While keeping his eyes on Race and Susannah backing up, he tried the two doors and made sure they were locked.
“Move away from here to have your tryst. This is a private area of the house.”
“Thank you,” Race said. “That is exactly what we will do.”
Race took hold of her elbow and whispered, “Where in the house did you make the maid spill the glasses?”
“What could that possibly matter?”
“I want to put the keys on the floor in that area. When she finds them missing, that will be the first place she goes looking for them, and I intend that she find them.”
Susannah told him where she had pilfered the keys.
“Get your wrap. I’ll find Mrs. Princeton and send her down to you. Go home.”
She gasped. “I will not. How dare you start ordering me around?”
His hand tightened on her elbow. “I do not want you here if there is any fallout from the missing keys. Go home and leave your door unlocked for me. I will come to you tonight.”
“No.” Her voice remained firm, and her eyes held steady on his. “It will not be unlocked. You will be wasting your time to come to my door.”
His brownish-green gaze swept up and down her face. “It’s a chance I’m willing to take.” He turned and hurried up the stairs.
Seventeen
My Grandson Alexander,
Lord Chesterfield’s wit never ceased to amaze me. Read these words to see why: “Every excellency, and every virtue, has its kindred vice or weakness, and if carried beyond certain bounds sinks into the one or the other. Vice in its true light is so deformed that it shocks us at first sight and would hardly ever seduce us if it did not, at first, wear the mask of some virtue.”
Your loving Grandmother,
Lady Elder
Race downed the last of the brandy in his glass and stared at the back of Susannah’s house from his book room window. He had waited and watched for over an hour as all the lights in the house had gone out except the one that came from Susannah’s room. She had told him not to come. After their passionate kiss in Captain Spyglass’s home, how could he not? He was consumed with yearning, and he wanted to make love to her. He wanted to feel her warm and responsive body beneath him. He craved more of her, and the only thing that separated them was two gardens.
After he had watched Susannah and Mrs. Princeton leave Spyglass’s party, he had hurriedly stashed the maid’s keys in a corner of the corridor on the first floor where Susannah had swiped them. He hoped no one would ever be the wiser about what really happened to the keys.
It knotted his stomach to think how close Susannah had come to getting caught in Spyglass’s bedchamber by that butler, guard, or whatever the hell he was. Race didn’t even want to think about what might have happened to her if he hadn’t seen her walking down the stairs and decided to follow her. She was too bold and audacious for her own good.
Race was impressed with her courage and her determination, but she was playing a risky game that involved people far less scrupulous than she could imagine. From all Race had heard, and despite Spyglass being welcomed to parties by people in Polite Society, he would not be forgiving if anyone tried to rob him. Just the thought of her being found snooping in Spyglass’s bedchamber sent fear skittering through Race’s chest and down his spine.
He untied his neckcloth and threw it on top of his desk and then discarded his collar, too. Had Susannah meant it when she told him not to come to her door? Even though she had looked and sounded like she meant it, she was not indifferent to him. Proof of that lay in how quickly passion flared between them during that brief embrace in the corridor. Just thinking about that aroused him.
Without further thought, Race strode out of the house and tromped through his garden. He found the hole in the yew he’d cut. He had forgotten how long it had been since he had cut it, and already it was growing back together. Mrs. Frost had told him the gardener had almost collapsed into a fit when he saw what some prankster had done to his perfectly trimmed hedge.
Race bent down and with some difficulty managed to crawl through the hole. He was careful not to scratch his face this time. He wanted no more lewd remarks from Morgan.
The night was bright with a large moon and more stars in the sky than he could remember seeing in a long time. He breathed in the fresh, cool air and thought only of getting to Susannah. He hastened his steps and quietly took the outside stairs two at a time until he reached the landing on the first floor.
The moon was in just the right angle to glisten its beams on the door. Race smiled and reached for the knob in anticipation. He turned it as he pushed on the door with his other hand. The knob didn’t move and neither did the door.
Not wanting to believe what seemed to be the obvious, he added more pressure and turned the knob again. The door was bolted from the inside and it wasn’t going to budge.
For a moment, Race just stood there and stared at the door. His heart beat erratically. He had been so sure she would unlock the door for him that it momentarily stunned him that she hadn’t.
Trying to gather his tattered wits and bruised ego, Race blew out a disappointed breath and then moistened his lips. Was it possible she hadn’t felt all that he had during their one night together? He laughed quietly to himself. No, that he would not believe. She had wanted him as desperately as he had wanted her. She had not been faking her pleasure. He was sure of that.
Perhaps he had destroyed any soft feelings she had for him when he accused her of stealing the pearls. She had been furious with him, and at the time he’d been too blinded to see the truth. He had misjudged her, barged into her house like a wild boar, and worse, he hadn’t really apologized to her for either of those things yet. No wonder she kept the door bolted against him. A note scribbled on a piece of foolscap didn’t constitute an apology.
