Sweet Awakening Read Online Free PDF

lead her out without even thinking about his intentions. When he leaned down to kiss her, she experienced only a fleetingly pleasant sensation and Giles pulled away, puzzled by her lack of response.
    “Are you feeling well, Clare? You seem a bit distracted. Or are my kisses too respectful,” he added with a smile. “I promise you, they need not be.”
    Clare felt terrible. This was Giles, her dearest friend and here she was, distracted by the memory of a light touch from a complete stranger.
    “I apologize, Giles. Of course it is not your kisses. I am just rather tired tonight. I danced every dance, you know.”
    “I hear you even jilted Barton for a dance with the mysterious Lord Rainsborough. He seems to be quite a charmer. He managed to get Lady Allendale on the floor, and she rarely dances with anyone but her husband and her sons,” he teased.
    Clare could understand Lord Rainsborough’s success very well. She thought she would have the same response to him at fifty or seventy as she had tonight. She was immediately horrified by her thoughts. Here she was imagining herself with someone else other than Giles, as though Lord Rainsborough had asked her to marry him and she had agreed and was fantasizing about their long life together. She resolved to wipe all such unrealistic dreams out of her mind and concentrate on Giles. He had not declared himself yet, but she was confident he would. And it was to him she would promise her love and loyalty.
    * * * *
    Clare would have kept to her resolve had Rainsborough ignored her. But he didn’t. The day after the Carstairs’s ball, she received a small corsage of violets with a sweet note from him thanking her for their dance and making a comparison between the flowers and her eyes. That night at a musicale, he made an obvious beeline for her, and Clare was very much aware of the whispers around her. And later in the week, when Lord Rainsborough called and asked if he could have her company for a short stroll in the park that afternoon, Clare did not know what to say.
    She had no other commitments, but Giles did tend to drop by in the afternoons and so she often kept them free. But they had no formal plans, after all, she thought, suppressing a pang of guilt. Giles did rather take it for granted that she would be available for his company. Stirring up a little self-righteous annoyance helped her push Giles’s disappointed face out of her mind. She smiled at Lord Rainsborough, thanked him for his lovely flowers, and agreed to walk with him.
    Of course, her abigail accompanied them. And since it was almost the fashionable hour, they were hardly alone. Yet it felt as though the earl had drawn a protective circle around them. He was attentive, charming, and amusing as he told her tales of the West Indies. Clare was fascinated by his descriptions of exotic flowers and birds.
    “But I have been monopolizing this conversation,” he said apologetically. "Tell me something about yourself, Lady Clare.”
    “Indeed, there is very little to tell,” replied Clare with a nervous laugh. “I’m afraid I have never traveled farther than to Glastonbury with the Whittons.”
    “Ah, yes. Viscount Whitton and Lady Sabrina. They seem like a delightful pair.”
    Clare’s face lit up. “Yes, they are my dearest friends, almost like family.” She went on to explain how much younger she was than her own brother and sister.
    “I am happy to hear you describe them as family, Lady Clare,” said Rainsborough. “I had heard rumors that you and Whitton were promised to one another.”
    Clare flushed. “There is no official betrothal, my lord. That is, Giles has not asked me yet, although I am sure he will ... oh, dear, that sounds quite bold of me, doesn’t it?” Why, she thought, was she downplaying what was a very real, albeit unspoken understanding? And why was Lord Rainsborough happy to have her describe Giles in brotherly terms?
    “Then there is no real reason for you to turn away