Page 44 of Lady of Providence
“Perfect,” he finished for her with a grin, and she sighed in exasperation.
“What?” he asked, bringing his other arm behind his head in over to prop it up to look at her. “Do you not agree?”
Her cheeks flushed a very pretty pink as she swatted at him. “I will never forget it.”
Gabriel bristled slightly at her words — words which suggested that this was a one-time event with little chance of recurrence. But that, he determined, would certainly not be the case. No, his decision had been made the moment she stepped through the door of his study. Lady Elizabeth Moreland would become his wife. Even if it did take some time for her to realize it.
* * *
Elizabeth settledinto the comfortable seats of the carriage as it conveyed her home. While she had refused to allow Gabriel to accompany her, when he found out she had hired a hack to bring her to his house, he had insisted that she return home in one of his many carriages — one, he assured her, that was nondescript, with no suggestion of who might be the owner. She had finally relented and now, with the cool night air flowing through the open window onto her flushed skin, she had a moment to consider all that had just happened.
Gabriel had been right when he had said it was perfect. In all honesty, Elizabeth had little remembrance of the first time they had come together, so hurried and hasty they had been that night in the gardens. But she would never forget tonight for the rest of her life.
Elizabeth knew there was little chance she would ever marry. Not now, not when she was so focused on her role at the bank. She would not marry someone who wasn’t of her choosing — and so far, no one had fit such a role.
No one but Gabriel. A duke. A man who had broken her heart. A man who could not be trusted — not only for his indiscretions but for the fact that life was a game to him, everyone within it pawns for him to move around on his chessboard. Elizabeth didn’t like to be played and, if she were being honest, she was worried that Gabriel would soon become bored with her, as he was with everything else in his life after a time.
But tonight, for one night, she had forgotten all of that. She had given in to her desires, the longings that she had been unable to quench. She knew part of her would always love Gabriel, no matter what else had occurred. And that part had better be satisfied now, for this was never happening again.
CHAPTER21
Having only found sleep by the early hours of the morning, when Elizabeth finally rose the next afternoon, she felt as though she had wasted an entire day. There was so much to be done, and here she had squandered most of the working hours in bed. Though now that she was awake, she was unsure of just how productive she would be, for her mind was in a fog and her limbs seemed to feel heavy as she dragged them down the stairs. She had slept a bit, true, but it was a restless sleep, one filled with thoughts of Gabriel and the uncertainty of her future. Would she continue to relive this memory with him over and over, both her body and heart aching over the fact that this would never happen again?
After a quick conversation with the housekeeper about making up a plate for a late lunch she would eat at her desk, Elizabeth began to make her way into the study but was stopped by a voice from the drawing room.
“Elizabeth?” her grandmother called. “You have a visitor.”
A visitor? Elizabeth began to follow her grandmother’s voice, wondering if it would be Sarah, or perhaps Phoebe, and she contemplated whether she should tell them about last night.
Then she stepped into the drawing room and her jaw dropped.
For there, in the pink corner chair, sat Gabriel, leaning back into the velvet, a smug smile on his face as she walked through the door and took him in.
“Lady Elizabeth,” he said, standing. He placed his cup of tea on the table in the middle of the room and walked toward her, stopping in front of her and taking one of her hands in his. He lifted it to his lips, pressing a kiss to the back of it, and Elizabeth’s cheeks warmed as she remembered where else his lips had recently been.
She quickly regained her composure, hoping her grandmother hadn’t noticed the brief lack of it, though Gabriel was already looking at her knowingly. When she glanced up at him, he held her gaze for but a moment before he slowly, subtly winked at her.
Had he not heard anything she had said to him last night? Of course more likely, knowing him, he had completely disregarded her words, instead, simply doing as he pleased.
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at him as she tried to assess just what he was up to this time, but he quickly released her hand and returned to his seat, picking up his small teacup as he went. The fact that he, a big, broad-chested male, looked so at ease sitting in the dainty chair with a tiny cup of tea in his hand was not lost on her. Was there anywhere he didn’t look as though he naturally belonged?
“Well,” Justine said, looking back and forth between the two of them, clearly sensing the tension now thick in the air. “I suppose I will leave the two of you. The door will stay open just a crack so that no can ever suggest that I was anything but a proper chaperone.”
Elizabeth did laugh slightly at those words, for her grandmother was far from a chaperone, nor had she ever any intentions to be one. But it did help to maintain appearances, though with whom, Elizabeth had no idea. When the door shut nearly all the way, leaving the two of them alone, Elizabeth rounded on Gabriel, who had made himself quite comfortable, crossing one leg over the other as he reclined in the chair.
Elizabeth’s grandfather had rarely frequented this drawing room, and so her grandmother had decorated it as she chose. The walls were a pale gold, the curtains cream, and some of the accents — including the chair upon which Gabriel sat — were a decidedly pinkish color.
Not that it seemed to bother Gabriel.
“What are you doing here?” she asked pointedly, remaining standing herself so he would know that she was expecting him to be leaving shortly.
“I told you I would be coming,” he responded, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Yes, you did, but that was before…”
“Before we made love?”
Elizabeth didn’t think her cheeks had ever before flamed so hot. She cleared her throat. “Before I explained to you why I felt it was best that we didn’t see one another anymore.”
