Someone Perfect (Westcott Book 10) by Mary Balogh

Author:Mary Balogh [Balogh, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2021-11-29T18:30:00+00:00

Thirteen

Justin did not know how long he had been sitting in the grotto— he had not brought a watch with him— but he did not think it was important to hurry back. However, it seemed that his peace was in danger of being shattered. Captain had scrambled up onto his haunches and was panting while he gazed intently outward.

“Quiet, Cap,” Justin murmured.

A lone figure had come into sight, strolling along the bank of the lake in the direction of the bridge. His first instinct was to withdraw farther back into the cave until she went away. But if she should decide to sit on the bank as she had beside the river north of her home a few weeks ago and remove her shoes and stockings and lift her skirt up over her knees and then look up and see him anyway, she would be horribly embarrassed, and he would feel like a Peeping Tom. He stayed where he was. His dog was still alert and watching, but he was no longer panting.

Lady Estelle Lamarr, Justin suspected, liked solitude as much as he did. Else why had she been alone that day by the river? Why was she alone now? And why was she still unmarried and presumably content to live with her twin in a modest manor in the depths of the country when she could probably marry very eligibly anytime she chose?

He did not want to be alone with her. He had made a thorough ass of himself at the summerhouse with his proposal of marriage and the subsequent kiss— after she had refused his offer. He had felt an inconvenient attraction to her later that same day when he stopped for a private conversation with her during the tour of the state apartments. That had been unwise. He had kept his distance from her as much as he could during the days since then.

She did not sit on the bank. She strolled all the way to the bridge and halfway across it before stopping under the roof, just at the bend, to gaze at the falls as he had done earlier, her arms crossed on the balustrade before her and pushing up her bosom as she leaned on them. With just a slight turn of the head she would be looking right at him. Would she see him in the shadows? Or his dog?

Why wait to find out?

“It is one of the loveliest sights in the park,” he said, raising his voice so she would hear him above the sound of rushing water.

She looked both ways, startled.

“Over here,” he said. “To your left.”

She surprised him by smiling when she saw him. “That looks like fun,” she said.

“I always thought we should have a resident hermit here,” he said. “But it might be considered a little eccentric.”

“Counting his beads and plaiting his beard?” she said. “It would be very picturesque. Who would bring him food, though? Or her. Are there female resident hermits? It would be a great injustice to women if there were not.

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