Page 23 of Scandalous Heiress
Chapter 5
What a fool he’d been.Thinking,assumingthat Richard intended to propose to Ada Hanniford when all along, he’d planned this elaborate house party with his mother and all of them present to ask Esmerelda Moore to marry him.
“Marvelous to meet you, Miss Hanniford.”After Victor had done the formal honors, Richard practically purred as he bent over her hand.“I will enjoy getting to know you more intimately.Ezzie’s friend is always mine.I should have come home sooner, eh?”
Ada smiled but said not a word to that inference.
Richard took her in.Her eyes, her hair, her lips.“Yes, well.”He cleared his throat.“Do forgive me, Miss Hanniford.Only for the moment, please.Then I shall sit down for a long chat.But I must see my father, first.You understand, I’m sure.Is he up and dressed, do you know, Victor?”
“He is.I visited with him before dawn.”As I always do.As you never do.
“Will you join me?”Richard asked him, one eyelid twitching.
Why?“I’ve plans for the morning.”
Ada folded her hands before her.She must wish to escape us.
“Please do, Victor.”
“Is something the matter?”
“Oh, a little thing you could help me with.”
A woman.Money.
With grace, Ada curtsied.“I shall retire.See you later at luncheon, I assume,” she said to both but her clear blue eyes rested in Victor’s.
“But we’re to walk, Miss Hanniford,” Victor put in before she turned away.“I promised and we shall.Fawkes is to have the maid here in a few minutes.”Hell and gone.He sounded like a boy eager to capture his sweetheart.
“Certainly, if you would like to join me still, Lord Victor, I’d welcome that.”
“Give me a few minutes, will you?I’ll speak with my brother a minute.”
“Where are you two going?”Richard arched a black brow.His tone held a hint of the risqué.“Some place delightful, I hope.”
Did she bristle at his brother’s implication?
“We’re taking a stroll along the river,” he told Richard, his tone even to him, unnecessarily sharp.
“Ah.Good idea!I shall join you both.After this, yes, Miss Hanniford?You don’t mind if I take Victor with me for a few minutes do you?”
I mind.
“Of course not,” she said, but her gaze rested in Victor’s where he saw her concern for him.
Not to worry.I know how to deal with him.
Victor followed Richard into his father’s sitting room, flexing his fingers fighting frustration.Seeking some peace in his soul, he breathed deeply.His meditationexercises with hislao shideserted him.He brimmed, full of emotions, too conflicted.He’d have to sit on the floor in his bedroom this afternoon to seek histao.Hating what he was when he was consumed with negativechi, he had perfected techniques in the past two years that brought him serenity.Except for the last twenty hours since he’d heard his father’s proposition and burned at the nearness of gorgeous, outspoken, tempting, Ada Hanniford.
“Hello, Father!”Richard hailed him as they entered.
“That you, Richard?”their father squinted up at his oldest son.In the corner by the inglenook and raging fire, his father sat in his same large red upholstered Chippendale chair.He put out a shaking hand and repeated his question.
“I am here, Father,” Richard announced and bussed his father on his wrinkled cheek.
“Home.”
“Yes, home.”Richard took a seat in a nearby chair and beamed at the man.One person Richard adored was their father.
