Redeeming Lord Ryder by Robinson Maggie

Author:Robinson, Maggie
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2017-11-21T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

December 28, 1882

Yow, but his neck hurt. Jack opened one eye. It was gray and cold in the room, with near-dead embers in the fireplace. He had fallen asleep in his chair and had spent the whole night upright!

He had slept. A solid dreamless handful of hours. It was almost worth being stiff, his every muscle tight. He stretched, then rubbed the kink at his shoulder, twisting and turning to loosen things up.

Both eyes open now, he discovered Nicola curled up as innocently as a child on the sofa. Her hand was tucked under her chin, and her golden hair had come loose across her shoulder. Her breathing was regular, untroubled, and he hated to wake her. She resembled some sort of fairy princess, too much above his touch.

He stood up, somewhat unsteady. A tray lay upon the table, a linen napkin covering last night’s post-midnight repast that he’d missed. Jack flipped up a corner. It was too dim to see well, but his nose told him brandy and cherries were on offer. He snaffled up the tart in one bite, then savored the fruitcake, licking his fingers of crumbs.

It was too much to hope for that the tea was still warm—it had been hours since Nicola left him relaxing by her fire. And relax he had. Jack was a little embarrassed that he’d gone to sleep. What a dull dog he was. And after all his hard work. He’d figured out a way to tell her something with his hands and wanted to demonstrate.

I like you.

It wasn’t the most romantic of declarations. He wasn’t ready to use the other L-word, although he believed it was becoming true. All he knew was that he was at peace when he was with her.

Would that change if she could speak? He remembered a pub he’d seen somewhere in Leicestershire. The Silent Woman. The swinging sign showed a headless female form, not the most sensitive of images with a queen on the throne for forty-five years.

Women were more than entitled to reveal what was on their minds. Of course, one did not always like to hear what that might be.

Time to leave before the world woke up. Jack pulled his watch out of his pocket. Good God! It was past seven in the morning! The world had been awake for hours. How was he to get out of Nicola’s cottage without anyone noticing?

He was supposed to be at Primrose Cottage painting kitchen cupboards in fifteen minutes. He couldn’t very well turn up in his best tweeds.

Frozen with indecision, the rattle of the kitchen door made his mind up for him. He dived behind the couch, praying that keen-eyed Mrs. Grace would not notice him.

But she would notice that second teacup and plate. He popped up again just long enough to snatch them from the tray and shoved them under the sofa fringe. He wished he could crawl right under with them, but his size was a distinct disadvantage. It was cramped enough against the wall.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.