She squeezed her eyes tightly and pressed herself into the corner of the tiny room with him. Since some sort of box blocked her way, she simply stepped up and stood on top of it.
Definitely Lord Carlisle. Although not unpleasant, he didn’t evoke the same sensations she would have experienced if this had been a very different lord.
Stop it, Emily! Stop thinking like that this very second!
What would she do, though, if it were?
She could do this. She could.
Whichever.She could still remember the feel of him as he spoke against her lips.
Gentleman.He’d nipped so softly at the corner of her mouth.
You wish.Enough!
The words played out in her mind. Just the thought of him, of the rumbling feel of his mouth upon hers while he spoke, sent bolts of want coursing through her.
Emily raised her hands and rested them on Lord Carlisle’s chest. As he was pressed back against the wall, he couldn’t escape her touch, lest he shove her away from him.
“Miss Mossant?”
He thought she was Rhoda now? And then she realized, although the dress she wore belonged to Sophia, her perfume was one of Rhoda’s.
Firm hands settled upon her waist and pulled her closer.
“Tell me you aren’t engaged.” His voice sounded husky and demanding. Oh, my! She wouldn’t have thought a former vicar could sound so… domineering… so exciting.He thinks I’m Rhoda!
Rhoda had told Lord Carlisle of her plans to marry Blakely?
Emily shook her head.
“You aren’t, or you won’t tell me?” Now he sounded tender, cajoling… and… hurt?
The sound of footsteps vaguely penetrated Emily’s whirling thoughts.
She slid her arms up around Lord Carlisle’s neck and pressed herself into him. At the same time his lips met hers, the door burst open and light illuminated the tiny room.
“Miss Goodnight!” Rhoda’s mother cried.
“Lord Carlisle?” Rhoda whispered.
“Good God, Justin!” Of course, the duke.
And just behind the duke, even without her spectacles, Emily managed to make out Lord Blakely. Would he be proud of her, for taking matters into her own hands? Or disappointed in the manner she’d gone to achieve it.
She turned her head back to look up at Lord Carlisle. He was shaking his head, as though in something of a daze. “But I thought…” His voice trailed off. And then the horror of his situation dawned on him.
At that moment, Emily wondered if she hadn’t actually just made a very huge mistake.
Arrangements
All hell, most assuredly, broke loose.
Before anyone could say another word, Mrs. Mossant swooped into the closet and dragged Emily out into the foyer. With one arm in the matron’s vice-like grip, Emily used her other to don her spectacles so as not to miss anything going on around her. She did so just in time to see Prescott and Blakely scowling at Carlisle.
“What is the meaning of this? Miss Goodnight! And my dear Lord Carlisle! I had thought better of both of you!” Always a stickler, Rhoda’s mother was clearly unhappy at what she’d discovered.
Emily glanced into the closet and winced to see Lord Carlisle bent over, his hands resting upon his knees as though he’d just taken a blow to the gut.
