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“This was your handiwork, was it not?”
She drew a deep, steadying breath. “I’m deeply sorry,” she said abruptly.
His eyebrow arched in evident surprise. “An apology?”
She looked at him helplessly. “It was childish of me to place slugs in your bed. I felt no satisfaction from it.”
“You had one or two snails in there as well.”
Her gaze sought the massive bed in the center of the room and the gray mass situated comfortably in the middle between silken sheets. There were indeed a few snails. “Do you accept my apology?”
His face shuttered. “If you would be gracious enough to accept mine.”
“I…what?”
“I insulted you. There was no cause for it, nor did I make amends when it was evident you were grievously injured,” he said gruffly. “Forgive me.”
Her mouth opened, but no words came forth. He’d rendered her speechless. Never had she expected him to offer any apology.
She smiled tentatively. “Thank you. So are we to be friends?”
“Good God, no. I am sure we will be back to crossing swords tomorrow. The sooner the better.”
A pang went through her heart. “I will fetch the pail.”
He frowned, taking a few steps away from her. “It’s best you return to your chambers. The servants will sort it out in the morning.”
“Are you certain, my lord?”
“Yes.”
“But where will you sleep?”
“The bed is big enough for me and my slimy friends.”
It certainly was. The large four-poster bed dominated the earl’s chamber. But what if they migrated onto him through the night? “My lord, I—”
“Go! Before…” He lowered his lids and hissed between his teeth.
Before what? “My lord, I—”
“Go,” he snapped again, low and dangerous, and once more awareness of their seclusion slithered through her.
“Of course,” she muttered hastily, and hurried from the room. Livvie all but ran down the hallway and the winding staircase, feeling her way in the dark, confident of her steps after memorizing all the fine details of the house before she painted its interiors.
Her heart was a beating mess inside her chest. She had been childish enough to place slugs into the earl’s bed and he had apologized.
For a few moments no animosity had existed…and…and…it had been wonderful.
Chapter Five
Tobias jogged toward the cliff’s edge abutting his estate, his three great boarhounds rollicking along at his side. They bounded up the hill, and he laughed, enjoying the invigorating run. They crested the peak, and he slowed to a walk, picking up a few twigs and sticks and throwing them. His dogs ignored his antics and instead bounced against his side, urging him to play. Sinking to his knees he tousled with the massive animals, laughing as they slobbered over his face, one even going as far as to nip him on the collarbone.
“You were always the rebel weren’t you, Hera,” he murmured, gripping her by the scruff and rolling with her. He hated that he had to return to London soon. The peace and tranquility he felt at Grangeville Park, he’d never found elsewhere. But there were problems to solve, meetings to be had, influential lords to convince to his way of thinking, or to blackmail if his gentler methods of persuasion failed. There was so much to do to alleviate the poverty he found in the city.
There was another reason he needed to depart for Town with haste.
Lady Olivia Sherwood.
