The Savage Miss Saxon (BONUS: The Ninth Miss Noddenly, A Novella) by Kasey Michaels

Author:Kasey Michaels [Michaels, Kasey]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: New York Times Bestselling Author, regency romance
Published: 2012-05-15T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

It had been five days since Alix had last seen Nicholas—five days during which she relived the incident at the stream over and over again in her mind; alternately angered, embarrassed, or amazed at her reaction to lifting her eyes and seeing Mannering grinning down the hill at her.

The Earl had been wise to stay away from Saxon Hall for at least the two days it took Alix to get over the urge to skewer him on sight with her grandfather’s sword. For the sake of her blushes, it was also considerate of him to absent himself a further two days, during which time Alix debated whether she could ever face him again.

But now, on the fifth day, Mannering was doing himself a great disservice. For she had, after much long thought, come to the conclusion that, although she knew the emotion to be most unladylike, she had felt a definite wave of pleasure at Nicholas’s obvious appreciation of her feminine form.

Not that she wouldn’t thoroughly upbraid him for his audacity—indeed, Harold was still grumbling over the man’s insolence—but she was woman enough to know that Nicholas had very much approved of what he had seen. Mannering might be arrogant, overbearing, infuriating, and obstinate, but he was also the most exciting, interesting, amusing, and attractive man she had ever met. If he presented himself at Saxon Hall while she was in this mood of tense excitement that had kept her pulses racing with the remnants of last night’s rather unladylike dreams of the man, she might just have leaped into his arms like some love-crazy hoyden.

But, alas, the Earl did not appear. He was, for once, trying to be the Compleat Gentleman—giving the lady time to recover her poise before he placed himself in her—or the knife-wielding Harold’s—vicinity again.

Alix’s hopes were raised when Nutter came to fetch her from her efforts to make some order out of her grandfather’s cluttered chamber—the place gave new meaning to the term Gordian knot—saying she had visitors waiting in the Great Hall. After racing to her own chamber to make hasty repairs on her appearance, and pausing a moment more to press her hand to her breast to steady her erratic breathing, she made a graceful descent to the lower floor—only to find the Unholy Trio taking up residence just outside Harold’s wigwam, and a fourth, nervously shivering figure standing somewhat in the shadows near the closest exit.

Cuffy was the first to spy her out. “What ho, ma’am? Here we are, returned from our mission all right and tight. Jolly good fun it was too—though I did at first feel a bit like dear Mother Windsor.”

Knowing that Mother Windsor was an infamous procuress in London’s King’s Place—and also knowing that Alix would demand to know who the lady was—Jeremy quickly jumped in to divert her attention away from his large-mouthed cohort. “Your plan went off with nary a hitch, Alix,” he said quickly, then turned in the direction of the cowering shadow. “Come, come now, Reggie, old man.

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