On the Wings of Love (Harlequin Historical #881)

The champagne had gone flat. Alexandra Bromley took a sip, grimaced and sighed. She dreaded these lavish summer parties her parents gave for their wealthy friends. She hated the pretense, the show, the banality of small talk. And she resented that she had to be here when she'd rather be galloping her horse along the beach or sneaking out to test the speed limits of her father's new Pierce-Arrow on Glen Cove Road.As she stood on the terrace, her face fixed in a rigid smile, she felt the appraising eyes of people who passed. Alex squirmed inwardly, even though she was long accustomed to stares. She was tall to the point of stateliness. Her face, framed by clouds of gold-brown hair, was the sort that could have graced one of Charles Dana Gibson's famous magazine covers. But she had one glaring flaw. Hours of walking on the beach and riding in the sun without a hat had burnished her skin to a most unfashionable brown. She was as tawny as the Indians whose lodges had stood here on the north shore of Long Island before Europeans came.After soaking her in lemons to no avail, Alex's mother had come up with a gown calculated to hide the defect. It was of ruffled lavender voile, with long sleeves and a collar of Cluny lace that came all the way up to Alex's chin. An elaborate tulle hat sat atop her upswept hair like a huge dollop of whipped cream.Never one to pay much mind to fashion, Alex hadn't argued with her mother's choice. It was not until minutes before the party, after she'd been bathed, perfumed, combed, laced, pinned and dressed, that she'd stood in front of the big hall mirror and faced the truth. Lavender was definitely not her color. And the style of the dress was much too old for her. She looked like a gangly child playing dress-up in her grandmother's clothes.For a moment she held the champagne glass to her mouth. Her tongue slid thoughtfully along the blade-thin crystal rim as she surveyed the party from the terrace of her parents' twenty-eight-room Edwardian house. Long tables, spread with linen, had been set up on the vast emerald lawn. Men in white summer gabardines and women in butterfly hues of organdy and silk georgette flocked around the tables, helping themselves to Smith Island oysters, fresh clams and Lobster Newberg, wild-rice croquettes and dainty Swiss crackers spread with Astrakhan caviar and pateacute; de foie gras. An elaborate glass dolphin spouted pink champagne; a matching one on another table flowed red with rum-laced Roman punch. In the distance, beyond everything, the waters of Long Island Sound glittered in the afternoon sunlight.Idly she watched her parents' guests stuffing themselves like pedigreed cattle milling around the feeding trough. The men were big, bellowing bulls flaunting their money and power. Their wives were placid heifers with ropes of pearls around their necks.Were these women happy? Did they care about anything beyond money, status and the broods of children they produced? Heaven forbid, there had to be more to life than that! In this day and age, females were doing things that Alex had only dreamed of--climbing mountains, working as journalists, marching in the streets, exploring the world! Why couldn't she be one of those women? Why did she have to be a prisoner of her family's expectations?With ruthless detachment, she appraised her own situation. At twenty, she was of an age when young women were expected to marry. The fact that she was her father's only child and heir to the fortune he'd made in the firearms business made this an imperative. That's why she was being trotted out on display this summer, for sale to the most promising bidder.Maybe it was time to pack a suitcase and run away. Alex handed the champagne glass to a passing servant. At least Mama would have some things to be pleased about. For a summer party the turnout wasn't bad, and the guests represented some of New York's better families. Papa, on the other hand,Lane, Elizabeth is the author of 'On the Wings of Love (Harlequin Historical #881)', published 2008 under ISBN 9780373294817 and ISBN 0373294816.