Wanton Wager by Christy Carlyle

Author:Christy Carlyle
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Windtree Press with Entice Publishing
Published: 2014-06-04T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Will was rooted to the spot where she left him. A twinge of pain in his leg coaxed him to sit down, but he could not move. She had gone and taken the air, the light, all the comfort of the room with her.

There was so much he wished to say to her. Questions to ask. So much to learn about her. A swell of joy had nearly toppled him when he had rushed into the drawing room and found her there perusing his medical books. She looked so splendidly right in his space, in his home.

Kate’s voice echoed from the hallway. “Is Miss Hamilton away so soon?”

Will finally moved, glancing back at his sister and the plate of biscuits in her hand.

“Which county did you visit in order to fetch those biscuits? Yorkshire?”

“I wasn’t gone so long.”

Will watched his sister resume her chair and take a nibble from one of the fresh biscuits. She had been gone just long enough, and he suspected she might have spent part of the time hovering in the hallway hoping to hear what passed between him and Miss Hamilton. Which, unfortunately, was not nearly enough.

He yielded to the nagging pain in his leg and let his body sink into his favorite chair.

“Long enough for me to chase Miss Hamilton away, apparently.”

“Indeed. What the devil did you say to her?”

“Not as much as I wish to.”

Kate choked on the biscuit in her mouth and reached for her teacup. After a rather unladylike swig, she shot him her fiercest glare.

“Have you…” She edged forward on her chair, leaned toward him, and lowered her voice to whisper. “Have you done something unseemly to that woman?”

Not as much as I wish to. He couldn’t repeat the words to his sister, but his body, still aching from the effect of Miss Hamilton’s presence, was a testament to the truth of it.

“I kissed her.” Will had never lied to his sister. It was a principle they had agreed upon as children. And it was less about deception than about being wholly plain-speaking with one another. No matter how shocking.

Kate looked indignant. “Here? Just now? You kissed her right here in the drawing room?”

“No, before. In the carriage.” Just mentioning the moment brought it vividly to life in his mind. His mouth, his whole body, throbbed with a kind of burning ache at the memory of their kiss. He shifted in his chair and hoped his sister would think it due to his tormenting leg.

Kate slumped back in her own chair and put a hand to her chest as if she was having an attack of the vapors, but his sister was not a woman for feminine theatrics.

He had a moment of real concern before she sat up straight and gazed at him with a conspiratorial grin cresting her face.

“I had almost given up hope the day would come.”

What day she referred to escaped him, but he could see she was bursting to say more.

“William Andrew Selsby, you have not spared a glance for a woman for seven years.

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