The Magic of His Touch (May Day Mischief) Read Online Free Page A

hustled Peony upstairs to dress for dinner.
She scolded relentlessly while she and her abigail pinned, tucked, twisted and
turned Peony to the point of dizzy exhaustion.
    “I suppose that will have to do,” her aunt said. “You’ll never
be anything but dull, but you could have had the squire’s son if only you’d put
some effort into captivating him. Instead, you made him look like a fool.”
    This was entirely unfair. True, the squire’s son had shown some
interest in her, but that had vanished completely after he’d tried spending a
night in the Haunted Bedchamber. He had emerged gibbering after only a little
while, but how was that her fault? It was no use protesting, as Aunt Edna
disapproved of Peony’s friendly relations with the ghosts and bogeys, even
though she claimed not to believe in them.
    “Why couldn’t you have been endowed with a proper bosom?” she
demanded, putting a last twitch to Peony’s bodice. “Try as I may, I can do
nothing to disguise such a flaw. One can only pray on bended knee that Lord
Elderwood will forgive that and all your other shortcomings.”
    Aunt Edna finally went away to her own bedchamber, adjuring
Peony to wait for her before going downstairs, because she was sure to say
something foolish and put up the earl’s back. If only it were that simple, Peony
thought, she would go straight down and play the fool while Aunt Edna wasn’t
watching, but she suspected idiotic rejoinders would be as difficult for her as
clever ones. Perhaps she should go to Lucasta for moral support.
    She opened the door to her room and peeked out just in time to
see her cousin slipping out of a bedchamber a few doors down, with Sir Alexis
right behind her. Heavens, that was his room—how improper of them! Lucasta went
up on tiptoe and kissed her betrothed’s cheek.
    Envy swarmed over Peony like a cloud of gnats. How she wished
she had a fiancé to kiss! She wondered what it would be like to kiss Sir
Alexis’s cheek.
    Or his mouth...
    Whatever was wrong with her? She shouldn’t think such things
about her cousin’s betrothed. Yes, Sir Alexis was a fine-looking man with a
highly attractive mouth. She’d noticed it when he’d smiled at her. He’d also had
a reprehensible gleam in his eye. But although she envied Lucasta her fortune in
having a fiancé, she didn’t wish she had Sir Alexis for herself.
    To prove it, she imagined Sir Alexis touching and kissing
Lucasta...and envy’s sister, jealousy, blossomed inside her.
    Horrified, she tried to withdraw, but it was too late. Lucasta
flitted along the passageway toward her. Desperately, Peony banished the images
insinuating themselves into her mind.
    Lucasta peered at her. “Is something wrong?”
    “No,” Peony lied.
    “Alexis promised to ask Lord Elderwood to help discourage your
father and Aunt Edna,” Lucasta said.
    Peony cringed. Lucasta was doing her best to help, while Peony
indulged in traitorous thoughts. “How—how very kind,” she muttered.
    “That’s Alexis for you,” Lucasta said. “The perfect fiancé. I’d
better go change, or I’ll be late for dinner.” She hurried across the corridor
and disappeared into her own bedchamber.
    Peony shut her door again. Her heart pitter-pattered against
her breast. She took a deep breath. And another. She must control her wayward
thoughts. Such disloyalty to her cousin was intolerable. She wasn’t attracted to
Sir Alexis. She refused to be.
    Footsteps approached in the passageway, and somehow she just
knew.
    “Miss Whistleby,” said Sir Alexis on the other side of the
door. She stood paralyzed, wishing with all her heart that she was someplace
else, but just like that morning, magic paid her no heed.
    * * *
    “Open up,” Alexis said. “I know you’re there.”
    Miss Whistleby pulled the door just wide enough to scowl at
him. “This is most improper. What do you want?”
    “You’re scolding me for being
improper?” He tried to look stern but knew he wasn’t succeeding.