She, Lord Kerrigan, Katrina, and their mother had joined a small house party in Newcastle.
Strangely, the hardest part of the night would be Ellis’s absence. She relished her appearance for a moment and tried to still the butterflies in her stomach threatening to make her sick. The elegant neckline of her dress framed the jewel, with the garnet’s color matching the sash on her dress as if they were made for each other. The final touch was her mother’s necklace. Then she gathered the remaining ringlets into a matching ribbon and pulled them over Andalin’s shoulder. The lady’s maid attending her pinned several large curls on the back of her head. The white ball gown transformed Andalin into a fairy tale the moment she put it on.
Lady Kerrigan lifted her chin and studied him carefully. Today was not the day to reveal his secrets to anyone. “But there is something particular about her, isn’t there?”Įllis kept his face impassive. “You have it,” Lady Kerrigan said without batting an eyelash. Ellis was relieved he did not have to discuss it again. She must have been the only one to miss the obvious affection Kerrigan had for Annie. You chose well.”Įllis waited for Lady Kerrigan to bring up her son, but she did not. I was worried about your plan, but her speech and manners are more than passable. “I am not going to argue with you, Lord Cadogen. Trenton is lovely too, but you never forbade her from being here.” Does it not worry you?”Įllis had questioned the fact himself in the beginning, but after a decade he was beginning to think it didn’t matter anymore. “Oh?” Ellis wasn’t sure he wanted to hear her disapproval. Lady Kerrigan took her role as surrogate mother a little too seriously. “Sit with me for a moment.”Įllis dropped his gloves onto the small table next to him, making sure Lady Kerrigan saw the gloves, and hoped she would be brief. Lady Kerrigan smiled up at him and motioned to the chair next to her. Now it was Lady Kerrigan whom he looked to for advice. She was elegant and refined, just like his mother had been.
Ellis observed Lady Kerrigan while she read from a book in her lap. His mother had been just a little younger than Lady Kerrigan, but he imagined today she would have looked similar, each of them with streaks of gray and small lines of age around their eyes and mouth. At least this memory of his past was a pleasant one. He remembered her sitting in the same upright chair when she’d come to visit his mother. There was no denying it he was not immune to falling in love.Įllis found Lady Kerrigan waiting patiently for him in the drawing room. Her feelings now dictated many of his choices. What would she think of him when she discovered what he was hiding? He thought his heart impenetrable, but Annie had changed everything. Certainly he thought about it a time or ten, but he had maintained control.
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