Page 12 of The Viscount in her Bedroom
~oOo~
After a pleasant dinner with the Wade ladies, Louisa followed them to the drawing room. As an hour passed, and embroidery began to bore her, she admitted to herself that she was waiting to see if Lord Wade joined them. She cursed herself for selfishness, but she’d missed talking to men. Oh, she’d conversed with her brothers by marriage, but that was not the same thing. Men thought differently; they always said what they were thinking. It was refreshing.
It was not too shallow to like a man’s attention—was it?
When the ladies rose to retire, Louisa said, “Lady Wade, would you mind if I borrowed a book from your library?”
“Of course, Miss Shelby,” Lady Wade said. “Would you like Georgie to show you the way?”
“It’s just down the hall, isn’t? Miss Wade gave me a fine tour this afternoon.”
Miss Wade blushed.
“If you need company,” Lady Wade began.
“Oh, no, please don’t trouble anyone on my account. I could be browsing a long time. Have a good night, and I’ll see you in the morning.”
They parted in the corridor, and Louisa found the library easily enough. Oil lamps glowed softly on the desk and several tables. Books lined the walls, floor to ceiling, and she sighed with delight. She had never been a truly dedicated student, but she loved to read novels.
At the far end of the room, the double doors to the conservatory were thrown wide. Without the sun shining through the glass ceiling, it looked dark and full of shadows. But the odors of earth and vegetation after a cold winter drew her. She picked up a candleholder, lit the candle at a lamp, and walked into the conservatory. The paths were brick, the shrubbery so dark a green that they appeared black even by candlelight. Fading into the blackness overhead, palm trees towered toward the glass ceiling. She was staring up at the stars, when she suddenly tripped over something in the path and went sprawling face first into a group of plants. Her candle went out even as she heard a man’s startled exclamation as he fell onto the ground, their legs entangled.
“By God, are you all right?” he demanded.
Lord Wade. And she’d tripped over him as if he were a random piece of furniture.
“I am so sorry,” she said breathlessly, trying to find a way to separate without touching him further. Touching him made her think forbidden thoughts about what he looked like under his clothing, something that had always been an embarrassing preoccupation of hers where he was concerned.
“Ah, Miss Shelby,” he murmured.
She must have knocked him from the bench he’d been sitting on. When she turned onto her side, her face raked by fern leaves, she realized that her thigh slid up his as she moved. Her skirts were coming up as she struggled, and that only made her more and more frantic. Her heart was beating far too fast, her face was flushed with heat—but all she could think about was the hardness of his leg entwined with hers. No other man had ever been able to fluster her like he could.
“Stay still,” he said, “and let me extricate myself. I’m not the one with my face in a shrub.”
“How did you know?” she demanded, trying to push back her hair which had become caught on twigs. “It’s so dark with the candle out.”
“I know what’s next to the bench I always sit on.”
“Oh. Oh!” She gasped. “I didn’t mean—about the candle—” Oh heavens, she was the biggest fool.
He drew his legs away. She thought he might have tried to save her from embarrassment by pulling down her skirts as he retreated. She should be upset—but she wasn’t. She wished she had a fan to wave in front of her face.
“Think nothing of it,” he said. “I tell people it’s good to see them all the time. And that embarrasses them.”
“Your grandmother finds it amusing.”
“She’s encouraging.”
Louisa was finally sitting upright, her hands in the dirt behind her. Lord Wade rose to his feet above her, and by the faint light from the library, she could see him looking down at her.
Looking at where he knew she was. He wasn’t really looking—thank goodness, because her knees were still showing. She tugged on her skirts.
“Does anything hurt?” he asked.
“No.”
“Can you see?”
“A little. There’s light from the library.”
