company in order to summon the courage to ask a young lady to dance. He had the misfortune to remark on the fact that none of them appeared to be dancing.
'Well, you have done the pretty every set, Nev,' his cousin Ralph Milne, Viscount Sterne, said, 'though only once with your betrothed. Hard luck, old chap, but I suppose you are not allowed to dance with her more than once, are you?'
'Alas, no,' Neville agreed, gazing across the ballroom to where Lauren was standing with his mother, his paternal aunt, Lady Elizabeth Wyatt, and his maternal uncle and aunt, the Duke and Duchess of Anburey.
Sir Paul Longford, a childhood neighbor and friend, could not resist such a perfect opportunity for bawdiness. 'Well, you know, Sterne,' he said with his best drawl, 'it is only for tonight, old chap. Nev is to dance alone with his bride all night tomorrow, though not necessarily on a dance floor. I have it on the best authority.'
The whole group exploded with raucous male laughter, drawing considerable attention their way.
'A hit, Nev, you must confess,' said his cousin and tomorrow's best man, the Marquess of Attingsborough.
Neville grinned after pursing his lips and handling the ribbon of his quizzing glass. 'Let those words fall on any female ears, Paul,' he said, 'and I might feel obliged to call you out. Enjoy yourselves, gentlemen, but do not neglect the ladies, if you please.'
He strolled off in the direction of his betrothed. She was wearing a high-waisted gown of blond net over daffodil-yellow sarcenet and looked as fresh and lovely as the springtime. It really was too bad that he was not to dance with her again for the rest of the evening. But then it would be strange indeed if he could not maneuver matters more to his liking.
It was not i mmediately possible. There was the necessity of conversing politely with Mr. Calvin Dorsey, a middle-aged, mild-mannered acquaintance of Lauren's grandfather, who had come to solicit Lauren's hand for the dance after supper and who stayed for a few minutes to make himself agreeable. And then the Duke of Portfrey arrived on Dorsey's heels to lead Elizabeth away for the next set. He was her longtime friend and beau. But finally Neville saw his chance.
'It is more like summer than spring outside,' he remarked to no one in particular. 'The rock garden must look quite enchanting in the lantern light.' He smiled with deliberate wistfulness at Lauren.
'Mmm,' she said. 'And the fountain too.'
'I suppose,' he said, 'you have reserved the next set with Lauren, Uncle Webster?'
'Indeed I have,' the Duke of Anburey replied, but he winked at his nephew over Lauren's head. He had not missed his cue. 'But all this talk of lanterns and summer evenings has given me a hankering to see the gardens with Sadie on my arm.' He looked at his wife and waggled his eyebrows. 'Now if someone could just be persuaded to take young Lauren off my hands…'
'If you were to twist my arm hard enough,' Neville said, while his mother smiled in enjoyment of the conspiracy, 'I might be persuaded to take on the task myself.'
And so one minute later he was on his way downstairs, his betrothed on his arm. It was true that they were stopped at least half a dozen times by guests desiring to compliment them on the ball and wish them well during the coming day and the years ahead, but finally they were outside and descending the wide marble steps to feast their eyes on the rainbows created by lantern light on the spraying water of the fountain. They strolled onward toward the rock garden.
'You are a quite shameless maneuverer, Neville,' Lauren told him.
'Are you glad of it?' He moved his head closer to hers.
She thought for a moment, her head tipped to one side, the telltale dimple denting her left cheek. 'Yes,' she said quite decisively. 'Very.'
'We are going to remember this night,' he said, 'as one of the happiest of our lives.' He breathed in the freshness of the air with its faint tang of saltiness from the sea. He squinted his eyes so that the lights of individual lanterns in the rock garden ahead all blurred into one kaleidoscope of color.
'Oh, Neville,' she said, her hand tightening on his arm. 'Does anyone have a right to so much happiness?'
'Yes,' he told her, his voice low against her ear. 'You do.'
'Just look at the garden,' she said. 'The lanterns make it seem like a fairyland.'
He set himself to enjoying the unexpected half hour with her.
Chapter 2
Lily found the driveway beyond the massive gates to the park—a wide and winding road so darkened by huge trees that grew on either side and whose branches met overhead that only the occasional gleam of moonlight kept her from wandering off the path and becoming hopelessly lost. It was a driveway that seemed more like four miles long than two. Crickets chirped off to either side and a bird that might have been an owl hooted close by. Once there was the crackling of movement off in the forest to her right—some wild animal that she had disturbed, perhaps. But the sounds only succeeded in intensifying the pervading silence and darkness. Night had fallen with almost indecent haste.
And then finally she turned a bend and was startled by light in the near distance. She found herself staring at a brightly lighted mansion with another large building to one side of it also lighted up. There was light outside too— colored lanterns that must be hanging from tree branches.
Lily paused and gazed in amazement and awe. She had not expected anything of near this magnitude. The house appeared to be built of gray granite, but there was nothing heavy about its design. It was all pillars and pointed pediments and tall windows and perfect symmetry. She did not have the knowledge of architecture with which to recognize the Palladian design that had been superimposed upon the original medieval abbey with remarkably pleasing effect, but she felt the grandeur of the building and was overwhelmed by it. If she had imagined anything at all, it was a large cottage with a well-sized garden. But the name itself might have alerted her if she had ever really considered it.
She would have turned back, but where would she go? She could only go forward. At least the lights—and the sounds of music that reached her ears as she drew closer—assured her that he must be at home.
