Page 24 of Reading the Viscount
“Yes, you do, but my room is so far down the corridor, if you’re seen, questions will be raised.”
So that was why he’d kept her from leaving. In her hurry, she hadn’t thought of that—but fortunately he had, or she might have missed kissing him, or rather might have been caught. She wasn’t interested in a forced marriage any more than any of her friends. “Thank you for stopping me. I hadn’t fully analyzed the situation, as Mr. Billings taught us.”
His lips quirked. “I’m not sure getting caught in the corridor outside my room is equal in danger to being on a country road at nightalone.”
“I beg to differ. Danger comes in all forms.” She met his gaze, making sure he understood the circumstances that could end in their being forced to wed.
He sobered instantly. “I see your point.” He leaned back against his bedpost, grasping one hand in the other and working his knuckles until they popped. “I wish I had a domino here. That would solve the problem nicely. I don’t even have a mask, as I didn’t wear one at the Twelfth Night ball.”
“I still have my white mask, but as the domino I wore was Ellie’s, I didn’t bring it back to school. It’s of no consequence anyway. I can’t retrieve anything from my room while in yours.”
“Now we know what wecan’tdo.” Obviously disappointed, he started popping his other hand’s knuckles.
His actions reminded her ofMacbeth, when Lady Macbeth kept washing her hands, trying to clean off the invisible blood because she’d aided in the death of King Duncan. Surely, their actions weren’t so sinful.
Oh, that was it. She scanned his room. She’d seen a book somewhere. “You have books in here.”
He frowned, confused. “I do, but I don’t think reading until late tonight is a good plan.”
“No, no. I don’t want to read it here.” She spotted the books she’d seen earlier and moved to the end table by the bed. As she lifted the two books, she inhaled the scent of cedarwood. It washisscent radiating from the covers. Quickly, she brought the two books back to the sitting area before the door.
“What do you propose? That you came by to borrow a book? That, itself, is also improper.”
She shook her head as she read the titles. “BeowulfandCandide. Are these what are read at Oxford, then?”
“They are.”
Mrs. Kingman had saidBeowulfwas too harsh and had Sophie readThe Song of Roland. Now was her chance to read one of the first stories known to man. She heldCandideout to Lord Tamworth. “Here. I’ll take this one.”
He pushed away from the bedpost and accepted the book. “Take it where? As I said, borrowing a book from me won’t help our situation.”
She appreciated that he didn’t refer to it ashersituation, and for the first time since being pulled into his room, she smiled. “That’s true. But since I’m known to enjoy a book so much that I read while I walk and sometimes end up nowhere near where I intended, if I take your book and read it as I walk, no one will think anything amiss.”
“Honestly?”
The sound of hope in his voice had her feeling like the wise guide, Virgil, in Dante’sInferno, who led Dante safely through the nine levels of hell. “Yes, I promise you.”
His relief was palpable. “Then I gladly gift you that book.”
Her chest filled with warmth at his kindness. “Thank you.” For a moment, she gazed at him, imagining him as Sir Perceval, King Arthur’s knight who set out on a quest for the Holy Grail, then forced herself to turn toward the door.
“Wait.” His footsteps on the rug were muffled as he stepped up next to her. “Tell me what your focus of study is.”
He was too close for her to look at and not blush, so she didn’t. “Why?”
“Because I want to know where to find you in the event I need to…apologize again.”
She finally looked at him and felt a tingle down to her toes at his grin. “You can apologize now in advance.”
He shook his head. “But then I’d have no reason to seek you out.”
Her heart skipped a beat. That he wanted to know her relieved her, scared her, and titillated her. The last feeling must be the new Rosalind side of her, because she certainly didn’t want to be known byanyone but friends.
She looked askance at him. “You already know my study focus.” With that, she moved toward the door, ready to open the book.
Lord Tamworth stepped before her, put his finger to his lips, then opened it and looked into the corridor. He waited a couple of minutes then nodded to her, and she slipped out, opening the book and looking at the pages as she walked back toward the inner balcony on three sides of the grand stairs. But she actually didn’t see a word.
Her fear that someone would notice which corridor she came from quickly changed to confusion as she exited it, walking past one other corridor and into the students’ wing. Her feelings for Lord Tamworth filled her like the storm that wrecked Robinson Crusoe on his island. They seemed to swallow her, lift her up, and dash her down. From excitement to shame, from fear to bravery, her feelings buffeted her until she finally came to her room and stepped inside her haven.
