Page 57 of Passions of a Wicked Earl
“But now I shall be.” He released a quick bitter chuckle. “I’m quite the selfish bastard, aren’t I? Would you mind giving me a few moments alone?”
“No, of course not. I shall fetch a servant to help you see to him.”
“Have him bring a shovel. I shall lay Cooper to rest here beneath the roses.”
Her throat thick with tears, she nodded, rose to her feet, and headed to the house. She wanted to do so much more, but she knew he was not ready to welcome more affection or caring from her. He thought he was now alone, and she realized she needed to try so much harder to make him realize how much she’d come to care for him.
She needed to show him, make him understand, that he wasn’t alone. That a collie named Cooper wasn’t the only being to love him.
Chapter 17
Lord Greenwood has the most astounding sense of humor,” Beth said, as their carriage journeyed along Regent Street.
They’d visited a milliner and a dressmaker. Of a sudden Beth was in want of a new gown to wear to the Countess of Claybourne’s ball next week. And she required a new hat for her walks in the park with Lord Greenwood.
Both items purchased contained something that no other item in her wardrobe did: a shade of blue, which was Lord Greenwood’s favorite color. Claire found herself wondering what Westcliffe’s favorite color was. She’d thought it brown, but she was no longer certain. Quite honestly, she couldn’t envision him taking up any thought with something so trivial.
“He constantly makes me laugh,” Beth continued.
From the moment they’d left the residence that morning, she’d been lauding Greenwood’s attributes.
“Do you think it wise to settle on one man so early in the Season?” Claire asked.
Beth gave her a look that conveyed she thought they should make a stop by Bedlam to drop off her sister. “When he is perfection, of course.”
“No man is perfection, Beth.”
“What are you saying?”
“That perhaps you should strive to discern his imperfections.”
“There you are again, always looking for the worst. If you seek it, you shall find it.”
“I simply think that a man’s flaws determine whether or not he is easy to live with.”
“And what are Westcliffe’s flaws?”
“He is passionate in all things.”
“And that makes him difficult to live with?”
“When his anger is sparked, but it does not make him intolerable. Our father, on the other hand, when he is angry—”
“Oh, God, please do not liken Greenwood to our father. He does not compare.”
“It is only that while he is courting you, he is showing you only his better side. Were you to marry him, you would see all sides of him. I think it better to see all sides before you marry him.”
“If you’d seen all sides to Westcliffe, would you have married him?”
Claire glanced out the window at the shops and busy walkways as the driver directed the carriage onto one street and then another. “I think I would have—yes.”
And she would not have feared him at all.
“Have you come to love him then?” Beth asked.
“I have come to discover that he is very different from what I thought.”
“That’s not an answer.”
