Read The Duke of Snow and Apples for Free Online Page A

turned around, they were the first things she saw. Those eyes, shimmering, multifaceted. Even as he stared at her, they darkened in tone. No longer the peaceful lake in summer, but the roiling, deep blue of the ocean’s heart.
    They were staring at her.
    The presumption should have bothered her, but Charlotte was unaccustomed to the quivering feeling of awareness that accompanied being looked at so intensely. What possible reason could Freddy have for looking at her like that?
    From deep within the ocean’s depths, something shimmered, a flash of light like the winking scales of a sea-dragon, luring prey. It turned her inward quivering into a shake, a struggle, that she had to tamp down lest she displace her mask of cultured politeness and do something wild and stupid.
    Lady Tamsin tapped her arm with her fan, and Charlotte turned away, relieved to find something else to pay attention to that was less unsettling.
    Nothing could be more settling than young Lady Tamsin. Shy and retiring, she’d spent most of her time close to the fire, sitting quietly and having soft conversations with the older Dowagers, like the strange Dorothea and her tame crow. Charlotte felt mildly surprised to be considered worthy of abandoning such a cozy wallflower spot.
    “I wanted to ask, what was so funny about Viscount Elban’s comment about the charmed harness he’d bought for his team of four?” Lady Tamsin asked. “I could tell it was a joke because everyone laughed about it, but I’m afraid I must have missed the point.”
    So had Charlotte, she was forced to admit. “I’m the wrong person to ask, Lady Tamsin.”
    “Oh, please, no titles. I’m Augusta.” She smiled, her rather lovely green eyes crinkling up at the corners. Her dark hair had a distinct reddish tint that gleamed copper in the candlelight, and a face that dimpled with ridiculous ease. However, the severe knot of her hairstyle, the unadorned, almost workmanlike simplicity of her gown, and her retiring manner failed to highlight her most attractive features.
    “All right, Augusta. I’m afraid I…well…” Something about Augusta, about the unworried honesty of her question, set Charlotte strangely at ease. “I missed the point as well.”
    “Then why did you laugh at it?”
    “It seemed…appropriate.”
    It was Augusta’s turn to laugh.
    “What’s so funny?”
    “Maybe that’s the reason everyone else laughed.” She snickered. “Perhaps Society’s diamonds and darlings are more talented at persuading people they are witty and charming than they are at being witty and charming.”
    “You’d do well to bottle that truth and hide it,” Charlotte said without thinking. “Else all the Pure Blooded will have to admit they’re as boring and unimaginative as everyone else.”
    “Heavens, yes,” said Augusta. “I’d bring the whole Blooming crashing to a halt. All the ballrooms in the Flowering City would be evacuated. Torn fragments of ignored invitations would litter the streets, while modistes and tailors marched weeping, arm-in-arm, all the way to the poorhouse.”
    Charlotte muffled an unladylike guffaw with the back of her glove. As easy as it had been for Charlotte to dismiss Augusta initially as a wallflower, her keen observations and obvious intelligence caught her by surprise. “How dreadful. You must have seen your share of interminable assemblies.”
    Augusta’s smile slipped a degree. “Oh, I haven’t attended as many as that. My mother’s shared enough horror stories with me to curl my hair without needing a spell. I haven’t been introduced to society with my own Blooming. Truthfully, though, I should like at least one chance to see exactly what I’m not missing.”
    That brought Charlotte up short. “What…well, surely…”
    Augusta shook her head and leaned in. “Mama thinks I’m here to be tutored in politics by my grandmother, Lady Alderley.”
    “Where, exactly, did your mother receive that impression?”
    Augusta’s