Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 94964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
* * *
He held a hand out to her. “Come in and warm yourself by the fire. Anson? Some brandy-laced tea please.”
* * *
“Yes Your Grace.” The butler disappeared as she came to a stop by the fire and put her hand out. She began to shiver, realizing just how cold she was.
* * *
“Where have you been? What happened to you?”
* * *
She smiled sadly. “I don’t know. I went for a walk.”
* * *
He blinked at her, looking nonplussed. “You went…for a walk?”
* * *
She nodded slowly and took a deep breath. “I can’t quite remember how I ended up at your door.” She laughed shakily. “I know I was thinking of you and what had happened between us and then I blinked and…”
* * *
“You were at my door,” Arthur finished for her.
* * *
She nodded slowly.
* * *
He reached for her just as the butler knocked and came in with a laden tray. There was a decanter of whisky, a kettle of tea, and various types of cakes. Janice moved to sit down as the butler served her, piling her plate with cakes and filling a cup to the brim with whisky and tea. It steamed gently in the warm air, heating her up nicely from the inside out.
* * *
Arthur came to sit beside her on the damask sofa, crossing his legs as he watched her sip her beverage and bite delicately into the cake. Her cheeks flushed in reaction to his fixed gaze and she could not meet his eyes.
* * *
“This is delicious. Won’t you eat with me?”
* * *
He smiled. “Am I making you nervous?”
* * *
“Perhaps a little,” she whispered.
* * *
“My apologies. It was not my intention.”
* * *
“I know. I-” she cut herself off, not really knowing what she would have said.
* * *
He leaned forward with a sigh and poured himself a cup of tea, sans the whisky. “I have been too debauched lately. I could stand to drink less whisky,” he commented as he sipped his tea.
* * *
“I do hope you’ve not found yourself landing in any more ditches.”
* * *
He laughed. “No. Thankfully, I have made it home to my bed every night. I fear the tavern keeper will be able to expand his premises soon due to my patronage, however.”
* * *
“Well…it is the duty of the gentry to support local enterprises,” she said drily.
* * *
He threw back his head, laughing and clapping his hands. “You’re quite right. I am happy to carry out my duties in this case.”
* * *
“As must be all the revelers whose merriment you facilitate.”
* * *
“I even let them beat me at cards.” He was smiling quite hard.
* * *
“Let them? I should like them to hear you say that. I would venture to guess that they’d protest quite vigorously.”
* * *
“Ah, don’t they always? I stand by my words.”
* * *
They ate and drank in silence for a while.
* * *
“You have stopped shivering. That’s good,” Arthur said after some time.
* * *
“I feel much warmer, thank you.”
* * *
They stared at each other intently.
* * *
“I have missed you,” Arthur said quietly and then looked surprised as if he’d not been intending to say those words.
* * *
Janice smiled. “That’s good. It’s a step.”
* * *
“Step?”
* * *
She took a deep breath. “I…have been thinking about…why I have been so…down in the dumps.” She blushed harder, “And it is not because of the backlash from the Ton, do not even think that…” she sighed, flicking him a shy glance. “I have been sad because due to that backlash, you have felt the need to disappear even further into yourself and so have removed yourself from me. From society too, and deeper into the black hole of despair you insist on digging for yourself.”
* * *
She smiled, a single tear rolling down her face. “And that makes me sad.” Her voice broke on the last word and he moved closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and squeezing comfortingly.
* * *
“You might be right about that. I have been…reeling. Confused as to what to do. I want so much to do right by you but I don’t know what ‘right’ is, in this case. You know well my…agenda for this house and everything my father owned. There are consequences for that and you do not deserve to bear them. I cannot take you from the bosom of your family only to suffer with me.”
* * *
She reached out a hand and covered his mouth, stopping his words. She looked him in the eyes. “Please. Don’t. Don’t torture yourself or beat yourself up. There is nothing to stress about. My family is not going to do anything but support us both. I am a patient woman, and I know that if you feel as I feel, we shall eventually find our way out of this and into something better. But don’t feel as if you owe me any happiness. You do not.”