Chapter 39
It was utterly horrid.Mortifying!Humiliating!I cannot think that I will ever be able to speak of it should anyone dare ask.
~From the diary of Lady Fiona MacKintosh—April 1893
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Their dinner arrived, allowing Fiona a few moments to gather her thoughts and composure, as Ilona joined her at a small table near the fireplace to dine.“Well, as I said, Aylesbury had been ignoring me,” she prevaricated as she dipped into her soup.
“Studiously.Yes, you said that part,” Ilona reminded, ignoring her meal with a grimace.“Then what happened?”
“Well, he had been diligently avoiding me all night, so when I saw him slip out into the gardens, I followed him,” she told her between spoonfuls.
“That was very bold.”
Fiona laughed then, lifting her napkin to her lips before tossing it aside.“Considering all I had already done to gain his attention without much success, I thought it quite tame, really.But I was so damnedly, dementedly in love with him that I refused to accept that somewhere deep down, he didn’t feel the same.I decided to take my one last chance.I went out there to prove to myself—perhaps to us both—that I was right, and he did love me more than he ever loved Moira.Ah, Ilona, I was such a foolish child, wasn’t I?”
“I don’t know.I might have done the same with Colin if he ignored me.I was quite determined to have him.Much the same as you.”
“Yes, I was.There he was in the garden.The night was warm for spring, the music drifting from the house.It was such a romantic setting, and he...he was so bloody handsome, damn him,” she recalled.“I couldn’t help myself.I went to him...ha!Oh, Ilona, I ran to him.I threw myself into his arms before he could say a word about it, yea or nay.”
“There you are, Harry!”she had exclaimed, lacing her arms around his neck.“I’ve been looking for you!”
* * *
“Iassure you, I didn’tinvite her to join me there.I certainly didn’t encourage her.Bold as brass, she threw her arms around my neck without so much as a by-your-leave.She was...well, shall we saytherebefore I had a chance to put together any sort of defense, saying something about me looking lonely or some such nonsense.I had enough presence of mind to try pulling her off me, but she was like a barnacle, and as I said...”
“You were fairly deep in your cups,” the earl supplied dryly.
“Quite so.”He nodded crisply, rocking back on his heels.“She said something like, ‘There you are, Harry’, and naturally, I told her she should not address me so familiarly.‘Why not?’she asked.‘Abby does.Moira does.’To which I promptly reminded her that while that might be so, Lady Glenrothes certainly did not address me so.Do you know what she said to that?”
Her brother shook his head.
He swirled his whiskey around the rim of the glass, fondly recalling her words.“I remember it quite clearly, despite my inebriated state.She said—ever so saucily, mind you—‘Ah,but then you never courted Eve, did you?’”
“I should hope not.”There was just a hint of humor reflected in Glenrothes’ eye, though.
“Impudent piece of baggage.”He chuckled into his glass as he tipped it up.
“She is that,” Glenrothes agreed, taking another long drink as well.“Then what?Surely that cannot be all?”
* * *
“Then I kissed him,”Fiona confessed.“I had tried to before, of course...”
“Fiona!”
“Humph, like you never kissed Colin before you wed!”
“Not until we were engaged,” Ilona replied primly, though her lips were twitching.
“In any case, I kissed him, and the next thing I knew, he was kissing me back.Not just a mere peck, either.”
Fiona lifted her fingers to her lips, lost in the memory.Harry had kissed her then, her first real kiss.Deeply.Sensually.His fingers threaded through her hair, forcing her head back so that he could devour her more thoroughly.Hehadwanted her, even then, she realized.The way he had pressed her up against that tree...
