Rebel Marquess by Amy Sandas

Author:Amy Sandas [Sandas, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regency, Historical Romance, Fiction
ISBN: 9781619218390
Google: SS18AgAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00HOFEHDU
Barnesnoble: B00HOFEHDU
Goodreads: 20543170
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Published: 2014-04-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Dinner was a formal affair with everyone seated by social rank. Eliza was nowhere near the marquess through the elaborate seven-course meal.

Which was fine with her.

Seeing Rutherford again after the weeks of his absence made it clear her emotions had somehow gotten entangled in the mess of their forced association. She felt things so much deeper, more acutely, when he was near. Her senses were heightened, her thoughts became easily muddled and her body hummed with an odd sort of expectancy. She wished she didn’t know what it was that made her heart trip over itself and her blood run warm and thick through her body.

It was him.

Highwayman. Marquess.

It did not matter. It was the way his voice grew richer when he lowered it to talk to her alone. It was the way she felt feminine and strong when she stood face-to-face with him and tipped her head back to meet his gaze. And it was a desire to feel more. To explore what other sensations he could ignite with the delicate drift of his fingers and the warm press of his lips.

It was all of that and more. And it terrified Eliza.

After dinner, the ladies adjourned to the drawing room and one of Rutherford’s distant cousins, a young lady also making her come out that year, began to play at the pianoforte. Eliza conversed politely with the other ladies, exchanged witticisms and laughed as appropriate, yet she kept glancing to the doorway, waiting for the gentlemen to finish their port and join them.

At one point, she grew so distracted in her impatience she didn’t even realize Lady Rutherford had sidled up next to her until she heard the old lady cackle softly. “You cannot will him through the door, you know.”

Eliza covered up her start of surprise by lifting her hand to tuck a stray tendril of hair behind her ear. She turned to her hostess with an expression of innocent inquiry. “Lady Rutherford, I do not understand what you mean.”

“Oh, come now, it does no good to dither over the obvious.” The lady’s sharp eyes narrowed to a near squint. “I have been watching you, girl, and I know the look of longing when I see it.”

“Longing?” Eliza laughed, and as she did so, realized how unnatural it sounded. “My lady, I do not long for anyone.”

The dowager thumped her walking stick once on the marble floor. “Either you are lying to me or to yourself. Neither is acceptable nor very attractive.”

Eliza wisely bit her tongue, feeling a surge of admiration for the fearsome woman.

“Miss Terribury,” Lady Rutherford continued, her voice still sharp with reprimand, “we can be frank with each other. Your open manner was the first thing about you I actually liked. So I shall tell you I was not pleased to learn you were to become the new marchioness.” Eliza blinked at the candid remark but did not interrupt. “You are frighteningly unsophisticated. You hail from a less-than-auspicious family line, and you are far too young.

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