Bedeviling Major Kenton (Willful Winterbournes Book 5) by Sandra Sookoo

Author:Sandra Sookoo [Sookoo, Sandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, romance, Historical
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2023-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

July 28, 1820

Because it was raining, participants of the house party were forced indoors to find their amusements. Since the young people decided that parlor games would suffice, the other attendees dispersed to the library, the parlor and study for cards and conversation, or various other rooms for different pursuits.

Not particularly wanting to sit through endless rounds of charades or watch unskillful attempts at flirting and flattery during Blind Man’s Bluff, once Owen checked to make certain there were already enough companions and responsible adults in the drawing room, he slipped next door to the billiards room. Remarkably, none of the men had wished to partake of the game, so he was afforded a few moments’ peace.

Immediately, the scents of leather and faint tobacco wafted to his nose. Dark-stained wooden furniture filled the space, along with two billiards tables, complete with green felt interiors. Candlelight glimmered off gilt frames on the wall as well as highlighted other bric-a-brac set about the room. In one corner, a curio cabinet hosted interesting items, definitely not of English origin. Were the Cloverfields world travelers? Budding archeologists? Or had some of those items acquired been given over as alternative forms of payment for their jewelry services?

Not knowing, he concentrated on his own life. Dinner had been served an hour past, buffet-style in the dining room, and while he hadn’t eaten his fill, his appetite hadn’t been that robust since he’d met Beatrice the first day of the house party. He rested his cane against one of the leatherbound chairs as his mind wandered.

At first, he’d been delighted and amused since they’d known each other in childhood. The chance to reconnect with a whole lifetime between them had been a bit of an adventure. Then, after sharing their history, he’d come to understand her, and what was more, some of her experiences had overlapped his. They’d been united in grief and the feelings associated with seeing their children ushered into adulthood. To say nothing of that attraction, the connection that blazed between them he couldn’t quite figure out.

That said passion had finally culminated in a rushed, hurried coupling in the heart of the maze where they had first met still left him in the height of satisfaction, but confusion had also come calling. What the hell had possessed him to do such a thing and put them both at risk? To say nothing of being so irresponsible as to not take any sort of preventative measures. Yes, it was true the lady wasn’t young any longer, but there was always the worry of a late-in-life pregnancy.

I don’t want any more children.

With his hands planted on his hips, Owen drifted to one of the two billiards tables and regarded it with a fierce frown. What was he doing? He didn’t fit in with the people here, and he certainly didn’t know how to play this particular game. To say nothing of flirting with the possibility of having an affair—or tryst for the remainder of the house party—with Beatrice.

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