Page 22 of Pining for Lord Lockhart
“We act as though we’ve hiked for many miles.”
“I feel as though I have.”
“But you were brilliant.” She closed her eyes and rested her head on the back of the sofa. “If I were not so tired, I’d tell you with more energy.”
“I like this best I think.”
She opened one eye. “This semi-conscious version of me practically sleeping on the sofa?”
“Yes, exactly this version. The one where you’ve spent your entire day doing good, so much so that you are now spent.” He leaned his head back. He had to scoot rather a large amount forward so that his head could rest on the sofa but once he’d accomplished his new posture, he closed his eyes.
“What do you think?”
“Dreadfully uncomfortable.”
“Naturally for you.” She shifted beside him. “But this is quite lovely for me.”
He sat back up quietly so as not to disturb her, for she looked even more stunning in such a perfect repose. He lifted her hand in his. “Think what these hands have accomplished today. You smuggled food from the kitchen, snuck out of the house, bent on making a delivery to a seedy neighborhood in the South of London.”
She smiled.
“And then these hands hosted a reading salon where the actual guest never showed up until the end when he made a spectacle of himself because he was in his cups.”
She frowned.
“And throughout, in bits and pieces, you planned the building of a school and the education of London’s poor.” He laughed.
“Seems like quite a lot.”
“Yes it does.”
“Sometimes I like to just be a regular person.”
Nothing could have surprised him more, but he said nothing, hoping she’d explain.
“I’d like to go to a ball, dance just for the pleasure of it, be courted by men, talk only of simple things, like the weather, and be seen as…” She opened her eyes.
He was struck by the brilliance that stared back at him.
“Be seen as truly a woman.”
He started to tug off her gloves. “I can’t think properly when your hands are covered.”She laughed. But her eyes widened enough that he knew he had her attention. Her complete attention.
As soon as her bare hand was in his, he marveled at its softness. “Much better.”
“Mm.”
“Miss Charity.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “No one would see you as anything but one of the most beautiful women of their acquaintance.”
Her cheeks colored prettily and as much as he adored the intelligent Firestarter Charity, he was drawn to this new tender side to her.
“But you should have heard Lord Granville.”
“Lord Granville?” He tried not to be shocked by the abrupt entrance of another lord in the middle of one of the most intimate conversations he’d had with her.
“Yes. I had to basically explain that I wasn’t interested in talk of political change before he would move on to the more typical subjects.”
“I bet he was as disappointed as I would have been.”
