everybody and I asked.”

As if sensing her question, he nodded towards the house. “I saw you dancing with, well, with everybody and I asked.”

Blushing a bit at his words, she glanced back towards the Cooper’s mansion and listened to the music drifting out before she turned back to him, but before she could say anything he stepped forward as if to shake her hand, instead as his warm fingers closed over hers, he lifted her gloved encased hand to her lips and kissed the back of her hand before he straightened up and winked.

He looked towards the house as he dropped her hand and clasped his hands behind his back as he shifted his weight once from his heels to the balls of his feet and back again. “So, get bored with the crowd?”

She smiled a bit as she wondered if he would actually let her speak this time and she shook her head. “No, just not…interested.”

He seemed a bit surprised by that and tilted his head. “Oh?”

She shrugged her shoulders and felt as the cool night’s breeze brushed her copper colored curls against her neck. “They’re all…the same.”

His clear, cheerful, uninhibited laughter filled the air around them as she said that and he was still chuckling as he spoke. “I’m sure your male admirers would be very disappointed to hear that.”

Walking over to the statue she had been caressing when he first saw her he casually wrapped his arm around the male figure’s shoulders and leaned against him. “So, more interested in him then?”

She blushed and looked around, letting her gaze rest anywhere but on him and the statue. “Why haven’t I seen you at any functions before, Mr. Masen?”

He continued to lean against the statue and shrugged, “I’ve been away at school in Boston.”

Her green eyes finally drifted back to him and she tilted her head, “Harvard?”

He nodded and shrugged again. She felt slightly impressed by the fact that he hadn’t led off with that. Most of the young men she knew would have shown off the fact that they had attended such a prestigious institution, but he was blowing it off as if it didn’t matter.

“What did you study?” she asked. He didn’t answer though and she looked through the shadows and realized that he wasn’t really paying attention, instead his eyes were closed and he was humming softly to the tune drifting down to the gardens from the house. It was a new piece by Debussy called Claire de Lune. She knew it well because it was one of her favorites.