The Accidental Countess (Accidental #2)(4)

Lucy had said to leave all the talking to her. Of course Cass meant to leave all the talking to her. That was Lucy’s strength, after all, talking. And a duty Cass was more than grateful to relinquish to her friend at the moment. She doubted she could utter a word if she was prodded with a hot poker.

Yes, Lucy would talk. As it should be. In fact, Cass, Lucy, and their third close friend, Jane, had all agreed at a ball last June that they would use one another’s strong points to help each attain what they wanted in life. First, Lucy had chased away Cass’s unwanted suitor, the Duke of Claringdon. It turned out in the chasing, however, that he’d actually been the perfect suitor for Lucy all along.

Next, they had promised to help their bluestocking friend Jane convince her parents to stop constantly pestering her to marry. Jane wanted nothing more than to be left in peace to study and write and stop being forced to attend all those hideous balls and routs.

It was Jane’s turn, yes, but here Lucy was, using her skill with words to help Cass in her time of need yet again, and Cass was infinitely grateful to her friend. In the moments it took for the butler to show Julian into the drawing room, Cass pulled her hand away from the arm of the sofa and set it in her lap. She swallowed hard and straightened her shoulders. Then she concentrated on not sliding off the settee in a fit of wrong breathing.

“You look absolutely breathtaking, dear,” Lucy said with a small, encouraging smile. “Captain Swift is certain to be amazed at your beauty.”

“I was quite serious when I said I may cast up my accounts,” Cass answered.

“Don’t do that, dear,” Lucy replied quickly.

Cass took a small gulp of air and nodded shakily just before the door to the drawing room swung open again and Captain Julian Swift strode into the room.

A funny little noise flew from Cass’s throat. A whimper? A sigh? Both, perhaps. She turned her face up to him and just … stared, her eyes, no doubt, wide as saucers.

Julian was there, not the dream of him, not the memory, but the flesh-and-blood man. He was even more dashing and handsome than she’d remembered. She’d been barely sixteen the last time she’d seen him. Julian had been three and twenty. Now she was three and twenty. She gulped. She’d been a child back then, really. She hadn’t matured at a fast pace. She’d had straggly blondish hair, unremarkable blue eyes, and freckles on the bridge of her nose. She’d also been far too thin and all knobby-kneed. She hoped she’d grown into the swan her friends always told her she would. But at this moment, facing Julian, she could only remember herself as an awkward young girl. Weren’t friends always telling one another how beautiful they were even if it was entirely untrue?

Staring at Julian, she was rendered completely speechless. Her gaze swept from the tips of his boots to the top of his head. He wore his army uniform. Oh, my, he wore it well. A deep red coat with epaulets, dark gray trousers, and black Hessians. Julian was two inches over six feet tall, had blond-streaked hair and broad shoulders and the most amazing gray eyes she had ever seen.

He flashed a smile as soon as he saw the two women sitting on the sofa. Cass sighed again. His teeth hadn’t suffered any ill effects from his service to the Crown, still straight and white and perfect. And while he had a few small crinkles at the corners of his eyes and he looked a bit older and more distinguished, for certain, he was still as handsome—more so—than Cass remembered from her vivid dreams.

And he was standing directly in front of her.

The look on his face was a bit of astonishment mixed with confusion. His gaze remained fixed on Cass. He’d barely glanced at Lucy. Lucy looked back and forth between the two of them, and Cass forced herself to pull her gaze away from Julian and turn her attention to her friend. There was a gleam in Lucy’s eye, the type of gleam Lucy always got when she was up to one of her schemes. But Cass had no time to consider it. Instead, she stood to greet Julian. Did he recognize her? The look on his face told her he must. Didn’t he?

“Ju … Julian?” she barely whispered.

Lucy’s hand on her arm stopped her and Cass promptly snapped shut her mouth. Oh, yes, Lucy had told her to leave the speaking to her.

Lucy stood, too, and executed a perfect curtsy. “Captain Swift.”

“My lady?” Julian said in a tone that clearly indicated he had no idea who she was.

“I am Lady Worthing,” Lucy offered.

Cass let out a small gasp. Why had Lucy given him a false name?

“Lady Worthing,” Julian repeated, bowing over her hand. “A pleasure.”

Cass waited with bated breath to be introduced. Julian had to know who she was. She couldn’t look at him. What if disappointment lurked in his eyes? She couldn’t bear it.

“And this is…?” Lucy paused deliberately, sweeping her hand in Cass’s direction.

Cass held her breath again.

The silence seemed to last an interminable amount of time but it was probably only seconds. Cass glanced up at Julian. Her name would fall from his lips any moment now. Should she curtsy? What was appropriate under such circumstances? This was the man she’d written to nearly every day for the last seven years. She knew more about him than Pen did. She thought about him, dreamed about him, had cried endless tears when she’d believed he would die. And now, here he was, seeing her again. All grown-up.

His brow was furrowed and he stared at her as if seeing a ghost. “Penelope?” he asked in a voice that was half awe, half disbelief.