The Winter Duke by Jillian Eaton

Author:Jillian Eaton [Eaton, Jillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-02T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Surely there were worse things than being trapped in a house with a notorious rake, Cadence mused several days later as she helped one of the maids hang garland in the drawing room, but at the moment she couldn’t think of a single one.

Every time she turned around there was Colebrook, his mouth curved in a wolfish grin as he eyed her up as if she were a tasty little treat he couldn’t wait to devour. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was she wanted to be devoured. And therein laid the problem.

One kiss could easily be attributed to a lapse in judgement. Which it had been. A terrible, terrible lapse in judgement. But two kisses? Two kisses were dangerously close to forming a habit, and Cadence had always done her best to avoid poor habits.

She did not chew her fingernails.

She did not eat or drink to excess.

And she did not kiss scoundrels.

Except she had. She had kissed a scoundrel, and – heaven help her – she wanted to do it again.

I kissed a rake…and I liked it.

“But you cannot,” she said aloud as she stretched up on her tiptoes and draped one end of the garland over the mantle. With two weeks to go until December twenty-fifth and very little to occupy her time aside from her secret stash of chocolate (the one bad habit she allowed herself), she’d decided to decorate the manor for Christmas. A fool’s errand, given that Hannah and Wycliffe wouldn’t be returning until after the New Year and she highly doubted Colebrook would appreciate her efforts. But she needed something to distract her from the handsome duke and his sultry stares and, given the time of year, this seemed the most logical choice.

All morning long servants had been dragging pine boughs into Wycliffe Manor by the bucketful. They’d set up an assembly line of sorts in the middle of the foyer and were busy creating large wreaths and long ropes of garland which would be placed on all the mantles and woven down the bannisters. Big red bows had already been hung from the windows and sprigs of holly berries brightened up the sills. The only thing left to do was find and decorate the tree; an old German tradition that had recently been made popular in England by Queen Victoria’s German husband, Prince Albert.

“Did you say something?” Elsbeth asked as she stepped down off a wooden stool and brushed pine needles from her apron. Even though the pretty blonde-haired lady’s maid was Hannah’s companion, she’d stayed behind to serve Cadence.

“I was just talking to myself.” Hands on her hips, Cadence took a step back and studied the garland they’d hung with a critical eye. “Do you think the left side is even?”

“Looks good enough to me.” Sauntering unannounced into the drawing room, Colebrook stopped directly behind Cadence. Not close enough to touch – he hadn’t touched her since their moment of passion in the parlor – but she could still feel him all the same.

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