Haunted by the Earl's Touch - By Ann Lethbridge Page 0,95

and see her safe to bed.

By letting his attraction for her overcome rational thought, he’d cause her a great deal of harm. She could have died.

And it would have been his fault.

The very idea almost sent him to his knees.

More guilt on his shoulders, heavier even than the death of his mother. Only this time he had a chance to atone.

* * *

It was almost mid-afternoon by the time Bane was able to seek out Mary. She’d slept until well past noon, he’d been told, and she was now in the drawing room.

Unable to resist looking his fill unnoticed, he paused outside the open door. She was sitting quietly gazing out the window, her hands folded in her lap, her thoughts clearly elsewhere.

So beautiful. An island of calm in a frenetic world. Only he knew the passion residing beneath the quiet exterior. Only he knew the wildly seductive woman below the unruffled surface.

Guilt assailed him. No true gentleman would have taken advantage of her innocence the way he had. He’d forced her into making a decision before he had all the facts. He’d wanted to believe she was up to some trick with his grandfather. He’d wanted to believe seduction was fair play, because he wanted her in his bed when in his heart he’d known better.

He was lowest kind of cur.

And when she found out the truth, how he had put her life in danger for his own selfish ends, he wasn’t sure of her forgiveness. Nor did he deserve it.

He cleared his throat.

She jumped. Then flushed pink.

‘My lord.’ Only a tall, elegant woman like her could carry off that regal incline of her head.

‘Miss Wilding.’ He bowed.

Her eyes widened. A wary expression crossed her face. She smiled coolly. ‘You have arranged everything to your satisfaction?’

‘Yes. Gerald and his mother have been escorted by the doctor to York. She convinced me to allow Gerald to live out his days in an asylum there. Apparently this is not his first episode. His grandfather always put it down to an excess of sensibility. His mother suspected it was more, but didn’t want to believe it.’

‘I feel sorry for her. He...he won’t be badly treated, I hope.’

He’d been ready to give him a quick end such was his anger at the danger inflicted on her. ‘If that is your wish.’

She turned her face away. ‘I hardly think my wishes are important.’

‘He tried to kill you.’ This time he could not keep his anger from surfacing.

‘And you,’ she said softly.

He waved a careless hand. ‘If you can be magnanimous, then so can I.’

‘And Jeffrey?’

‘Like Mrs Hampton, he always knew Gerald was highly strung. He treated him with kid gloves and jollied him along. It never occurred to him that Gerald would act on his grandfather’s continual complaints.’

‘You believe him innocent, then?’

‘I do. His horror and abject apology for not seeing what was going on were most convincing. You see, Jeffrey has money troubles. He was hoping to turn me up sweet for a large sum of money. The will made it all very difficult, as he had said to his cousin. He feels guilt for adding fuel to the fires in his cousin’s head, but he would have stopped him if he had realised what he was doing.’

‘So it is all settled.’

‘Yes.’

He couldn’t help looking at her, at the turn of her neck, at the faint pink blush on her cheeks, the bright sky-blue of her eyes. Because this might be the very last time he got to see her. She’d saved his life, while he’d done nothing but put hers at risk. Every time he thought about it his gut tightened and his blood turned to ice.

‘I have to apologise to you for my behaviour these past several days,’ he said.

Her gaze shot to meet his. Her chin came up. ‘Your behaviour?’

His heart squeezed. She didn’t trust him. She never had and with good reason. ‘I have not treated you with the respect and honour you deserve.’ He took a deep breath. ‘I suspected you of colluding with my grandfather’s machinations.’

‘To what end?’

He looked at her, the heaviness in his chest almost unbearable. ‘I didn’t know. But I suspected there had to be something that would deprive me of my rightful inheritance. Something that would be revealed once we wed.’

A small crease formed in her brow. ‘Yet you insisted we marry?’

Because he’d decided he could deal with any plan of his grandfather, once he had his instrument under his control. Liar. He’d