dozed for a bit—not long, perhaps an hour or so. When Gideon woke again it was dark still, but he could hear the faint stirring of the servants as they woke and began their work for the day.
Cecilia was awake, her hands folded on his stomach and her chin resting on her hands. “I should return to my bedchamber before someone appears to lay a fire for you.”
“Soon.” He reached for her and gathered her close, burying his face in her hair. “Not yet.”
She sighed, but nestled into his arms and let him hold her until they heard the sound of doors opening and closing, and Mrs. Briggs’s voice in the downstairs hallway.
“Gideon.” Cecilia gently disentangled herself from his arms and slipped out of the bed, draping the coverlet over herself as she reached down and snatched her night rail from the floor. “I can’t be here when Amy comes in.”
“No.” Gideon didn’t argue, though he wanted to weep with frustration as all the smooth, pale skin he’d caressed disappeared under her night rail. “Wait, Cecilia. Promise me you’ll remain in your bedchamber today.”
“My bedchamber?” Cecilia had crept across the room to the connecting door, but she turned back, a frown on her face. “Gideon, that’s absurd. I have work to—”
“No, you don’t. Not today. You nearly froze last night. You need to rest today.”
Cecilia braced her hands on her hips. “I take back what I said that first day about you not looking like a marquess, Gideon. You look quite lordly when you’re ordering people about.”
“Then you won’t dare to disobey me, will you?” When Cecilia didn’t answer, his eyes narrowed. “Cecilia. Promise me—”
“I promise I won’t leave the castle. Can you make do with that?”
Gideon was about to refuse, but she gave him a winning smile, and he shook his head, a return smile rising to his lips in spite of himself. “You promise it? Not one toe over the threshold?”
“Not a single toe. I swear it.”
Gideon didn’t like it, but he gave a reluctant nod. She’d be safe as long as she didn’t wander the grounds. “All right. Haslemere and I have business to attend to that will keep us out all day. We’ll return for dinner, and when we do, I intend to find you and ask if you’ve kept your promise.”
“Yes, my lord. As you wish, my lord.” She gave him a mischievous smile, but he must have looked as forlorn as he felt because her eyes softened, and she darted across his bedchamber, hopped onto the bed, and pressed a quick kiss to his lips before darting away again.
“It’s fortunate you’re so quick. If I’d caught you, I wouldn’t let you go again.” He gave her what he knew to be a ridiculously foolish, infatuated smile, and waved his hand toward the door. “Go on then, before I change my mind.”
* * * *
Cecilia did not break her promise to Gideon. Not this time.
She might have done so easily enough. By the time she pulled her gray work dress over her head, donned her apron, and bid Amy and Isabella a good morning, Gideon and Lord Haslemere were gone. Mrs. Briggs insisted she rest after her ordeal the night before, and chased her out of the kitchen after breakfast, so by mid-morning Cecilia found herself with a rare empty day on her hands.
It couldn’t have come at a better time.
Darlington Castle’s library was an impressive one. The bookshelves towered over Cecilia, stretching from the floor all the way to the ceiling. If she hadn’t had the great good luck to spy Culpeper’s Complete Herbal when she went searching for Mrs. Radcliffe the other night, she likely never would have found it among the thousands of exquisitely bound books.
But it was right where she’d last seen it, lying on its side on the end of one of the lower shelves. She sat at the table with the thick tome, and rummaged around in her apron pockets for the plants she’d picked in the kitchen garden last night. They were wilted and shrunken, much as she’d expected them to be, but she was certain she’d recognize a picture of them when she saw it. The trouble was, she had no idea what the plants were called, so she’d have to go through the entirety of Culpeper’s Complete Herbal until she spotted them.
All four hundred and eleven pages of it.
Each entry included a detailed illustration of the herb, but it might take hours for her to find