Wild Lily (Those Notorious Americans Book 1)(14)

“I return for my scheduled instructions in landscape painting,” Elanna told Carbury with a grin.

“Ah, yes, your efforts to exceed Mr. Turner,” he joked. “I do recall.”

Elanna lifted a shoulder. “I mustn’t disappoint Monsieur de la Bran with my lack of advancement.”

“You have determination,” he said with assurance. “You will succeed.”

A tall, dark, figure strolled abreast of their party. Waiting politely for an opening, he had turned to the two ladies who accompanied him. Julian’s skin prickled with a sensation of being watched. And he stepped to one side.

When he looked into their faces, he had jolt. Beside Killian Hanniford stood the two women whom he’d met this afternoon in the midst of the accident. And like a magnet, he focused on the startling blue eyes of Miss Lily Hanniford.

“Good evening, my lord,” the American millionaire said to Carbury in his leisurely American accent. “Forgive us for our tardiness.”

“I am most delighted to see you. All of you,” Carbury said, shaking hands with the gentleman and bowing to the ladies. “You are not late at all. We are reminiscing. Allow me to present my friends. My neighbors, too, they are.”

Carbury did the honors with social precision, so well in fact that Julian could greet Killian Hanniford with equanimity. He’d met with the infamous American blockade runner three times in the past two weeks and known him to be blunt, forceful but polite. As a scrapper from the docks of Baltimore, Hanniford had acquired polish with his fortune. Here as in his offices, the man was tailored, barbered to a far thee well and his manners were impeccable. So fine in fact that Julian’s mother, whether or not she knew of Hanniford’s proposed raid of Cardiff Shipping, accepted the introduction with a smug look of satisfaction. A rare thing.

So when the moment came for Carbury to introduce Julian to the luscious Miss Hanniford, he easily grasped her hand and bowed over her soft leather glove. “I had the honor to meet Miss Hanniford this afternoon. And Mrs. Roland, as well. Good evening, ladies. I trust you have recovered from the upset of the afternoon.”

“We did. Thank you, Lord Chelton,” Lily told him with a cool politesse that surprised and distressed him.

“You were very helpful, my lord,” Mrs. Roland added with more graciousness than Julian perceived in Lily’s greeting. “You saved us from disaster. Especially Madame le Comtesse.”

“What is this?” his mother asked. “You told me nothing of a disaster.”

Julian inclined his head. “It was a runaway horse and a frightened hack, Mama. Remy and I dealt with them both.”

“And I, Lord Chelton,” said Killian Hanniford with earnest thanks, “am the one most grateful for your intervention. Lily and Marianne told me all the details and I’m in awe of your quick thinking and your skill.”

His mother cocked a haughty brow. “Chelton has always made a habit of walking into danger.”

Thank you, Mama. Such a dubious commendation is so unwelcome.

“No wonder he did well today,” Lily Hanniford said with smooth flattery that warmed him and made his mother turn to glass.

Julian did not know what to say to that. It was not often someone could take his mother’s words and turn them into a compliment. Amusement curled his mouth. Appreciation made him grin.

“Here’s Remy,” his mother said and smiled at the man who bowed graciously to them all.

“Bon soir. Forgive me my tardiness,” Remy said, his twinkling eyes traveling the party and pausing for a second on the widow Roland. “Another accident along the Rue de la Paix tonight. I fear we have a contagion on our hands.”

His mother rushed to introduce Remy to the ladies, Hanniford and Carbury as if she wished him gone. But the chimes sounded for an intermission between acts and Carbury bent over Elanna, eager as a puppy and smiling at her.

He extended his hand toward the door to a nearby box. “I hope all of you will join me here. The Hannifords are my guests and the four of you would turn us into a very grand party.”

Elanna pressed back against Julian’s arm.

Remy grinned, his attention to Mrs. Roland as apparent as a billboard.

And for himself, desire to be near charming Lily was raw. Better judgment screamed he should refuse.

But his mother was quick to agree.

“Let us go in, then.” Carbury offered his arm to Elanna.

Not to be impolite, she nodded and hooked her hand in the crook of his elbow.

Julian’s mother cast them a sideways glance, and at once, Julian’s skin prickled. Was this his mother’s ploy to push Elanna and Carbury together? It might very well be. The woman preferred her own company. Unless it benefited her to be social.

He set his teeth.

But as the party reshuffled to allow the pair to pass, Lily was at once by his side. His duty as a gentleman was to offer her his own arm.

“Thank you,” she said in that voice that melted his rational mind and she placed her warm palm on his sleeve.

“Do you like Offenbach?” he asked out of the blue.

“I’ve never heard his works before.”

“Ah,” he said like a dolt, his brain utterly, ridiculously blank.

As all eight of them filed in to the box’s anteroom where they could remove their wraps, instinct and manners drove him forward. He stood like a statue as Lily turned her back to him to help with removing her cape. Her fox fur-lined sateen was a deep shade of sapphire, darkly complementary to her flawless skin. His fingers brushed her bare shoulder as he slid the garment off her, only to make him catch his breath at the sky-blue silk gown that sluiced over her slim form. She looked like a shimmering ice goddess. She smelled like faint roses of summer. He was entranced. Silly him. She was quite exquisite, her skin as perfect as a pearl, her throat and the swells of her breasts, pristine.