“I do not wish to go just yet.”
“Then I thank you for your hospitality and bid you goodnight.”He bowed to her.
She inclined her head in return, half-careless, half-mocking.It was her armour, carefully fashioned and almost impenetrable.But he could not know that, and she sensed his hurt, a hurt he did not deserve.
“Mr.De’Ath?”
He paused.
“I won’t really forget you,” she said.
There was a pause.“Nor I you,” he replied.“Whatever happens.”
She turned quickly to the door, but he had already gone.
“Whatever happens.”What a curious thing to say.
***
JACK FELT EVERY STEPgroan beneath his feet as he made his lonely way to bed.Since leaving Isley Place he had positively rejoiced in that alone-ness, no doctor’s tonic to swallow, no valet fussing around him, no one looking in on him in the middle of the night to make sure he hadn’t expired in his sleep.
For some reason, the beautiful woman in the parlour had wanted him.God knew he wanted her and with the kind of desire he had never known before, fierce and urgent yes, but with an added spice he could only call adoration.And he had the oddest feeling that making love to her would be the most exquisite adventure he would ever know.
Entering his room, he lit the lamp from the candle in his hand and went to stare sightlessly out of the window.Although their parting was trivial in the grand scheme of things, right now, it felt like loss, like tragedy.Not for the absence of one night in her bed, but for the impossibility of something he foolishly called love.And the happiness he would have striven to bring her.But if she ever found it, it could not be with him.For he knew who Tabitha was: the Dowager Countess of Sark, stepmother to Lady Lily, the girl he was bound to marry.And that would always keep them apart.
In fact, he could not even call on Lily just yet, because she was going to a party.He would wait another two or three weeks, he thought with relief.Which gave him time to recover before he had to meet Tabitha again as a stranger.
He picked up the newly-bought map from the table and spread it out on his bed.Where could he go next?
Chapter Three
Tabitha wasted toomuch time deciding just how to greet him in the morning, both to keep his friendship and to prove his rejection did not matter to her in the slightest.Eventually, she decided upon sleepy good humour and an exchange of cards at parting.Then she walked decisively downstairs for breakfast in her private parlour.
“Invite Mr.De’Ath to join me if he has risen,” she told the innkeeper’s wife.
“Oh, he’s gone more than an hour, my lady,” the woman said.“He asked to be remembered to you.”
