Beauty Tempts the Beast (Sins for All Seasons #6) - Lorraine Heath Page 0,113

either. How would Mrs. Trewlove feel, after all these years, to see him with the couple responsible for his existence? Would she be happy for him? Or would she feel a tinge of sadness that he was no longer completely hers, that others loved him, sought to make him happy?

“I’ve been thinking I shall need to find an occupation and should like to let a room here.”

“He’s not going to leave you behind, Althea.”

He might not want to, but eventually he would have to accept the reality as she had—he could no longer marry her, they were no longer of the same world, no longer . . . fit together as easily as they had. “I have learned through hard lessons that it is always wise to have alternative plans at the ready, just in case they are needed.”

Jewel nodded, no doubt because she had also learned the advantage to having choices available. “If it’s an occupation you’re looking for, you could help me manage the boardinghouse. Your presence would add a bit of polish to it and perhaps we’d have fancier occupants.”

“That’s very kind of you, but I don’t need your charity.”

“It’s far from charity. Beast”—she released a quick burst of air—“I suppose I should call him the earl now. Anyway, he’s taught me a good bit about business. I know an asset when I see one.”

Who would have thought one of her dearest friends would be a former doxy? “I appreciate the opportunity to prove my worth.”

“Posh.” Jewel slapped her hand at the air as though an irritating fly had suddenly made an appearance. “You’ve nothing to prove to me.”

“Caw,” Hester said, “look at the time. We all lose track of it when Beast isn’t around to remind us.”

Althea glanced at the clock. A mere five minutes past ten, and yet those minutes seemed significant. She could fairly hear them shouting, “He’s not coming home.”

But if he did, she wanted, needed, a night they would both long remember.

Christ, he was tired. Who knew being a lord could be so bloody exhausting? Meeting with solicitors, the registrar at the College of Arms, answering questions, completing paperwork—

It had all seemed to go on and on and on.

Then dinner with his parents. More questions, more inquiries. A request. “Call us Mother and Father or Ma and Da.” Only he couldn’t, not yet. It still didn’t seem real. He was going through the motions as though it was, but he kept expecting to discover he was in a dream. One not much to his liking because it was keeping him away from Thea for long stretches of time.

As he stepped into the residence, he looked at his watch. A little past eleven.

Near the stairs, he hung his hat and coat on the waiting empty coat stand. He was still unaccustomed to not finding men in the parlor at this hour, to not hearing Jewel’s throaty laugh, or inhaling the fragrance of her cheroots. But the changes were good. Another couple of weeks and they would open to boarders. Not they. Jewel would open the establishment to boarders. He wouldn’t be here.

A lightness came over him as he ascended the stairs. Thea was near. Hopefully awake, waiting for him.

He should have made his excuses, left earlier, but following dinner his father had begun taking him on a journey through the history of his ancestors and he’d been enthralled. Each had been captured in oils, portraits hanging throughout the manor, and he’d seen something of himself in each of them. He’d wished more than ever that Thea had been with him to hear of the tales of bravery, love, challenges, sorrows, victories . . . and, yes, even outlaws, criminals, and family members hanged. It seemed a long lineage included all sorts. Rebels, heroes, heroines, and sacrifices. An older brother who had willingly walked to the gallows so a younger one wouldn’t have to. Women who married men they didn’t love in order to save the family. The storyteller in him had lapped up every word. It seemed his father had come from a long line of bards and could weave a tale that entranced.

After they were married, he’d have the duke tell Thea all the stories just so Beast could watch the delight wash over her features.

Tonight, however, he wanted to watch a different sort of delight make its way over her entire body. He shouldn’t have taken her so roughly and quickly the night before. He would make it up to her