Redeeming the Reclusive Earl - Virginia Heath Page 0,84

is dug.’

‘That’s very noble of you.’ She smiled and then hid it behind her hand to stifle a yawn, then, to compound his misery, stretched. ‘As is sitting here in the small hours while I waffle on when you must clearly be desperate for your bed.’ Only if she were in it with him. ‘We have an early start tomorrow.’

‘Breakfast at seven.’ He swallowed hard in case he drooled when she stood and the candlelight worked its magic with her nightgown again. He seared the image on his mind to keep for ever. ‘Then we are under strict orders from Eleanor not to return to the house till at least one.’

He followed her to the door. ‘I am so humbled by Eleanor’s efforts on my behalf today. And yours. Thank you. It means the world.’

‘You are very welcome.’

He watched her lace-covered hand reach for the handle before she paused and turned around, leaning her back against the door. ‘Can I ask you a question, Max?’

Please God, don’t let it be about the mirror. ‘Ask away...’ The candles picked out the flecks of gold in her irises while the darkness rendered the brown almost black. Both seemed to hold the power to hypnotise him.

‘I know things have been awkward between us of late and I understand why...’ Was that regret? It certainly looked like it from where he was standing. Unless he was willing it to be regret and therefore entirely probable, he was misreading things. Even so, a tiny shoot of hope sprung eternal. ‘But what made you change your mind this morning?’

He had anticipated this question and given it a great deal of thought during the frequent moments when his eyes had glazed over at the particularly baffling antiquarian discussions throughout the day. Except the glib, bland, hastily glossing-over response he had planned was not what came out of his mouth. ‘I wanted to be different.’

‘From what?’

‘All the other men...in the past...who ran away or put you down or tried to diminish what and who you are, Effie... I couldn’t bear to be one of them.’

‘Oh...’ Her expression was confused for a second, as if she had not been expecting that response at all. Which made two of them. Telling the truth made him feel nervous and exposed. What if more leaked out? Would she run? ‘That is actually very sweet of you.’

‘Can miserable, reclusive, angry-at-the-world curmudgeons be sweet?’

‘Difficult to answer as the only one I know is you. Perhaps you are softening?’ She gave him a half-smile—part-irony, part-shy. Wholly bewitching. ‘Or perhaps I am growing on you?’

‘Perhaps...’ It was funny. He had never felt like this when he had been with Miranda. There had been lust, of course. But not friendship or understanding. He’d never known what she was thinking or feeling, and perhaps that had been what had drawn him then. With her it had been fraught. Unsettled. Unfulfilling. Even superficial. Yet with Effie, it felt like a warm eiderdown wrapping him in reassuring comfort. Different. Better. Right...

She made no move to turn back towards the door and gazed at him expectantly although Max couldn’t for the life of him think of anything else to say that did not involve admitting she had more than grown on him. She had taken root and taken over. Made his heart beat and his days something to look forward to. Because despite the bizarreness of the situation, the complicated charade and the house filled with strangers, he realised with a start he was looking forward to tomorrow entirely owing to the fact she would be in all of it.

‘I suppose I should go...’

‘I suppose you should.’

‘Unless...’ She chewed her bottom lip again and then shook her head. ‘Never mind... Ignore me. I am being silly...’ Now she was obviously awkward—not uncomfortable awkward, but hesitant.

It was ridiculous to allow the tiny shoot of hope to grow bigger, yet it was. ‘Unless what?’

‘I am galloping ahead of myself... I am useless at this sort of thing. I can never accurately gauge people’s emotions until it is too late and I have gone too far... And it was obvious you regretted the last