Page 46 of The Mysterious Miss Lydia
Oh no.
She grinned in the dark.
This was the most alive she’d ever felt in her entire life. “I think that’s precisely what I’m saying.”
13
Luke was in the most dangerous predicament of his life.
Considering he’d been held at gunpoint by a crazed, angry insurrectionist, this was saying something.
But this... Alone in the dark with a sweet, innocent, unmarried young lady.
If they were caught it would surely lead to marriage.
He waited for the swift jolt of alarm the thought of marriage typically brought with it. For marriage, to his mind, was the beginning of the end.
But the alarm bells never rang and while his heart did give a sharp thud in response to the thought of being caught alone with Lydia, he couldn’t say for certain it was a bad feeling.
It felt more like eagerness than fear.
But that couldn’t be right.
He took a deep breath and tugged at his cravat. Blast, where had his mind gone? He’d never trap a young lady into marriage, and his still being here was putting her in that precarious position.
Whether or not he minded the prospect of the parson’s noose, he owed it to her to put an end to this odd little tete-a-tete.
His heart reacted to that thought, as well...by dipping low with disappointment.
He didn’t want this to end. This time together had felt like a moment out of the ordinary. Like something singular and special. Her laughter. Her curious perspective on the matter at hand...
She was like no lady he’d ever met before and he was overcome with the urge to find out everything there was to know about her. Equal to that was the urge to protect her...
Even if it meant from himself.
The protective instinct won out and he took a step backward. “While that is very interesting, indeed...”
No, it was more than interesting. His brain was racing as he saw her form shift in the shadows, moving closer toward the light.
His heart raced with eagerness. He needed to see her again. His fingers twitched with the urge to reach for her, to tear off that mask that kept her hidden, to pull her into the light and into his arms and—
“What if it is a code?” she asked. The curiosity in her voice cut into his thoughts. He’d thought it himself, of course.
“If it is, it’s none I’ve seen before,” he said. “I don’t claim to be an expert on encryptions, but there was no code I could detect.”
“I’d still like to see it.” The eagerness in her voice made his lips curve up. With each moment he spent in her company, he discovered more.
He liked her more.
His heart gave a phenomenalwhompas if to say ‘that, my friend, is an understatement.’
He cleared his throat. This little interlude, alone in the dark, might feel like some moment out of time, but soon enough they would rejoin the real world, and it was time he truly thought about that.
She wasn’t a mistress or an actress—she was the furthest thing from it. She was a young lady. Sheltered and defenseless in the world that he lived in.
He found himself standing there, unmoving. For the first time in his life, he was uncertain of how to move forward. How to keep her safe.
How to keep her in his life.
