Page 59 of More or Less a Countess
He meant it as a joke, to try and diffuse the strange tension between them, but if anything the dark shadows in her eyes grew even darker, and she began to wring her hands. “No, I—no. I admire Haydn too much to even attempt the sonatas.”
He couldn’t have said why, but the back of his neck began to prickle with dread. “I don’t understand. I heard you play it at Lord Derrick’s dinner party not two weeks ago.”
Nick was still angry with her for avoiding him these past five days, but as her face drew tight with misery, alarm squeezed his chest, and his wrath gave way to concern. He went to her and gathered her hands in his. “What is it? You look unhappy, and…unlike yourself.”
She let out a faint laugh, but it was more desperate than amused. “Unlike myself. Oh, Lord Dare, you haven’t the faintest idea how right you are.”
He half-expected her to pull away from him then, but her fingers clung to his as if she was afraid he was going to push her away. “I have something to tell you, my lord—something unpleasant I should have confessed to you days ago.”
Nick looked down into dark blue eyes still shadowed with regret. Whatever it was she’d done, he’d just as soon have it out now, so they could move past it and begin to plan their nuptials. “This unpleasant thing you must confess—is it the reason you’ve been hiding from me?”
“Yes. I’ve been an awful coward. I beg your pardon for refusing your calls this week. I did want to see you, but well…I was afraid of what you’d say, and I didn’t know how to explain what I’d done, and I’m…ashamed of myself, Lord Dare.”
Afraid? The lady who’d risked a dunking in the Thames and braved the Cockpit Steps in the dark to hunt for a headless ghost was afraid ofhim?
She looked away from him, down at her hands, but Nick, who was truly concerned by this point, took her chin between his fingers and raised her face to his. “Don’t look away from me, Hyacinth. Just tell me what’s got you so worried, and we’ll find a way to…”
Nick trailed off when her gaze met his, and he was horrified to find her eyes had filled with tears. “Oh, sweetheart,no.” He moved closer and took her face between his hands, and all at once everything else—the strange business with the pianoforte, her mysterious disappearance this week—all of it faded into insignificance at the sight of those tears. Nick had never been one to be moved by a weeping lady, but seeing those fat drops spill over her wet lashes and roll down her cheeks felt like taking a knife to the heart. “Don’tcry, Hyacinth.”
For some reason this only made her tears fall faster, until she was crying so hard she could only speak in incoherent gasps. “B-but that’s just i-it, my lord. I’m n-not—”
“Hush.” He caught the back of her head in a gentle grip and pressed her face to his chest, then ran his hand over her back in long, soothing strokes until at last she began to calm. “There. That’s better.” He tilted her face up to his again and pressed gentle kisses to her forehead, her eyelids, and the tip of her nose.
He hadn’t intended to kiss her at all, and if he’d stopped there—if he’d been able to resist her trembling mouth—what happened next might not have been quite such a scandal, but as it was, in the next breath his mouth found hers, and then he was nudging her lips open with his, his tongue tasting the salt of her tears as her arms stole around his neck—
Neither of them heard the library door open, but they couldn’t fail to hear the outraged shout that followed.
“Damnation!”
The voice was loud, masculine, and furious. “What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing, Dare? Take your hands off her at once!”
Nick’s head jerked up. He and Miss Somerset sprang apart, and Nick stepped away from her, his palms held out in surrender.
Standing in the doorway to the library, his entire body rigid with fury, stood Miss Somerset’s brother-in-law, the Marquess of Huntington, and if his expression was anything to go by he was the protective sort, because he looked as if he were about to tear Nick’s limbs from his body, one by one.
As painfully as possible.
“Lord Dare wasn’t…we weren’t…oh, for goodness’ sake, Finn! It’s not what it seems.”
Lord Huntington didn’t look at all convinced, which wasn’t surprising, since it was, in fact, precisely what it seemed. “Are you in the habit of debauching innocents, Dare? I’d heard as much, and it seems for once the gossips didn’t exaggerate.”
Nick understood his lordship’s rage, and he wasn’t proud of his actions, but he’d be damned if he’d let any man question his honor, or, more importantly, Miss Somerset’s virtue. He advanced on Lord Huntington, his hands clenched into fists. “You insult the lady, Huntington. You go too far.”
“It’s you who’s gone too far, Dare, and you can be damn sure I’ll see to it you make it right.”
Neither Nick nor Lord Huntington backed down an inch. They stood toe to toe, staring at each other, and it might have become ugly indeed if Lady Huntington hadn’t appeared at the library door just at that moment. She took in the scene in one quick glance, paled, and lifted a shaking hand to her throat. “Oh, no. Oh,Violet!What have you done now?”
Nick went still, his body going numb as one of Lady Huntington’s words echoed over and over again in his head. When he turned to face Miss Somerset at last, his voice had gone dangerously quiet.
“Who thedevilis Violet?”
Chapter Fifteen
The muted thud of Finn’s boots on the thick carpet sounded like a death knell.
He was pacing from one end of Lady Westcott’s private sitting room to the other while Violet, Iris, Hyacinth, and Lady Chase followed him with their eyes, their gazes flitting back and forth as if they were watching a game of shuttlecock.
None of them said a word.
