A penniless miss from Chislehurst.
Not only that, she was a thief and potentially in scorching hot water. Julia was worried daily about that wretched reticule incident, waiting for something further to occur.
Yet none of that mattered when the Earl of Marshfield boldly crossed the room to greet her and her sister.
With the speed and expediency of a royal officer, he commandeered a table for them. By the time the music began, Sarah had obtained a partner, and they all convened for a quadrille. Simply for the ease of doing so, Lord Marshfield asked Sarah for the next dance, and Julia danced with her sister’s partner.
After that, however, when the men went to do their duty securing other partners, Sarah and Julia awaited the onslaught. It happened quickly and soon Julia found herself with a gentleman she knew she’d met previously, but with whom she couldn’t quite recall ever dancing.
“Your hem is holding up this evening,” he remarked.
She started slightly, realizing he was one of those she’d left on the floor when going about her stealthy business.
“It is,” she agreed amiably. “A better seamstress, to be sure.”
For the midnight supper, her sister was quite satisfied to be escorted by the man she was lately partnered, and as Julia had hoped, Lord Marshfield appeared in time for the dance just prior, and thus, offered her his arm to go into the dining room.
“What a surprise?” he quipped drolly when the one and only course arrived. “White soup.”
“Easy to make in large quantities and filling, all in one course,” she defended the ubiquitous dish she’d encountered during the Season. “I confess I never had it before I came to a private ball, but I’ve grown very fond of it. And look, there’s bread and butter, too.”
He glanced at her, seeming amused. “Then for your sake, I’m glad of the pottage, and I shall watch you lick the last drop off your spoon.”
His words sent a thrill through her.What a scoundrel!
However, not wanting to disappoint, she did in fact turn to him as she licked the last drop, and their eyes met. Her insides went as hot and liquid as the soup, and again, she wanted to experience a particular pleasure for the first time with this specific man.
To that end, after dinner, she accepted his invitation to go for a stroll in the dimly lit garden.
“Your sister would have my tallywags in a sack,” he quipped.
She let out a laugh at the term, not entirely sure she knew to what he was referring, but feeling wicked all the same.
“My sister is my sister, and thus, not a true chaperone.”
“With that notion in your head,” he admonished, “you are apt to get up to all sorts of dangerous trouble.”
“Too late,” she muttered, but he heard her and shook his head, probably recalling when he’d saved her from the viscount. “Anyway, sir, I thought your idea to take a little air to be a good one, as this room has grown stuffier by the hour.” It wasn’t as if she were hoping for either an assignation or a dash over the stone wall and a trip to Gretna Green.
Without delay, he led her surreptitiously out one of the back doors into the garden. Whispers and giggles from more than one location met her ears, and Julia realized another world of intrigue was happening all around her.
Recalling how she’d arranged for them to be alone in Sarah’s home, and yet he’d left as swiftly as Odysseus’s arrow, she wondered if tonight—
Julia found herself yanked out of the torchlight and into the shadows before she could finish her thought. In the blink of an eye, they were on the other side of an arbor, shielded by a topiary shaped like a pineapple. His arms encircled her immediately.
Maybe the earl was now more like Eros’s arrow, its tip dipped in desire.
Her heart beating at double speed, she raised her face to his and welcomed the crush of his mouth upon hers. In fact, she sighed through the beginning of it, enjoying pure welcome relief. Then his tongue tickled her lips, and she parted them.
While his tongue slid along hers, his hands skimmed down her thighs to draw up the sheer outer layer of her gown, as well as the chemise beneath. She began to tremble, but when the cool night hair whispered across her skin, Julia went motionless.If someone should stumble upon them...
“This is what most of us come to these infernal gatherings for,” the earl said, having kissed his way from her lips along her chin to her neck, speaking softly against her skin. “The rest of it, the dancing and such, is for the simpering innocents and upstanding hum-drum fellows.”
His words sank in as his palms touched the soft cotton of her unfashionable drawers, inching toward the apex where they opened.
Wasn’t she one of those innocents?she wondered.
His fingers slid between the space where the fabric crossed, and he touched her, a mere gentle brush across her curls. She shuddered.
