A Brazen Love (#3 BRAZEN series-part of the GOLDEN universe) ✔

•F O R T Y - O N E•

♪ As if I got nothing to do
As if my life won't keep on going without you ♪
{Hayley Williams—Wait on}

To be fair, Harriet chose to dance with her discarded suitors first—the rough Ralph and the pompous Pascal. She told them nothing of her decision, but to her relief at least one of them seemed to have moved on, anyway. Ralph mentioned he'd been ogling a woman in her serving staff. Thanks to Johanna, Harriet knew he referred to Victoria.

As she curtsied in salutation after dancing with Ralph, she glanced around the room in search of the often irritating but warm dove eyes of Johanna. She hadn't spotted her sister during her opening speech or her dances, and worried that her cold shoulder had ruined their sibling bond.

Where is she?

Now, dancing with Samuel, Harriet's nerves were jittery and her tongue flickered in her mouth. She couldn't relax, couldn't erase all the bad outcomes from reviving in her mind. She missed steps—that Samuel graciously chose to ignore—and struggled to make decent conversation. All because she knew her revelation was coming up... and her sister wasn't in the room. And the more she thought of it, the more she wondered if Johanna had even entered behind her at all.

"Is everything all right?" Samuel squeezed her hand, prompting her to gape into his big, beautiful turquoise and hazel jewel-like eyes. "You seem nervous."

"I am," she hissed, "because I have an announcement to make, but important people are missing from the room and I cannot make it until they show up!" She scrunched her nose and shut her eyes to gather her wits, wary of the tone she'd taken with her potential husband-to-be. "Forgive me, I... am out of sorts."

"Yes, you are, and I would never blame you for such outbursts. But..." Samuel winced, so discreetly only Harriet could notice, close to him as she was. "The longer you wait, the more you hesitate, I assume? What announcement do you refer to?" He fought his lips to prevent them from curling into a knowledgeable smile.

Harriet flushed. "You know which one it is. The one we discussed... the one I told you I would make tonight." She swallowed a lump that had started to form at the top of her throat. "And I do not hesitate. I... well, I am anxious about it, yes. It is a huge ordeal, Samuel, and the instant I declare you as my front-runner..."

"It makes everything real." He had a tendency to finish her sentences, to read her mind, and it always put her at ease.

But not at that moment, not while he whirled her around and rendered her dizzy as she scanned the area for Johanna.

"Perhaps a drink? A break? The song is more or less over." He jutted his chin at the musicians in their final notes. "Maybe a breath or two would do you good."

She didn't disagree, and as Samuel meandered out through the Dining room, to take a few whiffs from his pipe—the only thing Harriet disliked about him—she shimmied over to the wine fountain. As she dipped her goblet into the burgundy substance, a shadow appeared behind her. On instinct, she flipped around and began to say "Johanna!", but clamped her mouth shut at the vision of Jacob.