Page 22 of The Earl's Bluestocking Bride
The drive home passed far more quickly than the ride in the other direction had taken because traffic was far sparser. When they stopped outside Longley House, he thanked the driver and glanced up. Light shone through his bedroom window and also the one farther along, where Kate slept. His mother’s room was dark.
Boden let him in and locked the door. Andrew bid him good night and climbed the stairs to his bedchamber. His eyes were heavy, but his mind was racing too much to be able to sleep soon, so he stopped by the library, found the book he’d been reading, and took it with him.
He opened his bedchamber and came up short, startled. “Kate.”
His sister looked up from the sketch pad resting on her knee. From the doorway, he could tell she’d been shading in the portrait of a person, but he couldn’t tell who. She closed the book and set it aside.
“Andrew. Mother said you wouldn’t mind if I waited for you here.”
“Of course not.” He entered the room and closed the door. “Is everything all right?”
She spun the pencil between her fingers. There were dark smudges along their length and on her palms. Hopefully she hadn’t smeared any of it on his bedding. “Did you meet anyone nice tonight?”
Ah. So she wanted to know how their prospects were looking.
“I did, actually.”
She smiled ever so slightly, relief evident in the expression. “Is she a diamond of the first water?”
He sat on the edge of the bed and bent to remove his boots. “Actually, no.”
“No?”
He didn’t say anything more, knowing it would drive her crazy.
“Tell me,” she whined. “Please, Andrew. I want to know.”
He slipped off one boot and started on the other. “She’s a merchant’s daughter, and I get the impression she’s rather unconventional.”
“A merchant’s daughter?” She sounded intrigued. “How is she unconventional?”
Smiling to himself, he removed the second boot, turned to face her, and recounted his first meeting with Miss Hart.
“I want to meet her,” Kate declared when he’d finished speaking.
He chuckled. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There’s every possibility that Miss Hart was not nearly as taken with me as I was with her.”
Kate scoffed. “Of course she was. All my friends say how handsome you are. I am certain she noticed too.”
“Yes,” he mused. “Perhaps. But there is much more to attraction than appearances. She strikes me as the type ofwoman who will have a firm idea of what she wants, and I’m not certain I fit the bill.”
She frowned. “When will you see her next?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Good. We can plan out what you’re going to say to her together.”
Andrew glanced toward the window. Was he really willing to take advice from his baby sister?
He sighed. “What do you have in mind?”
CHAPTER 6
Amelia’s handflew across the paper as she jotted down ideas about what adventures might await Joceline next.
“Amelia!”
She froze, her hand an inch from the paper. Then, hearing her mother outside her bedchamber, she rushed to hide the paper beneath her pillow. She’d taken to working on her stories in private, since Mrs. Hart somehow always knew when she did so in the library, and she preferred not to deal with any more lectures than necessary.
