Page 26 of The Scarred Duchess Deal
“No, Your Grace, I would never presume to demand anything of you. However, Tessa is my very best friend and a beloved cousin. Can you really be so surprised that I should wish to spend some time with the man who might rob me of her?”
It was a very convincing display. She looked so genuine it nearly fooled him.
Leo’s eyes narrowed and he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth disapprovingly. “I have seen the way that you speak to your cousin – and if that is the way that you feel is appropriate to treat your very best friend, then I should greatly fear to see how poorly you might treat your enemies.”
Sophie’s jaw dropped. She was rendered speechless for a moment. Sounds babbled from her lips as she struggled to recover. “I… I… you cannot – I do not know what you are implying, Your Grace, but I cannot say I care for it.”
“I would presume not. You do not seem to care for anything or anybody other than yourself.” Leo shook his head in disapproval. “Ah, look, there is Maurice! Come here, you silly feline!”
Leo was not one to normally be very enthusiastic about his grandfather’s pets; he tended to err more on the side of tolerance of the animals as opposed to a fondness for them. But, at that very moment, Maurice, the long-haired white cat was the most marvelous creature that he could have ever laid his eyes upon.
Leo crossed the room and happily snatched the cat up and into his arms. The poor, terrified thing was trembling and attempted to burrow down into his waistcoat in hopes of finding somewhere it perceived as safe. “Let us get you somewhere quiet where you can mourn the loss of one of your nine lives, shall we?”
Happily, he left Sophie behind on her own.
First, he would deposit Maurice somewhere safe, and then he would resume his search for Tessa. She had managed to slip away from dinner without being noticed and he had to admit that he was very nervous because of it. He wished that she could have been here to see Sophie’s face for the last bit of that conversation; he had a feeling that she would have rewarded him with a very large smile indeed.
* * *
“Where is she?” Leo asked himself as he stood on the terrace. He would have thought that she had run to the gardens. It seemed to be something of a regular pattern with her, and he had presumed that she might have even been waiting for him there.
She was not in any of the places that he would have guessed she was. It was most vexing to think that she had absconded before he was ready to be finished speaking with her. His feet carried him upstairs to the section of the house that had been readied for the guests. It was the only other place that she could be hiding – in her room.
While the events of dinner had been wholly and utterly exhausting, he had not thought that she would have retired to bed so quickly.
Leo knocked softly on her door when he reached it. “Tessa?” he called softly. He did not wish to alert anybody in the house that he was calling upon her in her bedroom. They had managed to be alone with one another undetected thus far, and he was not about to change that now – certainly not while they were all under the same roof. Her uncle would think it was a sound battle strategy to smother Leo in his sleep should he think that Leo was compromising his niece. Theodore might be a touch strange, but it was abundantly obvious that he loved his family very deeply, even if he was too traumatized by his time in battle to go about things in the regular fashion. Leo did not think that he would have ever put his family intentionally in harm's way.
“Tessa, are you in there?” Leo called again, hoping for an answer that did not come. His fingers closed around the handle and he slowly allowed himself into the dim room. The candles had already been lit so she must be there. “Are you asleep, My Lady?”
Still no answer. He invited himself into the room and closed the door behind him. He heard the lock click into place as he headed toward the bed – only she was not in there either.
He was about to leave when a soft humming from the adjoining room stopped him. His head tuned in the direction of the bathing chamber and his heart started to race.
“No. You cannot. You rake! See yourself out at once,” Leo muttered to himself. His better nature attempted to appeal to his baser one to no avail. “Do not go in there,” he repeated softly to himself. But his feet were carrying him in that direction anyway. His voice feigned innocence as he rounded the corner. “Tessa?”
The humming cut off abruptly and the slosh of water alerted him to how startled she was. Leo raised a hand modestly to cover his eyes in the hope of making her feel more comfortable – but he desperately wished to peek.
“Leo! You cannot be in here! This is my – you… I am in thebath!” Tessa stammered. He imagined that she was struggling to find a dressing gown to cover herself with from the amount of movement that he could hear.
“No need to be bashful. I do not intend to take up much of your time, My Lady. I simply wished to ensure that you were all right after the events of this evening… perhaps speak with you a little?” Leo tried to force the happy grin from his features but he could not.
Her voice raised an octave as she spoke. “Absolutely not! I am nude! While that might be commonplace for you, I have never… I would not… leave for the other room until I am decent!” Tessa exclaimed.
“Well, that is hardly as much fun now, is it? There is nobody here but us… nobody shall know that I was here in your private space, let alone how indecent you were while in it.” Leo said huskily. It suddenly felt far warmer in this room than it had any right to be.
“Leo… please–” Tessa beseeched.
“If you wish me to leave, I will… but I hope that you will invite me to stay.” His hand dropped and his eyes closed at the same moment. He heard the slosh of water as she struggled to hide herself before she realized that he had closed his eyes. “Perhaps, if I level out the playing field a little bit, you might feel more comfortable?”
He shrugged out of his coat and threw it somewhere behind him before deftly unbuttoning his waistcoat and pulling his shirt from where it was tucked away.
“What are you doing?” Tessa asked, and Leo very much enjoyed hearing the heat in her voice.
“Making us even?”
“But then you would have to be…” Tessa gasped, “No! You cannot possibly be serious!”
Leo grinned and pulled his shirt from his head and cast it aside. “Would it be so very terrible if I was serious?”
