Page 79 of Not Quite a Lady
Lily found the thought of gentle seduction a comforting fantasy as she gazed out from her eyrie.
Flowers, hand-kissing, compliments, a little flirtation, murmured sweet nothings. All the time in the world to think about what she should do, what she should say.
‘Oh yes,’ Lily whispered, a smile curving her lips.
Below, a door banged shut and a tall figure strode out across the courtyard, his black greatcoat flapping behind him in the wind. It was unmistakeably Jack; his long stride, the width of his shoulders, betrayed him. Lily glimpsed trousers, boots, a battered old hat and realised he must be on his way to the mine.
A frisson like the one that had run through her on the duelling ground made her shiver. He was so strong, so masculine. His command had nothing to do with title or class, it was bred in hisbones and everything feminine in her responded to it, however hard she tried for control.
‘Lily?’ It was Caroline, peeping round the door. ‘Am I interrupting? Are you resting?’
‘I was a little tired,’ Lily fibbed. ‘It was rather dark in the gallery and difficult to see the pictures. Lord Allerton has gone out.’
‘He has gone to the mine,’ Caroline said briskly. ‘He will be back for dinner.’ She sounded a trifle out of spirits, it must be the weather.
‘Oh, it wasn’t that I was wondering or anything…’ Lily could hear she was floundering and made an effort to pull herself together. ‘I would love to see the mine one day. Could you take me to see it? When it stops raining of course.’
‘Certainly.’ Caroline came and perched on the window seat beside Lily. ‘But why not ask Jack? I understand quite a lot, at least about the work above ground, but not much about the deep mine.’
‘Because he will think I want to interfere again,’ Lily replied bleakly. ‘But I am very interested. I think I might persuade my trustees to invest in mines in the Midlands, where there are canals.
‘They are so dubious about the transport up here, or the lack of it, that is the trouble. Such old stick-in-the muds about new technologies, bless them.’
And she wanted to see the place that obsessed Jack so much, touch him in some way through it. Touch him in the only way that seemed to be safe.
Chapter Nineteen
Lily did not expect to see Jack at dinner, but he strolled into the salon, where the ladies were congregating before the meal, looking immaculate.
Her surprise must have shown on her face, and he came over to her side, one brow raised quizzically. ‘Did you expect to see me with black fingernails and coal dust in my hair? I scrub up reasonably well, I believe.’
Lily had had an afternoon, in the intervals between adjudicating spirited arguments over fashions, to decide on her future tactics with Jack.
She could not make her excuses to Lady Allerton, pack her bags and sweep out, nor could she be thrown into blushing confusion every time she saw him. She was too honest to believe that this was all his fault, so there appeared to be only one tactic: ignore it and play games.
She smiled, lowered her eyelashes and murmured, ‘You most certainly do.’
She was rewarded by both his brows flying up and a glint of grudging amusement in his eyes. ‘Society tricks, Miss France?’
‘My aunt always emphasises how important it is to minister to a gentleman’s vanity,’ she replied sweetly.
‘And why is that? You appear to have only just recalled this piece of advice, unless I have been very unobservant.’
‘Firstly because if one does not, then they sulk, and secondly because it is the best way to get what one wants.’
‘And have you ever observed me to sulk, Lily?’
‘Well…’ Lily fluttered her fan and was rewarded by a reluctant grin.
‘To take your second point, what is it that you want from me?’ Jack had lowered his voice and Lily kept her face straight
Now he thinks I am going to blush and stammer and reveal that I really want him to…that I want him.
‘Why, to let me stay here a little longer and to study this wonderful old building, of course. I do believe that I could bring the baronial style back into fashion in London if I put my mind to it.’
‘What? Crumbling, gloomy and atmospheric?’
‘No, romantic, solid – and brightly coloured. I like bright colours.’
