‘Does he, indeed?’
‘Yes, he says he has two left feet.’
‘I have to admit he is right—he would never have made a staff officer since the Beau always insisted they could dance as well as they ride.’
‘I dare say Miss Grantham will love him anyway.’
‘I dare say.’
‘So where are you intending to hold all this dissipation at such short notice?’
‘The dining room and drawing room are the obvious places,’ she said, not quite ready to admit the two large rooms were beyond her in the scant weeks Darius and Fliss were prepared to wait before they married.
‘Hmm, difficult in three weeks, but not impossible,’ he told her after they had inspected the untouched rooms.
She had done her best to ignore them ever since she and Darius arrived in Herefordshire, although Darius would have been quite happy for her to put all her effort into them, but then he would have expected her to sit in the drawing room and receive his neighbours. She had far better things to do and no intention of being disapproved of by another set of genteel gossips after her experiences in Bath. So she concentrated on kitchens and bedchambers and the smaller parlour and morning room once used by the family.
‘As it is high summer, Miss Donne has suggested using lengths of muslin or gauze to make a pretend marquee and hide the smoke stains on the ceiling,’ she explained as they stood in the once-grand dining room. ‘And we can put flowers in front of the damaged wainscoting. Maybe the wedding guests will not look closely if the food is lavish and a good polish will hide a multitude of sins.’
‘In here, perhaps, but not in the drawing room where there is no feast or wedding toasts to distract them.’
‘Maybe after all those toasts they will not care the chairs are old-fashioned and worn and the cushions and curtains moth-eaten.’
‘Maybe not, but I owe your brother and Miss Grantham Juno’s safety and well-being. They gave her a place to run to when she was desperate and a roof over her head when she got here. I can never thank them enough for being here for her when I was too far away to realise what was going on. Making sure their wedding is memorable for the right reasons feels like the best I can do to say thank you to them, with your help, of course. My people can help bring it about if you will supervise.’
‘I know Darius will have already argued that you owe nothing.’
He stopped and frowned at the dust and neglect around them. ‘This fine old place has been left to tumble down,’ he said severely.
‘Yes, and I know when I am being diverted from a scent, Lord Stratford,’ she told him. ‘And what people do you mean?’
‘The servants at Stratford Park have been idle all summer so they might as well come here and make themselves useful before they forget how.’
‘And why do I feel as if I am being presented with a fait accompli?’
‘I have no idea,’ he said. ‘Perhaps we should look at the mess of weeds and brambles your brother calls a garden next,’ he added and they were already on their way out of the open front door so here was another one.
‘What about it?’ she said with an annoyed glance at the wilderness all around them. ‘And I do not think either of us would call it anything so grand.’
‘If it is tamed, the wedding guests can wander round it.’
‘Maybe it will be wet.’
‘Oh, ye of little faith,’ he teased her and somehow it was almost comfortable strolling along at his side as if she really were a lady.
It was so tempting to drift along in his powerful wake. ‘You are a very managing man,’ she told him curtly.
Chapter Ten
Alaric was doing so well at reining in his baser instincts until he paid more attention to the rebellious glint in Marianne’s eyes than where he was going. The tip of his cane slid on a patch of loose stones and quick as lightning she grabbed his arm, as if she thought he might break if she let him fall. He grasped her waist on an instinct he did not quite trust and told himself it was to steady them both. The novelty of being protected by a beautiful woman threatened all his resolutions not to kiss her, so he had to stop this before it got out of hand. He used his good leg to stop the slide and managed not to curse out loud in front of a lady, but however hard he tried to he could not make himself let her go.
‘You must take more care,’ she warned huskily.
‘So must you,’ he cautioned. He heard her breath stutter, then quicken. Her lips were parted and she licked them as if they suddenly felt dry and that was what really undid him. He was kissing her before his mind could scream no. It felt as if he had been starving for her mouth, her lips and her startled response as he deepened their kiss since the first moment he had laid eyes on her. And she gave herself up to their kiss as if this was what they were born for, so what had he been waiting for? You, an inner voice whispered.
With her lips soft yet demanding as they blotted out the world together, he felt as if they could do anything; be lovers; trust one another completely; be everything to one another. Heat and light and need shot through him and he groaned into her luxury of a mouth. He drew her closer, shaped the back of her head with shaking hands
