A Regency Charade — Elizabeth Mansfield

What if a gentleman should fall in love with his own wife...

He appeared, disturbingly handsome, in the doorway. "Well, my dear, are you ready for our first performance in this charade?" He appraised her with an odd look in his eyes. "No one at the ball will be able to take their eyes off of you, you know..."

"What a whisker" she retorted, uncomfortably aware of her racing pulse.

`Indeed?" Captain Alec Tyrrell almost smiled. "If you want the truth of it, it makes me wish I were truly your husband again. And now that you've won that trick from me," he said as h e offered Priss his arm, "wed better go before I lose the game..."