Page 26 of Courting Scandal With The Duke
‘Would you care to see the gardens before you depart?’ he asked. ‘They were planted by my mother before I was born. She loved to garden and this was the only place she was permitted a free hand.’
‘Permitted?’
Another challenge. It seemed every time he opened his mouth he put his foot in it, as far as she was concerned. Did she have to be so suspicious? Clearly, she was one of these new bluestocking types who questioned any man’s opinion. He would do well to be shot of her.
‘The gardener at our seat in Dorset was and is most particular about adhering to the original design. Apparently, my grandfather laid out a small fortune on it.’
‘I see. Yes. I would love to visit the gardens. And then I really must go before my aunt starts to worry.’
He hadn’t thought she cared a fig about what her aunt thought. He decided not to pull her up short, even though it was obviously just the sort of polite excuse she had decried only moments ago.
‘Then if you are ready?’ He assisted her with her chair and they stepped through the French doors onto the balcony whose steps led out into the garden.
In front of them there spread a large square of lawn, but around the corner was his mother’s favourite place to while away some time on a fine day. The few memories he had were of her sitting here reading to him sometimes, or to herself while he played with a ball.
He led the Countess down the steps and through the arch into an area bounded by hedges on all sides.
‘Oh, how pretty,’ she said. ‘Primroses. What a surprise.’
‘If you look carefully, you will also find violets and campions. It is a garden of English wildflowers. There were daffodils earlier and snow drops and later there will be buttercups and marshmallow.’
‘In other words, it is full of what most people would call weeds.’
If she hadn’t been smiling with such delight, he might have taken her words as a criticism. That genuine smile of approval gave him a warm feeling in the region of his chest. ‘I know. Grandmother called it Mother’s folly, but I wouldn’t let them change it.’
‘I’m glad,’ she said, looking up at him.
He gazed back into her velvety brown eyes and knew the words were not said for mere politeness. For a long moment they gazed at each other. His heart drummed in his ears.
Without thinking, he reached out to take her hand, and their fingers intertwined. Her lips parted and curved slightly, anticipating…
He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers, tasting wine and inhaling a subtle, fresh and slightly floral scent that was all her own.
Without hesitation, she stepped closer, and he deepened the kiss, lost in a heady sensation of desire, lost in a sense of longing, as if lost in a mist.
Wholly unlike him.
Wholly wrong.
He stepped back. ‘I—’
She smiled at him blithely. ‘What a perfect end to a pleasant afternoon. Now I really must be on my way.’
She headed back towards the house and he followed her, feeling thoroughly off balance.
His mind was playing tricks on him. For her the kiss had been nothing more than a quick little peck, a sort of thank-you.
Hadn’t it?
Chapter Five
Barbara awoke at some hour in the early morning to the sound of her aunt’s cries of terror.
She leaped out of bed, grabbed her robe and dashed out into the hallway.
The corridor was full of servants peering in through her aunt’s chamber door. Her aunt was still crying out in distress.
‘What is going on?’ Barbara demanded, pushing her way past the upstairs maid and a couple of footmen.
