She let out a strangled cry and leapt from her chair, which toppled backwards and would have crashed to the floor if it hadn’t hit Finn’s legs first.
“Lord Huntington! Dear God, whatever are you doing, sneaking about in the dark like that? You scared the wits out of me.” She choked in a few gasping breaths and patted her chest. “For goodness’ sake, you certainly make it a habit to appear where you’re least expected.”
Finn set the chair to rights, an unfamiliar heat suffusing his face. Had he actually just sneaked up behind her and touched her? She wasn’t the only one who’d lost her wits. Good Lord, he must have gone mad.
“I—I beg your pardon. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I was…”
Waswhat?Christ, he hadn’t the least idea how to finish that sentence.
Hypnotized by you? About to stroke your hair? Frantic with worry over you, and so relieved to find you at last I lost my head?“I’m, ah…”
Fond of you?
He was fumbling for a convincing lie when he noticed she wasn’t even listening to him. She’d turned to lean against the table, or rather, to sit on top of it, and she seemed to be greatly preoccupied with arranging her skirts.
“Miss Somerset? Is something wrong?”
“No, no. Nothing at all.” She offered him an unconvincing smile, but she was biting her lip, and her eyes had gone huge in her flushed face. “What, ah…what brings you to the library so late at night?”
She darted a quick look behind her and gave her skirts another twitch. When she met his gaze again, her cheeks had gone from pink to scarlet.
What the devil was the matter with her? Finn took a step toward her and peered around her. The moment he moved, she shifted to face him, but he got enough of a glimpse to see she’d sat down right on top of her book.
Ah, so that’s what was troubling her. Whatever she was reading, she didn’t want him to see it. “Reading, so late at night? It must be a fascinating book. What is it?”
Her eyes widened with alarm. “Oh, it’s just—it’s nothing that would interest you, I’m sure, my lord.”
“I think you’d be surprised at what interests me, Miss Somerset.” It must be something suggestive, to have her in such a flutter, but Finn doubted he’d find whatever it was as shocking as she did. “What is it? A novel, or—”
He didn’t get any farther, because to his surprise she leapt up, snatched the book off the table, thrust it behind her back, and began to back away from him.
All this fuss, over a novel?
Finn went after her, his eyes narrowing. “What have you got there, Miss Somerset?”
“Nothing that concerns you.” She backed into a bookshelf and began to edge sideways, her gaze darting from his face to the door on her right that led to the hallway.
“Oh? But I find myself quite concerned, given you seem to be so intent on hiding it from me. What it is you find so fascinating you’ve abandoned your bed for it?”
“Nothing! That is, it’s nothing to do with you.”
No, it didn’t have anything to do with him, but he’d wager it had something to do with Wrexley. It couldn’t be a coincidence she’d spent time alone with that scoundrel, and now she was in the library, alone, after midnight, reading something she didn’t want Finn to see.
“It does now.” He held out his hand. “Let me have it, if you please.”
“No. It can’t matter to you what I choose to read. You have no right to pry into my affairs.”
Her chest was heaving, and she looked to be in an utter panic, which only made him more determined to see what she was hiding. He edged around the table, shifted to his left to block her path to the door, and held out his hand for the book. “Come now. What could be so terrible it has you this agitated? Show it to me.”
She didn’t answer, but darted another desperate look at the door. Finn could see she was one breath away from bolting, and every muscle in his body tensed to go after her.
I’ll chase her right into her bedchamber if I have to.
She worried at her lower lip and swept her gaze over him, as if trying to determine how quickly he could move.
Very quickly—much more quickly than Miss Somerset, as it turned out. Finn saw her shoulders tense right before she made her desperate leap for the door, and he was there in front of her before she was more than two steps from the table. She crashed into his chest and he wrapped his arms around her and eased her backwards until her spine met the bookshelf behind her.
“Let go of me at once!” She squirmed against him, trying to land a blow on his shin. “How dare you manhandle me in this shameful way! I insist you release me!”
