Page 27 of Not Quite a Lady
A sudden horrid thought struck her. Perhaps he had not believed what she had said about Adrian. ‘Just because I…because just now, we…It doesn’t mean I let Adrian.’
‘Lily my sweet, I know. I can tell. You have no need to reassure me.’
Lily found herself on her feet, being pushed gently but inexorably towards the house.
‘Lily–’
‘Lily? Are you out there?’ It was Aunt Herrick.
‘I am coming, Aunt,’ she called and turned back. The garden was empty. He was gone.
‘Hell.’ Jack wrenched off his dressing gown, balled it up and threw it into a far corner. ‘Hell.’
He sat down, yanked off his right boot and hurled it after the dressing gown: it landed with a more satisfying thud, to be followed by the left one.
‘What am I doing?’
The answer, as the rest of his clothing was tossed onto the chair, was all too obvious: he was getting seriously aroused by Miss Lily France. Worse, he was acting on his fantasies.
Irritably he climbed into bed and set himself to ignore the demanding ache in his loins. In fact he was not at sure that lust was all it was. That was worrying.
Why Lily France of all women? She was rich, spoilt, obsessed with shopping and social climbing and had wincingly bad taste in everything from interior decoration to men.
She was also beautiful, brave, loyal, bright – when her brain was not addled thinking about titled husbands – and in need of a defender. And kissing her was heaven and hell all in oneinnocent bundle.
Whereas I need an investor who can afford to take a robust attitude to risk – which rules out a woman. And I need an encounter with Adrian Randall like I need a hole in the head.Anotherhole in the head,he corrected himself.
And I most certainly do not need a romantic entanglement with a woman. Any woman.
So, borrowing money from Lily was out of the question. Wasting time thinking about Lily was out of the question. Making Randall and the bastard who had insulted her this evening pay would have to wait until he had some plan for achieving that without, as Lily very reasonably pointed out, ending up on the scaffold.
He had a duty to protect any woman who came into his orbit and who needed his assistance, but that was as far as it went.
At home he had four women who were his responsibility, a mine and an entire village whose livelihood depended on that mine.
If he failed he supposed he could always sell up and retreat to the farm, and the family would become yeomen farmers once again. There were worse things, it was how they had begun.
But that was no help to the two hundred souls whose fortunes were inextricably tied to the mine. The men and lads who worked down it, their families, the small shopkeepers and tradesmen who supplied them.
Was he going to go home having failed because he was becoming obsessed with a merchant’s red-headed heiress? No. Jack slid down under the blankets, smiling rather grimly as he realised that sobering thoughts and resolutions had not the slightest impact on his state of more than uncomfortable arousal.
‘Whathaveyou been about?’ Aunt Herrick marched intoLily’s bedchamber in her niece’s wake and shut the door firmly in Janet’s face. ‘Lady Billington said tonight was a disaster.’
‘It was.’ Lily shrugged.
It was hard to keep any sort of mental balance. The soirée had been a nightmare, the last few minutes in the garden with Jack had been a dream. Except surely good dreams did not leave your heart hammering and your mouth dry and the most improper feelings turning your insides to jelly.
‘Lady Billington says the only thing to be done is to retreat to the country and try again in the summer. Now, where can we go? She suggests Brighton, which means we ought to think about renting something as soon as possible, or all the best places will be reserved.’ Her aunt’s brow was furrowed in thought.
‘And what do we tell people?’
Lily let her cloak fall to the floor and sat down. An hour ago she had been ready to follow her chaperone’s advice and run away. Now she was not so sure.
She was unused to not getting what she wanted. Of course Jack was right and therewerethings money would not buy.
But as well as money she had a brain, and pride and – Jack. Not that she was quite certain how he could contribute to her reinstatement in polite society, but there was an idea stirring at the back of her mind.
‘Not yet,’ she said slowly, thinking as she spoke. ‘Not until I try something tomorrow, and not until after Lady Frensham’s dance.
