The Enchanting of an Earl by Emma Locke

Author:Emma Locke
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2013-11-27T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

GRANTHAM COULD HAVE strangled de Winter. Leave him alone with Miss Conley? Even if her aunt was forward-thinking, she provided at least the pretense of an obstruction between himself and his baser urges.

He reached for his wine glass. “We seem to have lost our chaperones. Or do you prefer to follow them? Lord de Winter didn’t exaggerate. The gardens are undeniably magical at night.”

Elinor’s head whipped around. A gasp parted her lips. After that…

Just her wide blue eyes searching his. Oh, how he adored her guilelessness.

“In more usual circumstances,” he said, twirling the stem of his wine glass between his fingers, “I’d insist upon it. I have no desire to be caught in a compromising position. But as you have plenty to condemn me with already, I see no reason to be propriety’s slave if we prefer to stay warm inside.”

Her bosom leapt as if she’d drawn a sharp breath. “Do you trust me so thoroughly, Lord Chelford?”

His brow dipped as he considered whether he did. “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I suppose I do.”

“Oh,” she said quietly. Then she sank into her seat.

He watched her scratch spirals against her dessert plate with the tine of her fork. “Is something amiss?” he asked. It wasn’t a trick of the waning candlelight; she’d gone pale.

Her gaze didn’t leave the plate. “No, my lord. And…thank you.”

Intuition told him something was wrong, but just as strongly cautioned him against pressing. Still, he couldn’t leave the topic wholly alone. “The pleasure is mine. I am sorry you met my accomplices. I hazard to say we would have started off much better had I never invited the sorry lot of them to Chelford.”

She turned the wane color of candle wax. Then a furious blush crept across her face. Poor darling. If only he’d known she was coming when she did, he would have gone about things differently. But the past couldn’t be undone, and besides, until her arrival, he hadn’t realized the extent of his revulsion for the life he’d lived since the passing of his sister. He’d needed her in order to see it.

Her gaze finally lifted. “You’re not in the wrong, my lord. What a man does in his own house is his business alone. You shouldn’t have to fear strange creatures descending on you without warning.”

He chuckled at that. “Strange creatures? No, Miss Conley, there is nothing strange about you. You’re an angel. In fact, I believe you have delivered me.”

She hunched even nearer to her plate. “A man is allowed his peccadilloes. You shouldn’t feel remorse for doing only what is expected of you.”

He sat up straighter. “I’m sure you don’t mean to offend, but I don’t think I like that depiction. Is patent debauchery expected of me? Am I so despicable?”

She looked up. Her head cocked as if she were considering his question with her usual wholesomeness. “I didn’t expect it of you,” she admitted. “To be perfectly honest, it never occurred to me that you’d be…” She blushed deeper.

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