Mismatched Under the Mistletoe - Jess Michaels Page 0,15

were secret fantasies! The garden had been something else entirely. That had been real. He was real. He was her friend. She couldn’t…want him.

“Isn’t that right, Lady Rutledge?”

Emily started as she realized Abigail Delafield was talking to her. The eldest daughter of the second son of the Earl of Wayland was a pretty woman, raven-haired and quick to smile. Emily had always enjoyed her company and couldn’t understand why she’d never married. She was a catch by anyone’s imagining.

“I’m sorry, I was woolgathering,” she said, trying to focus. “What was that?”

Abigail smiled. “I was just saying that after the first few days of your Twelve Days of Christmas theme, I have to imagine we have much to look forward to.”

Emily blinked. Though most in the room were smiling and nodding, a few of the ladies or their chaperones were whispering amongst themselves as if they were a little annoyed. And to be fair, the morning with the chickens had not gone exactly to plan. Who would have thought the cocks would squawk so much and try to fight?

“I do have plans, though I must admit wrangling birds is a bit more difficult than I imagined,” she said. She shifted. She really should focus on her efforts rather than think only about Cav and whatever had transpired between them in the garden a few hours before. “Are you all enjoying yourselves? What do you think of the gentlemen?”

The ladies in the room exchanged glances and then the polite murmurs began. Emily frowned. Honestly, she’d pictured this entire endeavor going very differently. The birds were supposed to be docile, the ladies and gentlemen were supposed to take to each other immediately and Cav was supposed to be her support, not haunting her dreams.

But no, she couldn’t be discouraged so swiftly. Tomorrow’s display with the blackbirds was going to be beautiful, and she just needed to find the right matches for the ladies. As for Cav…

“The Earl of Allington was just telling me last night about his horses,” she said, looking across the room toward the Mulberry twins. Everyone knew they adored horses, so perhaps this would spark their interest in the earl.

But it was Lady Thea, the daughter of the Earl of Beacham, who answered with a scowl. “Pompous arse that he is, I doubt he could seat a horse for more than five minutes.”

That caused a gasp and an uncomfortable titter in the room. Emily shifted. She’d tried to place Allington and Thea together on the first night, after hearing they’d known each other in childhood. Who wasn’t swept away by a romance seeded in youth? But she could see now she’d made a tactical error, for Thea clearly despised the earl. Worse, she was making everyone else question him.

She made a note to talk to Cav about the man later and changed the subject. “And Mr. Hayward was telling me some very interesting things about his work on steam engines. He tells me that rail is the future.”

Bridget York, the American, sent a side glance to her mother before she said, “Ah, yet another man who can only speak of steam. I wonder if he can generate it?”

“Bridget!” her mother said in scandalized tones.

But it seemed not to trouble her daughter, because she only laughed as she went to freshen her tea.

Emily bent her head as the ladies changed the subject, and suddenly they were all discussing a book almost everyone had read. She had enjoyed the piece, as well, but she still found herself disappointed. She’d believed so thoroughly in her efforts here, and yet the ladies didn’t seem as engrossed as she had hoped.

She would have to just try again. This was love, after all. She knew full well it was worth fighting for. She would just have to do it harder on their behalves. Her mind darted yet again to Cav’s intense stare in the garden, but managed to push the memory away again.

That wasn’t the same thing as what she was trying to create here for the ladies and gentlemen at her gathering. Cav was something else entirely, and she wasn’t about to go analyzing it and creating a situation where one did not have to exist.

Chapter 5

Four Colly Birds

Why Emily had brought him here when she was just going to repeatedly avoid him was the question on Cav’s mind the next day when the group as a whole stepped into the garden for their next display in her Twelve Days of Christmas tableau. She was