Compromising the Marquess by Wendy Soliman

Author:Wendy Soliman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Regency, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 1426894821
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-12-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Hal strode back to the Boar, repeatedly shaking his head, unsure what he’d committed himself to. Leah Elliott was a complete puzzle to him—like no other woman he’d ever met. No sooner did he think he understood her than she revealed another aspect to her character that rendered him speechless.

He mentally catalogued all he’d learned so far, wondering what further revelations he still had to look forward to. He was fairly sure she had hidden depths and he was in for further surprises. She single-handedly supported her sister, selflessly setting aside her own aspirations to secure her sibling’s future. It probably made her skin crawl to have anything to do with Morris’s tawdry publication but she contributed to it anyway, doing what had to be done in order to survive. She sang like an angel, was attractive in an unconventional sort of way, possessed a body that would reduce even the most devout monk to self-flagellation, and considered reading erotic poetry in Greek to be a normal activity.

To cap it all, she had now calmly invited him to bed her, simply because the subject had piqued her curiosity. Hal scrubbed a hand down his face, willing to admit, at least to himself, that he was in trouble. He was in trouble because as soon as he touched her he wanted more. A damned sight more than a gentleman of honour could ask of her. She might be willingly offering it but, in spite of her intelligence, Hal wasn’t convinced that she fully understood the implications of that offer.

He reached to the Boar and collected his horse from the ostler. Perhaps a fast canter home would dampen his ardour.

Somehow he doubted it.

Rob and Gabriel were both at home. Hal took a moment to retie his hair and then joined them in the drawing room, helping himself to a snifter of brandy.

“I think I have a solution to our problem,” he said by way of greeting.

“Good.” Rob cast aside the book he was reading and focused his attention on Hal. “Our visitor gets daily more restless.”

“What’s your solution then?” Gabe asked.

“A ball. I know we discussed having an entertainment of some sort and dismissed the idea, but Jean-Philippe is running out of patience so we’ll have to make it work.” Hal seated himself beside the fire and grinned at his brothers, waiting for the explosion that wasn’t long in coming.

“A ball?” Rob’s looked astounded. “How the hell will that help? Somehow I find it hard to believe that you’ve developed a sudden yen for dancing.”

“You hate entertaining,” Gabe reminded him.

“Our suspects don’t appear to be in any hurry to visit us, so what say you that we take matters into our own hands?” Hal paused to take a long sip of his drink. “The ball will be to celebrate our victory over Napoleon. A lot of other people have held similar events so it won’t seem out of the ordinary. And since I worked closely with all our suspects, they’d feel slighted if I didn’t invite them.

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