Velvet Embrace

Brie's spirits plummeted as she recalled her last confrontation with Stanton. Even being attacked by her fiancé hadn't frightened her as thoroughly as that look on Dominic's face. Brie shivered, remembering the ruthlessness she had seen in those unforgiving gray eyes. She almost hoped she would never see him again.

She had stayed close to home since that day, just in case he decided to return, and the self-imposed confinement had worn on her nerves. But even more disturbing was the bewildering discontentment she had been experiencing for the past two weeks. The feeling had started when Dominic first kissed her, but the burning restlessness had soon spread, leaving her soul smoldering in its wake.

Wondering if her encounters with Dominic Serrault had left any mark, Brie found herself glancing in the cheval glass. There was no outward sign that she could tell. Her face, with its high cheekbones and forehead, was perfectly composed.

Critically, she studied her other features. Men called her beautiful, but she could see nothing remarkable about the slim nose, the coral mouth, or the pointed chin. The eyes were an unusual shade, though. They looked large and luminous in her face, framed as they were by long, thick lashes. Her complexion was smooth, a pale cream tinged with ripe apricot, but she knew her skin would be unfashionably tanned in summer. Her dark hair was her most noticeable feature. Neither strictly brown nor red, it flowed down her back in thick waves, curling at the ends and glowing with a life all its own. More than one man had expressed a wish to touch the silky locks. Dominic's long, lean fingers had played in her hair, twisting and stroking. . . .

Brie flushed, realizing that her mind had again wandered to that evening he had tried to seduce her. He hadn't been the first man to attempt it, but no one besides he had ever made her the victim of such turbulent emotions. His searing lips and invading tongue had made her experience sensations she had never felt before. His passion had almost overwhelmed her for that brief instant of touching and tasting and feeling . . . but at the last moment she had drawn back, frightened of her own abandon and of him.

Almost wistfully, Brie wondered if she would ever meet anyone who could stir her blood the way Dominic had. Someone who could make her feel desire without making her lose herself so completely.

Stripping off the rest of her clothes, Brie stood before the mirror and curiously studied her naked reflection. Her height was about average for a woman, but there was none of the stylish plumpness in her face or figure that had been the fashion for years. Her breasts were high and pointed, but the narrow waist and gently flaring hips made her slender frame look almost boyish. Her slim, tapering legs made her seem tall when she wasn't.

Her figure wasn't voluptuous enough to appeal to most men, Brie thought with a sigh. But what did it matter, anyway? She did not expect to marry. She had passed her twenty-third birthday and had not as yet found any man with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life.

Giving herself a mental shake, Brie reached for her chemise. She had been a fool for responding to Stanton's advances—and she was still one for not being able to dismiss that arrogant, insolent man from her mind. In that respect, she was no better than her cousin, letting a man she hardly knew affect her so.

When she was dressed, Brie sat down at her dressing table and pinned up her hair, leaving a few loose curls framing her face. Katherine was right, she decided. She needed a new focus. And her cousin Caroline needed a friend. Perhaps taking the younger girl under her wing would help dissipate her own restlessness. If so, they would both benefit.

Determined to find her former sense of equanimity, Brie added the finishing touches to her appearance and then made her way downstairs to the dining room. She found her cousin staring gloomily at her plate.

Caroline Langley was a pretty girl with brown curls and eyes, and a round, rosy face. Normally her disposition was lively and animated, but her expression today was as glum as it had been for the past two weeks. Brie wanted to shake her.

"Good morning," she made herself say instead.

Caroline looked suspicious of her show of warmth. "It is afternoon, not morning."

"So it is. I must have let the time get away from me." She served herself from the sideboard, then took a seat at the table. "Did you find something to occupy your time while I was riding?"

Caroline relaxed somewhat. "Actually I did. I've been exploring the attics. I came across this." She pulled an object from her pocket, dangling it between two fingers.

"Mama's pendant," Brie said, recognizing the chain with its gold medallion. "I thought it had been lost. Wherever did you find it?"

"In one of the trunks. Katherine remembered seeing a fichu of blond lace among Aunt Suzanne's clothes and asked me to look for it. I found this caught in the lace. It has an inscription on the back, but my French isn't very good. Can you read it?"

She passed the necklace to Brie who studied it carefully. The gold disk was encircled by delicate filigree and one side was engraved with tiny letters. "I had forgotten," Brie remarked. "I used to be fascinated by this as a child, but Mama would never let me wear it. Not even when I had been a very good little girl."

"Which, to hear Katherine talk, wasn't often," Caroline interjected.

Brie ignored her teasing and translated. '"Eschewing weakness, abandon to dust this heinous flesh.'"

"How morbid. Why would anyone want such a thing?"

"I believe it was a gift from her mother."

"And?"

Brie shrugged. "And nothing. I don't know anything more about it. Mama's parents died before I was born. She rarely spoke of them, though she did tell me once that I resemble her mother."

"Perhaps there was a deep, dark secret in Aunt Suzanne's past," Caroline intoned with relish. "Here, let me have the necklace and I'll put it away in your jewel case."

"Your imagination is becoming excessive, Caroline," Brie said as she handed the pendant back. "I expect you've been reading too many gothics."

"I have not! Mama won't let me read gothics. I have to sneak them into the house. And you needn't laugh, Brie. You don't know what it's like, living with Mama. I'm eighteen and she still treats me like a child. And now she has sent me away from

all my friends. Banished to the country!"

With effort, Brie kept her expression sober. "Your mother was only concerned for your reputation, Caroline. Eloping with a half-pay officer is hardly the thing, you know. And besides, I understand perfectly what it is like to live with your mother. And how it feels to incur her wrath. Aunt Arabella sent me home in disgrace my first season, remember?"