Page 35 of An Earl to Remember
“Lizzie,” a small, hurt voice cried. “We arenevereating Midge!”
Georgianna groaned when Sarah turned and ran away, forgetting whatever had brought her to the kitchens.
“Lizzie,” she rebuked softly. “Please go and soothe her. There shall be no more jesting about eating Hetty or Midge.”
Her sister flushed, nodded, and departed the kitchen, closing the door behind her.
“You are good with them,” the earl said, his gaze intent on hers.
She glanced up, feeling unaccountably nervous. “They are my sisters. I…I love them, of course.”
“You are more than their sister,” he said with a considering frown. “You parent them.”
“I…” She hurried over to the large iron pot, lifted the handle, and stirred the savory stew. Georgianna answered without taking her attention from the stove. “We lost our mama almost two years after Anna was born…and our papa…I always believed he was not able to live without her. He died in his sleep only weeks later.” She covered back the pot, then turned to the earl.
“Why is that look of guilt in your eyes?”
She made a wry sound of disbelief. “I do not think you know me well enough to determine it is guilt I feel.”
“Tell me then, wife, what thought made you wince and bite into your lower lip with enough strength to leave a mark?”
Her pulse quickened, and she lifted a hand to her lips, feeling the small bruise surely forming. “I…” Georgianna expelled a slow breath. “I have always felt I gave Papa permission to leave us.”
He lifted a brow. “One cannot control matters of life and death. He died in his sleep, and unless you poisoned him, you cannot take that burden on your shoulders.”
“You are o-outrageous!” she spluttered, choking back a laugh. “I assure you there was no poison involved. Papa fell into a terrible state of melancholy after Mama’s passing, and…and only a few hours before he went to his reward, he asked me if I was capable of taking care of my sisters. I said yes, and he made me promise it twice more. I thought he only needed time to grieve, but my words released him, and instead of fighting, he gave up on life and on us.”
“I am damn sorry,” he said gruffly.
She had never said those words to another, and that she would share this hidden pain in her heart alarmed Georgianna.
Why is it so easy with you?
He leaned his hips against the edge of the stone counter and folded his arms across his chest. “You have been alone with your sisters for what…four or five years?”
“Five years and two months.”
His gaze caressed over her, from the tip of her scuffed boots to her hair bundled tightly beneath a cap and hairnet. “You do not look much above one and twenty. How old are you, wife?”
She smiled. “I am three and twenty, sir.”Soon to be four and twenty.
“You’ve done a wonderful job. Never doubt it.”
A light laugh escaped her simply because she felt…happy to be having a conversation with someone aside from her sisters.
“You have a lovely smile and even lovelier laugh.”
Georgianna made an obvious effort to collect herself, blushing fiercely.
The earl took a step closer, the warmth of him caressing her senses. “Do I not adore you with praises and compliments, wife? Your blushing reaction says I do not; how remiss of me.”
A slow, torturous ache rolled through her. “I…”
He touched her cheek with the back of his fingers. “Do I not tell you how soft and sensual your skin is to the touch, how much I ache to kiss this lush mouth of yours, lick the pulse that is fluttering madly as we speak at your throat?”
You gorgeous, rakish beast.
Wicked longing opened inside her like a desperate flower in search of rainfall. If Georgianna was not careful, he would take her virtue and her heart like a thief in the night, leaving her in ruined shambles and heartbreak. Despite knowing this, when the earl lowered his head, a soft sigh of anticipation and need escaped her.
