Page 49 of Snowbound with the Scoundrel
“You know, a kangaroo.”Rupert bent both arms at the elbows, holding his hands up by his shoulders, and gave a couple of hops.“Bouncy sort of creature.Comes from New South Wales.”
Clarissa shook herself.“Yes, I am familiar withwhata kangaroo is.What I am failing to grasp is why Mr.Smith-Nugent-Smith would believe he could catch one, much less ride it.”
Rupert shrugged, dropping his arms.“That, I can’t tell you.But Smith-Nugent-Smith sneaked over to Queen Charlotte’s menagerie at Kew and gave it a go.”He shook his head.“I wasn’t there, but I saw him the next day.Wasn’t moving too well.Seems he had a deuced bad time of it.But it was in the betting book at White’s and everything, so he had to pay up.He was quite put out about it.”
Claire shook her head.“Still, as irritating as it doubtlessly was, it’s over and done with.I don’t see that murdering Oliver Baxter would solve anything.”
“I suspect you’re right.Let’s see, there’s also…”
Rupert proceeded to relate every scandal he knew involving the house party guests.Which was quite a few, as members of thetonwere rather talented when it came to scandal, and his brain was talented at remembering these things.There was Francis Ditherington, a young blood just out of university.Baxter had once made a withering remark about his brand-new fuchsia satin waistcoat.Then there was Lady Dewdney, whose daughter Baxter had declined to dance with back before he’d married Rosalind.He hadn’t bothered to expend much tact, from what Rupert had heard.
“Nicholas Higginbotham used to hold Baxter’s seat in Parliament,” Rupert offered.“But then, four years ago, Baxter defeated him in the election.And then there’s Phyllis Cuthbert—the gossips all thoughtshewould be the one to marry Baxter, but then her brother went and lost her dowry at the gaming tables, so he wound up marrying her cousin instead.”
“Rupert!”Claire laughed.“Go back!Do you mean to tell me that the man Oliver Baxter ousted from his seat in Parliament is in attendance at this very house party?That’s quite the coincidence.”
Rupert paused his pacing.“You know, it does seem like a better reason to hold a grudge than a man having insulted your waistcoat.”
Claire started to reply but was cut off by a familiarclick, distinct in the nighttime silence of the castle.He recognized that sound.
He and Claire turned toward the door in horror.
Someone had turned the knob, but, as it had done before, the door stuck, buying them scant seconds.
Not that Rupert was doing anything with those seconds.Oh, no—he was standing in the middle of the room, gaping at the door like one of those big-eyed stuffed monkeys they had over at the British Museum.
Suddenly, Claire reached out, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and hauled him over the back of the sofa.
He landed on top of her, and his whole body jolted.
The sofa faced the fire, which meant its back was toward the door, so they had a bit of concealment, but not much.
Rupert tried to think, but deuce take it all, he wasn’t so good at thinking in the best of times, and having a soft, squirming Claire beneath him on the sofa was not enhancing what few cognitive abilities he had.
He could hear whoever was out in the hall struggling to open the door.“Claire,” he hissed, “what are we going to do?What possible excuse could we have for being alone together in the library at midnight?”
Claire’s only answer was to wrap her arms around his neck and press her lips firmly against his.
Chapter22
In Clarissa’s defense, what choice did she have?
The only plausible excuse for her and Rupert to be alone in the library at midnight was that they were having a romantic rendezvous.
Kissing himmade sense.She was doing itforthe mission.
And, oh, all right—she did want to kiss him!As incomprehensible as it would have seemed two weeks ago, she quite liked Rupert Dupree.She liked him, and she had certainly liked the way he kissed her under the mistletoe.If she was being honest, she had been hoping she might have the chance to do it again.
So, when the opportunity presented itself, of course, she had seized it with both hands.
Considering her first kiss had occurred just that afternoon and had been a chaste affair at that, Clarissa was excruciatingly self-conscious about whether she was doing this right.Her sister, Eleanor, and her brother-in-law, Jasper, seemed to spend an unusual amount of time kissing, and Clarissa had walked in on them enough times that she knew she was supposed to use her tongue.Tentatively, she opened her mouth and ran her tongue across Rupert’s bottom lip.
He groaned against her mouth, threading his hands into her hair.He certainly didn’tseemto mind her clumsy efforts, so Clarissa tried again, this time stroking her tongue across his top lip.His whole body started shaking, which seemed like a good sign.
She was summoning her courage to do it again when she heard the door give way, followed by the soft sound of footsteps on the library’s plush carpet.
They were about to be discovered, and here she was, worrying about whether Rupert thought she was good at kissing!Although… they needed to make it look convincing, and Rupert had gone stiff as a board.So, she ran her hands down his back, all the way to the area she had been covertly admiring for the last two weeks.
She filled her palms with the glorious curves of his buttocks.And then, shesqueezed.
