Page 51 of The Moonstone Governess
“I know very well what it is,” Daire said with an irritated growl. Since when had Hollingsworth become so wise? Daire supposed he wasn’t the only man thinking about what he wanted out of life and sensing something important was missing.
“Well?” his friend prompted him. “Have you met anyone whose happiness you would put ahead of your own?”
The image of Brenna with her bandaged head and big doe eyes sprang into Daire’s head.
Bollocks.
“No, Hollingsworth. I haven’t.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Daire said, trying not to sound impatient.
Hollingsworth patted him on the back. “Then I have one question for you.”
Daire nodded. “Go ahead, ask it.”
“My friend, are you lying to me or to yourself?”
Chapter Ten
Brenna spent theday being treated like a queen.
Goodness, one could easily get used to this pampering.
The inn’s staff, at the duke’s insistence, waited on her hand and foot. His suite, which was the finest in the inn, had now been turned over to her for the night. “Felicity, stop bouncing on the duke’s bed,” she called to her cousin from the sitting room. “One would think you lived in a hovel and had never seen a proper bedchamber before.”
Felicity ignored her. “I have never seen a four-poster bed this size. It is massive. Why won’t you come in here and stretch out on it? Thechaise longuewill not be nearly as comfortable. You should sleep in here and not out there in that narrow thing. What if you roll off it and bump your head again? But you won’t fall out of this bed. It is the size of a frigate.”
Brenna laughed. “Ow, don’t make jokes. It only hurts my scalp where the doctor sewed the stitches.”
She had taken a nap in the duke’s bed earlier this afternoon because there had been too many comings and goings in his sitting room. But now, his divine musk scent was on her skin, and she could not breathe in without catching the scent of him.
She had been tingling since waking up from her nap because of it.
What was worse, it had put wild thoughts in her head, thoughts of his sharing the bed with her. Kissing her and wrapping his muscled arms around her. Even now, thoughts of those rain droplets sliding down his rock-hard chest and taut stomach sent the butterflies in her stomach into a frenzy.
That bump on her head had definitely addled her senses.
It was much safer to simply spend the night sleeping in the sitting room, curled up on thechaiseor the settee, or even on the carpeted floor.
Felicity walked into the sitting room. “Oh dear. Brenna, you look flushed. Are you running a fever?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Just thinking of the duke standing naked before me. Nothing to be alarmed about. Ignore the fact that I have lost my mind.
One obviously lost vital brain matter when taking a tumble over a tea cart and striking one’s head.
“Where is the duke, anyway?” Felicity asked. “I haven’t seen him in hours.”
“I don’t know. Perhaps he is still trying to get rid of his friends.”
“No, I think they departed hours ago. While you were napping. I think the two lords, Hollingsworth and Danson, were eager to leave, but the ladies were not. Can’t say as I blame them, since they are not likely to find a better man than the Duke of Claymore, no matter where they search.”
Brenna said nothing, merely tucked a light blanket around her legs and smiled at the maid, a sweet girl by the name of Mary, as she brought in a supper tray for them and set it on the smalldemi-lunetable beside Brenna.
“Compliments of His Grace,” Mary said, bobbing a curtsy before bustling out.
