Honor and Desire (Gold Sky #3) - Rebel Carter Page 0,87

quickly, trying to redirect her forward question into something...softer? A turn of phrase more palatable to Delilah’s delicate sensibilities. Her sisters always had a way of getting in between her and her beautifully laid plans when they didn’t agree. This would not do.

“Ah, what I mean to say is, whatever do you mean dear sister?” She asked, keeping her voice in as gentle and agreeable a pitch as she could manage.

Delilah frowned at her and took a step closer. “Flo. Absolutely not. I know what you’re trying to do.” Evidently, she had missed the placating-meddlesome-and-disapproving-older-sisters pitch by a mile.

Drat.

Florence lowered her hand and set down her makeup with a heavy sigh. “Delilah, I have no idea what you mean.”

“You do you little brat.”

Florence turned away from the mirror and toward Delilah with her arms crossed. “Now there’s no need for name-calling, Del.” Her voice was flat, her face colored with a slight blush and her lips pushed into a thin line.

Del’s eyes moved over her face slowly before narrowing. . “You’re up to something. I don’t care how mad you get at me. I know it.”

“Oh, you do, do you?”

Del gave a quick nod and pointed at the dress she was wearing. “You’re absolutely fit for a ball in that outfit. Don’t think I didn’t notice just because Papa and Daddy are too preoccupied to truly understand what’s going on.”

Florence smoothed a hand over the velvet skirt of her gown. “Oh, this old thing?” She scoffed and patted at the silk of her neckline, which was a touch beyond daring for Gold Sky. The crimson silk and velvet dress left her arms bare and her decolletage on display in an enticing way that would have been pushing the envelope even in New York. In the setting of the city, her outfit would have been seen as fresh,the marker of high fashion But here? On the frontier? It was positively scandalous.

Florence loved a good scandal.

She should. She’d been raised with a family that raised no shortage of eyebrows and whispers outside of their bubble of happiness in Gold Sky. Here, in this westward town, she and her family had a place of acceptance and belonging. That was the way of all those who called the town home.

Life and society may not have agreed with the lot of them in the big cities, but in Gold Sky they were able to choose their own way. Free to love whom they pleased. Free to grow into whomever they might wish to be.

Florence knew she was fortunate to be blessed with such a home. That not every place was like Gold Sky. She knew there were rumors in New York but that due to her mother’s family, the Baptistes, they were simply written off as “eccentric.” New York’s Four Hundred may not understand the life her mother had chosen, but first and foremost, her mother was a Baptiste, and that meant her choices were to be accepted, even if strange.

It might have bothered her if the joy and love of her family had been anything but sincere. But as it was, the affection and loyalty between her parents, all three of them, had served as an example of the very thing Florence hoped for as a young girl.

One person to love was fine and a rare thing indeed, but two? Two hearts that beat for yours? Now that was a miracle--a gift of untold value, and it was what Florence wished for herself now that she was a woman of marrying age. She was a woman in her prime and a good looking one at that. This would normally be an advantage in the ways of love, but Florence’s needs were specific. She wanted those two hearts beating for her. To give herself in the same way and have her love multiplied, not divided.

However, Gold Sky was not the place for such romantic overtures to be explored. Woefully lacking in eligible men for a lady seeking only one, but two? That was positively Herculean, even in such a place as Gold Sky. Florence patted the ribbons she’d intertwined in her updo and straightened her shoulders.

The women in her family were accustomed to taking on the insurmountable and making it their own. This would be no different. There was a dance tonight, and Florence was determined to make her best showing. Hence, her daring attire and efforts with makeup and hair.

“Where are you going tonight?” Delilah asked, tipping her head to the side. She could