Page 76 of The Pleasures of Passion
“Absolutely not,” he said without thinking. When that seemed to startle her, he cursed his quick tongue. “I mean, Silas is a bit too boisterous for a woman in her condition, don’t you think?”
She narrowed her gaze on him. “We took him on a visit to Clarissa’s only last week.”
“All the same, I’d prefer to be certain of your welcome before we descend on them en masse.”
Halting to face him, she lifted one eyebrow. “What’s going on, Niall?”
God, how he wanted to tell her about Clarissa’s difficulties. But he’d promised his sister’s maid that he would respect Edwin’s wishes, and so he must. At least until he was sure Clarissa and Edwin didn’t mind Bree knowing. “Nothing’s going on.”
He strode up the hill ahead of her to where the gig was already waiting, with his underbutler at the ready. “Please take our guest back to the house,” he told the servant, “and make sure she and Lady Pensworth and young Silas have a good tea.”
Bree came up alongside him. “Niall—”
“I’ll be along presently, I promise,” he told her firmly. Taking her hand, he pressed a kiss to the back. “It’s just some business matters.”
“Then why can’t—”
He released her hand and strode off toward the stream that separated the two estates. He’d had enough of this secrecy. He would meet with Edwin and be done with the prevarications and evasions once and for all.
Then he and Bree could finally start making plans for their lives together.
The ride back to the manor house began as a silent one, which was fine by Brilliana. She wasn’t sure she could trust herself to speak civilly right now, even to one of Niall’s servants.
When it came to her, Niall could be a very bad liar. And the fact that he could show her such sensual delights, then shut himself off from her yet again, drove her mad.
She must have made some frustrated sound, for Niall’s underbutler slanted a glance at her. “You mustn’t let his lordship upset you, ma’am. I daresay he doesn’t mean to be curt. He just has a lot on his mind these days.”
“I’m sure he does.”As do I.
They traveled another half mile in silence.
“Your boy Silas is a sweet lad,” the underbutler went on. “Already got our housekeeper wrapped around his finger, and that’s saying something.”
The words softened her. “I do hope he hasn’t been too much trouble.”
“Not one bit. Reminds us of his lordship at that age.” When she looked at him curiously, he said, “I was a footboy then. The master and I practically grew up together, we did. He had a stubborn streak that fairly drove his father mad.”
“I can only imagine,” she said dryly, remembering what Niall had said about his father. “Was the previous earl strict with his son?”
“Oh yes, ma’am. Hired a tutor who made the young master toe the line until he went off to school. Then the old earl tried to keep him from mixing with the rakish blades there by having him live with a fine family all by himself, instead of on the premises at Eton.”
“Did that work?”
“Hardly. You know the young gentlemen, always up for a jolly time.”
“Yes.” A jolly time that generally involved naked females.
Still, she had to admit she was benefiting from Niall’s education in the art of pleasing women. She fought a blush. How could she have known that a man putting his mouth down there might be enjoyable?
Or, for that matter, that making love could be so pleasurable. Eminently pleasurable. Only imagine if she and Niall were to do that often. . . .
She frowned. She mustn’t think only of their physical encounters; there was more at stake than a few moments of passion. Of very delicious, enticing . . .
Oh, Lord, she was becoming such a ridiculous wanton.
“So,” she said, to put such thoughts from her mind, “you were saying that his lordship’s friends were all rakish blades.”
“Not all. There was Lord Blakeborough, the only one that the earl approved of, on account of his being a responsible sort. But the earl found even some of the young master’s cousins suspect. Like Lord Knightford, who wasn’t allowed at the house in those years. The old earl disapproved of the marquess’s reputation.”
