“Of course not, my lady! It’s my duty, I’m pleased to do it.” She pinned a few more locks of Marianne’s hair into place and then said, “I didn’t want to ask you last night, as I could see you were tired, but did Lord Ramsbury ever find you?”
Marianne tensed at the mention of the very man she’d been daydreaming about a moment before. “L-Lord Ramsbury? What do you mean? I haven’t been out of my chamber today. Was he looking for me this morning?”
“Oh no, my lady. Not today. I meant last night.”
Marianne shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The earl found me in the hall as I was going back to servants’ quarters after the gathering broke up. He asked where you were as he had looked for you in the library and didn’t find you there in your usual spot. I said I thought you might have gone to read in your room. He did tell me that whatever he had to say to you could wait until tomorrow, but then I saw him going toward your chamber.” Hannah stepped back to admire her handiwork. “There you are, my lady. And I must say you are positively glowing this morning. You really do look well in that blue.”
“Thank you,” Marianne said as an acknowledgment of the compliment, but her mind was racing. “Er, well, I’ll look for him this morning and see if he still has something to discuss.”
Her maid turned to go and after she had, Marianne leapt to her feet and began to pace the room. Why had Sebastian been looking for her last night after she’d snuck out to the hell with Lanford? And why hadn’t he mentioned it after he’d found her there or in the time they’d spent together afterward?
“You’re being silly,” she assured herself as she moved across the room toward the bed where he had made love to her last night.
After all, just because he’d been seen coming toward her chamber didn’t mean he’d actually gone there. He could have always intended to go to the hell, just as he’d told her last night, and speaking to her was only a quick stop on his way, easily forgotten when he thought she’d retired.
She frowned as she went to the dressing table by the window where she’d been sitting earlier. After Sebastian had gone last night, before she’d called for Hannah, she’d realized she left Claudia’s list out in her haste to go to the hell. It had been left unfolded on the table before her, there for anyone to find, along with the notes she’d made about her progress.
Was it possible Sebastianhadcome into this room and actually found the list? Read it? Seen her notes, including the one about going to a hell with Lanford andthatwas why he had pursued her there?
Her hands began to sweat and she rubbed them on her skirt as she tried to meter her breath. She was likely being ridiculous to think those things. But if she wasn’t…if hehadfound the list…
The very idea made her heart throb faster and her hands shake. She didn’t want anyone to know what she was doing, but Sebastian least of all. The time they’d spent together recently, including last night, had meant so much to her. She didn’t want it to be marred by whatever his thoughts were about the list. About her crossing things off of it.
“There is only one way to know,” she said to herself. “Go find him and ask.”
She turned toward the door, but she couldn’t seem to make herself move forward. She felt frozen in place, anxiety washing through her in long, echoing waves. Seeing Sebastian after last night was going to be difficult enough. She’d already been planning how to pretend like she didn’t know his taste, the feel of his skin, his expression when he lost all control.
But if it turned out he knew her secret, that was going to be even worse.
Somehow she forced her feet to move and exited the chamber. Whatever would happen, would happen. And she had to be brave enough to face it, just as she was trying to be brave enough to finish Claudia’s list. She owed it to herself to find out the truth.
Even if it changed everything between her and Sebastian all over again.
Sebastian entered the breakfast room at far earlier an hour than he would normally do so, especially after a late night making love to a beautiful woman. But his chamber and bed had brought no sleep, only restless tossing and turning as he relived every one of Marianne’s sighs. Every gentle reaction to secrets he’d never intended to spill out like poison from a wound.
But all those thoughts were pushed away as he realized the only other guest in attendance so early was Charles Lanford. He was sitting at the table, coffee in one hand, a newspaper in the other, though he was paying no attention to either. He jolted as he saw Sebastian and struggled to his feet. “Good-good morning, my lord,” he said.
Sebastian pursed his lips. He had things to discuss with this man, but he wasn’t sure he was in the right frame of mind to do so. The idea that Lanford had left Marianne exposed the night before conjured up far more rage than was healthy for either of them. And it could certainly reveal too much if he spewed it out now.
“Lanford,” he growled as he moved to the sideboard to look at the spread.
The idea of food had no interest to him, so he poured tea instead and then joined the other man at the table. When he sat, so did his companion and the two stared at each other for what felt like a tense lifetime.
“Lady Marianne was unharmed after—after the unfortunate incident last night?” Lanford asked at last.
“Yes,” Sebastian said, trying not to think of her terrified face as the man she’d been playing cards with had swung toward her in potent, drunken rage. “No thanks to you. What the hell were you thinking, taking her there and then exposing her to danger when you left her side?”
Lanford shook his head. “When I asked her to join me, I was only thinking of us having a good time together. I’ve been to that hell before, it’s usually fairly calm. Tame as far as those places go.”
“Tame for men with experience,nota sheltered lady like Marianne,” Sebastian ground out.
Lanford nodded. “Yes. You are right, of course. And I knew it was a bit inappropriate, but she seemed so excited about the idea. She lit up like a candle when we discussed it at the gathering. It was impossible to resist her when she was like that.”
Sebastian tensed. He knew exactly what Lanford meant. There was something magical about Marianne when she became excited about a topic. Like she was ignited from within, like she glowed. Like she could pull a man into her joy and he’d never feel pain again. The fact that Lanford had seen any portion of that glorious part of her made Sebastian’s chest hurt. He knew what that feeling was. He didn’t like it.
“So she seduced you, poor innocent thing,” he drawled, hoping his tone didn’t reveal his darker emotions on that subject.
