So do it, then,an appealing voice whispered.There’s no one about.
This vantage point gave him a clear view of the surrounding area, which was enticingly empty of people. No one to happen upon a naked duke. Will shifted on his feet. He could already feel the cool rush of water on his overheated skin. Before he could talk himself out of it, he was hurrying down the hillside, unbuttoning his shirt as he went.
Afterward, feeling quite refreshed and just a little bit naughty, Will lay on the bank to dry out. He closed his eyes against the warm sun and inhaled the dusky scent of ripe wildflowers and summer grass.
The Atkinson girls used to come here to make daisy crowns. Once, Phoebe had shyly given him her crown and he proudly put iton his head, hoping to make her burst into a fit of giggles. Instead, she beamed up at him with those big hazel eyes until he returned it and carelessly moved on to something else.
Only now did he realize she had meant it as a gift. And he had just tossed it aside.
Alex had been right. Hewasan idiot.
Will sat up and pulled on his damp shirt. His wet hair still clung to his scalp, but he couldn’t lay here any longer. He needed to move. To outrun these blasted memories. By the time he entered the house and stalked past the open parlor door toward the staircase, he was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn’t hear Cal until he practically shouted his name. Will paused on the first step. Father Lloyd was probably still here. It would be incredibly rude of him not to say goodbye, even in his current state of dishevelment. Will swallowed his sigh and headed back toward the parlor.
It was only once he had entered the room with no hope of escaping unnoticed that he realized it wasn’t the vicar sitting with his brother, but Phoebe herself.
As Will stopped dead in his tracks, he belatedly remembered that his damp shirt hung open at his throat and his sleeves were rolled to nearly his elbows, while his jacket was folded across his arm. In other words, he was scandalously undressed.
She’s seen you naked.
Unsurprisingly, the reminder didn’t help.
For her part, Phoebe’s cheeks had turned a particularly fetching shade of rose that suggested she had been equally caught off guard.
“Isn’t this a lovely surprise?” Cal grinned, blissfully unaware of the undercurrent of tension running between them. “Phoebe is staying next door for a few days and came by to say hello.”
Will blinked rapidly but the apparition did not fade. Phoebewashere. In the parlor. Looking like an ethereal maiden in white muslin, while a droplet of brook water slid down his back.
“Hello,” he replied. It felt as awkward as it sounded.
“I didn’t know you were home,” she said quickly—and accusingly. Then she stood up and the napkin on her lap fell onto the floor. “I should go.” Phoebe then turned to Cal. “It was so good to see you again.”
“You’re leaving?” Cal was obviously confused, but Phoebe was already headed for the doorway.
“Wait,” Will called out weakly as she rushed past him and exited the room, a delicate scent of fresh linen trailing in her wake. He couldn’t help the deep inhalation that followed and his eyes fluttered closed.
But Cal was too busy staring after her with open-mouthed astonishment to notice this pathetic display. “I don’t know what’s happened,” he said to Will. “We were having the most lovely chat.” Then he frowned in horror. “I hope I didn’t say something tooffendher.”
“You didn’t,” Will said as he tore his gaze from the now empty doorway. “What is she doing here? In Surrey,” he added.
“Her school closed, poor thing. So Alex suggested she come home for a bit of rest.”
“What?” His mind whirled at the news while his heart ached for what she had lost. All that work had been for naught. She would be devastated.
But Will didn’t wait for Cal to respond. Those rebellious feet of his had already gone after Phoebe. And this time, Will would not stop them.
Phoebe raced down the front steps and cut across the lawn, propelled entirely by her own blinding sense of mortification. If she had any idea Will was there, she never would have set foot on the Margraves’ property, let alone theirparlor.
Cal had been thrilled by her surprise visit and they quickly got lost catching up until his eyes suddenly lit at the sound of footsteps storming down the hall.
“Oh, that must be Will now.”
Will?Here?
Phoebe had been too stunned to respond, then desperately hoped she had misunderstood, until the man himself strode into the room and looked at her as if she was a ghost, so great was his shock. Entirely understandable given the remarks she had hurled at him during their last encounter. But now she was in his own home holding a biscuit and gaping at him like an idiot.
Somehow he had grown even more handsome over the last two months, though that could have been on account of how little clothing he was wearing. His shirt was open at the throat, revealing a glimpse of his naked chest, tan from the summer sun, and his hair was appealingly tousled—just as it had been the night they investigated the music hall, or the morning he lay asleep in her bed. In any case, he looked healthy and well rested andverysurprised to see her.
Cal was asking him something about his walk, but Will’s dark eyes were solely fixed to her with alarming intensity. Phoebe didn’t care to wait to see his expression change to outrage once he recovered from his understandable shock, so instead she bolted.
