Autumn's Wild Heart (Seasons #4) - Laura Landon Page 0,3
see Rosamonde and Patricia coming up behind her.
“Uh…um…nowhere. I was just…going to find my father. I’m ready to go…home.”
“Already?” Rosamonde asked.
“Yes. I’m not feeling very well. My head aches like Sunday’s church bells are clanging away in it.”
“Do you want to go lie down?” Patricia asked. “We’ll come with you.”
“No, no,” she said, stepping away from them. “I’ll be fine by myself. I just need to go.”
She turned away.
“Nella?” Rosamonde sounded worried. “Your father would be in the card room with my father, wouldn’t he?”
She stopped. “Well, yes, I imagine so.”
Rosamonde hooked an arm through hers. “Then I’ll go there with you.”
“But, I—”
“Nonsense, we’ll all go.”
“Stop!” Nella pulled her arm away. “For once, may I just do something by myself? Please?”
Rosamonde and Patricia looked startled, confused, and then affronted.
Patricia cleared her throat, obviously uncomfortable at the highly unusual kerfuffle between the three great friends.
Nella softened her face and her tone. “Please. You two go on back to the dance. I’m going to feel awfully bad if you don’t. And I want to be alone.”
She fluttered her fingers at them, playfully shooing them back the way they’d come. She could see in their expressions their disappointment, but she had no choice. If she didn’t go now, she’d be too late.
If she wasn’t already.
Nella watched them walk away for a moment, then she sped up the stairs. She needed to get to the second bedchamber down the hallway on the left before Danvers arrived and drank any of the brandy.
With unladylike speed she reached the second bedchamber, then opened the door and rushed in.
“Lord Danvers,” she whispered, then looked around the room.
He wasn’t there. Thankfully, he hadn’t arrived yet.
She breathed a sigh of relief and turned to leave. That’s when she saw him sitting on the floor, using the side of the bed as a backrest.
Nella ran to him. “Lord Danvers,” she said, struggling to lift his head. Struggling to waken him. Could the sleeping draught have worked that fast? She assessed the amount of time she’d been waylaid by her friends and realized that if enough of the sleeping draught had been used, he could already be feeling its effects. In fact, combined with the alcohol it could even deliver a lethal dose!
She crouched beside him, noting the glass of brandy that was tipped over and had spilled on the floor.
“Wake up, Lord Danvers. You must get out of here.”
“I can’t,” he moaned. “Something is…wrong.” His eyes rolled back and his head lolled to the side.
Nella shook him again. “Lord Danvers. Wake up. You have to get out of here.”
His only response was a pitiful moan.
She shook him again and again. Nothing.
“Wake up, my lord. Wake up.”
“Nooo,” he slurred. “Tired. Sooo…tired.”
“You’ve been drugged. You have to wake and get out of here before someone finds you.”
“You found…me,” he said, then smiled.
“Yes, but you don’t want anyone else to find you.”
“Who…are you?” he slurred.
“That doesn’t matter,” Nella said, then placed her hands on his shoulders and tried to lift him to his feet. He was impossibly heavy.
“Can you help me?” she said, struggling again to make him sit.
“No, I don’t want…to help you. I want to…sleep.”
“You can’t! Get up!”
He opened his eyes and looked at her, then smiled. “Do I…know you?”
“No, my lord. You don’t know me.”
Nella put her hands behind him and lifted with all her might. He shifted and she almost cried for joy. But her relief was short lived. He went from sitting to falling to the side. He hooked his arms over her shoulders and fell.
Nella couldn’t keep from toppling over with him. She landed on her back with the earl on top of her.
She pushed him as hard as she could but he didn’t move. Instead, he lifted his head and brought his mouth down over hers.
He kissed her. He cupped her cheeks in his palms and kissed her again.
Nella had never been kissed, but that didn’t matter. Danvers was an expert. He kissed her a third time and a fourth, and Nella kissed him back. God help her, she knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and shameless harlot that she was, she took full advantage of it. But when his hands began to wander, reality came back with a jolt and she turned her head to break off the kiss.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and rolled with him to her side. “Get off me, my lord. Please.”
His eyes opened. “I’d rather sleep,” he slurred. “You’re so soft. So very…comfortable.”
“No. Please, wake up.”
He would have