Sophie clamped her teeth together to stop from shouting several foul words back through the window. Closing it behind her, she smiled to herself. If those ladies saw her, they’d think her mad, which she possibly was.
Walking along the ledge, she reached the edge. It wasn’t far to that small balcony below, and she would make it with ease. Then she could walk back inside as if she’d just been taking air. She’d often washed windows at the Monmouth estate because the boy tasked with the job loathed heights, so this held no fear for her.
Yes, she possibly outranked those gossiping harpies back there, but she would not make a scene, as Letty would be sure to hear.
“Right, time to get back into that ballroom,” she muttered. The sound of footsteps stopped her before she jumped. Sophie pressed her back to the wall, watching as a shadow appeared below, and then he stepped into the moonlight.
Why him of all people? Was she to be plagued with that man turning up in her life constantly for the rest of the season?
Lord Coulter grabbed the railing and then looked out at the night sky. She then watched in shock as his head dropped, almost as if the weight of it was too heavy to bear. It looked to her like a gesture of defeat and was so at odds with the man she’d come to know, it shocked her.
Dragging her eyes from him, Sophie looked back to the window. Could she make it there without Lord Coulter hearing her movements?
She watched him straighten suddenly and then spin on his heel until he was looking in her direction. His head turned from left to right as Sophie pressed herself into the wall, hoping the shadows hid her. Then he looked up, directly at her.
CHAPTER 10
“You’ll break your neck if you jump, Countess. Or was that the plan?” Patrick said, looking up at the woman above him.
What the bloody hell is she doing up there?His heart had just about stopped when he’d looked up and seen her perched on that ledge.
“Go away, Lord Coulter,” she said in her haughtiest voice.
“It’s certainly a novel way of taking some air,” he added.
“What I do is no business of yours, my lord.”
“If you were not planning to end it all on that ledge, Countess, then perhaps you were taking air?”
“If I wish to sit on this ledge all evening, my lord, then that is my choice.”
“I am not debating this with you up there in danger,” Patrick said, moving closer. If she fell, he could lunge and try to grab her but would likely fail. He needed to get her off there now. “You need to come down here at once.”
As if to strengthen his argument, Patrick watched one of the countess’s feet move closer to the edge.Is she actually insane, and I missed that part of her personality?
It was only by chance he’d chosen this small balcony to find some peace from the noise inside. His head was aching, which he knew would yield a night of pain if he did not leave the ball soon. But he was reluctant to do so, and he laid that blame squarely at the feet of the woman above him. She drew him to her, and he couldn’t work out why.
“Get down,” he said with more force than he’d meant to. “Before you fall.”
“I can manage quite well on my own, my lord, so please leave and allow me to—ah?—”
“Dismount?” Patrick suggested helpfully.
She ignored him, instead waving him back. He, in turn, ignored her, curious now why she was up there in the first place, or he would be when she was safe.
Patrick climbed onto the balustrade. “Take my hand now, Countess.”
“Get down at once, my lord!”
“Take it,” Patrick said again, this time with a little more force, which she noticed because her eyes widened fractionally.
“I can jump. Please leave at once.”
Heaving a very loud sigh, which the woman above him could hear clearly, Patrick folded his arms and waited. He knew it was a long drop to the ground, but he had excellent balance.
She looked small sitting on that ledge.Small and vulnerable.
“What the hellareyou doing on that ledge?” he asked, because suddenly he needed to know.
