Lily tried to hurry down the hall as quickly as she could, but in the constricting light green dress her mother had shoved her in to was making doing so rather difficult. She was trying to get to the double doors near the end of the hallway. She could hide in there. She had promised her mother that she would try to be civil towards the other guests, and even to talk with the boisterous Kent brothers, but she could not take it any more. Two minutes in the brother's companionship had almost been enough for her to pull her hair out. So, when they had become distracted by one of their equally annoying friends, she had snuck off in search for some where that she could hide.

She opened the white wooden doors as quietly as she could and slipped in. No one was going to go looking for her in the library. She could just pass the time and wait till her mother was ready to leave. She turned around and surveyed the large room. All of the walls were lined with books, many of them fairly new. The Kent family had doubled its estate just in the past generation and expanded in about every way they could, including a much bigger library. The room did not look as if it got much use. Everything was perfectly in place and the furniture looked like it had just come off of the boat from Europe.

"Hello."

Lily gasped and spun around towards her left. A man with light brown hair was sitting comfortably on a chair in the corner of the room with a large red book spread out across his lap. Lily took a step back and tried to compose herself. "Oh! ! I did not know any one was in here." She said slightly flustered. "I am truly sorry. I had not meant to intrude. I will just leave." She rambled reaching for the door knob. Of all the people she had to stumble upon, it had to be him. Her heart fluttered to her throat, and had she been a more opportunistic of a woman she would have taken this chance to talk to the gentle aloof man she had only been able to admire from a distance. But she was not. She doubted if she would be able to form complete sentences being as nervous as she was. No one else could make her feel as self conscious as he did, and she did not even know him.

"Please don't."

Lily froze. She was not entirely sure she had heard that and not just imagined it. She turned to face him slightly. He was handsome, she had always thought he was. It was not necessarily his features which made him stand out so much, but more the gentle expression he always wore. He gestured that she should sit down. She hesitated before slowly gliding over and lowering herself onto the couch across from him.

He watched her quietly and waited until she was settled before speaking. "I have never been very good at these little gatherings." He commented, almost absently as he looked back down at his book, running one callused hand over its pages delicately. "I am not very good at conversation." He explained simply and without embarrassment.

She watched him in rapt fascination. "Neither am I." She replied even though it was not al together true. Her problems tended to run more along the lines of say more than she should have. She could not imagine him not liking social events, but then again, maybe such things were too boring for someone like him.

He looked up at her and smiled gently and she found herself returning the expression without having to think about it. He looked back down then, not to continue reading, but because he did not know what to say. She could see it in his movements, the way his eyes flittered back and forth, and for what was probably the first time in Lily's life, she felt connected to someone, felt as if they understood her a little. It sent a warm feeling through all of her body, primarily in her cheeks as she clenched her hands in her lap, then unclenched them to twirl one of her rings around her finger, then clenched them again so hat he would not see how nervous she was.

It became obvious that he was not going to say anything and the uncomfortable silence was killing her. "What are you reading?" She blurted out, a little more eagerly than she would have liked.

"Hm?" He replied, looking up at her, then back down at the book. "Oh, um, it's talking about South America, some of the Spanish territories I think."

"Oh."

He bit his lip and began to pick at his jacket. "Would you like me to read some?" He asked uncertainly.

Lily nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. Please."