“Tell me,” he said now, when they were finally finished. “What is the treasure to be? I have spent a great deal of time and energy making sure that no one finds it too quickly, but you have never told me what it is.”
“Oh,” she said, and she laughed. “Nothing of any great value. Merely an embroidered watch case for the gentleman and a lace-edged handkerchief for the lady. Do you think they will be disappointed?”
“Made by you?” he asked.
“Of course,” she said and laughed again. “Treasures indeed, would you not agree?”
“Very definitely,” he said. “I am sorry now that I cannot be one of the hunters. I would be able to wear the watch case next to my heart.”
Steady, he thought as she bit her lower lip and flushed. Take it slowly. She had not mentioned Sid at all, though she must have realized the truth by now. He had stayed away from her all week rather than witness her growing unease. She must be feeling heartache today, however well she was concealing it.
But he was not going to wait forever. He would take it as slowly as seemed necessary, despite the preparations he had made earlier that morning for moving with speed. But move he would. Forever forward until she stopped him. If she stopped him. Perhaps she would not. She had seemed quite happy in his company that morning.
“So,” he said, clasping his hands behind his back, “are you happier now? All the plans for your treasure hunt have not gone quite awry.”
“Much happier,” she said. “Very happy.” And then she laughed. “You will think me quite childish for being so excited about a mere party when I am twenty years old.”
“When you should be behaving as if you are slipping gracefully into your dotage?” he said. His hands seemed to lift of their own volition to frame her face. “There is nothing childish about enjoyment and enthusiasm, Constance. And nothing childish about you.”
“Oh,” she said, though no sound emerged. But her lips kept the shape of the word and offered an unconscious invitation that he found quite irresistible despite his recent thoughts on moving slowly. He lowered his head and kissed her. His lips merely brushed hers. But he felt all the warmth and softness and femininity of her.
“Happy birthday,” he murmured, lifting his head away from hers, but keeping his hands where they were.
She was looking up at him with parted lips and eyes that were huge and dazed. Her hands, he could feel, were resting at either side of his waist. And it struck him suddenly that despite what Sid had said, perhaps this had been her first kiss. He gazed back into her eyes and lowered his head again.
His arms went about her and drew her against him, and she was as warm and as slender and as shapely as his eyes had told him she would be. And her lips responded to the movement of his. One of her hands, he could feel, was in his hair.
But his temperature was rising, and this was neither the time nor the place. It was far, far too soon.
“Mm,” he said, lifting his head and loosening his hold on her and keeping his voice as light in tone as he could. “Birthday kisses can sometimes be almost too delightful, can’t they? We had better find Tessa and get you on your way back home to dress for your party.”
“Yes,” she said, biting her lip again and flushing again and not quite meeting his eye. “It would be dreadful if I were late for my own party. I hope you will not find it too great a trial, Jonathan, to have your home invaded by thirty guests this afternoon—not to mention Mama and Papa and our cook. It was so very kind of you to make the offer and to give up your morning to help me.”
Kind! He smiled at her and clasped his hands behind his back. He would not trust himself to offer her his arm as they made their way back through the long gallery to the main hall, where he would have his carriage called out again and summon Tessa from belowstairs.
But there were voices coming from the hall—one the quiet, refined tones of his butler, the other louder and more boisterous. And Constance heard them too, and her head shot up one moment before she gathered up her skirts and went hurtling along what remained of the gallery and out through the open door into the hallway.
“Sidney!” she shrieked one moment before the viscount reached the doorway himself.
And he stood there and watched as she rushed across the tiles of the hall and threw herself into the outstretched arms of his brother.
“Sidney!” He looked so dearly familiar, standing in the middle of the great hall, surrounded by boxes. His fair hair was disheveled and slightly damp.
“Sidney,” she said, wrapping her arms about his neck as his came about her waist and he lifted her off her feet and spun her once around. “Oh, I knew you would come. And you are late, you horrid man. You were to be here to help me set up for the treasure hunt, but you were still trotting down the road as if there was all the time in the world.”
“Trotting down the road?” he said indignantly, setting her back on her feet. “We lost a wheel yesterday afternoon, I would have you know, Con. I might have been killed. And all you can do is scold.”
“Oh, did you really?” she said, immediately contrite. “You weren’t hurt, Sidney? Was anyone hurt?”
“No,” he said. “There was just a dratted delay, that’s all, Con. I would have been here last night. Jon, how are you?”
He turned to stretch out a hand, and Constance turned too and felt a jolt of guilt. She had not spared one thought for Jonathan in the minute or so since she had heard Sidney’s voice. And yet all morning, while they had got ready for the treasure hunt, she had not once thought of Sidney.
And she had allowed Jonathan to kiss her in the conservatory just a few minutes before and had kissed him back. And had felt a deeper emotion than she had ever felt for anyone in her whole life. She looked at him now as the two brothers shook hands and exchanged greetings, and knew that she still felt that emotion. She—
But no. Sidney was home and it was not his fault that he was late for her birthday.
“Happy birthday, Con,” he said, turning back to her. “I did not forget, you see, and I could not bring myself to stay away after all. I told Prinny so. I have to go to someone’s birthday party, I told him, and so he excused me. He was most gracious about it.”
