before I approached ye. I’m sorry for that, lass.”
She accepted his apology, amazed that he would even offer it. “Thank you, my lord.” Even his apology, so honestly given, left her weak in the knees. She wanted to tell him that he was the most finely built man in existence and she’d taken great pleasure in the glimpse of his body.
Big. Muscled. Long, powerful legs.
He had a dusting of dark hair across his chest and a smattering that tapered down his trim waist and below his waistband, although she could not see what was below the waistband, only imagine it. She suspected that if he ever dropped his trousers, she’d be quite pleased by what he kept hidden beneath them.
She cleared her throat. “Will that be all, my lord?”
“For the moment.”
She stood to return to Rafe, and he rose along with her. “Are ye truly all right, Taffy?”
“Yes.” She smiled at him. “More than all right. I am surprised to realize that I rather like your blunt and arrogant manner. No one’s ever behaved like a protective Scottish ape over me before. It is quite intoxicating.”
He laughed. “Thank ye, lass…I think.”
She returned to Rafe’s side and spent the next hour reading to him, helping him to write his name, and once again playing the hide and seek game with him. In the meanwhile, the marquis sat on his own alternating between reading and impatiently prowling back and forth between the stacks.
As the sun began to sink on the horizon, they had an early supper in the dining room, once again the three of them. By this time, the Hartland servants seemed to accept her presence and were surprisingly cordial when serving her. She understood the reason for their change in behavior.
They thought the marquis was in love with her and meant to marry her. Having a good sense of self preservation, they were not about to insult his future marchioness.
Well, she’d figure out how to remedy the situation after Lord Gordon was apprehended. The Duke of Devon would be using their services again. She would have to talk to his staff and set things right, explain it was a ruse and the marquis was never going to marry her.
However, she appreciated very much that they would believe it.
Even if the marquis did wish to marry her, she knew it was a ridiculous, nonsensical dream on his part. She would remember him and Rafe fondly for the rest of her days.
It was seven o’clock by the time they returned to the guest bedchamber he and Rafe occupied. The regular maids had come in and tidied in their absence, properly making up the bed, emptying the chamber pots, replenishing the water ewer and soaps, restocking the decanters in the sitting area, and providing other little niceties.
Taffy was relieved the task had not fallen to her.
She would take over those duties tomorrow, for the marquis would not allow anyone else in, not even a maid to clean. The hidden panel and bedchamber door were now bolted and barricaded.
She hoped he would not insist on shuttering the windows as well. They were too high up for Lord Gordon to consider accessing their room from the windows. He’d fall to his death if he tried to break in through them.
“Come, Master Rafe. Let me help you wash and change into your nightshirt. Then I shall continue the pirate story until our cocoa arrives. How does that sound to you?”
He nodded. “Yes. I like the pirate story. Read me the silver eels again. And Rafe is going to find the treasure.”
She listened as the boy chattered, barely able to get in a response. But she did not mind listening to him while she washed his hands and face, and scrubbed his squirming, little body all the way down to his feet. She then wrapped him in a big drying cloth, making a game of wrapping him up as tight as a mummy.
When it was time to put on his nightshirt and socks, he resisted. “I can do it myself, Taffy. Let me show you.”
“Very well, Master Rafe.” There was no harm in his trying. His father had stoked the fire and tossed on an extra log or two so that the room was warm as Rafe carelessly dropped the drying cloth to the floor and hopped about naked.
The marquis said nothing, merely cast her another of his melting smiles that also held a hint of naughty. Was he suggesting they also get naked and hop around?
Really,