Giles had gone back to the whist after Sir Timothy had spoken but looked up when Alasdair addressed him from across the room.
“Lord Morpeth, after I attend on the Lady Colborne, would I have yer permission to attend on yer wife?”
Giles grunted and waved his hand.
“Thank ye,” Alasdair said through his teeth.
As she climbed the stairs ahead of him, Arabella thought of how proud she was of Alasdair’s self-control when Giles was so rude. She must find a way to show him her approval. Perhaps tonight she would dare to take his hand and put it on her breast again. But was that more reward for him or for her? Perhaps she would be merely repeating the forward behavior that had led to their disagreement in the carriage just before the snowstorm. But surely, at some point, he would do it himself? Maybe she should just tell him what she wanted and see if he was shocked or delighted.
But what if his shock made him turn away from her? As he had momentarily in the carriage after she had stroked his member and made him spend.
She could wait, she decided. She would follow her current course of letting him think he was leading, continuing to kiss him, and waiting to see what he did next.
Lady Juliana Colborne’s bedchamber was a large one and did not feel crowded even when they had all entered the room. Juliana was likely taken aback when the party of three came in, but she hid it well, Arabella thought.
Juliana was sitting in a chair, dressed as she had been at dinner, but her hair was down and Arabella felt sure she was wearing rouge, which she had not been wearing at the table. There was a cloying scent of perfume in the room. Arabella looked around. Juliana’s lady’s maid was conspicuously absent.
“We’re all here to make you feel better,” Rebecca said. “Your sister, one of your oldest friends, and her husband.”
“Aye,” Alasdair said. “Please do tell me what is wrong, Lady Colborne.”
“I ...” Juliana hesitated. “I’m sure it is nothing, Dr. Andrews. Just a feeling of being lightheaded at times. And fatigued.”
“With yer permission?” Alasdair said and when Juliana nodded, he stepped forward and picked up her wrist and felt her pulse.
Arabella thought suddenly of how much she loved Alasdair’s hands.But they will always touch other women.
“Is the lightheadedness with standing?” Alasdair asked when he had released her wrist.
“Er, yes,” Juliana said.
“Standing up quickly? May I touch ye under yer eye?” Juliana nodded and Alasdair lightly pulled down one of her lower eyelids.
Alasdair bent and asked something in a low voice to Juliana that Arabella could not hear.
Juliana colored. “Before Christmas.”
“Are ye having any pain or difficulty breathing?”
“None, Doctor.”
Alasdair leaned down again and said something directly into her ear. Then he pulled back and looked in Juliana’s eyes. Juliana looked ... what? Apprehensive, Arabella decided. But Juliana nodded, as if to show she understood.
Then Alasdair straightened up and spoke at a normal volume. “Please do have me alerted if anything worsens, Lady Colborne. I would avoid drinking an excess of wine. Be sure to rest.”
Arabella and Alasdair took their leaves but Rebecca stayed behind and Arabella could hear Rebecca saying, “Now, what was that all about, Juliana?” as Alasdair closed the door.
Arabella and Alasdair stood in the hallway.
“Thank ye for protecting me, Miss Lovelock. ’Twas very thoughtful,” he said as he lifted a wild tendril of golden hair off her forehead that had escaped her Grecian knot, “but I assure ye ’twas entirely unnecessary. I have avoided all manner of entanglements over the years. I am a skilled evader. Widows, spinsters, matrons, maidens. I have not been trapped yet.”
Arabella put her arms around his waist. “Are you sure about that?”
“I dinnae feel trapped but if ye tell me I am, I will believe ye, and I willnae ask for rescue,” he said and put his finger under her chin and kissed her pink lips. She tasted of the custard she had eaten for dessert—sweet, rich, with a hint of vanilla. And made entirely with egg yolks, Alasdair being sure that the egg whites were being kept in reserve for Lady Morpeth.
“That was very good,” she said when he was done kissing her.
He went to kiss her again.
