching the water cascade into the pond, and Suzette let her mind wander. Of course it returned to Daniel, to his smile, his kind eyes, his laughter, his kisses—
“Shall I dispose of the pit for you?”
Suzette glanced down with surprise to see that, hungry or not, she’d eaten the entire peach. And she hadn’t tasted a bite. She held out the pit and watched silently as he tossed it into the pond.
“There.” He relaxed on the boulder and then said, “It is none of my business, but you seem very melancholy, not at all the vivacious young woman I met at the Landons’ ball.”
Suzette stiffened and looked to him then, really looking this time. He definitely did look familiar, but she still wasn’t placing him.
“I’m sorry,” she said finally. “I danced with so many at the Landons’ ball, and it feels like a lifetime ago. I’m afraid I don’t recall—”
“I am the one man you didn’t dance with,” he said, smiling wryly, and then introduced himself. “I am Lord Danvers. Jeremy Danvers. I was on your card that night, but when I came to claim you for our dance, you seemed quite distressed and you rushed off.”
“Oh,” Suzette grimaced as the memory returned to her. He’d come to claim her just as she’d spotted Richard.
“Ah, I see the recollection on your face,” Danvers said with amusement.
“I apologize, I am not usually so rude, but there was something of a family crisis,” she said quietly, now recalling that Lisa had been alarmed at her not dancing with the man because he suited their needs and was not old or unpleasant. Suzette thought now that perhaps if Richard had arrived just a few minutes later, everything would be different. Perhaps she would have made her proposition to Danvers on the dance floor and never even given Daniel a second glance.
“There is no need to apologize,” Danvers assured her, and then smiled wryly and said, “Although, I suppose I could hold you wholly responsible for my broken heart because of it.”
Suzette blinked in surprise. “I’m sorry, I don’t—”
Jeremy patted her hand soothingly, and shook his head. “Forgive me. That was just a moment’s bitterness slipping out.” He sighed and turned his gaze to the water, but then confessed, “When you rushed off so precipitously and left me without a partner, I asked a lovely young blonde if I might have the pleasure. We danced and chatted and laughed . . . I fear I was quite taken with her. I even fetched her punch and then asked for a second dance later in the night.” He gave her a crooked smile and pointed out, “Very risky behavior, dancing twice in one night with the same lady.”
“Yes,” she murmured, turning her gaze to the water now.
“I met her again the next night at the Hammonds’ ball and again danced with her twice and fetched her punch, and then she grew quite warm and we went out on the terrace and I snuck a kiss.”
Suzette swallowed, recalling the kiss she and Daniel had shared at the Landons’ ball.
“It was all quite intoxicating,” Jeremy said quietly. “I fear I let myself get carried away and endeavored to “run into” her at several other places the last few days . . . She did not seem to mind and then, well, I fear I ended up asking her to marry me.” He sighed. “I wanted to go to her father and ask for her hand, but she convinced me not to. She insisted we must run off to Gretna Green to marry, and at once.”
Jeremy bent to pick up a stone he’d been worrying with the toe of his boot and tossed