Page 25 of Odd Earl Out
“Do? Not a thing.” Every gentleman in the county of Oxfordshire was cross and snappish, and there wasn’t a blessed thing he could do about any ofthem, either. “I can’t control the weather, for God’s sake.”
“Thereisno weather in the ballroom, Lord Cross. That’s rather the point.”
“No. It’s out of the question.”
“On the contrary, Lord Cross,nothingis out of the question. You promised you’d do whatever I asked, without argument.”
“As regards the courtship, yes! But this doesn’t have anything to do with—”
“I beg your pardon, but it certainly does. If Lady Cora and Lord Barnaby spend more time together, it will lead to a great sense of intimacy between them. In the confusion of the game, they may even clasp hands, or—” She broke off, her cheeks coloring.
“Ah, but intimacy could be dangerous, Miss Templeton. Don’t you agree?”
“I, ah… well, I suppose there’s a chance… that is, perhaps…”
Good Lord, but she was tempting when she was flustered. “Yes?”
She huffed out a breath. “It’s a game of bowls, Lord Cross. I’m not proposing we lock them in a bedchamber together.”
“You shock me, Miss Templeton.” Except it wasn’t shock that made every inch of him rise to sudden, aching attention.
Another blush rushed into her cheeks. “We’ll play in teams of fours, with two ladies and two gentlemen per team, with Lord Barnaby assigned to Lady Cora’s team.”
“You forget I haven’t agreed yet.”
“A gentleman doesn’t go back on his word, Lord Cross. Youdoconsider yourself a gentleman, do you not?”
“Of course.” Most of the time. “I—”
“Because if you do intend to go back on your word, then Lord Barnaby may continue his courtship on his own. It will prove a bit difficult, as Lady Cora has taken to spending every afternoon reading in her bedchamber for want of anything else to do.”
“I never said I intended to go back on—”
“I daresay Lady Cora would be delighted with a game of bowls. You were right about her, my lord. She’s lovely, and would make a wonderful viscountess for Lord Barnaby. It’s a pity, really, but if you no longer care about your cousin’s happiness—”
“Enough. Bowls, it is. You’re an utter menace, Miss Templeton.”
Only a moment ago he’d claimed to be a gentleman, and a gentleman didn’t accuse a young lady of menacing, but instead of the anger he deserved, she threw her head back in a laugh thatwasn’tcharming, anddidn’ttug a pulse of heat from his lower belly.
She didn’t look much like a menace now in her prim, sprigged-muslin day dress of some indeterminate color between blue and purple, every fold of the skirt in a graceful puddle on the floor at her feet, with her dark hair in a neat coil at the back of her neck.
But she could send everything sliding into chaos with one snap of her pretty fingers. He’d seen her do it, five days ago, merely by walking through the front door.
“Lawn bowls, in myballroom.” He slumped against his chair, defeated. “What could possibly go wrong?”
As it happened,there was a perfectly logical reason why lawn bowls were played on a bowling green, and not in a ballroom.
The thundering, pounding, unholy commotion of multiple bowls rolling towards multiple jacks at once was deafening. Bowls were flying about, knocking into his finely-papered walls and dinging his scrupulously shined floors.
Mrs. Poole had unearthed a few long lengths of carpet to serve as makeshift greens, but no amount of padding could drown out the sound of young ladies and gentlemen tossing bowls about with abandon, and shrieking and groaning as they struck each other’s bowls, or managed to get near the jack.
“Good fun, eh, Cross?”
That was the trouble. Itwasgood fun.
He couldn’t recall having such fun in… well, ever, really. Who, other than Juliet Templeton, would ever have thought of playing bowls in a ballroom? Or that one could get so much pleasure from tossing a ball about, trying to hit other balls? It was utter chaos, of course, but then laughter often went hand in hand with chaos.
Somehow, he’d forgotten that, or… had he ever known it at all?
