Hawk & the Lady - Elizabeth Stevens Page 0,2

aged Cognac and chocolate covered oranges. He was tasteful, amusing, and one of the least misogynistic of the socialites our age. Comparatively.

No. There wasn’t anything overtly disagreeable about Edward Barnes at all.

There was, though, the pesky best kept open secret that he was shagging his step-sister. It was the sort of open secret that no one acknowledged beyond whispers in the bathroom or behind bedroom doors, but everyone in our generation knew it to be true that Edward Barnes and Isabella Samson-Barnes were lovers. There was something very unsisterly in the way she clung to him as she was flirting with someone else. Something definitely unbrotherly in the way he placed his hands on her possessively when she spoke to any other man.

It wasn’t love. It was barely like. It was more like obsession. Like Cruel Intentions come ridiculously to life. Just less fucked up. Sort of. And yet, that undeniable and seemingly unbreakable bond between step-siblings did nothing to stop the vaguely suggestive tip to his lips or the knowing glint in his eyes as he looked at me in my mother’s conservatory that morning.

“Leah, the pleasure is all mine,” he said, his voice achieving its purpose of running over my skin like the smoothest Viennese coffee.

However, I needed more than like coffee of any sort to be won over. An actual coffee would be a brilliant start. For which I’d not had the time that morning due to the never-ending snooze function on my phone’s alarm. So, if I was going to keep my cool around a surprise like Edward, I was going to need to bring him down closer to my level. And I had a sure-fire way to do that.

“And is Isabella joining us today, Edward?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him surreptitiously.

His eyes said ‘touché’ and the imperceptible rise of his lips was a challenge. But his posture was nothing short of polite and appropriate.

It was this sort of thing that made Edward a dangerous adversary. He knew exactly why he was in my mother’s house that morning. He knew the expectations on us as well as I did. He just seemed strangely less averse to them than I was. Which was flattering, but also a strike against him.

He’d perfected the art of concealed flirting – most of us had, how else were we to get up to mischief under our parents’ noses? – and he wielded the weapon with exceptional skill. Passive-aggressive subtle nuances were a socialite’s favoured weapon. It worked for flirting, for insults, for compliments, or for secrets. They were crafted ‘in-jokes’ that sailed straight over the heads of anyone new.

“Unfortunately, she couldn’t make it,” was all Edward said. Out loud.

“Pity,” Mother said, somehow sounding simultaneously like she was, in fact, utterly cut up about it at the same time she couldn’t care less. “Leah, why don’t you show Edward the new Strelitzia nicolai?”

If I wasn’t keen on making myself look relatively good in front of other people, my mouth would have dropped open and I would have given Mother my best, impudent ‘Whaa?’ and she would have berated me on using proper English.

Instead, I nodded and shot Edward a ‘because we totally want to do that’ look. “Of course. This way.”

Edward smiled and indicated I lead the way. As we weaved through Mother’s various plants and décor items, I noticed Anna’s step-daughter come in with my father. Sara waved to me and I gave her a smile in return. Father looked over in our direction for a moment, then seemed to think it was best he just ignore whatever strange mating ritual his wife was in the middle of orchestrating.

“It’s only new for her, naturally. The thing’s about five years old. She wouldn’t get one that wasn’t old enough to flower.”

Edward nodded like he understood exactly what I was saying. Which was impressive because I was parroting less than convincingly.

“My step-mother was the same with hers. She put it in the main hall, of course. It’s an impressive plant, though I think this one looks healthier.”

“What do you know about gardening?” I asked, humoured.

He shrugged. “Very little.”

I nodded. “Ah. So, you’re just sucking up to her, then.”

“It would seem in my best interest.”

“Would it?”

“Your mother implied benefit in me escorting you to the Tremaine’s gala ball next month,” Edward told me.

“Did she now?” I looked at him with my eyebrow raised. “Well. I mean, it works in theory. But I just see one problem with that.”

“And what might that be?”

“I’m