Lady Star by Claudy Conn

reached the top step and
turned at the landing toward her brother’s room.
    “Star, don’t go raking them down until you
have calmed yourself,” Georgie cautioned.
    “Do I not look calm?”
    “You look like you are about to toss them
into the gallows and throw away the key,” Georgie giggled.
    “You know Georgie…things are dire. There is
something I haven’t told you,” Star started to say, thought better
of it and bit her lip. Her brother had been hobnobbing with common
thieves—a pack of criminals, giving them information he should not
have been. The horror of it had her on edge. How could she tell
Georgie such a thing? She was irritated with him. She knew he had
done it, foolishly yes, but because he had been desperate.
    She walked into her brother’s room and saw
Sir Edward, profoundly dashing in his buckskin riding jacket,
sitting beside her brother’s bed and in close conversation with
him. Why, oh why did Sir Edward have such a whirlwind effect on
her? It was as though the air had been wrenched from her lungs and
withheld just out of reach. The sensation left her giddy.
    “Star!” Vern exclaimed on a merry note. “You
are back and in time to hear the good news.” Vern’s smile widened
as he found Georgie stepping into the now overcrowded bedroom.
“Hallo, Georgie, come and give an ailing man a kiss.”
    “Hallo, brat,” Georgie said and blew him a
sisterly kiss.
    He eyed her and said softly, “I shall have to
teach you to do better than that.”
    “Oh, you don’t have to teach me, dearest. I
fancy I rather know the knack of it better than you realize…but
there is always the when and the who to be considered before I
display my talents.” Tongue in cheek she started to turn away, but
for the beseeching tone of his voice which called after her.
     “Georgie, ah Georgie, you drive a man
wild. You…you know I mean to have you, don’t you?”
    Star, in spite of the present company,
snorted and for her transgression, received a brotherly glare. Star
rolled her eyes at him.
    “Do you, Vern dear?” Georgie countered. “What
a very odd thing to say to someone who has been a sister to you
most of her life.”
    “Oh do stop your bantering you two and let
Vern tell us what he means,” Star said after she had made the
perfunctory round of greeting the others in the room.
    Sir Edward had jumped to his feet when she
and Georgie had come into the room, giving her the full view of his
tall, dashing self and it was hard, so hard not to stare at him.
What the deuce was wrong with her? Something certainly was.
    “Right, so what it means is that you two
needn’t sit home tonight for lack of escort. You have three!” Vern
grinned from ear to ear. He looked at Georgie, “Sad as I am that I
shall not have you on my arm Georgie, I am pleased as a generous
man can be that you won’t miss this ball.”
    Star looked at Miles who was standing erect
and proud. Jules looked hopefully her way and Sir Edward, she could
clearly see, appeared completely amused.
    * * *
    Sir Edward had watched Star enter her
brother’s room and the vision of her lively beauty hit him soundly.
He discovered he was momentarily bereft of speech as he watched her
with her white gold hair all windblown and making a perfect frame
around her heart-shaped beautiful face and thought that she was
stunning.
    Jules was completely right; she did take the
breath away. Why had he not immediately seen this—or had he and
resisted?
    Evidently a bit of a drama was taking place
and he found it intriguing. Vern seemed to want Miss Madison and
from where he stood, the lovely Miss Madison seemed to have eyes
for his friend, Jules. In addition to this, both Miles and Jules
wanted Star and this was he thought something Shakespeare would
have had a very excellent time describing.
    However, somehow he was being drawn into the
romantic comedy, much against his will. He had meant to keep
himself aloof and then what must the pretty Miss Star do but turn
her