Boundless_The Shaws by Lynne Connolly

Author:Lynne Connolly [Connolly, Lynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-12-04T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Adrian found Livia maddening when she wasn’t being adorable. The temptation to go further with her in that little room was close to unbearable, until he felt her shiver against him and knew it was not from passion. She had frozen there, waiting for her brother to arrive. And avoiding him too. She had not appeared at the jovial, bustling breakfast, and he had not managed to get anything out of her tight-lipped maid. In a way he was glad of that because he appreciated a loyal servant, but why now, and why this servant?

Realizing what she was doing, he’d tried every door on that benighted corridor, the one at the front that looked out over the drive. The fear in her eyes when he came in had struck him to the heart. How could he leave her then? He’d known she was afraid, angry, doubtful. Where he would have ordinarily left a woman to stew, knowing she would be more eager to see him when he deigned to present himself, he could not do it in this case. Thinking of Livia distressed, perhaps in tears, struck him to the core.

What was he thinking? Was he turning into the kind of henpecked man he despised? No, because Livia did not do that to him. But his desire to protect her had driven him to deliver the kind of kiss that would reassure her rather than turn her away.

He wanted her, and now that she had awakened his desire he wanted to enter into the next part of his life. Finally, he felt ready to move on. On to what, he wasn’t sure, but not what he was leaving behind.

Now he was ready, Livia was not. Her evasions maddened him. As he accompanied her down to the huge painted hall to greet her brother, who had finally arrived with his family, he pondered his change of heart. Inside, he had altered and that was because of Livia. She intrigued him, drew him in with her secrets. That damned brooch had interested him, but she fascinated him far more. He wanted to know all her secrets. Every single one.

In return, he would have to give his own secrets into her keeping. He should do that before they married. And marry they would. Sooner than she thought too.

* * * *

That same evening the family held a dinner for their landed neighbors. Christmas was one of the few times the two factions, Country and County, came together. Each despised the other, and respected them too, recognized the vital places each held. The County men looked after local affairs, took their positions extremely seriously. Country men, on the whole the nobility, ran the country and its position in the world.

The king? He did very little, although he thought he ran everything. County and Country agreed on that.

Adrian was an observer here. His part of the world lay farther north, where he had similar tussles and agreements to cope with. The large dining room, the table opened to its fullest extent in honor of the guests, glittered with candlelight.

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