Page 16 of Her Daring Earl
Then there was her plan. She had set a goal for herself at the beginning of this Season. One that she had kept secret from everyone, even Siena. If anyone were to discover just what she was intent on accomplishing, she would become the greatest scandal of the Season without even taking action.
She had stumbled across a book Baxter had snuck into the house. Where he had happened upon it, she had no idea, but she had been intrigued as to why suddenly her brother, who barely ever picked up a book, seemed so captivated by this one.
When she stole it one day, she was shocked to discover its contents and became fascinated with experiencing the pleasure that could exist between a man and a woman. After she overcame her surprise, however, she became interested.
Needless to say, Baxter had never recovered his book.
Eliza had remained curious. And her curiosity was yet to be answered.
Although she supposed it could wait. She had gone this long without any discoveries. What was a little more time?
“What’s on your mind?” her mother asked, and Eliza choked at the thought of actually sharing it with her mother, covering her surprise with a faked cough.
“Just that I will now have more friends leaving London in the middle of the Season.”
“You make friends everywhere you go,” her mother said, waving her hand in the air.
“Yes, but I likemyfriends,” Eliza said. “How long do you think they will be away?”
“I suppose until they determine who is out to take the life of Lord Fitzroy,” her mother said with a shiver, and Eliza felt her pang of uneasiness at the thought of someone after him. She had thought it was because she was concerned as to what it could mean for his sisters.
But what if there was more? He was an attractive man to be sure. Even if he was an utter boar sometimes.
Perhaps she could find answers to all of her problems at the same time, she mused. It just might take some convincing.
But convincing she could do.
CHAPTER 6
Fitz was bored.
He usually didn’t mind spending time at his estate. It provided him a respite, a break where he could recover and simply be himself.
But then, he was never usually here while Parliament was in session, and he was missing some of the most important discussions in the country.
Discussions that were so far from those he was currently involved in, which, at the moment, were centered around whether one of the maids and the stablehand were involved in a torrid love affair.
“I am bored,” his mother declared, echoing his own thoughts, once the conversation had concluded. She threw her book down in front of her, causing the rest of them to look up at her in surprise.
“Bored?” Sloane repeated. “Why?”
“There is nowhere to go, nothing to do, no one to see,” she said with a sigh. “Everyone we normally spend time with is in London.”
“We could go to the village,” Henrietta suggested, but their mother clucked her tongue.
“We cannot. Then everyone will know we are here.”
“I’m sure they already do,” Georgina said. “Servants talk.”
“True, but to be out in the open would be much more dangerous,” Henrietta argued, to which Dot nodded her head in agreement.
All of Fitz’s sisters had accepted their country stay, except Dot. While she had eventually agreed, that didn’t mean that she was particularly pleased about leaving the women she had committed to. Fitz had suggested those women could perhaps find a midwife they might have to actually pay to which Dot told him he was missing the point of everything, and he had raised his hands in defeat and given up the argument.
“Perhaps one of my friends will come to stay with us,” his mother said, causing Fitz to raise his eyebrows.
“And just who will you invite?” he asked.
“Does it matter?”
