“I hope you do not mind,” Mary whispered behind her wide hostess smile. “But I also invited Lord Elbrook.”
Rose glared at Mary through her eyelashes, but her twitching lips nearly betrayed her with a smile.
“And I suppose that you forgot to mention that to me in my invitation?” Rose whispered back.
Mary seemed about to say something more, but just then Daniel made his way through the small crowd and straight to where Mary and Rose were standing.
A loud, boisterous laughter cut through their conversation. Rose looked up to see Greggory Boone, the Earl of Crestwood, standing in the center of a small cluster of Mary’s party guests. It seemed that Lord Crestwood was regaling the group with a particularly entertaining tale.
Rose watched the gentleman’s performance with mild bemusement. As he told his story and his eyes surveyed the crowd of people gathered around him, he seemed to catch sight of Rose. His face lit up, and he brought his tale to a rapid close.
After graciously excusing himself from his small audience, he approached. He bowed formally to them all, but he held Rose’s gaze for several seconds.
“This is a lovely party, my lady,” he said, briefly turning his attention to Mary.
Mary smiled warmly and nodded her head.
“I am so glad that you are enjoying yourself, Lord Crestwood,” she said. She gestured to Rose and Daniel, still smiling. “I trust that you know Lord Elbrook and Lady Rose?”
Lord Crestwood bowed quickly to Daniel.
“Good afternoon, Lord Elbrook,” he said stiffly. Then, he turned his attention back to Rose, smiling brightly once more. “It is a pleasure to see you, Lady Rose.” He punctuated his honey words with a kiss to Rose’s knuckles.
“Charmed,” Daniel said, his voice taking on an almost imperceptible edge. Rose spared him a quick glance and saw that, while he was smiling, his jaw was tensing, and his eyes were wary.
“This is quite a lovely party, indeed,” Rose said, withdrawing her hand as quickly as was politely possible.
“It certainly was lovely, just moments ago,” Lord Crestwood said, his smile widening and his voice growing sweeter still. “But now, it is positively spectacular.”
Rose blushed uncomfortably, but she tried to maintain her smile.
“You seemed to be telling quite the tale just a moment ago,” Mary said, pointedly, though not unkindly. Rose knew that Mary had sensed her discomfort, and she gave her friend a casual, grateful glance.
“Oh, yes,” Lord Crestwood said, his grin widening. “I was telling a few of the guests about the time I stopped a panicked, furiously galloping horse just before it threw off a close friend of mine. With just one hand.”
“That sounds like quite the tale, indeed,” Rose said, biting her lip to keep a giggle from betraying the irony in her voice.
“Indeed,” Daniel said, his own voice tinged with a bit of humor. “A fantastic one, to be sure.”
“It might have seemed a bit fantastical to me, as well,” said Lord Crestwood, seeming to lose some of his Earlier confidence in his words. “But I was there to witness it.”
“And how did you say that you managed to stop the horse with just one hand?” Mary asked, her mouth twitching with amusement.
“Well, I suppose you could say that I did, in fact, use both hands,” Lord Crestwood said, his smile faltering but not completely fading. “I grabbed on to a low hanging branch of a nearby tree and firmly planted my feet in the ground.”
Rose could not resist glancing at the palms of his hands, which were upturned as he spoke. As she suspected, she saw no scars that would indicate such contact; that his hands, in fact, looked quite soft and smooth.
“Quite a tale, indeed,” Daniel said, echoing Rose’s Earlier sentiments. “That reminds me of something my brother used to say: He who spins long yarns oft trips himself on them.”
Mary was truly struggling to keep her composure and hide her laughter, but Rose barely noticed.
That is so like what Mother used to say, she thought, her eyes wide with a stunned fascination. She made a mental note to ask Daniel about his saying.
Lord Crestwood, having seen that he was caught in his tale spinning, murmured a polite excuse and slinked back toward the crowd of people from which he had emerged Earlier, no doubt hoping to regain a bit of his dignity.
Rose pitied him, despite his apparent desire to tell exaggerated stories, and she hoped that he was not overly embarrassed.
She was also surprised at Daniel’s reaction. He had not become possessive or abrasive, but she had not missed that his subtle, humorous remarks carried with them a small tint of jealousy.
Once the shamed gentleman was out of earshot, Mary giggled softly.
“Do not worry,” she said to Rose. “He does this quite frequently at parties. It shall be forgotten within moments.”
Rose nodded, just as another waft of laughter came from the direction in which Lord Crestwood has slinked. Rose looked up and, sure enough, his brilliant smile had returned, and he had regained the attention of a handful of people.
Beside Rose, Daniel snorted.
“Surely, no one believes such tales,” he said.
Mary laughed again.
“Of course not,” she said. “I think that, to many of them, it is comparable to watching a performance onstage, or reading a good work of fiction.”
At this, Rose laughed, the sound blending with another bout of laughter from Lord Crestwood’s new audience. Rose looked at Daniel, who gave her a small wink before he, too, began laughing.
She found that the sound was exquisitely pleasant and intoxicating, and the amusement lit up his handsome face in a striking way. Her heart skipped and she felt her cheeks growing hot, so she looked away.
Just then, Mary gave a little gasp.
“Oh,” she said. “It is such a beautiful day. I think that a walk through the gardens would be just lovely.”
Rose nodded emphatically in agreement.
“I believe you are right,” she said to her friend.
Mary smiled brightly and picked up a fork from a tray close to her. She gently clinked her champagne glass to get the attention of everyone in the room.
“Would any of you like to join me in the gardens for a little stroll?” she asked.
The room began to buzz with excited murmurs of consent, and Mary’s smile grew wider still. She waited for those still drinking tea or champagne and eating cakes to finish, then she led the way out of the drawing room door. Rose followed, with Daniel not far behind, bringing up the rear. Rose slowed her pace, secretly hoping that Daniel would walk alongside her, which he did.