Almost Perfect Read Online Free PDF Page B

her day as she can.”
    Cassie let her attention slip to the ballroom’s opposite end and the door that led to the earl’s drawing room, where the card tables were. She longed to be there right now, hard at winning what they needed to escape England. At the same time the thought of joining the gamesters terrified her. Because of that forgotten invitation she doubted she’d have the full two weeks to turn her twenty pounds into two hundred. Yet, if she made one mistake or won too consistently, someone would accuse her of being a sharp. The moment that accusation slipped from anyone’s lips Cassie would never again sit at a card table, and she and her family were doomed.
    “Where did Sir Roland go, Cassie?” Philana asked.
    “Hmm?” Cassie asked, rising slowly from the morass of anxiety she hid within her. “Papa? He went back to his chamber to retie his stock. He said it still didn’t look right. I fear he’s not tolerating his lack of a valet.” She smiled at her aunt. “Thank you again for sharing your maid with us, Philana.”
    “Not at all. Betty enjoys the challenge and the chance to serve pretty women. My aged plainness bores her, I think,” Philana replied, then glanced behind her. “Ah, good. The musicians are returning.”
    The men, dressed in black, their hair concealed beneath the wigs that belonged to the last century, worked their way past Cassie and her relatives. Grateful for any distraction, Cassie watched them wind around the next clutch of well-dressed gentlefolk on their way back to the chairs set for them in the ballroom’s corner.
    “But if the dancing is to begin again where is Eliza’s next partner?” Philana asked, laughing as she caught Cassie’s sister by the arm, pulling Eliza close to her. “I shan’t tolerate any man abandoning you, my dear. Who is it? I shall go fetch him for you.”
    Eliza grinned, having fallen as completely under Philana’s loving spell as Cassie. “Let me see,” she replied, consulting the pretty little brass-bound dance card that Lord Ryecroft had provided for all his female guests. “Why, it’s Lord Ryecroft who has this dance. Off you go, Aunt Philana. Bring him here by his ear, with apologies to me upon his lips,” she finished, shooting a laughing look from over the top of the tiny booklet only to straighten with a start, bright color flushing her cheeks.
    “Oh! Lord Ryecroft. We were just speaking of you,” she stammered.
    Cassie glanced behind her. Her heart lifted into her throat. Standing next to the darkly handsome earl was Lucien Hollier. Pivoting, her hand at her breast, Cassie stared at Lord Graceton, the man who’d broken a foolish girl’s heart.
    Lucien looked even more handsome as a three and thirty-year-old widower than he had at twenty-seven. She didn’t remember him being so tall; Cassie’s head would barely reach his clean-shaven jawline. Lucien was no less fit, judging from the way his black coat clung to the powerful span of his broad shoulders. His snowy stock was the perfect contrast to his sun-browned skin and the golden streaks summer had burnt into the dark honey color of his hair. Above the rugged jut of his cheekbones the expression in his clear gray eyes was as intense as ever.
    “Ladies,” the earl said, bowing.
    Lucien neither bowed nor spoke, he only smiled, his full attention on Cassie. Every inch of her body came to wicked life. Her pulse pounded in her ears. His charming lopsided grin hadn’t changed at all.
    “Why good evening, Lord Ryecroft.” Philana purred the greeting, coyly plying her fan. “And Lord Graceton. I had no idea you intended to participate in your cousin’s house party.”
    Lord Ryecroft shot his kinsman a laughing look. “He wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t gone to that rustic hideaway of his and begged. I needed one more man to balance out the party.”
    Lucien’s gaze never left Cassie. “More fool me for trying to resist him.”
    Cassie shivered. How could she ever have