How to Impress a Marquess by Susanna Ives

Author:Susanna Ives
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2016-09-08T04:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

When the hell was this place last cleaned? George surveyed the fortress wing attics with his lamp. Was his home a rubbish heap for everyone to dump their refuse? Was that a water stain?

And where was Lilith?

He released an exasperated breath and checked his pocket watch. Ten minutes past two. After he had spent the evening torn between excitement and dread, Lilith was late.

In the drawing room, he had tried valiantly to focus on the beautiful Lady Cornelia, but his eyes always drifted to Lilith. He had played Lord Charles’s hateful game in secret and Lilith had won. Though she claimed the story was claptrap, the words came alive from her lips. She captured the nuance of Colette. She voiced Colette as he heard her in his own mind when he read.

He would give her a few more minutes while he shoved trunks and broken furniture away from the wall to determine the extent of the water damage. It would be easier to tear down this ancient wing than continue to sink money into it. Old castles littered England and the guidebooks wouldn’t miss one less.

A gentle hand touched his shoulder, sending a warm current down his arm.

Lilith!

He wheeled around, ready to lecture her about timeliness, but the sight of her evaporated his frustrations. She wore that damned robe again. Her hair was loose, falling in waves over her breasts. The light from her lamp reflected in her glassy, red-rimmed eyes.

He seized her hand. “Lilith, are you well?”

She smiled and disentangled herself from his hold. “I’m just wonderful,” she cried in false merry tones.

“You’ve been crying. What has happened?”

“Nothing. I’m— I’m merely cracking under the heavy strain of behaving myself.” She edged past him. “Let me show you the paintings.”

He wasn’t going to let her change the subject. He grasped her elbow, again enjoying a flood of warmth.

“Has something upset you? Did someone say something troubling?”

“Yes, all manner of troubling things like cricket, the weather, proper behavior for young ladies, but nothing about radical art or lurid poetry. All the things that I adore.”

“’Tis a pity you find Colette and the Sultan not to your taste.”

She glanced at where he touched her and whispered, “Do you truly enjoy that story?”

“Why do I think that if I answer emphatically yes, you will think less of me…if that is even possible, considering I’m a fusty frog in your eyes.”

She winced.

“Lilith, I was in jest. Tell me if someone upset you. Has a man made an improper gesture?”

“One.”

His pulsed quickened. “Lord Charles?”

“No.”

“Fenmore, that bloody cove. If I get through this house party without landing him a facer—”

“No, the man in question kissed me on my breast this morning. Very improper and compromising. I might insist that he marry me, but you wouldn’t approve of him. He meets ladies in the dead of night alone in attics and he has quite a foul temper when provoked. And worst of all, he is an artist. You know how you feel about artists.”

“I’m implacable in my poor opinion.

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