Page 22 of A Sinful Viscount's Mistletoe Affair
Isabella wanted to shout out her objection and refusal, but she remembered the look on her parents’ faces. This was what they wanted for her. She had no choice.
Just as the priest was beginning to speak, the door of the church flew open.
Lord Ashcroft stood in the doorway. He called out her name, then ran down the aisle. Somehow, she felt warmer as she looked at him.
He took her hand.
“Come with me. I have a carriage outside,” he urged her.
“I cannot!” she replied, looking at his handsome face, then the duke’s furious face next to her. He still had hold of her hand, and she could not free herself.
“You can, Isabella,” Lord Ashcroft whispered. He pulled her hand free from the duke’s, then took it in his own. “You can be free!”
She glanced at her parents, then pushed away her guilt. This was her one life, her one precious life, and she had a chance to escape from this terrible fate.
“I can,” she replied firmly, then she and the viscount ran, hand-in-hand, out of the church and into the waiting carriage.
The carriage began to move away, led by a pair of fine white horses. The door slammed closed behind them, and she turned to look at him.
“Thank you for rescuing me,” she whispered. “You do not know what horrors you have saved me from.”
“Oh, I do,” he replied and leaned forward towards her, pressing his lips against hers.
***
Isabella woke to find her room shrouded in darkness. She lay quietly for a while, trapped in that strange half-world where she could not quite work out if what she had just dreamed was real or a figment of her feverish imagination. She felt hot, and her breath was coming fast in her chest.
She blinked and slowly came back to reality. Of course, it had been a dream. Her wedding would never be like that, no matter what.
Or would it? She felt a shiver coursing down her spine at the thought of marrying the Duke of Harbridge. She could not give a name to her feelings about him, but she did not trust him, and the thought of having to spend the rest of her life with him made her feel almost nauseous as she lay in bed.
Her thoughts turned to the moment in the dream where Lord Ashcroft appeared. In the dream, it had felt as if his presence was the answer to everything as if he was the one who would save her from a future that she could not face, a future that filled her with despair.
And yet, she knew it was not real. Even though her heart raced at the thought of him, and the thought of the passionate kiss she had imagined in the carriage, she had no idea if he had any thoughts of her at all.
She thought she had detected something in his eyes when they were dancing and felt a surge of electricity in his touch when he led her around the dance floor, but she knew so little of how things were between ladies and gentlemen. Perhaps she had imagined everything?
She tried to settle back into her bed and return to sleep, but the intensity of the dream would not leave her. She felt a heat coursing through her body as she imagined what it would be like to be alone with Lord Ashcroft, to let him embrace her and kiss her.
She knew she should not be allowing herself to imagine such things, but she could not help herself. Her mind ran wild in the darkness, and it was a long time before she fell back into a restless sleep.
***
On the other side of the house, in one of the guest bedrooms, Sebastian, too, was unable to sleep.
He paced up and down, the room dimly lit by a single candle. He knew that he had never experienced a dance like the waltz he had shared with Lady Isabella, and he had been able to tell from the look in her eyes that she had felt the same. When they were dancing together, he had felt a longing to lead her off somewhere where they could be alone, press his body closer to hers, and feel the softness of his lips against hers.
But, of course, he had held back. No matter his desire, he knew he had to remain in control. Not only for propriety’s sake, but for his desire to uncover the truth.
And yet, he had made no progress. He had allowed himself to be distracted by their chatter about history and ancient civilizations. He had let himself forget the purpose of his visit to the Evermere estate.
And now, as he stared out the window of his chamber into the blackness of the cold night outside, he vowed that he would not allow it to happen again. He had not come here to be distracted by the charms of a beautiful woman. He had come here to find out the truth about what had happened to his father. And Lady Isabella was the key, but only if he could somehow control his thoughts about her.
He lay down on his bed and tried to sleep, but he could not stop thinking about the firmness of her body under his hands as they danced and the look in her eyes as she gazed up at him. He had no idea how to control his actions, let alone his thoughts, but he knew he must. There was too much at stake to risk this opportunity to discover the truth about the history between George Langley and his father. He would not waste another moment.
Chapter 10
Isabella wrapped her cloak more tightly around herself and felt the heaviness of her boots encasing her bare feet. She stepped outside into the crisp morning air and wondered whether she should have stayed in her room.
