What a dilemma!
The Earl of Marshfield came to mind. He was undoubtedly in a position to help. He could tell the viscountess how her husband had attacked Julia.
Pacing her room, she knew in all likelihood, he would help her, but at what cost? She had an inkling of the bargain he would strike and the payment he would demand. It would put her right back in the precarious position of which Lady Daphne had soundly warned.
It was times like these when a young woman was glad there was strong milky tea at hand. Nevertheless, when she was no closer to a solution by the end of the day and had drunk enough tea to float the Royal Navy, Julia began to think asking Jasper for help was her only choice.
Waving an invitation under Sarah’s nose to attend an all-female gathering in the early evening, knowing her sister despised the particular hostess, Julia left without a chaperone.
Approaching Lord Marshfield’s home on Grosvenor Square, she hoped he was at home. Half past seven was, after all, too early for rakes to be out gallivanting. Undoubtedly, he would think her mad with all her coming and going, but to protect Sarah from the consequences of Julia’s rash behavior, she would do just about anything.
Lord Marshfield’s butler allowed her entrance and said his lordship was at home.
Waiting in the drawing room, she glanced at the sofa, thinking it looked more wicked than any ordinary sofa ought. She hastily averted her eyes.
To her surprise, she heard Jasper’s footfalls thumping down the stairs, as if he were running to reach her.
Stepping into the room, he grinned and her insides melted. She came to a decision, and smiled back. In the next instant, she was swept into his arms.
“You have returned,” he murmured against her lips.
“Apparently,” she said.
“Were you wanting more of my delicious claret?” he asked, already nibbling his way along her chin and down the column of her neck, making goosebumps break out across her arms. She shivered.
“This room is cold,” he said. “I apologize. No fire tonight as I wasn’t expecting to be in here. Let me—” He turned away toward the bell-pull, and she grabbed his arm.
“Is it warmerupstairs?” she asked, amazed at the husky tone to her voice. Yet as soon as she saw him, she’d known what she wanted to happen.
His eyes widened for a brief moment. Then he nodded. “Let’s go to my study and wait while the maid lights the fire in my ... bedroom?” the earl finished with a questioning note.
“All right,” she agreed despite her knees feeling shaky.
And as easily as that, Julia found herself going upstairs with a scandalous rake. Her heart was beating fast as a bird’s, and she wondered if he could hear it, for it seemed extraordinarily loud in her ears.
They crested the first landing, and he drew her along the hall to his study, all paneled wood, large oaken desk, and a roaring fire. There was a small sofa and two chairs and even a chessboard, with a game halfway played.
She wondered momentarily with whom he’d been playing. That question would wait, along with asking for assistance regarding the Lady Chandron.Until after...
Jasper pulled the bell. When there was a tap at the door a minute later, he went to it rather than having the servant enter. Except for the butler, no one had seen her. Feeling reassured, Julia could still flee if she changed her mind with hardly anyone the wiser.
When he closed the door once again, he came to stand beside her before the hearth.
“My bedroom should be warm soon. Meanwhile, I suggest a glass of brandy.”
“Will I need it?” she asked, thinking of the pain she’d heard accompanied a proper deflowering.
He coughed, then lifted the crystal stopper from a decanter. “I certainly hope not. I will endeavor to make this nothing but pleasurable.” He handed her a glass of amber liquid. “I confess I am surprised you came back, given that nothing has changed.”
Nothinghadchanged — she still wanted him with a mad, almost inexplicable passion. The way she felt when he looked at her, how his sultry cologne made her heart race, and the constant longing for him to touch her again — none of that would change. Except perhaps, afterward, when she had been thoroughly and truly tupped, then maybe she would lose some of the craving for him.
“We seem to have a spark, sir.”
“Call me Jasper, and yes, we do. Quite a remarkable one at that.”
“Is it?” she asked. For she had no way of knowing if this was regular or something special.
“I promise you that it is.”
