The pit of her stomach tingled. Somehow, in his mellow voice, the innocuous statement took on a more sensual meaning. Or was it just her? She slipped on hershoes.
Rudge waited at the foot of the stairs with a paraffin lamp and lit their candles. The shock of discovering the absence of electricity and running water returned with a spark of alarm. Not even a water closet. Could she bear to live without them?
Nathaniel paused at her bedroom door. “Your maid will be waiting to assist you.”
With a glance at his retreating back, she entered her room where a fire burned in the grate. Fireplaces were in constant use here. The old abbey would be chilly withoutthem.
Agnes folded back the bedcover. “I’ve laid out your nightgown, milady. Do you require assistance to undress?”
“Just undo the buttons down the back. I’ll do the rest, thank you.”
“Yes, milady.” Agnes was a typical country girl with a friendly, open face and curly fair hair. She had efficiently organized Laura’s bath before dinner and proved herself an excellent lady’smaid.
After the maid left the room, Laura sat at her dressing table in her nightgown, plaiting her hair. A grating noise forced her to her feet, her heart leaping as a part of the timber paneling on one wall slid open. A dark headappeared.
“I’ve frightened you. I am sorry,” Nathaniel said with a rueful smile. “I hadn’t planned to enter this way, but as you can see my hands are occupied.” Dressed in a midnight blue silk dressing gown piped with gold, he carried a bottle of champagne in one hand and two flutes by their slender stems in theother.
Laura swallowed on a gasp of relief. “A secret panel! How fascinating!”
“The abbey is riddled with passages. I spent my childhood discovering them.”
“You must show them to me. I love such things.”
He poured her a glass of champagne and sat beside her on the bed to clink his glass againsthers.
After the wine at dinner and the port, Laura feared the champagne would lull her to sleep. She laughed and shook herhead.
He smiled. “Care to share the joke?”
“You, appearing like a ghost through the wall.”
His smile widened. “A welcome ghost?” He removed the glass from her hand, placing it on the table alongside him.
“Most welcome,” she whispered as he drew her to herfeet.
He gathered her close against the hard length of his body, cradled her head in his hands and kissed her deeply. “Must you braid your hair?” he asked when he drewaway.
She did but felt unable to argue with him when he turned her shoulders, and his long fingers unraveled her hair. He gathered up her tresses and held them to his face. “Silky and sweetly scented. Glorious.”
“I might wear a cap,” she teased.
“Don’t you dare,” he said huskily. “Your hair glows like fire in this light.”
He slipped the dressing gown from her shoulders to slide into a pool of silk at her feet. “You’re so beautiful, Laura.”
Baring her shoulder, he kissed his way to the sensitive skin at the base of her throat. He eased her back onto the bed and slid his hand over her thigh, pushing her nightgown higher, slowly, as her naked body was revealed to him. Drawing the lacy garment over her head, he tossed it to the floor. So much for the care she’d taken choosing it, Laura thought, before his deft touch sent her thoughts whirlingaway.
“I’ve been thinking of this all day.” His low voice was muffled against herbreast.
Tonight would bring them closer. She would make it so. When his hands strayed, finding her most sensitive spots, her body clamored for him, and she threw back her head with a moan.
After Nathaniel’s masterful lovemaking, Laura stretched like a cat. She lay tangled in the crisp linen sheets, her head resting against Nathaniel’s chest. Endeavoring to please him, she’d become bolder, pleased when she saw how she’d moved him. Her body was sated, but her heart and soul still yearned for something more. Confused, she pushed the thoughts away. He had been a consummate lover. No woman would complain. She was too impatient.
Nathaniel rolled away from her to sit up. He reached for the champagne bottle and topped up their glasses. She plumped up the pillows and sat, feasting her eyes on the gorgeous man in her bed. It was so gloriously decadent sipping champagne beneath a festoon of gold cloth, the bed curtains caught up with goldentassels.
“We’ll ride after breakfast,” Nathaniel said. “In the afternoon, I’ll take you to meet Miss Cilla Gain. I believe she will be good company for you.”
“Does she live in the village?”
