Clara set her book aside, eyes glinting like coals. “I dream about you.”
His heart jolted. “What kind of dreams?”
“Different kinds. Sometimes we’re children again, in the garden. Sometimes you’re teaching me to waltz. Sometimes...” She faltered, a blush rising like dawn on her throat.
“Sometimes?”
“Sometimes you’re shirtless and I’m not running away.”
“And?”
“And that’s all I’m telling you.”
She leaned forward then, cupping his face in her hands. Her palms were warm, her touch steady, but the tremor in her fingers betrayed her. “One month.”
“Gabriel…”
He kissed her then, softly at first, tasting the words still on her lips, a promise and a warning in one. When he drew back,her eyes were closed, a smile playing at her mouth as though she already knew how this month would undo them both.
“This,” she whispered, “is going to be the longest month of my life.”
With a boldness that quite surprised him, she pressed her lips to his.
Alas, it was evident that the coming month would prove a tedious stretch of endurance.
CHAPTER 10
The new staff had been in residence for four days, and Gabriel found their presence staff such a singular trial that he was on the brink of throwing them all out onto the streets.
Not because they were incompetent as Clara had chosen well. They were quiet, efficient, and practiced the art of invisibility with admirable dedication.
It was due to the fact that they necessitated propriety.
For four days, he and Clara had maintained perfect professional distance whenever anyone else was present. She called him "Your Grace." He called her "Miss Whitfield."
But the moments alone...
Gabriel shifted in his chair, trying to focus on the estate ledgers Edmund had forced upon him. But his mind kept drifting to the previous night, when Clara had found him in the music room and they'd ended up against the piano, her legs wrapped around his waist while he kissed her senseless.
"Your Grace?"
He looked up to find Peter, the new footman, in the doorway. “What do you require?”
"Lord Hartley is here to see you."
"Send him in."
Edmund entered, took one look at Gabriel's face, and grinned. "You look frustrated."
"I'm working."
"You're staring at the same page you were staring at yesterday when I visited."
"It's a very perplexing page."
"It's the title page."
“It is a perplexing title."
