Just to Have You (Blackwood & Friends #3)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Griff: "Is there anything to enjoy about a ball, anyway? You make it sound rather dull half the time."

Ben: "I imagine ladies enjoy it more than the men present. It is dependent on the company, of course."

(B & G conversation on balls 4 years prior)

Amy loved visiting Gravewood.

It was a majestic Jacobethan-style country house with a ruddy face-brick exterior, white-framed windows and a black slated roof. The gravel drive leading to the front entrance was expansive, ensuring guests glimpsed the rolling countryside that flanked the estate. Carriages would curve around the entrance, met with a grand fountain centred with a pair of marble stallions rearing back on their hind legs.

And that was merely the front of the manor house. Amy knew if one ventured to the other side, a small lake would greet guests from the terrace as the building perched idyllically on the edge of the waters as they lapped against the stone walls below.

Amy had spent much of her youth exploring the estate with Oliver, but as her duties in Haventry kept her increasingly occupied the older she got, the less she frequented. It was at Oliver's insistence that she joined him for dinner this evening despite the insurmountable tasks awaiting her attention in Haventry.

She was ushered inside by servants she knew better as friends and acquaintances rather than people meant to attend her, and before she had a chance to admire the foyer she stood in, with its huge chandelier above her very head, Oliver was upon her.

"Quickly now," he urged, taking her hand and hauling her straight down the passage before them, "before they realise you've arrived."

"Ben!" Amy protested, laughing as she tripped after him and quickly bundled her satiny skirts in her one gloved fist. "Who are you talking about? And why must we run?"

"Sssh!"

"You are being cryptic," she told him petulantly, "and rude."

He halted abruptly, caught her arms, and smiled down at her. "I merely need you alone for a few moments before all pandemonium is caused. Grant me this."

When put like that...

"Oh, very well then," she told him magnanimously. His eyes glowed with retribution but for now he bit back his ready retort and pulled her along once more. The foyer was long and stretched into separate parlours and receiving rooms, and at the very end, to the left of a spectacular glass façade that provided a stunning view of the Gravewood terrace and lake (were it not dark), was the ballroom.

It was here that Oliver guided her and Amy frowned when she entered.

"I thought we were to have dinner," she said aloud as she considered the room.

It was a large chamber and designed to impress. Currently, the parquet floor was devoid of people which accounted for the hollow echo of their footsteps which resounded off the elevated ceilings. There were brass lamps lit and interspersed with looking glasses along the length of one wall, and marvellous tapestries of forests and creatures, battles and horses, adorned each panel. Forest green velvet drapes framed the opposite wall from floor to ceiling, concealing the double glass doors currently closed against the chill of the autumn air but they would normally open to the terrace and also provide a view of the small lake and grounds.

"We are," Oliver told her, still clutching her hand as he led her to the centre of her room and directly beneath an ornate golden chandelier with tapering, sparkling links and pear drop crystals hanging delicately from each of the six candle holders. "We will."