Page 18 of Kiss Me Lady One More Time
“You’ll have to share something else, then,” she said with mock seriousness. “What is it that makes you uncomfortable?”
He did as she had and turned to face the window to make his confession. It felt easier to speak to the wind lashing through the trees than into her earnest face. And this way he did not have to see the rapid beat of her pulse at her throat and feel the matching rise of his own heart rate.
“Well?” she asked after a moment.
“Silence,” he answered her. “It is what unnerves me. The empty, ringing silence of a deserted house.”Or worse, the nervous, deadly quiet that reigns when all of the occupants are home. “That moment of mortifying silence at a dinner table when someone has said something unpleasant. Or the agonizing quiet that falls over two people who are distressed to find themselves alone together.”
“Oh,” she said in a small voice and on a shaky breath. “I shall keep that in mind.”
“No.” He turned to her, moving sharply. Grasping her arm, he let his hand run along the narrowing sleeve of her damned, tempting pelisse. “Do not for a moment think that I meant you.” He held her wrist lightly. “That’s just it. It is different with you. We’ve had several enjoyable conversations and a couple of fervent arguments—”
“There were silences in there, too,” she said.
“Yes. And not one of them felt unpleasant, did they?” A flash of color rose in her face and brightened her eyes. He could not resist stepping closer. “That’s just it,” he repeated. “I’ve never once felt uncomfortable with you.”
“Nor have I, with you,” she whispered. “Not even when talking of badgers.”
He chuckled and she drifted closer still.
All the anxieties of the day, the worries about their mission, drifted away. It was a wonder—to feel so calm and so full of anticipation at the same time. Part of him wanted to take a step back, to examine the feeling and all of the excitement moving through his veins. It felt as if the lightning from the storm had invaded his body. The rest of him, though, very rightly told the scientist to shut up and kiss the girl.
His hand drifted upward. It smoothed over those teasing petals on her shoulder and traced a path along her elegant throat. He cupped her jaw and his finger came to rest just behind and beneath her ear, where her pulse pounded. He leaned in—
“Here ye are, sir!”
They jumped apart as the landlord eased the door open with his hip. He came in bearing a pitcher and a platter. “Your ale, and a plate of savories, sent by my wife.” He set everything down and looked up. “Oh! Shall I bring another plate?”
“No. Please don’t go to the trouble,” Miss Munroe told the man with a smile. “I just came for my notebook.” She took it up from where it was propped. “And now, I’m off to bed.” She moved away, pausing in the doorway. “Good night, sirs.”
Sterne nodded. Taking up his cup, he stared into it. “On second thought,” he said to the landlord. “Do you have something stronger?”
Chapter 5
“Why are you in such a hurry to get started this morning?” Hope’s reflection yawned at Penelope from the mirror on her vanity table, where the countess sat as her maid pinned the last few locks of hair into her fashionablecoiffure.
Penelope set the tray she carried down on a small table and pulled a second chair closer. The countess’s rooms at Tensford House in London were soothing, all done up in greens, and cream and understated elegance.
“Because I’m starving, for one,” she said, seating herself and lifting the lid from a platter of bacon. “We skipped dinner in order to press on and arrive last night, if you’ll recall. And I did not wish to eat alone in the breakfast room on my first morning here. The servants were saying that Tensford is still abed.”
“He is, and let us keep our voices down so that we don’t wake him.” Her gaze rested fondly for a moment on the door that connected the earl’s suite. “And your other reason?” Hope came over to take the other seat. She poured them both a cup of chocolate and rolled her eyes in bliss at the first taste.
“You are the one who insists we must go to Lady Tresham herself, first,” Penelope reminded her.
“I do insist. I have known her a very long time. She is the sort who will not hesitate to steal a suitor out from under you, but neither will she deny or excuse her actions. She talks sense and she speaks the truth, especially with other women. If she is involved in this affair and we confront her, I’m convinced she will admit it.”
“Even if it might incriminate her?”
The countess laughed. “Ellie is one of the most intelligent and canny women I’ve ever known. If she is involved, there will be nothing to incriminate her and no way to prove it.”
“Well then, seeing as you know her so well, and having hosted her in your own home, you should know why we must visit her early. Even in the country, she was a very busy bee. She buzzed about from one social group to another, collecting gossip, knowledge and invitations like pollen, as she went. I doubt she is much different in Town.”
“And?”
“And she never starts all of her buzzing about before noon. It’s half past nine now. If we eat and call for the carriage, how long will it take us to reach her home?”
“Ah. We won’t get there before half past ten, or likely near eleven.”
“Exactly. She’ll be awake, but likely not ready for the day. She won’t escape us so easily.”
