Page 18 of The Rebellious Countess
“Why?”
“Because you dropped your package.”
His response stung, but not any more than knowing she was part of a scheme to buy Scotch. “I was convenient.”
“Convenient and too beautiful to pass by.”
Oh, how she wanted to believe that. “Do you have a title?” Her drive to prove to thetonthat Iseabail’s marriage was not a fluke, that the Blair sisters belonged in society, had been her real undoing.
“No. Sorry.”
He didn’t sound sorry. He sounded like the whole scenario was an inconvenience, to him and no one else. It was a prevalent trait of thetonshe despised. “You’re a mister?”
“No, I’m a knight of His Majesty’s kingdom. Sir Elias Alistair Drake, if you please. Of course you are a lady, as my wife.”
“Well, I suppose it’s better than being a butcher’s wife.”
He winced and refused to meet her gaze.
There was something in that evasiveness, that gave her pause. “Are you a butcher?”
“Of course not.”
“But—” she prompted.
“My father was, before he met my mother and moved from his home to take up her family trade.”
“What trade was that?” She asked.
“It’s irrelevant now.”
Wonderful. She’d wanted to help her sisters on the marriage mart this season, not hurt them, and now they weren’t justbastards of a businessman who lost his home to a gambling debt, but they were sisters to a charlatan who happened to be the son of a butcher.
They wouldn’t be able to secure marriages in Covent Garden—thanks to her.
If she had remained a miss, waited for her second season, and allowed Iseabail and Nash to work their love-match magic on theton, her sisters could have been a success. Except Iseabail and Nash’s marriage had been tainted with scandal, and this would only further it. Plus, her sister Caillen had eloped, only to find herself a widow within the week of her marriage. She had not returned home since. The scandal sheets had run out of fodder to print on the tragedy. The article,Baron Buried After Eloping with a Blair By-blow,had been a society favorite in the rag sheetWhispers of the Ton.It had been unseemly, especially since Caillen had eloped prior to Iseabail’s marriage to the Duke of Ross.
Elias downed his ale when another knock sounded at the door. The same two boys brought in four more buckets of steaming water and emptied them into the tub. Elias spoke quietly to the eldest, and she was almost certain the boy had said something about his size had made finding appropriate clothing difficult. Elias would have to wait a bit longer for them to find suitable clothing. She was so preoccupied with thoughts of bathing while her husband stood by and watched, it barely registered when a maid entered the room and swept up the broken glass.
Elias tossed a coin to each boy and they left without another word.
“They said they haven’t found any clothing for you.”
“Correct.”
“You can’t leave this room while I bathe.” Even to her ears, her voice lacked inflection.
“No.” In that moment, she believed he wished he could leave.
“Move the screen in front of the tub. Then position yourself at the opposite end of the room.”
He bowed his head and did as she requested. Never once flirting or behaving in an untoward manner as he moved the screen, picked up the chair, and crossed the room, where he sat down and crossed his ankles, his long legs jutting out into the room. “When you are done, I will finish my toilette.”
He should look ridiculous sitting there wearing nothing more than a horse blanket wrapped around his waist. It did absolutely nothing to hide his masculine prowess. She wasn’t certain anything could hide the hard planes, the lean sculpted muscle and sinew, once a woman was exposed to them. She also didn’t believe a real gentleman would be that comfortable dressed as he was in front of a lady. Yet she was his wife, and as his wife she would see everything…
Looking at his strong muscular thighs barely hidden from her view reminded her of him suddenly standing up in the trough behind the tavern. The lighting had not been the best, but it had been good enough. Naked as God intended him to be, Elias was glorious. In that moment she swore it was not the serpent that tempted Eve, but rather Adam himself, because when she caught sight of the power of Elias’s manhood, stiff, strong, and proud, her body had instantly readied for what a man and woman did on their wedding night.
“A penny for your thoughts?”
