away even as something heedless inside her
“There is bacon, my lord,” Emily said. “The stable boy, Ned, found some in the shed. One would imagine salted fish could be had as well, but apparently not.”
Lord Blackwood moved around Kitty and took up the coffeepot.
“’Twas a lean season for the herring.”
Emily studied him curiously. “How do you come to know that?”
“’Twas in the papers, lass.” He smiled.
Kitty could not prevent it: a breath of pleasure stole from her lips. He glanced at her, but briefly.
“Will ye be regretting the lack o fish too, maleddy?” He passed her a cup of coffee as though he were a footman, this man of great wealth who stood to inherit a dukedom. He dressed with careless ease, not slovenly although without the slightest hint of fashion. He had large hands, strong and ridiculously underused by the delicate cup he proffered. Hands more suited to chopping wood. Or shearing sheep. Or holding a woman indecently close upon an icy stoop.
Her cheeks warmed.
She accepted the cup. “Not at all, my lord.” She tempered her tone with great care. “I prefer caviar.”
His gaze met hers, lazily hooded on the surface yet perfectly aware, as though he of all persons knew she donned her hauteur like a cloak.
Kitty held her breath.
His mouth lifted at the edge.
A breeze of cold air came with the sound of a door opening and the thunking patter of large paws in the front foyer. Then the dogs themselves appeared, a gentleman of about Kitty’s age following.
Drawing off his greatcoat and hat, he surveyed the chamber with a quick, light glance. He bowed to Kitty with youthful elegance, all correctness, and entirely unlike the large man standing on the other side of the chamber whose enormous dogs jostled his legs.
“Good day, ma’am.”
Kitty curtsied.
“Maister Yale,” Lord Blackwood supplied apparently by way of introduction as he leaned back against the sideboard. “Leddy Kath’rine and Leddy Marie Antoine.”
“How do you do, Lady Katherine?” Mr. Yale bowed, then turned to Emily. “Ma’am.”
“Sir, I see you have been outside already,” Emily said without looking up from carving a sausage into bits. “How did you find the snow?”
“Cold and wet.” He returned his attention to Kitty. “I regret that your journey has been stymied, my lady.”
“Thank you, sir. In fact we are mere miles from Willows Hall, Lady Marie’s home.”
“And do you travel alone, ma’am?” He looked about curiously.
“My governess was lost on the road behind,” Emily said.
“I am crushed to hear it. I daresay she is quite cold and wet now as well.”
Emily peered at him over the rim of her spectacles. “What an odd thing to say.”
“And yet an odder state for her to be in.” He quirked a brow. “At first opportunity Blackwood and I shall take our horses out in search of her carriage.”
“Thank you, sir,” Kitty said. “Are you also close to your destination? Lord Blackwood would have us believe you are on a fishing trip, but I fear he esteems teasing more than truth.”
Mr. Yale smiled. “Your fears are well founded, my lady. My friend enjoys laughing.”
“I hope not at the expense of others.” She felt the earl’s gaze upon her.
“Never. But he is an odd fellow, s’truth. It is often difficult to understand him.” Mr. Yale glanced at the coffee and bread. “Will you break your fast?”
In knots, her stomach protested at the mere idea. “I shall await the promised eggs.” She gestured for him to sit.
He did so, across from Emily. “Lady
“Shakespeare.
“Ah.”
Finally she looked up. “Are you an admirer of the Bard’s history plays, sir?”
“Only the comedies.”
Emily’s brow creased. He grinned, and it sat very well on his face. A scruffy gray head bumped beneath his arm. He fed the dog his bread. “Your hounds, Blackwood, will eat us out of the house before the snow is melted. On the stoop just now I watched this one tear through two pound of sausage as though it were a thimbleful.”
“He’s a pup,” came the quiet response. “He haesna yet learnt his manners.”
Mr. Yale twisted his shoulders to regard the earl, a sliver of a smile on his lips. Lord Blackwood tilted his head, but he did not grin. Something shimmered through Kitty’s insides—not the delicious liquid heat now, but more insistent and uncomfortable. She moved to the window and pressed the draperies open. Without, all was blinding white and the heavens still heavy with clouds.
“Mr. Yale, have you studied the road? Is it passable?” She had gone out to glimpse the rear yard, directed to that view by Mr. Milch. The stable boy, Ned, had shoveled that stoop before tackling the front, to make a path to the chicken coop. Thus, because of laying fowl, Kitty now knew that the Earl of Blackwood’s eyes were of the darkest brown, like coffee, and that the flicker of steel behind those rich depths was not in fact a product of her imagination.
Something cold resided within him. It made her shiver, even as his gaze on her now turned her warm. She did not have to look at him to know he watched her.
But perhaps she imagined it.
She glanced at him. He met her gaze, then his slipped away, and with it her breath.
“We shan’t have use of even a saddle horse for two or three days, I suspect.” Mr. Yale skewered a sausage and fed it to the dog drooling at his knee.
“Days?” Emily looked hopeful. “Past Christmas, do you imagine?”
“Unless a vast melt comes of a sudden.” He drawled this.
“The sky is still quite gray,” Kitty murmured. “We shall miss church.”
“I don’t know about that, Lady Katherine. It is but Monday. In six days the road should again be passable. The mail coach will come through and dredge a path.”
“Wednesday is Christmas Day.” She had not ever passed a Christmas without attending church with her mother at the cathedral in town or the chapel at Savege Park. But perhaps this year Mama would attend on the arm of Lord Chamberlayne. “Will you miss not going to church for Christmas, Marie Antoine?”
Emily shook her head. “Not really.”
Lord Blackwood reached to the table, took up a piece of bread, and moved toward the rear foyer.
He returned in a moment with his greatcoat and, chewing, slung the coat around his broad shoulders.
“Come.” The dogs followed him out the front door.
The innkeeper entered the room. “Eggs for my lords and ladies!” He had an affable air and a platter of steaming food.
“Only one lord, and he has gone out.” Emily accepted a dish with a sidelong glance at her table companion. Mr. Yale tucked into his meal.
“If you’re needing aught else, don’t hesitate to ask it of Mrs. Milch or myself.”
“Mr. Milch,” Kitty said, “is there a church near the village?”
“In it, my lady.” He departed.
Kitty sat down gingerly on a bench, her spine erect, hands not entirely steady. She stared at the doorway to the front entrance. She was being a fool. In mere minutes a Scottish lord who barely spoke a word she understood and did not bother to excuse himself from the presence of ladies had made her blush, tremble, and lose her tongue. Renowned in society for a cool facade that masked a heart filled with vengeance, she was now behaving like a thorough ninnyhammer.
“Kitty, have you brought any books?”
She swallowed her distraction. “Yes.”
