A Regency Charade
“She had evidently been watching for him, for she turned from the window with a smile of relief. “I was beginning to fear you wouldn’t come,” she said, crossing to him and holding out her hand.
He bowed over it with formal remoteness. “I am late. I’m sorry.”
She withdrew her hand with nervous haste. “I did not m-mean to reproach you,” she offered timidly. “You are not so very late, after all.”
Her painful shyness was not the sort of response he’d expected. She had always been such a spirited, se...lf-assured creature that this unwonted meekness startled him. He peered at her intently.
He had not really seen her closely in six years (having been too unsteady in body and mind and too bemused by the circumstances of their last meeting to have taken a proper look), and the change in her struck him profoundly. It was not that she’d lost her looks—if anything, she was more beautiful than he remembered. But she’d changed in a way he had not expected: the years seemed to have somehow … his mind struggled for a word … refined her.MoreLess
He bowed over it with formal remoteness. “I am late. I’m sorry.”
She withdrew her hand with nervous haste. “I did not m-mean to reproach you,” she offered timidly. “You are not so very late, after all.”
Her painful shyness was not the sort of response he’d expected. She had always been such a spirited, se...lf-assured creature that this unwonted meekness startled him. He peered at her intently.
He had not really seen her closely in six years (having been too unsteady in body and mind and too bemused by the circumstances of their last meeting to have taken a proper look), and the change in her struck him profoundly. It was not that she’d lost her looks—if anything, she was more beautiful than he remembered. But she’d changed in a way he had not expected: the years seemed to have somehow … his mind struggled for a word … refined her.MoreLess
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