Disregarded & Adored: The Widower's Perfect Match (Love's Second Chance Series: Tales of Damsels & Knights Book 7) by Bree Wolf

Author:Bree Wolf [Wolf, Bree]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783964820709
Publisher: Bree Wolf
Published: 2021-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Dare to be Daring

Before Elaine could take a single step, Gilbert rushed forward, his hands reaching for her arms, pulling her back. With his boot, he kicked the panel closed, drawing her away from the passageway and toward the fire in his grate. “Come, warm yourself,” he murmured softly, well-aware of the paleness of her skin and her wide-open eyes as they swept over his chamber. “The tunnels are freezing, especially this time of year.” Ignoring her reluctance, Gilbert deposited her in front of the roaring fire before retrieving a blanket to drape upon her shoulders. “There. Better?”

Still staring at him, Elaine nodded, her candle still clutched in her hands. “This is your ch-chamber,” she stammered, clearly mortified. Gilbert could tell that whatever she had expected to find at the end of this tunnel had not been him!

Gilbert chuckled. “It is,” he confirmed, delighted that she had found the tunnel. After not discovering the passageway when he had first spoken to her of it, he had feared she would never try again.

But she had.

And now she was here.

Gilbert had secretly hoped for such a moment.

“Th-This is y-your ch-chamber?” she asked once more, the candle in her hands now shaking so badly that Gilbert feared it might topple to the floor.

Moving forward, Gilbert took it from her hands and set it on the mantel. “It is.”

She eyed him with apprehension. “Your…Your bedchamber?”

Gilbert grinned at her, casting a quick glance over his shoulder at his bed. “So it would seem.”

The paleness instantly vanished from her cheeks, replaced by the fetching blush he had come to expect and love. “And you’re dressed in—” She broke off, her eyes sweeping over his form. “And I—” Her gaze moved down the length of her night robe before snapping back up. “I need to go.”

Yet she stayed where she was, her eyes upon him, confusion marking her features.

Gilbert wished he knew what was going through her head at this moment. “I wish you’d stay.”

She blinked, then swallowed. “You do? Why?” Again, her gaze swept over his chamber. “Why—?” She spoke up abruptly, then equally quickly broke off, her eyes hardening as she stared at him. “I…I expected to find a…a drawing room of some sort. Not…” While her left hand continued to hold on to the blanket upon her shoulders, her right swept outward, indicating his chamber.

Seeing her confusion, Gilbert chuckled, remembering how composed she had always appeared. However, even then, he had suspected—hoped, perhaps!—that it might only be a facade.

“Why would you give me a chamber,” Elaine asked, indignation narrowing her eyes as she drew back her shoulders, “that is connected to yours through a secret passageway? This is most untoward! I—”

“Because I needed you to understand something,” Gilbert interrupted her before her irritation could get the better of her.

Elaine blinked. “Understand what?” she asked after a moment of pause, as though she was uncertain whether she liked to know the answer.

Holding her gaze, Gilbert approached, slowly closing the remaining distance between them. He watched her most carefully as he moved, saw her tense at his approach, but she did not back away.

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