Now, what did my brother do to earn your ire this time?-insist that you are better off with a boring young man who will love you for your dowry? Hang your puppy like that dastardly Heathcliff?”
The last was meant to make her laugh, she knew, and laugh she did. And when she was done, she was in a much better humor. “You have read Wuthering Heights?”
He nodded. “I have. Don’t look at me like that! You do not believe me?”
“I believe you, but I must confess my surprise. You do not seem the kind of man who would read novels.”
A sly smile curved his thin lips. “My dear girl. Who reads novels?”
“Mostly women, I would suspect,” she replied, setting her empty champagne flute on the tray of a footman. Yet another passed with a fresh tray of full glasses and she took one of those.
“Exactly. If one wants to converse with a woman, one should have a variety of subjects at hand.”
“But you only want to talk to them so you can seduce them.”
“You shock and wound me.”
Rose grinned. “Impossible.

Author: Kathryn Smith