Page 37 of More or Less a Countess
Nick frowned. Christ, it was odd, but for the first time since he’d set foot on English soil he’d forgotten the only thing he wished for was to be gone again. “In any case, it’s for me to decide whether or not I find it interesting. Come now, Miss Somerset. Go and fetch it, and let me have a look.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “No.”
“Pity.” Nick balanced one ankle on the other knee and threw his arm over the back of the settee. “Because I’m not leaving until you do, so you’ll need to decide how badly you want that sketch of Execution Dock. Take all the time you need.”
For several long minutes, her muttering and the soft shuffle of her slippers as she paced back and forth across the carpet was the only sound in the room, but at last she turned and faced him. “It’s not…I don’t let anyone…because it’s private. It’s just for me, Lord Dare.”
Something in her voice made Nick’s flesh prickle with warning. She sounded almost…no, ashamed wasn’t the right word, but it was something akin to that, as if she’d done something she knew she shouldn’t have, and had to keep it hidden at all costs.
“I’ve already seen a great many of the sketches, Miss Somerset.” He made an effort to keep his voice gentle. “Would it really be so terrible for me to see the rest?”
“Yes! It’s…the sketches aren’t as…every lady sketches, my lord.”
The warning prickle creeping over his neck blossomed into anger at this, but he wasn’t angryather.
He was angryforher.
“So the sketches are forgivable for a lady, but the writing isn’t? Is that what you mean to say? It almost sounds as if you’re ashamed of it.”
Her face paled, and for a moment Nick was certain he’d gone too far, but then she let out a long, deep sigh. “I’m not ashamed of it, Lord Dare. Just the opposite. I’m extraordinarily proud of it, and yet at the same time I recognize it’s also…people won’t understand it. Only my sisters have seen it, and then only bits and pieces of it, and even they think it’s…well, let’s just say people would think it’s odd, and leave it at that, shall we?”
“You mean they’d thinkyou’reodd.”
It was the truth, but as soon as the words left Nick’s lips, he regretted saying them. He didn’t have any wish to hurt her feelings.
But she only shrugged, then gave him a small, resigned smile. “Iamodd. As a child I always preferred the schoolroom and library to every other room in the house. Even when I lived in Surrey I was considered odd, and you may believe me when I tell you, my lord, Surrey is rife with odd characters of every sort. But here in London, well…if you judge by the ton’s standards, I’m a great deal worse thanodd.”
Nick’s throat closed. “How much worse?”
Her shoulder hitched in a casual shrug, but her face was tight. “Laughable. Mad, even.”
Nick flinched away from her words, but he couldn’t fail to hear the defeat in her voice, and he rose to his feet and crossed the room to her. She wouldn’t look at him, so he tipped her face up to his with gentle fingers under her chin. “I don’t think you’re mad, Miss Somerset, and I won’t laugh at you.”
She gazed up at him with dark blue eyes and searched his face for…what? Mockery? Sincerity? He wasn’t sure which, but some of the tension eased from her shoulders, and Nick was quick to press his advantage. It had become imperative, somehow, that he see this book, if only to prove to her she hadn’t any reason to hide it from him.
“If you don’t want to show me the whole thing, then how about just the two chapters we talked about? Justice, and haunted London? Before you refuse, remember Ididsave your sketchbook from a footpad last night.”
It was a shameless manipulation, of course, but for reasons Nick didn’t quite understand, it was exactly the right thing to say at that moment, because it made her smile. “I suppose it won’t hurt to show you just those two chapters. I’ll go fetch them, but you must promise to take me to Wapping directly afterwards, Lord Dare, with no more teasing for another favor.”
Nick’s lips twitched. “To Wapping, and straight to Execution Dock, with no more teasing. I promise.”
Once she left the room, Nick returned to the settee to wait. He was rather surprised at his persistence, and even more surprised at the fervency with which he wanted to see her book. He was never fervent or persistent about a damn thing these days—unless it was finding a way to get out of England as quickly as possible—but somehow Miss Somerset and her ghosts and gibbets had managed to catch his attention where everything else had failed.
No one was more surprised about it than he was, but against all odds, helikedher.
He shifted uneasily against the settee as that sank in. It would be much easier for all concerned if hedidn’tlike her, or rather, if they each liked the other well enough to marry, but not so well they chose to spend any time together after they were wed.
It was an easy enough thing to accomplish with a typical English belle interested only in his wealth and title, but nothing about Miss Somerset was typical. She was, in truth, not at all the kind of lady he’d intended to court. It might be better, after all, if he waited to find a bride at the start of the season, despite the delay—
“Here they are, Lord Dare.”
Miss Somerset was standing before him with a large leather portfolio tucked under her arm, gnawing at her lower lip. She was attempting to disguise her dread under a façade of careless unconcern, but she wasn’t adept at hiding her feelings. They seemed to be so close to the surface a word or a touch could call them forth.
When she handed over the portfolio, her hand was shaking.
All at once Nick realized she was taking a tremendous chance, showing her work to him. For her, it was like revealing something deep inside her, a piece of herself she’d never shared with anyone other than her sisters, and even then, not to this degree. Until he saw her face, her shaking hands, he hadn’t realized the bravery it took for her to trust him with this part of herself.
“Thank you for showing this to me.” He took the portfolio from her, but he hesitated before opening it, the weight of the moment lying heavy upon him. If he should do something wrong, or say the wrong thing…
