Page 10 of For the Earl's Taking

Hugh nodded. “Your name, boy?”

“Sean, my lord.” The boy showed to be obviously inexperienced in dealing with the aristocratic rank, for he behaved all too informal. “Peter felt all excited about taking Sarah to the park today.” He grinned and closed the carriage-door.

Hugh froze on his seat. Bubbles of a heated feeling overflowed inside of him. Peter and Sarah together? Alone? For a whole day? His rage went sky high. He felt like driving to every the park of the city, find her and drag her home, to his chambers and keep her there, under his watch. Forever.

He fenced as if he fought in a war. A war against himself. Duncan asked him what the matter had been more than once. Hugh answered evasively. How could he tell his best friend that he would go mad about the downstairs maid?

When Hugh got back home, he sat in the library facing the window. From there he had a view of the servant’s entrance from the street. Adelaide had driven to one of her deadly boring tea parties and she would not be home till the evening.

Late afternoon, he saw Sarah arriving, holding Peter’s arm and chuckling. Red-hot anger erupted in him. Moreover, he did not want to know where it came from. He only watched them go inside, just as he lost his mind.

Sarah climbed the servants’ stair to her cubicle, relaxed and half smiling. It had been good to be away for the day. It got things in perspective. She felt ready for hard work next day.

It got dark. She lit her candle and moved to sit and finish the book she had taken from the library. Midway the door opened abruptly. Startled, she stood again.

Lord Hawkmore entered and closed the door. He did not look as if he bore a good mood.

“Lord Hawkmore!” She curtsied.

He stared at her, his dark eyes piercing and hard. “Did you enjoy your day, Sarah?” An extra stress in the verb.

“Yes, my lord, very much.” She lowered her gaze, not comfortable with his invasion of her room. Nevertheless, her body responded quite differently.

“And how did you enjoy it?” He paced further in the room. In the small cubicle, his tall frame seemed even bigger.

“I had picnic in the park.” She answered to the floor.

He came near her and lifted her chin. “Look at me! So that I can see if you’re lying.”

“W-why would my lord care if I lied?” Her voice came too silky.

Hugh ignored the question for lack of answer. “I know you spent the day with Peter. So, what happened? Did he take you to some tavern room? Did he,” Hugh choked at the word, “touch you?”

“My lord asks impertinent questions.”

Hugh fumed. “Answer me!” He held her upper arms, making her bend back.

Sarah did not want to give in to his demands. Her life none of his business. However. she could not be as bold as to say this so plainly to him. She had a job to keep.

She lifted her head and her dark-brown eyes met his dark ones in the candlelight. She kept staring at him, remaining silent.

Her tacit defiance affected his lower body. He never thought that he would be aroused by insubordination.

He pulled her to him and sniffed her in the neck, like a predator. She smelled of wind and grass. “No tavern here.” He concluded.

“My lord sounds jealous.” Her voice low, but her eyes straight on his.

Fury. He inhaled heavily, but this only fed his fury at her sharpness. Not even he had realised he had been jealous. Yes, jealous of Peter. Because Peter could speak freely to her. Because she smiled and laughed in his company. Because he could spend a whole day with her. Because they would be free to sleep together if they wanted. Without arranged marriages, without needing heirs, without treating each other in bed as if they stood in a ballroom!

“You haven’t seen me jealous yet!” He murmured, a breath from her lips. He did not kiss her though. He did not want to kiss her in anger. He wanted her too much for that. So, he resourced to breath. He looked her long in her eyes and breathed deep in an attempt to cool his anger. In a vain attempt to cool his desire.

His hands started caressing her upper arms, gently. Suddenly, he had a good look at her. She seemed so young and fresh in that simple green dress.

His mesmerizing movements got her warm in all the wrong places. Her body slowly turning to jam.

One of Hugh’s hands went up her arms and reached her neck. Her head fell to meet his palm. His other hand took the pins from her hair, releasing her simple bun. He watched her sleek sparrow-wing brown hair fall around her shoulders. It caught the candlelight in reddish strands. Her eyes were wide on him, her lips parted, her skin flushed. His desire surmounted his foolish anger and it got more intense by the minute.

No censorship for her any longer. She lifted her hands to unbutton his shirt. She wanted to touch his lean chest just this once. She opened all the buttons outside his trousers. Her hands crept inside touching his taut warm skin and revelling in the soft fleece that covered it.

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