Page 18 of Indecently Employed
“Pardon?”
“I’m glad she—” He paused to swallow, then started over. “I’m relieved you haven’t packed your bags and absconded. I was dreading it—expecting it, honestly. In fact, when I opened the door to your room and saw… well, I thought that was it.”
Susanna blanched at the memory of her pathetic wardrobe laid bare before him.
“Oh no, sir—I was only thinking of Miss Sedley’s wedding, and considering what I might wear.” Her cheeks were on fire, and she dropped her gaze, staring at her hands in her lap.
“Might wear?” Ajax choked out, then bit back whatever else he meant to say.
Susanna glanced up to find him studying her, stoking the embers smoldering in her belly. She tried to ignore the sensation; it would do her well to skip her novel this evening and read her missalette instead.
“A warm gold would suit you well,” he murmured in that deep, pleasing voice, his eyes roving up and down.
Once more her collar chafed. “I really shouldn’t wear anything so…” She trailed off, and forced a polite smile. “Charlotte mustwear half-mourning, and really, were she any older it would be improper for her to attend at all. So it would be inconsiderate of me to wear anything so glaring alongside her.” It was true that the girl’s youth and her mother’s lack of social standing allowed her leeway to attend the ceremony, though Susanna drew the line at attending the reception afterward. And it was also true that Susanna did not own, nor had she ever owned, a dress of so bright a color as gold.
“The black was her idea,” Mr. Sedley said in a rough voice. “Not mine. I suggested we go shopping, actually, the day I interviewed you. I told her I’d buy her whatever she wanted—grays, lavenders, mauves, anything. She refused, saying she preferred to dress like a haggard old widow.” He pushed his chair back from the table, crossing his arms as he slouched in his seat. “I told her she was exactly like her mother. Stubborn as a mule.”
“Oh, dear,” Susanna said. She was curious about the girl’s actress mother, but too mannered to ask.
“Then she took off, much as today. Just dissipated into the ether. Or up the servants’ stairs, in all likelihood.”
“She’s Neptune,” Susanna agreed.
“Beg pardon?” Mr. Sedley looked at her, perplexed. “Neptune? King of the seas and pursuer of nymphs?”
“Oh, no, not mythology.” She flushed. “I was considering her disposition this morning, recalling how my first charges, Jane and Emily Pritchard, were akin to stars—twinkling and bright. But Charlotte is not a star. She’s dark and mysterious.”
A grin overtook Mr. Sedley’s dour expression, and Susanna felt emboldened to explain herself further. “And it was discovered not through direct observation, through a telescope, but rather by calculation, from observing how it disturbed the orbit of its neighbor, Uranus. They knew something enormous had to be nearby.” She rushed the words out, pleased to relate to theirconversation a topic that fascinated her so. She had always found it amazing the extent to which mathematics could be used to describe the nature of the universe.
She glanced back to Mr. Sedley, whose grin had been replaced with something else entirely. Something intense and burning. Was it anger? Or something else?
“They predicted not only its location, but its mass,” Susanna added softly.
“And myself?” he said, his voice low. “Which celestial object would you say epitomizes me?”
His gaze pinned her in place; she dared not look away. A stray lock of hair, dark brown and gray, had fallen over his forehead, lending him a roguish appearance. She wet her lips, acutely aware of the racing of her heart, that same warmth back between her legs.
“I’ll have to think on it, sir,” she eventually managed.
“I shall be waiting,” he said, a far from innocent smile gracing his lips. “With bated breath.”
All at once she realized the situation was out of hand. Something had charged the air between them, and Susanna knew it must stop, the fire in his eyes must be doused. Her body felt too tight, too full of yearning. Only bad things had come from this before, with the earl.
And yet, somehow, this wasn’t the same.
“Miss Sedley’s wedding will be a grand affair,” she blurted in a desperate attempt to steer the conversation back to polite waters. “How is she managing the anticipation, sir?”
Mr. Sedley hesitated, appearing startled, then frowned. “Harmonia?”
“Yes, Miss Sedley. I read about it in the papers,” she said, her voice timorous.
“Did you?” he mused, then sighed, reaching up to rub his forehead. “The deuce if I know. She’s kept abed the past fewtimes I’ve called on Charlotte. Quite rich, actually, considering it wasshewho demanded my daily attendance, like some sour-faced school marm.” He halted, then grinned apologetically. “No offense meant to present company.”
Susanna nodded graciously, relieved that the intensity of his regard had faded, and the more familiar carefree and charismatic demeanor had returned.
“That does not concern you, though?”
“What do you mean?”
