Re: Ball: Clementine, Irene & Declan
Clementine, she reckoned you had to be brave as you were mad, going after something real ornery with a sharp stick. But Declan, he was right 'bout Clementine tossing compliments easy. Easy, but purposeful, and none of this was any damn different. Few careless days she had were with things rotting and long gone, and she understood that deep down in her gut. When she was just a little thing, her daddy kept life from being careless any. Now, now life was just pretending, and she hadn't felt safe or careless in a good long while. Declan helped some, but she wasn't 'bout to go on making proclamations like that, because they only led to heartache plenty, and Clementine, she'd had enough of that for her whole damn lifetime.
But this game Irene was playing, Clementine knew it real well. She didn't give any inkling of what was going on in her blonde head. She just leaned into touch and let that turn of cheek almost lead to lips brushing. She laughed pretty when Irene told Declan he could take dictation, and she looked on back at her brother, green gaze entertained as could be. "Declan always did have girls chasing him constant. Never did care for any, not that I can recall. Not like Jude, another one of our kin, who was always real eager to publicly bed and leave every girl in the county. Or Alexander, the eldest, who followed our sister 'round like she breathed for him."
But Clementine agreed easy 'bout doing well. "Course I do." She wasn't the kind of woman that took compliments and made them smaller. And she didn't bother looking over her shoulder this time. "Don't you reckon, Declan?" And when she stepped back, it was smooth and skilled swish of skirts, and she remembered those big dresses from the ballrooms of her youth. "You come on and dance with Irene, Declan."