Then Comes Seduction

A hush fell over the crowd.

“Get set,” Barker said.

Jasper raised his oar and touched it to Clarence’s.

The gun fired.

Clarence swung wildly and would have taken Jasper’s head off if the latter had not ducked out of the way. Jasper had to reach out smartly with his oar to hold it against Clarence’s side and prevent him from falling off his plank. It would not do for him simply to fall in.

It was a game of thrust and parry for a while-or a game of cat and mouse-with Jasper blocking wild swings and administering taps and pokes that were sufficient to send Clarence swaying from side to side and back and forth and to cause his eyes to bulge with fright but were not designed to pitch him in too soon.

The crowd might as well be given a decent show to watch.

And Clarence might as well be made to wait before being put out of his misery-or into his misery.

But the fool must have thought that Jasper was finding it impossible to dislodge him. He gri

Jasper lowered his own oar as if in surrender, nudged Clarence’s aside with one elbow, and caught his opponent just below one prancing knee.

Clarence performed a few desperate steps that were in no way balletic, flailed with both arms as if he were a windmill, roared with alarm, and then shrieked like a girl as he fell forward between the two planks and landed facedown and spread-eagled in the mud.

There was one companion shriek from the crowd-probably from Lady Forester-and one jubilant roar from everyone else.

Jasper discovered that he was liberally spattered with mud.

He found Katherine with his eyes and made her an elegant bow.

“For you, my love,” he said aloud, though he doubted she or anyone else actually heard the words.

She read them on his lips, though.

She smiled dazzlingly.

“Thank you,” he read on her lips. “My love,” she added.

Jasper turned his attention to the brown, slimy creature that was wrestling with itself in the mud below him, presumably in an attempt to gain a footing. He leaned down and possessed himself of one of Clarence’s slippery hands.

“Come on, old chap,” he said. “I’ll help you out and we will go for a swim. You are a good sport.”

Clarence pawed at his muddy face with an equally muddy hand while the roar died down around them.

“That was deliberate, Jasper,” he wailed. “I will never forgive you for this. Mama will never forgive you. Great-Uncle Seth will never-”

“Prunella,” Seth Wrayburn said in thunderous tones, “I am not master here and so ca

There was a smattering of applause from those gathered about him.

“Come on, Clarrie,” Jasper said for his ears only. “Have some dignity. At least I have not broken your nose again. Let us go and get cleaned up before the tug-of-war.”

“I ca

The tassels on his Hessians looked like two drowned rats clinging to the slime of his boots.

26

“HAPPY?” Jasper asked, smiling down at Charlotte as they waited at the top of the long line that was forming for the opening set of country dances at the ball.

She had been toasted more than once at di

“I am,” she said. “Oh, I am, Jasper. I do not think anyone could possibly be happier than I am at this moment. I am so very glad that you and Kate between you were able to persuade Aunt Prunella to stay until tomorrow. Uncle Seth spoke out of turn after you pitched Clarence into the mud. He deserved it, of course, and I am very glad indeed that you did it-it was quite, quite splendid-but he is my cousin and Aunt Prunella is my aunt and I really could not bear any great unpleasantness on my birthday. Do you think Clarence really has a headache?”

“I would not be surprised,” he said.

“Oh,” she said, “all the flowers, Jasper. The ballroom looks like a garden. And it smells like one too. And look at how the mirrors multiply them all many times over.”

He smiled at her.

Dressed all in white, she looked delicate and very young-something that would doubtless dismay her were he to say it out loud. All her dances for the evening were already spoken for, though.

Next year she was going to be mobbed by suitors. He and Katherine were going to have a busy time of it keeping an eye on her.

“I am glad you have been able to reassure me about Lord Merton,” she said, glancing at the orchestra, which was merely awaiting his signal to begin playing. But a few couples were still joining the line.

Katherine had had a word with him and he had had a word with Charlotte. How he would have despised such maneuverings even just a few weeks ago!

Charlotte liked Merton exceedingly well, she had told him. Jasper suspected that she was even a little in love with him-she had compared him to the sun again. But she did not really want him to be in love with her. She wanted to be free to enjoy the excitement of her first Season next year. And she still intended to reach the age of twenty-clearly some sort of magic age to her-before fixing her choice upon any particular gentleman.

Jasper had been able to assure her that Merton was far too young a gentleman to be considering matrimony.

And she was far too young.

“Ready?” he said.

She nodded, all wide eyes and eagerness.

He turned to nod at the leader of the orchestra, and the ball began. The first ball at Cedarhurst in his lifetime.

Katherine was dancing with his uncle. He caught her eye, and she smiled dazzlingly.

He raised one eyebrow and then winked at her.

To be continued, he had promised this afternoon. Soon now. He enjoined patience on himself and gave his attention to his sister.

The Cedarhurst ball reminded Katherine of the assemblies she had attended at Throckbridge during her youth, and she and Meg reminisced about them as they stood together between the first and second sets. There too everyone had attended, not just those of the gentry class. Such events, in her opinion, were far more entertaining than ton balls in London.

Even Mr. Wrayburn had come.

And Lady Forester had come, though she had pointedly ignored both Jasper and Katherine since before the tug-of-war-which had sent Jasper back to the lake along with Stephen and Winford Finley and the other nine men who had been on the losing team.

The second set was to be another one of country dances. Stephen had already claimed Charlotte’s hand. Uncle Stanley came to claim Meg’s. Katherine watched Jasper approach across the room, chatting with a few of the guests as he came, a look of open good humor on his face.

I love you, he had said this afternoon just as if he had not noticed that everyone out on the east lawn had paused to watch his purposeful approach to her and to listen to his words.

I love you.

They were words he had spoken before. But he had never spoken them in just such a way. Not for one moment had she doubted that he meant them this time. And she still did not doubt though they had had scarcely a moment to themselves since then.

I love you.

He stopped in front of her now and smiled.