Page 16 of Dropping the Ball

Bernadette’s kind sentiments were cut short as a long, green lizard scuttled down from the top of the curtain she’d just moved and crawled up her arm.

“Egbert! You naughty boy,” Alden said, leaving the bed to join Bernadette at the curtain. He grinned like a proud papa and stroked his fingers over the lizard’s head as he perchedon Bernadette’s shoulder. “You certainly have chosen a new favorite, haven’t you.”

“How do you know this is Egbert?” Bernadette asked, breathless, but not quite as anxious as she was the last time Egbert had crawled up her arm.

“You can tell from his markings,” Alden explained, his voice suddenly academic. “He has a ridge on his head here, and if you look closely, you can see he’s missing a toe on his back, right foot, thanks to an unfortunate encounter with a rival in the pond last year.”

“A lizard rivalry?” Bernadette asked, eyeing Egbert carefully.

Alden laughed. “You’d be surprised how dramatic life is in the terrarium. If you sit and watch long enough, you can see who is allied with who, which species are predators and which are prey, and just how far some of them will go for a meal.”

Bernadette laughed despite herself. “It sounds exactly like the sort of activity that ordinarily takes place in a ballroom.”

Alden shifted his gaze from Egbert to her and laughed. “You’re exactly right, it does.”

For a long moment, the two of them stood there, smiling at each other. Bernadette could not recall a time in her life when she had felt as comfortable with a man who was not one of her brothers. Everything with Alden was so easy and so free. Only two days had passed, and already she felt as if knowing him had changed the way she viewed the world around her. In more ways than her opinions about reptiles and amphibians.

But like Alden’s creatures, her feelings were as beautiful as they were problematic. She needed to focus all her efforts into planning the ball.

No, she needed to focus on not succumbing to the sprigs of affection that had begun to sprout in her heart.

Alden cleared his throat and stepped back. “Well,” he said. “We should continue our search and take Egbert and whateverother of his friends we find back to the terrarium so that the workmen can continue with their tasks.”

“I suppose we should,” Bernadette said, trying not to sound too melancholy. Her feelings were already so confused. Any further closeness to Alden would just make her heart ache harder.

Chapter Six

He liked her. Quite a bit, as it happened. Alden wasn’t entirely certain liking Lady Bernadette as much as he was beginning to was such a good thing. One was generally expected to maintain a distance between the ladies one hired to plan balls and assist with house improvements, were they not?

As he and Bernadette continued to comb through the rooms on the first floor, where the workmen were set to replace floorboards, re-plaster ceilings, and refresh everything with new paper and paint for the walls, a strange ache formed in Alden’s gut. He had begun a lengthy and expensive process for finding the perfect wife to satisfy himself and his uncle, but a niggle at the back of his brain was already whispering that the whole endeavor was a useless extravagance, and that he could forgo the whole thing by courting Lady Bernadette herself.

However, if he canceled his plans for the ball, Lady Bernadette would have no reason to stay at Lyndhurst Grove. Her presence there would suddenly be scandalous instead of practical. Hewould not be able to come to know her better without everyone talking. Lady Bernadette herself might not wish to stay in such a precarious situation.

By the time they had finished checking all of the rooms on the first floor, save the one where the workmen had reported a large snake, which must have been one of the boa constrictors, Alden had made up his mind that he would continue with preparations for the ball, but that he would subtly court Lady Bernadette as they worked together with the possibility of calling the ball off entirely, once he and Lady Bernadette were able to determine whether they suited each other.

As far as her suitability to be the lady of his manor was concerned, Bernadette was showing remarkable signs of fitting that role perfectly.

“I see it, I see it!” she gasped after the two of them had pored over the larger guest room where the snake had been sighted earlier.

Alden rose from where he’d been on his hands and knees, looking under yet another bed. “Which one is it?” he asked, stepping over to the side of the room, where Bernadette had pulled her body tight, with her arms crossed protectively across her chest, but was inching toward the corner. “Is it Julio or Anjelica?”

She pulled her gaze away from the sunny corner to stare at Alden as though he’d lost his mind for a moment. The look had Alden’s insides turning somersaults.

“Have you named all your snakes?” she asked him, dropping her arms a little.

“Most men name their snakes at some point,” Alden said, mouth twitching around the ribald joke.

As soon as he’d made it, he hoped Bernadette failed to understand what he was talking about. What sort of fool said such silly and inappropriate things to a fine lady?

A fool who was losing his heart to a brave maiden who was giving her all to help him, that was who.

A slight movement from the side of the wardrobe in the corner pulled both of their attentions before any further comments could be made. Alden stepped forward, pressing his body against the wall–which was rather warm from the sun that beat against that side of the house–and squinted into the shadows. Sure enough, one of the medium-sized boas was curled up in the space, likely enjoying the heat.

“I’ve named all of my specimens,” he said as he crouched and reached in to pull the snake out into the open. “It helps me to distinguish them from each other when observing their behavior. I’ve given some of them Spanish names because they were procured from Spanish-speaking nations. Isn’t that true, Anjelica?” he asked the snake as he pulled her into the open and was able to identify her.

“Oh, I see,” Bernadette said, still a bit breathless. She had loosened her stance a bit, and instead of hugging herself defensively, she only had one hand pressed to her stomach.

“Anjelica here is aboa constrictor occidentalisfrom Argentina,” he went on, adjusting his hold of the snake so that he could cradle most of her like a baby as he showed Bernadette. “She’s still a juvenile, which is why she’s only three feet long instead of twice that, like Phyllis.”

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