Page 13 of The Duke's Concealed Vow
“That is a wonderful joke,” she said.
The gentleman shrugged humbly.
“I cannot take credit for it,” he said. “But my father always says that it’s a good ice breaker in first conversations.”
Serena giggled again, thinking about how clever he was.
“He is absolutely correct,” she said.
Lord Hawthorne gaped at her with mock horror, dramatically putting his hand over his heart and shaking his head.
“Please, never let him hear you say that,” he said.
Serena laughed again as the gentleman’s face turned into another broad, playful grin. She liked him immediately, his wit and charm having pulled her in with seemingly no effort.
As they talked, she discovered that they shared a love for literature, which he loved as much as she did. He had also done a fair bit of traveling, and he was more than happy to answer any of her questions about the places he had visited, the languages he had studied and learned and the trinkets and artifacts he had collected from each one. Her heart skipped more each time his eyes lit up with a new tale to tell her. She hung on his every word, as he did hers. By the end of their time together, Serena was beside herself at the prospect of getting to know him better, as the connection between them was undeniable.
She spent the rest of the day repeating the process of accepting suitors and their gifts, talking with them for a time and then sending them on their way to greet the next. There were a few more who were quite taken with themselves, a couple more who were even more boring than Lord Brower and a few who were clearly only seeking her affections to gain advantages with a marriage to a wealthy, well-respected earl’s daughter. Yet as the day progressed, her thoughts kept turning to Lord Hawthorne. The easy rapport they shared thrilled her each time she thought about him. She found herself comparing all the other suitors to him. And even the two who were almost as witty and kind as he had been were still no match for his effortless charm and genuine interest in her thoughts and opinions.
As the last of the suitors took his leave, Serena excused herself from her aunt and sought the quite solace of the library. Settling into a comfortable chair between the two tallest oak bookshelves, she let herself fall straight into Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. As she read, her own thoughts of finding her one true love swirled in her mind. She imagined herself as the protagonist of the story, thinking of the world as the wife of a man who adored her just as she did him.
The grand success of her debut ball, the attention of so many eligible bachelors and the promise of a beautiful future with aman like Lord Hawthorne filled her with hope and anticipation. For the moment, all the anxiety about her father was gone. All she could see was the rest of her life exactly as she had dreamed since she was a young girl. And nothing could ever take that feeling away from her.
