Why Lords Lose Their Hearts by Manda Collins

Author:Manda Collins [Collins, Manda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781466815384
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2014-07-28T22:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

After a long night, Perdita arose the next morning not long after dawn. Again and again, she’d fallen into a fitful sleep only to be jolted awake again by the memory of the young man from last night dousing her gown with blood. Exhaustion had overtaken her sometime after three, but the noise of the street vendors had penetrated her light sleep as they began their day, and so she rose and dressed.

She should probably have agreed when Archer intimated that he could come to her last night, but she’d been unwilling to face another argument with him despite her suspicion that having him with her would have allowed her to sleep. Then there was the matter of Mrs. Fitzroy. His concern for her after the attack last night had been all she could have wished, but that he would bring that woman to Vauxhall and parade her in front of the ton like that made her more angry than she was willing to admit. Blakemore, she fumed, was entirely different, and she was not willing to entertain the idea that what was good for the goose was good for the gander.

Geese were silly creatures anyway.

She went down to breakfast, expecting to find the table empty, but was surprised and, despite her pique, pleased to see Archer there. He was often long gone by the time she came down.

“Your Grace,” he said, rising as she entered the room. “I hope you were able to sleep better than I was.”

“Little, I’m afraid,” she conceded once she’d asked the footman for a cup of tea and chosen a rasher of bacon and some toast from the sideboard. “For all that that ruffian didn’t actually harm me, he certainly was able to upset my mind.”

“That’s the point,” he said tersely. “He wishes to steal your peace of mind. To make you jump at every little noise or jostle.”

“Well, he’s certainly succeeded,” she said morosely. “I thought I had more fortitude than this. But it would appear that I am just as mortal as anyone else.”

“Do not be too hard on yourself,” Archer said, putting his teacup down. “Even grown men have found themselves unsettled in such situations. I think you handled the events of last evening admirably.”

“I thank you, my lord,” she said. Then, deciding that they needed to clear the air between them, she indicated that the servants should leave the room. Once they were gone, she said, “I regret not allowing you to come to me last night,” she said, not daring to look at him lest he see the emotion that was sure to show in her eyes. “It was stubborn of me, and I think I robbed us both of some much needed solace all for the sake of my pique.”

She looked up and saw that he was smiling. Since there were no witnesses, she supposed, he put his hand over hers where it lay on the table. “I am sorry about Mrs. Fitzroy,” he said wryly. “I admit

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