Haunted by the Earl's Touch - By Ann Lethbridge Page 0,46
pulled. You have been moving that piece of fish around on your plate for the past five minutes. Have you had enough?’
‘Yes. I find I have eaten my fill.’
‘I wasn’t talking about food,’ he said. ‘I meant this.’ His glance took in the group around the table. ‘Would you feel more comfortable in the library? Sitting with your feet up on the sofa by the fire and reading your book until it is time to retire?’
The way he described it, he made it sound heavenly. The thought of putting up her foot was almost too tempting for words. ‘I should probably go to bed.’
‘No, I insist.’ He raised his voice. ‘I am sure Gerald would jump at the chance to push you along to the library.’
Gerald’s enthusiastic expression agreed.
The earl gave her a conspiratorial smile. Had he guessed she would not hurt the young man’s feelings by refusing? She had the feeling she was somehow playing into the earl’s hands by agreeing to his plan. Nonsense. What could happen to her in the library? Besides, she was tired of the four walls of her chamber. A change of scene would do her good. ‘Very well.’
Gerald wheeled the chair close. ‘Hop in, Miss Wilding.’
Hop being a most appropriate word.
The earl didn’t allow it. He stood and lifted her in. Once more that strange languid sensation weakened her limbs and her heart picked up speed. Oh, the man was attractive all right, but what did that matter when he meant her nothing but harm.
No matter how alluring he might be, she must remain on her guard.
* * *
As promised, the library was cosy, the fire blazing and the candles all lit.
Gerald came to a halt beside a chaise longue that had not been beside the hearth earlier. If she remembered correctly, it had been near the window. It seemed the earl had indeed planned this. But why? Now she wished she had insisted on going straight to her room.
‘You should return to your meal,’ she said to Gerald, manoeuvring out of the chair and on to the sofa.
He strolled along the bookshelves, his face moody. ‘Such dullness. I was supposed to make my bows at court in the spring. We won’t be going now that we are in mourning again.’ The petulance was back. His moods seemed too volatile for such a young man.
‘I know it will seem like for ever, but there is always next season,’ she said in a matter-of-fact voice. She did not believe in encouraging the histrionics of young girls and felt the same must apply to boys equally. ‘The year will pass before you know it.’
He stopped, pulled out a book and rifled absently through the pages. ‘No doubt there will be some other reason not to go. Something concocted by Mama, yet again.’
‘Oh, you are in the dumps,’ she said, smiling.
He put the book back with a sigh. He didn’t look quite so angelic in this mood.
‘Do you like to read?’ she asked, thinking to turn the conversation to pleasanter topics.
‘I used to. I was quite sickly for a time. It was my only company.’
The memories seemed less than happy.
He swung about, his face alight once more. ‘I forgot. I promised Jeff I would play billiards after dinner. You don’t mind, do you? If I go?’
‘Not at all.’ She rather thought she’d be glad of it. Keeping up with his mercurial moods wasn’t at all entertaining.
He grinned charmingly. ‘Miss Wilding, I don’t care what the earl says, you really are a brick.’
What the earl says? ‘What—?’
Too late, he was already on his way out of the door.
What would the earl have said? That she was an antidote of a schoolmistress. Or that she was here on sufferance? Or he wished her to Jericho? While mortifying to think that he might have said any of those things, it wasn’t difficult to imagine him saying them in that biting tone of his. That he would have said them to his cousin, though, that hurt. It hurt behind her ribs in a way she hadn’t felt hurt in a very long time.
Because no matter how she tried not to, she had the feeling that, had circumstances been different, she might have liked him.
Oh, now that was pure foolishness. The man was pleasant to look at. He was strong. He was tall. And he was intelligent. He was in all ways...perfect.