know it was not directed at me. He was frustrated with our failure. I certainly couldn’t blame him for that.
I went to the desk drawer I had opened and, using the pin I had left on the desk, managed to push the lock back into place. Straightening the bent pin, I pushed it back into my hair. Now no one would ever know that we had been here.
“What now?” I asked, moving to the major’s side.
He sighed. “Now we’re back where we started.”
“We’ve got the message that was slipped to Matthew Winthrop,” I said. “That’s something, isn’t it?”
He turned to look at me, his expression unreadable. “We’d better go back. I’m sure the lecture is nearly finished by now.”
That meant he didn’t want to talk about it. He was the sort of man who liked to collect his thoughts before discussion, so I wouldn’t press him now. Besides, we were going to be missed if we didn’t get back soon.
We had just reached the door when we heard the unmistakable sound of voices in the hallway outside.
Major Ramsey held up a hand, signaling me to be still. It was very annoying when he instructed me to do things I was obviously going to do anyway.
There were two voices outside the room. I recognized the first as Sir Nigel’s.
“I don’t like it,” he said. “I want you to go and look into things.”
“I’ll leave now.”
“No. Wait until after my guests have gone. It will be less conspicuous.”
I didn’t hear the answer, if there was one, because I was busy thinking over our options.
I cast my eyes around the room. There was only one door. If they were coming to the library, we’d have to either hide or find a good excuse. We had gotten ourselves in a fine mess now. I had the same sensation of unease on the back of my neck now as I had the night when Uncle Mick and I had been caught.
I looked up at Major Ramsey. I could almost see the various scenarios flashing across his eyes as he considered the options. Then he leaned toward me, so close his lips were almost touching my cheek.
“I apologize in advance,” he said in a low voice. “But I’m going to have to kiss you.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The startling words took me by surprise for just a moment, but then I realized what he meant. Being caught kissing would be much less troubling than being caught snooping around someone’s library in the semidarkness. After all, it had been the plan to make it look that way if we were discovered leaving the lecture together.
All the same, it occurred to me a simple embrace wasn’t going to be enough to explain our presence here, so far from the ballroom when we might easily have shared a kiss in the alcove or the deserted drawing room. We needed to be convincing.
I glanced around us, at where we stood near the doorway, thinking how ridiculous and implausible it would look to anyone walking in that we might just be standing here kissing.
As whoever was talking stopped outside the door, I grabbed his arm and pulled him over to the cluster of furniture in the center of the room, stopping near the leather sofa.
“Do a proper job of it,” I instructed. Reaching up, I quickly unbuttoned the top button of his tunic and reached up to muss his hair. Then, before I could give myself too much time to think about what I was doing, I fell upon the sofa and pulled him down with me.
Whatever else might be said of Major Ramsey, he was a quick study. He ran a hand through my hair in return, pulled one strap of my gown down from my shoulder, and—in a rather smooth gesture—slid one hand beneath the hem of my skirt and up my leg as the doorknob rattled. I didn’t have time to marvel at this exceptionally efficient tousling before his mouth found mine.
The kissing was done as he did everything else: thoroughly and extremely competently. We were meant to appear to be caught in the middle of a passionate embrace, not at the beginning of it, and there was no reservation or hesitation in his manner as we commenced to full-fledged necking. He did a proper job of it, all right, and I had to admit that it was not at all unpleasant. It was all an act, of course, but it was a natural enough thing to wrap my arms around