Authors: Beth Trissel
Midsummer’s Eve ball...he’d been to these
high occasions before
.
This
year’s
ball
was unparalleled
, though,
because Julia
now
graced his life
.
Hadn’t she sailed all the wa
y from England to be with him?
She gleamed
in the candlelight like the rarest of pearls
, but
he
was painfully
aware of having
offend
ed her
.
Somehow, he must make amends.
He bowed to her
, his partner for the
quadrille, and
then
the three other couples in the set.
Her
lovely eyes
reproached
him
in an
exquisite face as he re
ached out a gloved hand and clasped
her dainty
fingers
.
Her soft white skin
showed through the lacy cloth.
Hair
the color of
burnished sunlight
flowed in curls
down over her back and the
white gown draped her in
snowy
splendor
as if she were
a bride
.
She would be, and soon, if Will had his way.
How he
wished they weren’t th
e center of attention in a room
full of curious matrons whispering b
ehind their fans.
He yearned to have done with
the
convention
s of society
and gather Julia in
his arms
here and now
.
G
iven her
present
mood,
though,
she just might strike
him on the
cheek.
There was nothing for it but to see this tedious formality through.
Lifting her chin, she
studiously ignored him throughout the
turning
f
o
rward and backward
, going to the right and left,
all the exacting steps of the
prescribed
dance.
“I didn’t flirt with Miss Patterson,”
Will
whispered, crossing
hands for the next step
.
“She flirted with me.”
Lips tight,
Julia
flashed him a
dubious
look.
T
hat hadn’t gone well
.
Certainly not as he’d hoped.
Damn that curvaceous brunet
te, stirring up all this contention
.
Miss Patterson m
eant nothing to him.
Julia was
all.
Will chaffed impatientl
y for this rigid dance to end.
As head couple
, they
must perform the entire figure
,
repeated by the side couples.
At last,
the quadrille was done amid polite clapping
.
He’d had e
nough of this
lifeless formality.
G
ripping Julia’s elbow, he walked her past the sidelong glances and Miss
Patterson’s coy smile.
Julia made no protest
with a crowd
goggling at them
, but Will suspected she would the instant he got her outside.
Th
e assembly blurred before him.
She, alone, mattered.
Still, she
didn’t
speak
, but her tension spoke for her as he escorted her out the front entrance onto
the portico and down the steps.
He led her
across the lawn and
into the trees, glitt
ering with a hundred lanterns.
Whether she liked it or not, he was taking her in his arms, and did
, holding her delightful
softness to him
.
“Julia,
darling, I never meant to upset you.
Please forgive my foolishness.
”
She didn’t put up much o
f a struggle and he cherished her
perfumed
sweetness
.
She
laid her head on his chest and was q
uiet for a time.
Then she whispered, “I suppose you can’
t help it if women adore you, a
s long as you don’t adore them in return.”
He pressed
his lips to her flowery hair.
“I could say the same of you regarding men.”
“
Mr.
Cameron means nothing to me.”
Cameron.
Didn’t she mean Lyle?
Will glanced down at his jacket
and noticed for the first time that he wore scarlet tails, the formal coat of a
n expert huntsman.
White
breeches fit
ted
his legs and black riding bo
ots.
A splendid
sheathed sword hung at his side.
What on earth?
Juli
a lifted her hand to his face.
“
Don’t be troubled.
I fo
rgive you, dearest Cole
.”
“Thank you.”
Uncertain what more to say, or do, in this surreal
moment
, Will simply held her.
Music floated to them from the open windows o
f the house, a Viennese waltz.
“May I have this dance?” he whispered.
“
O
ut here?” She laughed softly.
“
You may.”
Closing one arm around her waist and the other higher up her back, Will circl
ed with her through the trees.
She giggled as he swept her faster in the flowing movements of this most romantic
of dances
.
Her
gown swirled
milky
white
and s
he followed his lead in perfect union.
Will lost a
ll sense of time.
He only knew
they waltzed among the glowing lanterns and
fireflies in the
scented night...and
he wanted to be with her forever.
But
Julia faded from his arms.
H
e
couldn’t hold onto her any
more than he could
have
the
moonbeams
that
silvered her face
.
Aching to restore her, he
a
woke in the ridiculously frilly bedro
om bewildered
.
The lilting waltz
still
echoed in his mind. That had only been a dream.
And yet, w
as i
t possible
he had
once
danced with her like that?
Two hundred years ago
, he reminded himself.
He
must be losing his sanity
along with Julia
.
Even if he were, it had bee
n a wonderful flight of fancy.
Maybe reality wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
A voice booming up the steps disrupted his
drowsy thoughts
.
“You’d better get your
pretty-boy
ass down here
,
Wentworth
,
and see what we’ve found!”
Lyle bellowing in typically crude form.
Will shot a glance
at the
clock
.
Damn
.
H
e’d ov
erslept.
“What are you yelling
about?”
he shouted, leaping
up
from bed and
pulling
on
last night’s
jeans
over his boxers.
“We’ve tur
ned up a
bloody
skeleton digging for the
wall!
Looks like a bloke
.
Right off, I’d say he was murdered!
”
“What the
––
”
Reeling in shock, Will stuck his head and arms through
a T-shirt as
he tore out the bedroom door.
“When
was he killed
?”
“A hell of a long
time ago!
You missing any ancestors?”
****
P
uffy-eyed and late for work
, Julia stepped
from her quarters, a
steaming
mug
in
one hand
and
blueberry muffin in the other.
She didn’t fee
l much like breakfast, and
ached
to her innermost being
from
wounding
Will las
t evening
. She
felt equally
pained
in
re
turn
.
She
’d tried to apologize, hadn’t she, even though she’
d felt betrayed?
She
wanted to
shout
at him
for striding
away
and hold him close
at the same time
,
b
ut her empty stom
ac
h growled
. I
f she didn’t eat
, she’d grow
light-headed
.
She paused in the do
orway for a soothing sip of the
all-purpose
British remedy
,
hot milky
tea
.
What on earth
?
A blue
and white police car
with flashing lights
pulled in
to the parking lot
, followed by a darker
model
car
.
Her immediate horror was that something h
ad happened to Will.
She sagged
in
unspeakable
relief when she
saw him stride up to
the black sedan and speak with
the plain-clothes officer
in
side
.
A balding man in a
white short
-sleeve shirt and tie, stomach o
ver his belt, climbed
out, h
is navy
pants slick in the
morning
light
. H
is p
ale face bore witness to
a lack of sunshine
.
He held a brief case,
camera,
and nodded
at Will
.
They were
joined by a
tall
young deputy in a brown uniform.
The three made hasty introductions.
Balancing the muffin under her chin, Julia jugg
led the tea and shut the door.
She
walked across the lawn and
tentatively
approached the men
with no clue
what this was all about.
“Keep the grounds
closed
to visitors
today
, and then we’ll see,” the deputy said as she walked up to them
.
He slid
appreciative
eyes
over
her
and tipped his hat with Southern gentility
.
“Ma’am.”
The paunchy of
ficer shot
her a harried glance
.
“Good day
, Miss
.
”
Will
gestured at her
.
“
Julia Morrow.
T
his is
Detective Williams
and Deputy Stone.
”
She shook hands with each officer, politely murmuring, “How do you do?” wondering all the while
if
Will were in
some kind of
trouble with the law.