Last Chance for Paris - Merry Farmer Page 0,5

as he straightened. “It isn’t even noon yet.”

“As to that,” Lady Briarwood shrugged. “We do not keep to the clock when we plan our festivities. When the spirit moves us, we move with it.”

Louis had a feeling truer words had never been spoken. While he had no personal experience of the McGoverns—at least not up until that point—he’d heard plenty of stories and rumors about them through the usual society gossip circles. The family was unique.

“The current badminton game is about to finish, then my cousin, Hattie, and I will be stepping in to play cousins Joseph and Ivor,” Lady Briarwood rushed on, gesturing with her racquet for him to follow her deeper into the chaos. “But I’m certain that if you find yourself a partner, you can join the queue to get a match in.” She paused, glancing to him and noticing the way he scanned the company. “That is, unless you have other activities in mind.” Her mouth curved up in a clever smile.

Louis tried to think fast, but his eagerness to learn more about Solange made his thoughts scatter. “I should check on your cousins, Miss Heather and Miss Sage, and, of course, Solange, to be certain they’ve recovered from yesterday’s adventure,” he said clumsily.

Lady Briarwood’s smile grew. “You’ll have a hard time addressing Heather and Sage. They aren’t currently speaking to me, after I dragged them to the Moulin Rouge, and have planted themselves in the shade to read books.” She nodded to a section of the garden beside the lawn where carefully sculpted trees provided a bit of shade for a collection of benches. The McGovern twins sat there with books, appearing to ignore the world. “But Solange is just over there,” Lady Briarwood went on, nodding down the slope of the hill toward the river.

Louis’s pulse sped up as he turned to find Solange staring straight at him. There was something in the stern lines of her face and the slight narrowing of her eyes that thrilled him. If he had to wager a guess, he’d say that Solange didn’t approve of him. But rather than putting him off, that excited him. There was nothing so enjoyable as proving himself to a lady who didn’t want to like him.

“Thank you, my lady.” He bowed to Lady Briarwood again, then marched off down the lawn. Perhaps it made him a rogue, but the challenge of charming a lady as sure of herself as Solange was the sort of thing he lived for. Or at least, it was the thing he used to live for before bringing Lafarge to justice had taken over all his thoughts. Part of him believed he should stay focused on his mission, especially when he was so close to getting what he wanted from the bastard, but a voice in the back of his head told him his mother would be just as pleased by him courting a beautiful woman as she would by him getting back what was hers.

“Miss Solange,” he greeted the object of his interest with a smile that was perhaps a little too warm for someone he had only just been introduced to as he came to stand in front of her. “It’s lovely to see you again.”

Solange had stared him down through his whole trek across the lawn to her. Her body was rigid with challenge. Louis was surprised she didn’t cross her arms and glare at him. “My lord,” she greeted him with the barest of nods. She said nothing else, merely stared at him as though she wanted to drive a knife through his heart.

Louis had no idea where the intensity of her emotion came from. Likely it was a manifestation of embarrassment due to how and where they’d met the day before. He liked the spirit such emotion showed, though. Making her like him would be a pleasure.

“I trust you are well after yesterday’s adventure,” he began, offering his arm in a silent invitation to walk with him.

She stared at him, perfectly still, but with so much feeling in her eyes that his cock stirred. That came as a surprise to him. Though he’d always delighted in making people, women especially, like him, he wasn’t often out to seduce them. But with Solange, the thought took hold in his mind and wouldn’t let go.

At last, after what felt like an interminable, silent battle of wills, she took his arm and let him walk with her toward the river’s edge. “I am well enough,”