Without You

Chapter 3

"Sorry I did not mean to startle you" Ross began in his deep husky voice. "Its just your eyes when I caught them, they looked familiar" He added striding over to me, closing the gap between us. "They look like a fallen comrade, that I fought with" He finished.

"Really?!" I said trying to sound surprised.

"Silly I know, but I remember them as clearly as when I look at you" Ross added.

"No its not" I insisted.

"I am sorry we haven't been formally introduced Captain Ross Poldark and you are?" He asked.

"Eve Nightingale" I answered curtsying and he gently took my hand and kissed it.

"Its a pleasure to meet you" He said.

'If only you knew' I  thought. "And I you" I  replied politely. I could tell Ross kept rolling my name 'Nightingale' over and over in his mind till he remembered it.

"I fought with a Tom Nightingale in the war and his eyes were exactly like yours. No but that's impossible" He said walking away from me a little.

"Yes it is" I agreed.

"Would you like to have this dance?" He asked offering his hand to me.

"I would be honoured" I replied and took his hand, he led me into the middle of the hall, of course we got a lot of stares and I noticed a few young women whispered to one another, and also I noticed that George caught my eye but I just smiled at him and then Ross and I began to dance, we kept our eyes locked on one another as we weaved through the dancers who joined us, we then swapped partners but Ross didn't stray far from me, we danced to the gentle music and we walked around each other gingerly as we changed the sides of the room, then once we were back to our starting positions, the music stopped and he bowed to me while I curtsied.

"It was a pleasure to dance with you Milady" He said.

"Same to you sir" I answered.

Then I joined my parents, but then so did George. "My you're quite the dancer" He stated offering me a glass of champagne. "May I have the next one?" He asked.

"No" I replied. My parents looked at me in surprise, I then gazed at the great clock on the mantle and it was almost midnight, my ribs were beginning to ache from my wounds and I needed to loosen this corset soon.

"Are your wounds playing up?" My father asked, but it was bad timing as Ross joined us again.

"Wounds?" He asked.

"Riding accident" I lied hoping he would believe me.

"What happened?" He inquired.

"My horse was spooked by a carriage which was speeding past us and he threw me off his back on to the road" I explained.

"Well I am sorry to hear that" He told me.

"Well I bid you goodnight Sir Poldark, my family and I are leaving, but we should see around the village" My father said.