“I need to show thetonthat despite what happened last night at the theater, I am not going to conceal myself in my house, not anymore. I refuse to hide from scandal, no matter how mad it makes my brother-in-law.”
Oliver put his paper down, stood, and walked over to her chair. He leaned down, putting his hands on the arms of her chair. Then he leaned down and kissed her. She reached up and caressed his cheek which was rough with stubble. He turned his head and kissed the palm of her hand.
“I do believe I should take my leave,” he said.
Alarm flew through her like a hurricane. “Why?”
“It seems I must make myself presentable if we are to send the tongues of thetonto twittering.”
“Oh,” she said, quite lost in his eyes and much relieved. She felt her body react to him, wanting him. She squeezed her thighs together. How would she ever get used to the way he made her feel?
He stood and kissed her hand. “Adieu, Lisbeth, until this afternoon.”
When he was gone the house seemed cold and lifeless again. She stood, took a few deep breaths, and made her way to her bedroom. She too must make herself presentable.
*
Hyde Park wasa mass of carriages of all types, as well as men onfine horses. He guided the horses onto Rotten Row and joined the long and congested line of carriages. He longed to have the park empty so he could put the horses through their paces. Instead, he had to content himself with plodding. He hated plodding.
“I don’t know how you do it,” Oliver murmured, looking up at the sky. It was a startling summer blue with only a few scattered clouds. He thought never to see it blue again but here it was with birds ducking and diving through its endlessness like they were dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea.
“Do what?” Lisbeth was fiddling about in her reticule while trying to balance her yellow parasol over her shoulder. It matched her afternoon dress and her bonnet which was trimmed with a ribbon of the same shade and a conservative peacock feather.
“Have you looked at the sky today? Damn me, if it isn’t blue,” Oliver said. What was she looking for in her reticule? He would have helped her with her search, but he was driving her phaeton. A neat little beauty that she had surprised him with when he came to pick her up for this afternoon’s jaunt into Hyde Park. The black lacquer shone like onyx in the afternoon sun and thankfully did not have the Blackhurst crest emblazoned on it like everything else Blackhurst had acquired before his death. Oliver’s horses had been changed over to the speedy high-perched conveyance in double-quick time.
“Bellamy, language please,” Lisbeth censored, giving up her search for a spyglass or whatever it was she had been looking for.
“Beg pardon, my dear. It is just that it has been raining and gray for months and the day you decide to go to the park it is as if you commanded the weather just by writing it in your schedule.”
“I hope you are not blaming the terrible weather we’ve had on me!”
He laughed at her suddenly sour expression. “Not unless your powers extend to making volcanoes erupt.”
“Oh, if only Icouldcontrol the weather. I would command a little cloud to sit, just so, over your head and rain on you whenever you displease me,” she said with a smirk.
“Then I would be soaked from dawn until dusk.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Only the daylight hours?”
Oliver loved teasing her. “Of course, because I would never displease you when we were alone in bed together.”
He had not been looking forward to the tedium of this afternoon. He now knew he would never be bored in her company.
She tried for a censorious expression but there was laughter in her exquisite eyes when she looked at him.
“That is a strong statement to make considering you have only been in my bed one night. Who is to say I will be inviting you back?”
“Come, Lisbeth, are you trying to deny me the pleasure of my triumph?”
She looked at him with that burning stare that made his trousers shrink. “Your modesty is unbelievable. Perhaps last night was actually my triumph. Did you think of that?”
“Perhaps we need a do over,” he suggested, wiggling his eyebrows up and down. “Just to make sure, you understand.”
“Oh, I understand, quite perfectly. There is only one problem.”
“Which is?”
She smiled sweetly. “It is not on my schedule, and we have the Warrington ball tonight.”
