Page 47 of The Masked Baron
Andalin’s breath caught. She loved him. She knew it in that very instant, and the thought filled her entire being. She did see past his mask. She saw the caring, loyal man from inside. She stepped toward him.
“Please”—he held up his hand—“be still for a minute. I need to distance myself from you, but I have not said what I came to the library to say.”
Ellis was a greater gentleman that she had given him credit for. Andalin took her seat again, her mind racing in a million directions. Was he going to tell her he felt the same way? Dare she hope?
“This might come as a surprise to you, but—”
“Lord Cadogen?” Katrina interrupted from the doorway. Andalin released the breath she was unaware she’d still been holding.
“Yes?” Ellis said as he turned to face Katrina.
“I was wondering if I might have a word with you in private.”
Ellis looked at Andalin and then reluctantly nodded to Katrina. Andalin waved her in. “If you will excuse me, I have the book I want.”
After leaving the two alone with the door wide open, Andalin went to find a quiet spot to read in the main floor sitting room. Well, the only sitting room without Holland covers draped over the sofas.
As she settled herself into a secluded chair by a corner window, she wondered what Katrina and Ellis could be talking about. How many times had she wanted to speak with Ellis alone? Was it truly as simple as asking like Katrina had?
Andalin opened her book so anyone passing by would think she was reading. And then she closed her eyes and replayed Ellis’s kiss in her mind. Her cheeks warmed, and she hid her grin behind the pages. Eventually she gave up after reading the first two sentences over and over again and closed the book.
A preoccupation with thoughts of Ellis would never do. The likelihood of him confessing his undying love, or even feeling such depth of emotion for her, was laughable. He never would have kissed her had she acted like a decent young lady. Whether he reciprocated her feelings or not, she would always have the sweet memory of their kiss.
Chapter 17
Lady Kerrigan, like her daughter,had requested a private moment with Ellis. She, too, needed to speak with him. He’d wager it was about the same thing: her son and Annie. Kerrigan was a grown man and could make his own decisions. They should be speaking to him, not Ellis.
Ellis went to his room first and collected his riding cloak and gloves. After he spoke with Lady Kerrigan, he was going for a ride. There were too many women in his house. Mrs. Trenton had only voiced what he had already concluded only hours before. But something more agitated him. Kerrigan’s feelings aside, Ellis had kissed Annie. He slapped his riding gloves against his leg.
Unintentional or not, it had happened. Certainly he thought about it a time or ten, but he had maintained control. She was such a curious filly. What would she think of him when she discovered what he was hiding? He thought his heart impenetrable, but Annie had changed everything. She was in his mind all day, every day. Her feelings now dictated many of his choices. There was no denying it; he was not immune to falling in love.
Ellis found Lady Kerrigan waiting patiently for him in the drawing room. He remembered her sitting in the same upright chair when she’d come to visit his mother. At least this memory of his past was a pleasant one.
His mother had been just a little younger than Lady Kerrigan, but he imagined today she would have looked similar, each of them with streaks of gray and small lines of age around their eyes and mouth. Ellis observed Lady Kerrigan while she read from a book in her lap. She was elegant and refined, just like his mother had been. Now it was Lady Kerrigan whom he looked to for advice.
“Am I interrupting?” he asked. “I heard you wanted to speak with me.”
Lady Kerrigan smiled up at him and motioned to the chair next to her. “Sit with me for a moment.”
Ellis dropped his gloves onto the small table next to him, making sure Lady Kerrigan saw the gloves, and hoped she would be brief. He relaxed back into his chair. Lady Kerrigan took her role as surrogate mother a little too seriously.
“I have been watching your ward.”
“Oh?” Ellis wasn’t sure he wanted to hear her disapproval.
“She is very beautiful. Does it not worry you?”
Ellis had questioned the fact himself in the beginning, but after a decade he was beginning to think it didn’t matter anymore... any of it. “Mrs. Trenton is lovely too, but you never forbade her from being here.”
“I am not going to argue with you, Lord Cadogen. I think she is very fine. I was worried about your plan, but her speech and manners are more than passable. She has a certain charm about her. You chose well.”
Ellis waited for Lady Kerrigan to bring up her son, but she did not. She must have been the only one to miss the obvious affection Kerrigan had for Annie. Ellis was relieved he did not have to discuss it again. “I am grateful for your approval.”
“You have it,” Lady Kerrigan said without batting an eyelash. “But there is something particular about her, isn’t there?”
Ellis kept his face impassive. Today was not the day to reveal his secrets to anyone. “I did not make this decision lightly.”
Lady Kerrigan lifted her chin and studied him carefully. “I see.”
