Page 61 of The Viscount's Seduction
She shook her head at the wine. “How can you eat?”
“I’m hungry. Keeping up with Father was spoiling my appetite. Is that why you also limited yourself to two bites of food at Hackwell’s?”
She lifted a shoulder. “’Tis a strange way I’m feeling.”
He pulled a chair out, sat down, and patted his lap. “Come and tell me about it.”
She sighed. “Would you first help me out of this dress? I’ve never had anything so lovely, and I would so hate to spoil it.”
She’d been reading his mind. He fisted his hands to control his own urge to rip the gown from her. “Come here then and turn around.”
She looked back at him over her shoulder, a shy smile forming on the lip he’d kissed to a dark shade of pink.
“You’ve never been undressed by a gentleman before?”
The smile faded, a deep blush formed, and she turned away, so that all he could see was the knot of blonde curls quivering on the back of her head.
Something inside him twisted. He’d assumed she was an innocent. Perhaps he’d been wrong.
And would it matter?
He went to work on her laces. “It’s a very nice dress, made lovelier by your beauty. You know you shall have many more dresses, Sirena. As many as you wish.”
“The pin money you agreed to is very generous.” Her voice was shaky, breathless.
When all the fastenings were undone, he pushed the dress off her shoulders and began to unlace her stays. A tight knot at the top needed extra attention. The smooth skin of her back, and the quivers that rippled through her at his touch, kept distracting him.
“There is a damned knot,” he said.
She tensed. He kissed her shoulder. “Pardon my language.”
“Iamstill a virgin,” she said, her voice low and husky. “He did not v-violate me.”
He pulled the knot free, anger roaring through him. Whoever the man was, he was dead.
Rather than speak and frighten her more, he put his lips to a cool stretch of skin, making her shiver, and went back to the laces.
“It was my cousin, the new Glenmorrow. The moment he arrived, I smelled trouble. He w-wooed me. ’Twas improper, and I knew it. There I was, in the same house, a poor relation, no family or chaperone to see to me. I tried…” She paused to swallow, “the vicar sympathized, but he had the living off the new earl.”
“Shhhh.” He turned her around. “You don’t have to talk about it.”
Her lips pressed together firmly and she shook her head. “You say you don’t wish for lies, my lord. I should have told you before…” She took in another deep breath. “He went after me during the dessert course of Sunday dinner. Gr-groped me. I told him…told him to wait until later, wait until the servants were abed. I knew I would have time to sneak away after the meal. He didn’t care about the servants. The footman went to the housekeeper, and she laced his brandy with laudanum, which I didn’t know until later. He bade me sit with him while he drank, but I ran to my room for the bag I’d packed. He followed me and r-ripped my best dress.”
“But you stopped him.”
She shook her head. “The butler bashed him. He was so woozy, you see, from the laudanum, it didn’t take much. They carried him back to the dining room. Propped him in his chair with his head on the table.”
“He didn’t notice?”
“We worked it out so he would blame me.”
“It would be hard to have everyone keep the secret.”
“They sent a maid to distract his valet. And many of the servants had a half-day. In any case, I haven’t heard that he’s sacked anyone. Lady Jane wanted me to bring charges against him, but...”
But, no one would take her word against Glenmorrow’s, a girl this lovely.
She stepped out of her dress and stays, picked them up carefully, draped them over the back of a chair, and faced him in only her chemise.
