Page 31 of Not Quite a Lady
Damn it, I just want to go over there and take you in my arms and…
‘Dreadful – but I think that is all to the good – provided she is on one’s side and believes she has all the inside news. I was very careful not to say anything horrid about Adrian, just to imply that we both realised we would not suit.
‘Then I said that, despite it being perfectly amicable, someone was spreading nasty rumours about it and she looked very knowing and said she would soon put people right aboutthat.
‘So I think it will be a storm in a teacup. I am so thankful I caught her on a day when she was inclined to be understanding.’
If I tell her I love her will she be shocked? Or laugh? Or if I go over there and kiss her and then tell her – can I make her love me? And then what?
‘Good news indeed,’ he agreed dryly. ‘I suspect she enjoys meddling, setting people on end. Perhaps someone she is at outs with has criticised you, so she decides to take your part.’
‘Probably,’ Lily agreed, drifting into the room and beginning to turn over the pile of prints and drawings that were on one end of the table. ‘Are these all steam pumps?’
‘No, not all, there are maps of the coal field, some cross-sections of rock formations, that sort of thing.’
He stayed back in the shadows, burningly conscious of the hardness of his body, of his need to touch her.
‘Oh, what is this?’ A print, stuck to the underside of another, drifted free as she lifted it and fluttered to the floor.
Jack took one long stride forward and caught it, his fingers over the caption at the bottom. It brought them face to face as he straightened up.
‘Let me see.’ Lily craned to look at the print, a foursquare castle in the antique style with massive towers at each corner. ‘Where is that? It is very picturesque.’
‘Hardly that,’ Jack said. ‘It is simply a castle near the mine.’
There was something in his voice that made her look sharply at him but she could read neither his face nor the tone. It seemed to her that perhaps his head was paining him, for the skin over those strong cheekbones looked tight and his eyes were shadowed.
She wanted to run her fingertips over his face, caress away that tension but something in his expression held her back.
‘It has changed since this print was made and that tower at the right at the back has collapsed. In my grandfather’s day one of our tunnels ran under it and the thing caved in.’
‘Oh my goodness.’ Lily stared at him aghast. ‘But how dreadful! What happened? Was there a claim against your family?’No wonder Jack has no money.
‘The shock carried the old earl off with some kind of apoplectic fit. His son decided not to rebuild. There was no monetary claim as such, but we lost access to a large area of high quality coal.’
Lily opened her mouth to demand all the details, then closed it again firmly. If nothing else, loving Jack was teaching her tact.
He pushed the print to the bottom of the pile and she caught a glimpse of the title.…erton Castle.
She should leave now she had told him her news. Aunt Herrick would certainly say so.
Defiantly Lily went and curled up in one of the big leather chairs she had ordered set up on either side of the closed stove.
‘Jack, do come and sit down, you are giving me a crick in the neck talking to you when you are standing right over there.’
It seemed to her that he hesitated before he came across and sat opposite. ‘I am glad to hear your good news, but you shouldgo now.’
‘Oh, you are as bad as Aunt Herrick,’ she grumbled, tucking her skirts snugly around her ankles. ‘Don’t be so stuffy. I want to ask you something.’
‘Yes?’ he said warily.
Lily chuckled. ‘That was not very gallant. You should have sounded eager to assist me.’
‘I never know what you are about to say or do. I have not known you long, Lily, just long enough to be cautious.’ He was smiling too, but there was a constraint behind it that she did not understand. ‘What do you wish to ask?’
‘If you will please act as my escort tomorrow night to Lady Frensham’s dance. It is not a ball, more of a rout party with dancing.’
‘No.’
