The Virgin and the Rogue by Sophie Jordan

Author:Sophie Jordan [Jordan, Sophie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-27T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

The following day, Charlotte paced Nora’s bedchamber, or rather her laboratory, with the restless energy of a caged cat.

It was almost as though her skin felt too tight and no longer fit her frame.

There had been no proper night’s sleep since he arrived. She had tossed and turned in her bed and even when awake, as now, she could not hold still. There was no peace to be found.

She should feel triumphant over yesterday’s encounter. She and Kingston had not touched. No inappropriate physical interaction had occurred whatsoever. That felt like a cause for celebration. It was a relief, to be certain. Even if the conversation had grown heated between them and their dialogue had become overly intimate, there was no more repeat impropriety between them.

She’d felt this restlessness ever since her conversation with Kingston . . . Samuel . . . at her house. Ever since she saw him smelly and covered in filth. All to help Mrs. Pratt, the old busybody. He possessed a generous nature. She had not expected that.

Charlotte tried to imagine her betrothed rolling up his shirtsleeves to help any of the villagers. It was a struggle to envision. Her husband-to-be was a kindhearted man, but not the type to get his hands dirty. He was much too genteel.

She had not succumbed.

Her sister’s bed was covered in books. Charlotte motioned to it. “How do you even find room to sleep?”

Nora glanced distractedly at the bed. “Oh, there’s room enough. I just stack the books to the side when I’m ready to go to sleep.”

Shaking her head, Charlotte acknowledged there was some irony with her being so concerned with her sister’s sleep habits whilst she had spent the majority of last night tossing and turning and wide-awake. She could not forget Samuel’s words. His voice played over and over in her head.

But you are not in a position where you have to marry anyone unless you want to. Unless you are in love.

She’d never considered the matter of a grand love affair. It was not something she wanted or expected for herself. She wasn’t like Marian with her duke. Passion was not in her makeup.

At least it had not been before Kingston. Now her body came alive in his presence, fairly burning—

No.

She gave herself a swift mental slap. It had naught to do with Kingston. She did not burn for him specifically. It was merely the tonic. It woke her to certain physical needs.

If she had taken the tonic and stumbled on her William in that corridor she would have assaulted him, too.

She idly examined all the various herbs and materials littering Nora’s worktables, sniffing at the pink contents of one glass cylinder.

“You should never do that,” Nora scolded.

Wrinkling her nose, Charlotte set the cylinder back down.

Her sister moved about the room briskly, snipping some herbs with a pair of scissors where they hung near her window. With a sprig in her hand, she moved back to her worktable and began to grind it with mortar and pestle, biting her lip in concentration.

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