Page 62 of Never Love a Lord
“I love you, too, Julian Griffin. I never wanted to, but I do.” And then she instigated the next kiss, pushing him backward as she walked toward the bed.
He fell onto the mattress, pulling her with him, and then turned until she was beneath him. He was inside her in an instant, loving her the way she needed to be loved—firmly, completely, quickly.
They lay there in the dark afterward, both drifting off to sleep, Julian’s hand curled around her face behind her ear. But then Sybilla blinked her eyes open and felt a frown come to her brow.
Something was wrong. Something was missing.
Chapter 21
He was alone again when he awoke, but neither surprised nor alarmed by it. He was beginning to become familiar with some of her ways, and it gave him a bit of peace in the midst of what they were to undertake.
There would come a day, he was certain, when they could lie about at their leisure, together. But today was not that day, and they would likely not realize that fantasy for many weeks. Time, now, was of the essence.
Julian found Sybilla and Lucy in the hall, his daughter perched on the lady’s hip as she bent her head over a ledger and traced the page with one finger, turning her face slightly to inquire this or that of the clerk at her side.
As if she sensed his arrival in the hall, she turned to him. “Good morrow, Lord Griffin,” she said coolly. “I’ve located the accounts you asked after.”
“Good morrow, my lady,” he said, and joined her on the dais, catching on and playing to her charade instantly. “Very well. May I?” At her nod, he pulled the thick book toward him.
“Thank you. That will be all for now,” Sybilla told the clerk. “You may come and fetch your work in an hour.”
Then the clerk left them. Lucy was reaching for him, so Julian straightened and greeted his daughter with a noisy kiss and a toss into the air. Then, not bothering to glance about, he snaked an arm around Sybilla’s waist and pulled her to him, pressing his mouth to hers firmly.
“Good morning,” he whispered.
She glanced away from him, a small smile threatening her mouth, as if she had gone suddenly modest. “Julian, please.” She disentangled herself and turned her attention back to the ledger. “This page is what we have on hand at the present,” she explained, running her finger down an impossibly tiny line of scratch marks. Her fingertip stopped near the bottom. “The total sum.”
Julian leaned forward, bracing Lucy’s back with his hand. He squinted and blinked at the tiny numerals and then drew his head back to look at Sybilla.
“That’s what you have on hand?” he asked incredulously. “Are you certain?”
“My clerks are thorough,” Sybilla said with a slight frown. “Is it not enough?”
Julian huffed a laugh. “It’s ten times more than what we require.”
Sybilla lifted her chin as if he had offended her. “Perhaps it is ten times whatyourequire; however, I have no intention or desire to live in poverty.”
“I don’t think that will be a concern,” Julian said. “However, I don’t know how we will transport it all.”
Her brow creased. “I don’t know, either. Perhaps we can take what would fulfill our immediate needs, then have Oliver secure the remainder for us.”
“That is a possibility,” Julian said, pleased at the easy way they seemed to be flowing through the details. “I would be ready to away in the morn. Can you send directions to him by then, with assurance that he will do as you ask?”
“Without doubt,” Sybilla said, and the tone of her voice put to rest any concerns Julian might have had. “I’ll need to inform Graves this afternoon. I’ve not seen him since I returned, and he will need time to pack what he wishes to bring.”
Julian paused. “I beg your pardon?”
“What?” She closed the ledger and looked at him expectantly.
“Graves is coming with us?”
“Of course,” Sybilla said simply and set about locking the thick leather straps about the accounting book. “It would seem quite strange for a family to be traveling to the Continent without any servant at all, would it not?”
“Yes,” Julian admitted. “But, Sybilla, he’s 110!”
She frowned at him. “He is not. We may need his . . . unique skills, and I would not leave him behind to deal with the aftermath of our departure after he has so faithfully served this family.”
Julian had to admit she was right. It was no secret what Graves meant to the family, and he would be interrogated without mercy as to the goings-on of the last month at Fallstowe.
