Page 8 of An Earl's Christmas Seduction
“It’s very comfortable, mother, yes. It’s a remarkable house, isn’t it?” she said, and her mother smiled.
“Yes, it is. We’ve been shown considerable kindness,” she said.
Elsie hurried to pick up the baroness’ discarded clothes, and Amelia sat down at the end of a chaise lounge, touching the locket at her breast. She did so out of habit, as though she was slipping her hand into Rupert’s. She felt guilty and foolish for her flirtatious behavior earlier that evening. The earl was only being friendly, and she dreaded to think what his impression of her might have been.
“We have. Are you ready to go down, Mother? Or is something wrong?” Amelia asked, noting the apprehension in her mother and wondering what was wrong.
“Yes, I just need a shawl. Do you have one for me, Elsie? No… nothing’s wrong. I just… well, the journey, and getting caught in the snow. I don’t like to feel as though we’re impeding on the earl’s hospitality,” she said, as Elsie hurried to find one from the baroness’ case.
“I don’t believe we are, Mother. He was only too happy to help us. He could’ve easily sent a groom or a stable boy to bring us back. But he came himself,” Amelia said, and her mother smiled.
“Yes, you’re right. And it looks like the weather’s only going to get worse,” her mother said, nodding towards the window.
The curtains were now drawn, and in the lamplight, Amelia could see the snow driving against the glass, and gathering on the sill.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter now. We’ve arrived, and we’re not leaving until after Christmas,” she replied.
The thought of being snowed in held a romantic edge to it. Amelia was a daydreamer. She enjoyed reading novels where the heroines were caught in the throes of some disaster, rescued by a man who would carry her to safety, and propose marriage on a whim.
She pictured herself in such stories and the simple ease with which romance occurred and was reciprocated. Nothing bad ever happened to these women. Amelia lamented her own circumstances as being very different.
“No… we’re stuck here, aren’t we?” her mother replied.
Amelia did not know whether there was a tone of regret in her mother’s voice, but the time had come for them to meet the other guests, and a distant gong now sounded from the hallway, the signal for the party to assemble.
“Take my arm, Mother,” Amelia said, as Elsie opened the door for them.
“Let’s see who else is here. It’s always the same at a house party; one gets the measure of one’s company in a few moments,” the baroness said, as they made their way arm in arm down the stairs, and Amelia hoped her own measure of the earl had been correct, even as she wondered whether she had already made a mistake in her assumptions.
Chapter 4
“I’m sorry I missed all the excitement, or did you deliberately not tell me where you were going?” Harry asked, smirking at Nicholas, who rolled his eyes.
“You’d retired for the afternoon. When the escort arrived, telling me the ladies were stranded, I couldn’t very well wait for you to rouse yourself. Besides, I didn’t need you there. We dug the carriage out without any trouble, and the baroness and her daughter are safely here. There’s nothing more to it than that,” Nicholas said, even as his friend smiled.
The rescue had been a simple enough affair. There had been no danger involved, and both Lady Amelia and Lady Wells were in good spirits. But Nicholas had surprised himself at the force of his feelings towards the young woman he had encountered on opening the door of their carriage.
Amelia was beautiful, just as Harry had said she was. He had not been able to take his eyes off her, embarrassed when she had caught him looking at her, even as he had wondered as to her first impressions of him.
“And what did you think of her, Lady Amelia, I mean?” Harry asked, raising his eyebrows.
The two men had been friends since childhood, and Nicholas knew there was no hope in hiding the truth from Harry, even as he was not about to admit the surprise he had felt at the sight of such a beautiful creature stranded in the snow.
“She’s… a delight. I was very taken with her. I’m sure she’ll make a fine addition to our party,” he said, and Harry laughed.
“You could say that about any of the guests. But what did you really think of her? She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” he said, and Nicholas blushed.
There was no doubt in his mind as to Amelia’s beauty. She was strikingly handsome, her hair dark and coiled up into a bun, her eyes bright and blue. He was captivated by her and had thought of little else since their return to Ashworth House.
“She’s… very pretty, yes,” he said, and Harry shook his head.
“Oh… Nicholas, admit it to yourself. Why can’t you? What holds you back?” he exclaimed, sighing, as Nicholas poured himself another glass of brandy.
They were sitting in Nicholas’ study, awaiting the arrival of the other guests. The weather was drawing in, and Nicholas feared others might have suffered the same fate as Amelia and her mother.
“Why would a woman like that be interested in a man like me?” Nicholas asked.
He had never been very good at talking to women, and while he was not devoid of female attention, that attention extended largely to his title and wealth. Few women had ever shown an interest in Nicholas himself, and the earl was resigned to the life of a bachelor, preferring it to the effort involved in entering the season with the intent of marriage.
