“Pucklechurch Community Library. No!”
Ned smiled. “Yes.”
She turned to stare at him. “You stole a library?”
“Well, I made the arrangements, but Pleasance did the labor. As soon as you left for the banquet tonight, she flew to Gloucestershire in an outhouse and back again at top speed in order to arrive in time.”
“She did that for me?” Cecilia was deeply touched. And excited to think of this first theft from Aunt Darlington—her housemaid. “But won’t Pucklechurch seek justice?”
“I imagine they’ll be more than happy we took the building off their hands. They wanted to expand their cemetery to accommodate all the picnicking tourists, so this library was slated for destruction and its books were to be sold or burned.”
Cecilia gasped.
“There are twenty thousand of them, give or take. It used to be a private house so it has a kitchen and bathroom, but we’ll need to renovate, and to acquire some furnishings and munitions to make it homey. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Mind?” Her eyes lit up. “Think of the fun we shall have, shopping for sofas and guns and lamps.”
“Stealing them, you mean.”
She lifted her chin regally, and Ned had a premonition of what the rest of his life with her was going to be like. “Attaining through discretion,” she said.
“Breaking and entering,” he countered.
“Visiting without disturbing the occupants.”
He laughed. But as she looked at him with her beautiful luminous eyes, his laughter faded. His smile became deep, heavy. She reached out, touching his heart, and he felt a thousand defenses of charm, cunning, carelessness, shattering beneath her gentleness, leaving him at last with the clarity of truth. He loved her. He needed her.
Lifting a hand, he laid it gently against her cheek. She was warm, soft—not like a marble princess or fierce pirate, just Cecilia, opening her silence for him. He could have wept then, for the trust she gave him, the vulnerability in her winter-colored eyes.
Suddenly the library door opened, slapping away their intimatepeace. They turned, hands instinctively reaching for weapons, and Pleasance grinned at them.
“Welcome home, miss,” she said, curtsying.
Cecilia reached forward to awkwardly pat the maid’s arm. “Thank you, dear. Are you quite all right after your hurried journey?” For Pleasance’s curls bristled even more than usual and her eyes shone as if she had skimmed the edge of heaven to get to Pucklechurch and back in time.
“I do feel a little consumptive, miss,” Pleasance answered cheerfully. “But such is the way of life. A shadow hangs over all of us, claiming our souls even from the moment of birth, and all we can do is surrender or succumb to screaming madness. Please come in.”
She drew the door ajar. Cecilia was about to take a step forward when Ned tugged her hand. Before she could chastise him, he swooped her up in his arms and proceeded to carry her over the threshold.
Then backed up and turned sideways so her ball gown would not jam the entrance.
And then shoved a little.
And tripped on her long, flowing skirt, tumbling them both to the tiled floor of the entrance hall.
“Oh my,” Pleasance said. “It’s bad luck to fall when you first enter a house. It disturbs the ghosts.” She sounded excited at the possibility.
“Not bad luck, just women’s bloody ridiculous fashions,” Ned muttered. He stood, brushing a stray thread from his sleek velvet coat and straightening his bow tie.
“Or men’s irrational customs,” Cecilia retorted. Ned reached out a hand and she tsked as she looked at it. “Etiquette demands that a gentleman remove his glove before helping a lady up from the floor onto which he has so recklessly tossed her.”
“I beg your pardon, madam.” Taking hold of the glove’s hem, heslowly slid it forward over his hand, revealing the skin beneath. His eyes never left hers, which Cecilia considered fortunate as it meant he would not see her throat move as she swallowed heavily.
“Er—um—I should just go—” Pleasance stammered, and yet she did not take her presence from the room, nor her wide-eyed stare from the scene before her.
The glove removed, the fingers naked, Ned presented his hand again. Cecilia blushed as she took it. He gripped her own gloved fingers firmly and pulled her to her feet. She swayed a little but he held her steady, touching her nowhere but her hand—somehow making her feel like he touched her all over. Their gazes locked in a highly indecent stare.
“So are you happy, miss?” Pleasance interrupted, bouncing a little, causing Ned to smile tightly and Cecilia to almost giggle. “Do you like your new house?”
