Page 38 of The Tempting of a Devilish Lord

“I am certain you have some brains in there somewhere or else my sister would not like you, but let us be honest, how many women have pursued you for your mind?”

He should be insulted but all he could do was chuckle. She was not wrong, though he rather hoped Lucy liked him for rather more than his supposed brawn.

∞∞∞

“WE SHOULD GO out on the lake,” Mary-Anne demanded.

Lucinda glanced up from her book. Her sister had her knuckles braced upon the windowsill and her nose pressed against the glass. For some reason, Mary-Anne had not ceased pacing today and she should not have been surprised she demanded another adventure. Mary-Anne practically vibrated with unspent energy.

“Mama won’t like it.” Lucinda lifted the book and feigned reading.

Truth be told, she could scarcely make out the words, not after another formal letter from Alex, requesting to see her. Having Mary-Anne resume her patrolling of the short length of the parlor room did not help either.

“Mama will not know.” Mary-Anne came to stand in front of her and in the periphery of her vision, Lucinda saw her put her fists to her hips. “She will be lunching with Mrs. Beaton forever. You know how they like to talk.”

Lucinda nodded and gave a grim smile. “Between them, they shall be convinced the world is going to ruin.”

“I am not looking forward to tonight.”

“She will certainly be in one of her more worrisome moods, to be sure.”

“So let us get some fresh air before she returns to tell us of all the dangers of the world,” Mary-Anne begged.

“I really do not think—”

“I’ll go myself if I have to.”

With a sigh, Lucinda set the book on the arm of the chair and rose. “Very well.”

She might have given in too easily but what harm could come from a little row on the lake? She allowed herself a wry smile. With her sister, anything could happen, but it would be a welcome distraction from the conundrum that was Alex. Why was he writing so formally? Why did he not come and see her again? And why did she wish him to visit when she was most decidedly avoiding him?

Most importantly, why oh why did it make her heart hurt to be apart from him?

Lucinda aided her sister with the buttons of her pelisse and then did her own. Mary-Anne yanked open the front door before Lucinda could finish doing up her bonnet.

Her sister’s excitable behavior was no rare thing but today she seemed extraordinarily skittish and a little odd, as though she were keeping some secret. She only hoped Mary-Anne did not persuade her to row all the way to some other mystical spot that Mrs. Gleeson had spoken of. As far as she was concerned, they would just take a little jaunt out onto the lake and come back again.

“Oh.”

She stilled on the doorstep and glanced to her sister, her fingers tangled in the ribbon of her straw bonnet. She followed her sister’s gaze. “Oh.”

Striding toward her in the most authoritative of manners, Bernie Sandwell had his gaze fixed upon her. He stopped a pace or so away and dipped his head. “Thank goodness I have found you.”

“Whatever are you doing here, Bernie?” she blurted out.

“I have been looking for you all morning.” He glanced around, irritation forming tense lines around his mouth. “No one could keep their story straight as to where you were staying.”

“Is something the matter?”

He looked her over perfunctorily. “You look hale.”

“I am well, thank you.”

He looked well too. For Bernie anyway. He had the pale complexion of an academic which matched eyebrows that were slowly graying and matching ashy hair. He could have been considered handsome if it were not for his weak chin, she always reckoned.

Compared to Alex, he was practically hideous. A shard of guilt speared through her. What an awful thing to think.

“I’m well too,” put in Mary-Anne.

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