To Sketch a Sphinx - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,46
had a look at each other before they were nearly racing down to the entrance hall to meet the others and load into carriages.
As the coach rambled on, Hal was fussing with her entire ensemble. “I just know I’ve forgotten something. Colette was literally stabbing my scalp with pearl pins as I was walking out to meet you.”
“I think I’m slowly being strangled to death,” John shot back, tugging at the tight space between his cravat and his neck. “And it’s pinned. It’s an emerald, isn’t it?”
“Yes, and it’s lovely.” Hal scoffed softly and turned to him. “Here, just a moment.” She carefully unpinned it and assisted him in loosening the linen just enough to give him some comfort while not disrupting Leys’ intricate design. Fixing the pin again, she nodded and patted the linen, smoothing it down just a little. “There. Better?”
John heaved a deep exhale. “Much.” He grinned and his eyes drifted up to her hair. “You’ve a pin that’s sitting rather precariously. May I?”
She nodded quickly. “Please. These likely cost more than my dowry. I dare not lose one.”
“My more pressing concern was that you would appear unbalanced in your accoutrements,” he laughed, carefully working the pin in question out. “What judgment would come upon you!” He smoothed down a bit of her hair, then gingerly replaced the pin with more security into the folds of her hair. “And done.”
“It’s not too towering, is it?” Hal winced even as she asked the question. “I caught a glimpse, and it does seem rather perilous in its dimension.”
John shook his head as his eyes traced over the entire coiffure. “Not at all, it suits you very well. Elegant and refined, and perhaps more than one might see in a London ballroom, but no one will stare in awe or amazement. At your hair, at any rate.” He winked, his smile turning crooked.
Hal slapped his chest playfully. “Wretch.”
“It was a compliment!” he protested. “You look beautiful, Ange.”
She ignored the twinge of delight that spread heat into her fingertips. “And you look both handsome and smart,” she informed him with a sniff. “Only a little bit peacock, so you will go practically unnoticed among the over-trimmed and over-inflated.”
“Thank you.” He sat back and sighed, closing his eyes and seeming truly fatigued for the first time that day. “What I wouldn’t give to claim to feel unwell tonight, Ange, and spend the quiet evening at home with you.”
She’d have matched his pose had her restrictive stays and coiled hair not prevented her. “Did you forget the children are at the house? Surely, not so quiet.”
He made a face of indifference. “They’d have gone to bed soon enough. And one doesn’t have to pretend with children, so perhaps that would be preferable.”
“Perhaps.” She watched him for a long moment, wondering if he might truly sleep on the drive over. Then she felt her lips curve in an impish manner. “Will you dance with me tonight?”
He opened his eyes and rolled his head along the carriage seat to look at her. “Don’t I always?”
Hal laughed once. “We’ve only been to small gatherings with small dances since we’ve been in Paris. This is our first grand affair, and I want to know if I might expect a dance with my husband.”
He smiled at her, the sort of smile that curled the edges of her stomach into coils and set off explosions in the tips of each toe. “You may expect at least two, Ange. If I can get to you through the admiring throng.”
“Just charge in,” she suggested, returning his smile with all the warmth she currently felt. “Push them aside. Carry me off in front of the lot and claim me for all to see.”
John quirked his brows in an almost suggestive manner. “Rather savage of me, wouldn’t you say? Almost uncouth, certainly unrefined.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Hal murmured, reaching out to unnecessarily adjust a bit of hair at his temple. “Perhaps just a little untamed, but I shouldn’t mind that every now and again.”
“No?”
She shook her head. “A girl likes to see a glimpse of the rugged hero within.”
His eyes turned a shade more serious. “I’m a scholar, Hal.”
“All the more reason to do so. The effect will be all the greater for the shock of it.” She continued to smile, her fingers still moving over and over that hair at his temple, her husband going almost completely still at her touch. “Just come to me,” she pleaded in a lower tone.