My Lord Hercules by Ava Stone

sent a glare in her sister’s
direction. Blasted Penny and her big mouth. Then he turned his
attention to Devlin and the others. “So good to see all of you. I
was hoping to tempt Miss Miranda into taking a turn about the room
with me. Do you mind if I steal her away?”
    “ Only if you promise to
return her before your inquisition starts,” Devlin
replied.
    “ Inquisition?” Puttenham
frowned.
    The last thing Miranda needed was her
sister’s dullard fiancé involving himself in the situation. So she
slid her arm through Harry’s and quickly glanced back at her
family. “I’ll be back before any detentions or tortures take
place.” Then she tugged Harry away from them before Devlin or any
of the others could call her back.
    “ Detentions or tortures?”
Harry asked, his voice pitched low as they started toward the back
wall.
    “ You know… the Inquisition .” Then she
scoffed. “Devlin thought he was being clever, that’s
all.”
    “ And what about
Hercules?”
    Oh, that. Miranda managed to keep from
stumbling. “That was just Penny being annoying.”
    “ Oh, do tell,” he
prodded.
    If the heat stinging her cheeks was
any indication of her complexion, her face must resemble the
reddest poppy ever grown.
    “ Miranda, are you blushing?”
He pulled her closer to him as they navigated the sea of people in
their path. He dipped lower as though to see her better.
    Blast Penny for mentioning Hercules.
She couldn’t possibly tell Harry she thought of him in such a way.
She’d die of embarrassment.
    “ You must tell me now,” he
urged. “My interest is more than piqued.”
    Miranda cleared her throat. “Don’t you
want to know what was in Tessie’s letters before you speak with
Woodsworth?”
    “ Does it have anything to do
with Hercules?”
    “ No,” she bit out. “But I
think…”
    “ I think I’d much rather
hear about Hercules.” He led her past dancing couples in the middle
of the room, directing her around the perimeter.
    “ Harry,” she complained. “We
haven’t much time.”
    “ On the contrary. Gifford
hasn’t yet arrived with Woodsworth. We have all the time in the
world.”
    “ But he could arrive at any
moment.” Her gaze flashed to the main entrance, where new guests
had just stepped into the ballroom.
    “ Then you shouldn’t waste
your time, Miranda. Tell me about Hercules before they
arrive.”
    Blast him, he was difficult. Would he
be this way all of their lives? “You,” she grumbled under her
breath.
    “ Me? What about
me?”
    She clamped her lips closed. She could
be just as stubborn as he was. Especially as she’d really rather
not tell her future husband that she thought of him as a demigod.
Such a statement might make him difficult to live with in the
future.
    “ Miranda.” He halted his
steps and spun her to face him. “Why are you being so
secretive?”
    “ I’m not,” she protested.
“Who knows what Penny meant? She’s always prattling away about
something.”
    He chuckled. “But had that been the
case, you would have said so when I first asked.” A rakish grin lit
his lips. “No, you’re keeping something from me on purpose. So you
can either tell me the truth of it, or I’ll ask Penelope. I wager
she’ll tell me. What do you think?”
    That blasted Penny would
tell him everything, and that would be even more embarrassing than
telling him herself. Miranda scowled at him. How did he always seem
to get what he wanted from her? “You. From the moment, I first
saw you , Harry,
you made me think of Hercules.”
    A rather satisfied expression settled
across his handsome face. “Do I really?”
    Perfect. He was going to be
an arrogant male about the whole thing. Miranda retrieved her hand
from his arm. “And that’s why I didn’t want to tell you. Now you’ll
be very smug from here on out, and I’ll have to live with you.” She
started to walk away, but he caught a handful of her sleeve and
pulled her back to him.
    “ Oh, I think you’ll