The Courtship - Catherine Coulter [8]
“I don’t mind short, either,” he said.
“And boring? You don’t mind boring ladies?”
“Ladies are never boring, Miss Mayberry. Not if they are treated properly.”
“I wonder if I should approve of what you just said.”
“When you have decided, you will tell me. I believe you wished to meet me, Miss Mayberry?”
It was a shot in the dark. Still, when she had come flying into the drawing room talking about meeting someone, looked at him like she could not believe he was actually sitting right there, choking, he had known in his gut she was talking about him.
Instead of acting embarrassed or chagrined and thus tongue-tied, Miss Mayberry nodded. “I don’t know how you managed to figure that out, but it’s true. It is a pleasure to meet you, my lord. What is even better is that I don’t have to bother with any machinations now, although the one I had in mind was really quite efficient.”
He looked at her, fascinated. Say six and a half hours until the early evening, perhaps just five and a half hours until late afternoon. He had enough time. “What were you going to do?”
“I was going to ride you down in the park.”
“You mean trod me under your horse’s hooves?”
“Oh, no, I don’t want to hurt you.” She paused for a delicate moment, her voice so demurely wicked he nearly swallowed his tongue, particularly when she added, “At least not in that way.”
Had she really said that, right here in the open, right in front of him and Alexandra? He thought about having her naked on the sheets with the mid-afternoon sun streaming through his bedchamber window. Would she insist on disciplining him? He devoutly hoped so.
“I was going to pretend to lose control and my balance and just happen to fall on you.”
“Depending on your momentum, you might well have smashed me flat.”
“Oh, dear, I hadn’t thought about that. I might have driven you right into the ground, like a stake, or broken your ribs. Ah, but then I would have knelt beside you and held your hand until you managed to get your wits together again. It would have been just fine. You would have smiled up at me and lifted your hand, weakly, to touch my cheek. Yes, that forms a pleasant picture in the mind.”
“Only your end result. I would have deplored the process. Men do not like to be weak, Miss Mayberry, ever.”
Alexandra cleared her throat. “I know you are much enjoying yourselves, but I must tell you, Spenser, that Douglas grows livid whenever Helen talks about meeting you. He rants, Spenser. He insults you. He grinds his teeth. He ordered Helen to steer a wide berth.”
Helen laughed. “Douglas fears for my virtue with you in the vicinity, Lord Beecham.”
It was very warm in the middle of the afternoon. There would be no need for a fire in his bedchamber even with the both of them naked. He mentally put his mouth and his hands on her. He rose and held out his hand to her. “Well, then, to spare Douglas’s teeth, I will simply remove Miss Mayberry from the premises before he returns home.”
“Where would you remove me to, Lord Beecham?”
“To Gunther’s. For an ice.”
He had never seen a woman glow so much in his life.
“That would be wonderful. It is my favorite treat since I came to London. How ever did you know?”
Lord Beecham looked over at Alexandra, who was looking just a bit shell-shocked. “Tell her, Alexandra, that I am a man of vast and varied experience. I have the gift of looking at a woman and clearly reading her deepest desires.”
“Perhaps that is true,” Alexandra said as she bit into a mince clapper. “However, I did not know you could guess as deep as Helen’s endless desire for Gunther’s ices.”
“Now you do.” He was still holding out his hand to Miss Mayberry. “Shall we?”
Helen winked at Alexandra even as she closed her hand over his forearm. “Tell Douglas I have succeeded.”
“What was that all about?” Lord Beecham asked as Mankin opened the front door for them and then bowed very low. Sunlight streamed through the doorway and glittered off his bald head.
Unfortunately, neither Lord Beecham nor Miss Mayberry noticed.
“How have you