Simmer All Night by Geralyn Dawson Page B

like a defending general. "I take it you are the trespasser who went missing from the Great Hall? Who are you and what are you doing alone with my granddaughter?"
    A judge would find it difficult to choose a victor in a scowl competition between those two, but Chrissy decided her grandfather's edged out Cole's by a smidgen. However, the Texan won the thundering voice contest when he stormed, "I'm Cole Morgan of San Antonio, Texas, and I'm doing my best not to wring her neck."
    Then Chrissy's grandfather did something so strange that it took an obviously shocked Cole a full ten seconds to respond. The Earl of Thornbury stuck out his hand and said, "Why, you must be Samuel Morgan's boy. It is a pleasure to meet you, son. Your father was one of the finest men I've ever known and by far the greatest gardener. His efforts were wasted over at Dowington Hall. I always said he could grow water lilies in a desert. I certainly hated to hear of the trouble that took him away from England, but I was glad my daughter was able to help your family when they settled in San Antonio. I'd like to hear more about that later, but for now let me welcome you to Hartsworth. Terribly glad to have you here."
    Then, he added with a chuckle, "From what I gathered when I walked into this room, I see my granddaughter stirs your blood, too. Best be prepared to stand in line. It's a regular gentlemen's club of Chrissy's conquests here. I can't wait to see who she chooses in the end."
    Then, bestowing an indulgent smile on his granddaughter, he added, "Of course, the courting dances themselves are well worth watching. A fine bit of entertainment, that. She's leading half the men in the shire around by the traces already and she's only been here a few weeks."
    Chrissy beamed a grin right back at the earl, then swallowed her laughter as Cole gazed at her with panic-glazed eyes. "This is the Earl of Thornbury? This is your grandfather? The man your mother sent you to for discipline?"
    "Isn't it delicious?" To add insult to injury, she blew Cole a kiss as she sailed toward the doorway. "Till later, gentlemen. I've an assignation scheduled in the drawing room with Lord Stephen Grayford in ten minutes. I'd best hurry. I would hate to be late for the marquess's second son."
    Cole's voice followed her out into the corridor. "It's a nightmare, that's what this is. A waking nightmare. The queen has jumped from the chili pot into the porridge."

 
     
     
    Chapter 5

     
    During the course of his law career, Cole had dined at the homes of governors, senators, and congressmen both in Texas and in the more formal settings of Washington and New York. He'd partaken of palate-pleasing, seven-course meals served on fine china in extravagantly decorated rooms. He'd shared after-dinner cigars with captains of industry while their elegant wives sipped Lapsang Suchong in the drawing room down the hall. Still, if every one of those elaborate meals served in gilded dining rooms were somehow combined, they would still pale in comparison to dinner in the opulent formal dining room at Hartsworth.
    California couldn't have had this much gold in 'forty-nine.
    Crimson walls and white marble mantels added to the richness of yet another room crowned with a painted ceiling, again a mythological scene filled with naked breasts and cherubs, YoungMichael must have a permanent crick in his neck , if not in another part of his anatomy, from looking upwards all the time. Personally, Cole would just as soon not eat with all that frolicking taking place above him. Made a fellow feel like a drop of drool might splash into his soup any second.
    Fifteen people sat down for dinner—Christina, the earl, Cole, and a dozen early arrivals for the upcoming house party. At Christina's signal, a dizzying array of servants began sweeping in and out of the room, bearing silver salvers laden with dish after dish of aromatic foodstuffs. Despite the superior quality of the offerings, Cole didn't much enjoy his