“She cannot think it safe for everyone to tramp up to the roof,” Malcolm objected, as they left the corridor.They ascended the stairs, passed the kitchens, and gained the first floor.
He chanced a glance at Scarlett, and she still looked peaked.
“Miss Perkins,” he said, unable to help himself.“Won’t you rest?I do not think you equal to climbing to the roof, after the fright you have endured.”
To his surprise, she did not react in irritation.“Yes, thank you, Mr.Brown.I do think I am done scavenging for now.”
“As am I,” Tilly said.“I have had quiteenoughof scavenging for today.I should attend my sister.She will need to come and rest in my room.I shan’t have her so far off when she is feeling poorly.”
Malcolm ignored the twist in his sternum at the mention of Scarlett’s out-of-the-way lodgings.He wasn’t sure how he would be able to sleep there tonight, with her only down the hall, knowing what had just passed between them in that closet.
“Very well,” Severn said.“Good day, Miss Perkins and Miss Tilly.”
Malcolm bowed and then watched as the two women set off for the staircase.
He hated seeing Scarlett leave.He already wanted to return to that closet, to hold her against him, to give her pleasure.
A very real part of him wanted to follow her, to press her for her hand in marriage, to let him do the right thing after he had touched her—twice—in such an intimate fashion.But he knew he could not—should not.
She had made it abundantly clear that she regarded marriage to him as undesirable.He had caught her at a vulnerable moment, when her fright tipped over into lust, and he needed to forget about it in a gentlemanly fashion.
It did not matter that he had never been so intimate with a woman before.That he would never, for the rest of his days, forget those minutes in that closet.That he was sure he would die thinking of her moans and her soft little sighs and the way she felt on his fingers as she—
“Stuck in the closet, eh?”Severn jibbed.
“It was an accident.”
Severn chuckled.This little chuckle, so smooth and knowing, irked Malcolm.He knew that Severn had become very worldly in the past few years.But he was still Malcolm’syoungerbrother.For some reason, at present, Malcolm was not inclined to let him forget it.
“You were having quite the interesting conversation with Miss Perkins,” he proffered.“It seems as if you’ve given more thought to a honeymoon with the lady than George has.”
“I have not,” he snapped.“Or if I have, it is only because George hasn’t given such matters proper consideration.”
“Your interest in George’s honeymoon plans is keen indeed.”
“What are you suggesting, Malcolm?If you are trying to say something, you might as well come out and say it.”
He hadn’t meant to rile Severn quite so thoroughly.Or not exactly.He had merely wanted to distract him from his own line of questioning—and to remind him who the elder amongst them was.
But now that he had received such an invitation, Malcolm found hedidhave something to say.
He turned toward Severn.He and George had their father’s eyes—all of the siblings did, except for Malcolm.Their father had been fair and blond, but he had had dark eyes, an unusual combination.While none of his siblings had inherited his father’s coloring, except for himself, they had all received his dark eyes, the one feature that Malcolm hadnotgotten from his sire.This physical difference had always set Malcolm apart from the rest in a way he despised.
“If you aren’t serious about interfering with Tilly and George,” Malcolm said slowly, “then you should stop interfering with Tilly and George.”
“I am not interfering.”Severn glowered.“I am merely giving my brother a few hints.You know he is unschooled in the ways of women.”
The same, of course, could be said of Malcolm.
Although, perhaps, a little less after his recent encounters with Scarlett.
God help him.
“He may be unschooled in the ways of women,” Malcolm said.“But one doesn’t need such an education to understand that what you were saying to Miss Tilly did not seem to be about George at all.”
Malcolm wasn’t going to push his luck and bring up the matter of thekissingthat Severn had referenced.He was going to pretend that he hadn’t heardthat.
“Ridiculous.Do you know how many women await my return in London?I have much more interesting affairs to attend to than Tilly and George and where they honeymoon.”
