Page 15 of Not Quite a Lady
The sensations that strange caress had evoked were far more powerful than Adrian’s hot embraces had been. At least Jack Lovell showed no sign of recalling it. Thank goodness.
And what to do with Mr Lovell? She could not send him back to his lodgings in the state he was in.
But what if someone was waiting for him? She should have thought of that and asked him for his direction, rather than discussing her motives for wanting to marry Adrian.
Lily eyed his coat, which was looking considerably the worse for wear as it hung over the back of a chair. She could hardly search his pockets. But if someone was expecting him back theywould be anxious by now.
Tentatively she patted the coat, noting that it was at least two seasons out of style and, although well made, was certainly not by a London tailor. Something hard and flat in the inside breast pocket seemed promising and she fished out a notebook.
Scrupulously trying not to read anything, Lily flicked through the pages. Early on there was a list of inns with a mark against at least six of them. Not helpful. Then halfway through, the draft of an advertisement: …at the sign of the Green Dragon.
Sliding the book back, she picked up the pile of clothes and tiptoed out.
Two hours later Lily regarded the still figure anxiously across the small table she had ordered to be set up for her dinner. Doctor Ord’s strictures about bleeding or blurred vision made her uneasy about leaving Mr Lovell to the care of one of the housemaids, as she had explained to her aunt.
Mrs Herrick inspected the bandaged figure with a shudder, but pronounced it safe for her niece to be alone in the same room, provided she left the door ajar.
The soup in the bowl in front of her smelled delicious. Lily dipped in her spoon and began to sip, wondering what tomorrow would bring. Recriminations from her relatives over the end of her engagement, that was for sure. Aunt was probably on about the sixth outraged letter even now.
There would be gossip to face wherever she went. Gossip about the hoax and just as much about Adrian. Would he behave like a gentleman and tell people that it was an amicable mutual decision? Somehow she doubted it.
‘Soupe de Cressy.’ The voice was so unexpected that Lily dropped her bread roll.
‘I had quite forgotten you were there,’ she apologised. ‘Oh no, you should not move.’
But he was already hauling himself painfully up against the pillows.
‘Here, let me put another one behind you.’ That was intimately close, she realised as she wedged a bolster down behind the broad shoulders.
Now that Jack Lovell was sitting up she was all too aware that, except for the bandages, he was naked.
Her hand stilled, an inch from the skin of his shoulder. She had never felt the slightest temptation to touch Adrian, although she had admired his beauty. Why now did she want to run her hands over the scarred brown body of this man?
His hair, released from the cord which had confined it, touched his shoulders. It was deeply unfashionable now severe crops were all the rage, yet profoundly masculine in its thick vigour.
Lily straightened up, hastily. ‘There. How do you feel? Would you like some soup?’
He caught her wrist in his hand as she turned for the bell-pull. ‘Thank you, I would welcome that. However, I cannot get up while you are having your own dinner.’
The long fingers encircled her wrist easily. Lily was not used to regarding herself as particularly slender, and certainly not fragile, but the grip made her feel both. She glanced down, her mouth dry, and he released her.
‘You are certainly not going to get out of bed this evening, Mr Lovell.’ She tugged the bell and retreated to her table.
‘Miss France, I insist.’
Blake appeared and they spoke at once.
‘Please fetch me my clothes.’
‘A bowl of soup, some bread and some wine for Mr Lovell.’
‘Miss France? The clothes the gentleman was wearing today are being cleaned.’
The footman turned towards the bed. ‘Mr Fakenham has setPercy to unpacking and pressing your other things, sir. He has instructed him to act as your valet while you are with us.’
The dark grey eyes did not show much gratitude for this arrangement.
Lily intervened. ‘Mr Lovell’s supper please, Blake, at once.’
