Picture Perfect by Lilac Lacey

glanced momentarily at Justine and then his eyes came back to ensnare Annabel’s. ‘Despite appearances, the difference between you is unmistakable,’ he said and Annabel realised he was still holding her hand. Jack seemed to notice at the same time. He released her and turned smoothly to Lady Beresford. ‘Lady Beresford, it is good to see that you have quite recovered’
    ‘How kind of you, Mr Denham,’ Lady Beresford said coquettishly and Annabel glanced sharply at her. Lady Beresford seemed quite as taken with Mr Denham as Justine and herself. Did he charm everyone, she thought with sudden irritability, did all women feel special and interesting when he spoke with them, or was it a particular affliction of the Beresford line? ‘Now you are here, we may proceed to dinner,’ Lady Beresford said. Jack glanced quickly back at Justine and Annabel, and seemed to be thinking a thought that Annabel couldn’t fathom, then he politely offered his arm to Lady Beresford and Annabel found herself trailing in their wake into the dining room. Justine, she saw, looked equally disconcerted, but it was thin consolation.
    Dinner, however, proved more satisfactory, Annabel found she was seated next to Mr Denham. Justine, opposite them, seemed to be happily engaged in chatting to Charles Padgett, so happily in fact that Annabel revised her assumption that Jack was the man with whom her sister had an unspoken understanding. Feeling a certain amount of relief, she smiled at him.
    ‘How do you prefer to be addressed these days?’ Mr Denham said solemnly, but Annabel had the feeling he was teasing her.
    ‘I will continue to be known as Miss Black,’ she said, narrowing her eyes, ‘Lady Beresford had expected me to take the family name, but I could never get used to such a change.’
    ‘Never?’ Mr Denham raised his eyebrows. ‘But young ladies such as yourself take new names on a daily basis all over England.’
    ‘They do not!’ Annabel said indignantly and then took his meaning. ‘Oh, but marriage is different. One takes the name of someone whom one has known for some time and with whom one has formed an attachment, a lady does not take the name of a perfect stranger!’
    ‘Still, you could hardly be expecting to keep your surname for many more years,’ Jack argued. ‘Why didn’t you take on Beresford as an interim measure, it is a highly respected name.’
    Annabel dropped her eyes. She could hardly explain to herself why she was so reluctant to give up the very ordinary name of Black, so how could she possibly explain to Mr Denham? ‘It wouldn’t be right,’ she murmured and applied herself to cutting up her venison.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Jack said in an altogether different tone. ‘I didn’t mean to pry, it’s simply that your circumstances are so fascinating, I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to meet someone so like oneself that even one’s closest friends couldn’t tell you apart.’
    ‘So you didn’t know which of us was which when you came in,’ Annabel said triumphantly. I thought you looked rather sheepish!’
    ‘I did not look sheepish!’ Jack protested, but he was grinning at her. ‘Well, maybe a little, being perhaps the only person to know you both I thought it would be easy to tell the difference, but it wasn’t.’
    ‘It didn’t take you long though,’ she said. ‘What gave me away?’
    ‘It was when…’ Jack suddenly seemed to think the better of what he was saying. ‘That is, perhaps it was your amusement, you seemed to tell how put out I was at not being able to tell you apart. Justine wouldn’t have found that funny.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Annabel, feeling a little reproved. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-’
    ‘No, no,’ he waved her apology away. ‘I merely meant to illustrate that while you look identical, you have quite different characters.’
    ‘Do you think so?’ Annabel said dubiously. ‘So far we seem to be very similar.’ She considered mentioning