Page 35 of A Duke in Pursuit of Passion
"I did not wish to worry you. I was going to tell you in the morning that I intend to meet him in the park tomorrow at midday."
Again, Ella flinched, expecting him to be angry. Instead, he sighed as though he was disappointed, and somehow, that was worse.
"You enjoy getting yourself in dangerous situations, don't you?"
Surprisingly, he pulled her into his arms, guiding her head down onto his chest. "Thank you for telling me. What else do I need to know?"
Ella lay upon his chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeat beneath her ear as she reeled off the entire conversation she'd had with Mr Giles and how he believed her to be a wealthy heiress. And when she was finished, he stroked her hair and told her, "You are a smart woman, Ella."
Ella scoffed silently at that. Lying there as she was with him, she wasn't entirely sure she was very smart. But there was one thing for sure; she was the happiest she had been since her sister had gone missing, no, since Nate had disappeared from her life.
"I'll have Mack and a few of the men prepared for the morning," he assured her.
"Is that wise?"
Nate gripped her chin and forced her face up to meet his gaze. "I am not allowing you to go anywhere near that man alone."
"He might be frightened off by them," Ella protested. Who was to say he would even approach her if he saw her with another man.
"Who said anything about him seeing them?" Nate said, and before she could say another word, he kissed her again. The way he pressed his rock-hard manhood against her told her he was entirely done talking.
Not yet ready to sleep, Ella invited him on top of her once more, feeling as though she never wanted the magic of this night to end.
In a matter of hours, she had found her first proper lead on her sister and properly reunited with the man she had loved ever since she was a little girl. She wasn't sure the day could have gone any better if she had tried.
"I've missed you, Ella," Nate whispered into her ear as he made love to her for the second time.
Chapter 21
At dawn, after only a few hours of sleep and a night full of love making, Nathaniel couldn't bring himself to disturb Lady Ella. And so he slipped his arm carefully out from beneath her, pausing with his breath held as he waited for her to settle once more. Leaning down, he chanced a kiss upon her forehead before he grabbed his garments from where they had fallen on the floor the night before.
Sneaking to the door as he slid them on, he took one last glance at the bed with his hand upon the doorknob. Lady Ella, somehow, was even more beautiful when she was asleep. All the stress and concern of the daylight hours was wiped from her face, and she looked quite content, her eyelashes fluttering upon her cheeks as though she were dreaming.
"Sweet dreams," Nathaniel whispered into the near darkness of the room before he slipped out and headed directly for the servants’ quarters to find Mack. There was much to prepare for and so little time to do it.
The corridor of the servants’ quarters at the very top of his aunt's house was dreadfully cold, and he had to hold his robe tightly shut against it as he knocked upon Mack's door and awaited a response.
The sound of scuffling inside alerted him to Mack's presence though he thought he could hear more than one voice if he listened closely. And when the door was opened, he realised he was right.
Though Mack answered the door, with Nathaniel's height, he was immediately able to see over the servant's shoulder to the woman standing behind him. Alice!
The maid, though fully dressed, looked quite dishevelled, and though her head was bowed, he could see the flush to her cheeks that said she was embarrassed to have been caught in such a scandalous situation.
Though seeing her there startled him, he did not begrudge his servant nor Lady Ella's for whatever had come between them. It was little business of his, especially after the fact he had just come from the maid's mistress's bed, a place he had no business being either.
And so, he decided it best to act as though he had not even noticed her there. Tightening his gaze upon Mack, he explained, "I need you to collect together our most trustworthy men with great haste."
"Yes, My Lord, of course," Mack responded with a bow of his head. Nathaniel made a point of stepping sideways slightly so he could not catch his eyes upon Alice again. It truly was none of his business.
Though he couldn't help wondering just how long the two servants had been close enough to be found sharing time in Mack's bedroom. Thinking back, he imagined their time on the ship and how he had barely seen either of them while they were sharing the servants’ area of the ship. It was no surprise the two had become close.
I ought to have seen it sooner,Nathaniel thought, though he quickly realised he had been too preoccupied with trying to find Lady Louisa and his conflicting feelings over Lady Ella.
"My Lord, what would you have us do?" Mack asked, startling Nathaniel out of his thoughts, and when he focused on his manservant's face again, he saw that the man had raised his eyebrow with concern.
"Lady Ella had an encounter with Mr Giles last night," Nathaniel explained, and Alice gasped while Mack looked just as shocked, his lips hardening into a thin line as though he was already mentally preparing himself for what came next.
"Why didn't she say anything to me?" Alice said in barely more than a whisper, and Nathaniel felt his stomach clench with sympathy for the maid. He could imagine that if her relationship with Lady Ella was as close as his own with Mack, she was likely feeling slightly betrayed.
