“What do you do when you’re not playing, Miss Prim? When you want to be serious?”
“Serious?” She pretended to study over the word as if she wasn’t sure what it meant. “Let me see. I play the pianoforte.”
“Ah.”
“I stitch embroidery samples and knit.”
“Mmm.”
“I read, paint, and write poetry,” she finished with a wistful sigh and a shadow of a smile.
“All very important, significant, and serious things to do.”
She folded her arms across her chest and lifted her chin a fraction. “You are making fun of me, my lord.”
His gaze swept up and down her beautiful face. Oh, yes, he was interested in her in a mighty way. “It was my turn, don’t you think?”
“Perhaps.” Their gazes locked and held until she blinked and softly said, “I should admit that I did have a measure fun off you today.”
“A full measure.”
“You didn’t mind too terribly, did you?”
“I didn’t mind at all, Miss Prim. I found my encounter with you refreshing.”And stimulating.
And if they were alone right now, he would to pull her into his embrace and show her just how stimulated he was. But that would have to wait until a more opportune time.
“The truth is, my lord, and you know this, it is that men are taught all the wonders the world has to offer. There are no limits or boundaries on what they can learn or accomplish while there’s very little offered for a young lady to be taught other than how to manage her home, care for her children, and be an obedient wife to her husband.”
She was right, except for one point. Seth couldn’t imagine Miss Prim being obedient to anyone, least of all a husband, but he said, “Those things are lofty, gratifying goals, are they not?”
“I suppose,” she said, but then added in a serious tone, “Would you think that if they were your only goals?”
She made a good point.
“Probably not.”
He added the wordwiseto the growing list of things that he admired about Miss Prim.
“Tell me, what would you do if you could do anything in the world? What would you study or learn?”
Her eyes brightened again. “Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps astronomy. I enjoy sitting out in the evenings when the weather is fair and looking at the stars in the night sky. Maybe I’d like to learn how a steam engine works or how to build a castle.”
“All those things would require a lot of study to understand.”
“I know, but I would be up to the task. If I were a man and given the opportunity. And perhaps I’d enjoy sailing the Seven Seas.”
“The Seven Seas?” He chuckled. “The things you come up with amaze me, Miss Prim.”
“Well, if not all the seas, maybe one or two of them at least. At least going somewhere on a ship. Mr. Nash made it sound so exciting to ride the ocean waves.”
“That he did,” Seth said, but thought, as he heard Crispin announce it was time to go into dinner, that he couldn’t imagine anything more exciting than Miss Prim.
Chapter 4
“He’s a monster. Albeit a handsome, breath-stealing monster who kept my senses in a whirl of chaos whenever he was near, but one just the same,” Lillian mumbled to herself as a light knock sounded on her bedchamber door.
For a startled, insane second she thought it might be the marquis. But sanity returned quickly. No one but her sister would knock on her door this time of night. Why would it even pop into her mind that it might be Lord Wythebury? Probably because she had envisioned kissing him when she’d met him earlier in the day and this evening too! And she didn’t imagine just a brief brushing-of-lips kiss as she’d allowed a gentleman or two, or three, to kiss her during the Season, but a long savoring kiss that seemed to never end.
