Page 20 of A Baron's Scandalous Quill
Becca put down the letter, hiding it beneath Charlotte’s letter. A smile grew across her lips, one so great that even Frederick lifted his head from his newspaper, and she flattened her smile as quickly as she could.
William adjusted his tailcoat multiple times, turned away from the hallway mirror, then returned once more, fidgeting with the tailcoat and his cravat, then trying to flatten his curly hair, which was particularly wild this morning.
“Are you well, my lord?” Henry called from the other side of the room, having just appeared in the hallway after leaving the drawing room where he had set up tea for their guest’s arrival.
“Perfectly well,” William said through gritted teeth. He caught the smile on Henry’s face and turned, resuming his pacing up and down the hallway.
“Is there a reason you’re pacing?”
“No,” William said sharply. He heard Henry’s chuckle but didn’t respond as his butler hurried back into the room to resume setting up the tea.
In the quiet that followed, William’s mind wandered to the dreams that had plagued him all night. Miss Thornton had been in those dreams again, and they were not the proper thing.
He’d indulged in scandalous thoughts, such excitement and heat that he’d woken restlessly and thrown the covers from his body because of that heat. Even now, just thinking of those dreams was enough to make him fidget all the more, pulling at his tailcoat and trying to loosen the cravat at his throat.
I must be proper. She is here to work for me!
He turned back the other way and marched again across the room when he caught sight of someone through the window. He hurried to the window, peering out at his visitor who had just arrived.
Miss Thornton was walking down the track, moving hurriedly with her normal reticule in her clutches and a spencer jacket across her shoulders. The loose ribbons of her bonnet were flung over her shoulders and rippled in the wind that caught the two loose locks of blonde hair that hung down from the edges of her bonnet.
He imagined trailing a finger through that lock of hair, twirling it around his finger, then thought of running his hands completely through her hair, tangling it together, using it to angle her head back softly and playfully, opening up her neck to him.
He would place kisses on her neck, exploring the exposed skin there and paying particular attention to a sweet spot just beneath her ear. Would she gasp at such a kiss? Would her hand curl across his shoulder the way it had done when they were dancing together?
Miss Thornton reached the door and knocked, but William didn’t wait for Henry to come and open the door for him. He hurried to open it himself, clearly startling Miss Thornton on the other side of the door, who did not curtsy straight away but stared at him with something akin to wonder; her jaw dropped.
“Good day, Miss Thornton,” he said, trying to keep his voice level, and praying his face wasn’t flushed red after all the scandalous thoughts he’d had about her.
“Good day.” She hurried so much to curtsy that she nearly tripped over on the doorstep. On instinct, he stepped forward and caught her hand to steady her. Her chin jerked up, and they stared at one another as he clutched her hand, then used it to draw her into the house.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
They didn’t break their gaze but just continued to stare at one another. There was a tension in the air. Was it awkwardness? Or heat? He couldn’t tell anymore!
“Ah, it is good to see you again, Miss Thornton.” Henry’s voice made William snatch his hand away from Miss Thornton’s, and she stepped back from him, too, turning to greet Henry. “If you come this way, we have set up tea for you in the drawing room today.”
“Thank you.” She looked between William and the doorway as if uncertain who should lead the way as he was of a senior position. He gestured for her to go first, and she did so, then his eyes wandered down her back. He admired the way the dress, cut high on her waist, flattered her figure, and the glimpse of her golden hair that was afforded as she removed her bonnet and passed it to Henry.
As they entered the drawing room, she looked back and forth in wonder, not moving straight to the table set up for tea but circling it instead, her eyes moving across the dark furnishings.
“You look confused,” William observed, hesitating behind his chair.
Henry moved to the corner of the room, followed by the housekeeper. The two were to act as chaperones, and they talked together in the corner of the room, leaving William to talk a little more freely than normal.
“I am.” Miss Thornton frowned and moved back toward him at the table. “Your entrance hall is everything that is bright and cheery, this room…” She trailed off, wrinkling her nose.
“Then you know why I dislike it so,” he confessed in a whisper and leaned toward her, talking conspiratorially. When she didn’t pull away, but leaned toward him, too, he grew in confidence, his voice deepening. “This room was my father’s choice of decoration. I have begun to change the house, one room at a time, to something I find distinctly happier to be in.” He nodded at the room around them. “This drawing room can be so…miserable.”
He didn’t confess his innermost thoughts, that this room also held far too many memories for him. Many times, he had been stuck in this room, looking out of the window at sunny grounds, only to have his father standing in the doorway behind him, forbidding such an adventure.
“You are making things your way,” she whispered with a smile. “I like that.” He returned that smile, staring at those aquamarine eyes so long, it took Henry across the room, clearing his throat to draw William back to himself.
He looked away and drew out Miss Thornton’s chair, allowing her to sit first.
“Should you be pulling out a chair for a poor writer, my lord?” she asked with a laugh.
“You are my guest,” he reminded her, pushing in the chair. He came so close to her that he inadvertently brushed her arm as he pushed the chair in. She turned her head, that gasp escaping her again. A heat passed through him at that touch, but he did his best to ignore it and moved to the seat beside her.
