“I do hope they will be sleeping in the stables,” Pamela said.
Another sigh. “Thank you for your concern, sister. I’ll take it into consideration.”
She dipped into a reluctant curtsy. “Thank you. But be warned, brother. I meant what I said about Lady Virtue. If you compromise her any further, you’ll have to marry her.”
Marry her, indeed. As if he would ever be foolish enough to find himself alone and tempted with Virtue again.
CHAPTER10
Virtue eyed the stack of books that had been brought to her room earlier that day by one of the chamber maids, knowing all too well what the unexpected delivery meant. There was no lingering doubt. Not even the slightest hint.
Ridgely was avoiding her.
She’d suspected it for the past few days, when he had been notably missing from the breakfast table and every other engagement afterward. At first, she had supposed that he was limiting his presence at Hunt House because of the potential danger surrounding him. However, days had passed, and with the guards present and no further attempts having been made on his life, it had become apparent that there was another reason for his absence.
Virtue herself.
She could not forgive him for such callousness. To touch her so tenderly and hold her so close to him—they had almost been one—and then to simply disappear and act as if none of it had ever happened…
She shouldn’t have been surprised. Nor should his defection have felt like a dagger sliding directly between her ribs. She shouldn’t have spent her days hoping he would appear, thinking of his deliciously wicked kisses, wondering what else might have happened had not her chaperone interrupted them.
Lady Deering, meanwhile, had been disapproving and somber in the wake of the library incident. She had reminded Virtue of the perils of allowing herself to become embroiled in compromising situations.
“Ridgely is a rake, my dear,”she had admonished sternly.“You must never find yourself alone with him. If you do, the consequences may be far greater than you can possibly imagine.”
Consequences.
Virtue would be ruined, she had implied. Ruination, if it meant she returned to Greycote Abbey, would have its merits. However, for now, she was still mired firmly in London where she least wished to be. With a sigh, Virtue decided to seek out the library. The books Ridgely had returned to her held little appeal at the moment, and she could only suppose that his relenting suggested she was no longer forbidden from entering that particular room.
She had sufficient time to dress for the next ball she would be attending with Lady Deering, an affair being held by the Marquess and Marchioness of Searle. She left her chamber and began down the hallway. Passing one of the guest rooms, Virtue heard raised voices from within and paused. The female voice was easily recognizable as Lady Deering’s. The male voice, however, did not belong to Ridgely. Curious, Virtue wandered closer, discovering the door to the guest room was ajar.
And within, there stood her stoic, composed chaperone, in the arms of one of the guards Ridgely had brought into Hunt House. The fellow who was known only as Beast, unless she was mistaken.
“Do you know what I think, Marchioness?” the dark-haired man was saying, his voice so low that Virtue almost couldn’t hear it, tinged with the slightest hint of an unfamiliar accent.
“No, and nor do I care to know what you think,” Lady Deering responded. “You, sir, are a brute.”
“A brute whose mouth you fully enjoy,” the guard taunted her.
Virtue’s eyes went wide as she realized she was witnessing an intimate moment between the two. That Lady Deering was not pushing away from the man, but instead her arms were curled around his neck.
“You are vile,” she said, and then she tugged his head down to hers for a kiss so passionate, Virtue’s ears went hot and her belly did a strange little flip just watching.
Lady Deering always seemed so concerned with propriety. She was a stickler for societal dictates. Virtue hadn’t supposed there was another side to her chaperone…
But she was eavesdropping.
Virtue wrenched herself away from the door and turned to flee, colliding instead with an all-too-familiar wall of male chest.
Ridgely’s hands caught her waist, steadying her when she would have lost her balance and gone tumbling to the floor.
“Virtue? What are you doing tearing about in the hall?” he demanded, frowning down at her.
Good heavens, what if he discovered Lady Deering kissing the guard? She had to distract him. But at the moment, she was rather distracted herself. Her breasts were crushed into his chest, and without the added barrier of her stays which she’d foregone this afternoon, her nipples went instantly hard at the contact.
He was dressed as if he had been fencing, his shirt sleeves rolled back to reveal his forearms, a simple knot in his cravat above a well-tailored waistcoat, and breeches instead of his customary trousers. Something about his lack of formality rendered him even more wickedly handsome.
“I was…” she struggled to form a suitable reply for his question. She couldn’t tell him she had been intending to find the library when she’d instead discovered his sister in a heated embrace with one of the guards.
