Boudreaux's Lady by Lauren Smith

Author:Lauren Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781952063695
Publisher: Lauren Smith

Beau sat alone in the dining room, his gaze darting to the grandfather clock in the corner. He’d been alone with his thoughts for five hours now. Stoddard entered the room and looked at the footman and then at Beau.

“Shall I have the first course brought in, sir?” the butler asked politely.

Beau pulled himself from his ruminations. “What?”

“The first course, sir. It doesn’t appear that Miss Wilson will be joining you. Mrs. Gronow just informed me that the young lady has refused dinner, claiming she doesn’t feel well.”

Guilt gnawed at him from the inside. Had he been too harsh on her today at the park? Probably… Yes. Definitely. He’d seen Albus roll over onto her and if she hadn’t stood up and hit Miss Monroe, he would have feared she’d been terribly hurt. Those feelings had made him react more strongly to her actions than he’d intended. And when he’d learned of her reasons…

I was too harsh with her.

“I believe I will go up and check on her. Have two trays prepared and sent to her room.” Beau pushed back from the table and headed up the stairs. He tried to rehearse an apology speech. He was so unaccustomed to these sorts of conversations. With a mistress, an apology always came in the form of diamonds. But he knew diamonds wouldn’t matter to Philippa.

When he reached her chambers, he knocked and pressed his ear to the door. When he heard no footsteps approaching, he tried the door latch. It turned and he eased the door open. Was she asleep? The last thing Beau wanted to do was disturb her if she was.

The bedchamber was dark except for the fire. He could only just make out Philippa’s form curled up on a chair facing the flames. He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. His heart beat hard against his ribs as he prepared to apologize, but he hesitated a moment before joining her by the fire.

“Philippa… We should speak about what happened today.” He looked down and saw her cheeks shimmering with the tracks of tears. She wiped her eyes as she met his gaze.

“You scolded me like a child. I’m not a child, Beau,” she said softly, her voice husky with emotion, painfully reminding him she was a grown woman. One with a pure heart that he’d treated poorly.

“You’re right. I scolded you for your temper and I shouldn’t have. Lord knows I would’ve done the same thing if I’d been in your place, had it been a man who’d done it.”

“You excuse Miss Monroe’s actions because she’s a woman?”

“Certainly not. But I won’t raise a hand to a woman, even a terrible one.” He looked at the vacant chair beside her. “May I sit?”

“It is your home. You may do as you please.” Her sullen reply made him smile for reasons he couldn’t explain.

“It is. But this is your room while you remain here.” He sat down and started to reach for her hand on the armrest but stopped himself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.