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She forgot that Lady Danbury was acting very strangely and that she feared her employer might be terribly ill.
She even forgot every blasted edict in Mrs. Seeton’s little book, and most of all, she forgot that this man made her stomach flip every time he raised his eyebrows.
She forgot everything but the levity of the moment and the rascally smile on James Siddon’s face. With a little laugh, she reached forward and swatted him playfully on the shoulder.
“Oh, stop,” she said, barely recognizing her own voice.
“Stop what?” he asked, his expression almost ludicrously innocent.
She mimicked his salute.
“You have been issuing orders with great facility and frequency,” he pointed out. “It is only natural that I might compare you to—”
“Just check on Lady Danbury,” she interrupted.
James smiled knowingly and crept around the corner of the hedge.
“Do you see anything?” Elizabeth whispered.
He ducked back. “I see Lady Danbury.”
“That’s all?”
“I didn’t think you were interested in the cat.”
“Malcolm?”
“He’s on her lap.”
“I don’t care what the cat is doing.”
His chin dipped down as he shot her a vaguely condescending look. “I didn’t think you were.”
“What is Lady Danbury doing?” Elizabeth ground out.
“Sleeping.”
“Sleeping?”
“That is what she said she’d be doing, isn’t it?”
She scowled at him. “I meant, is she sleeping normally? Is her breathing fitful? Does she seem to be moving about?”
“In her sleep?” he asked doubtfully.
“Don’t be a nodcock. People move about in their sleep all the—” Her eyes narrowed. “Why are you smiling?”
James coughed to try to cover up his traitorous lips, and tried to remember the last time a woman had called him a nodcock. The ladies he’d met on his recent jaunt to London had been the simpering sort, complimenting him on his clothing, his face, his form. When one had actually gone so far as to compliment the slope of his forehead, he knew it was time to get away.
He’d never guessed, however, just how amusing it would be to be insulted by Elizabeth Hotchkiss.
“Why are you smiling?” she repeated impatiently.
“Was I smiling?”
“You know you were.”
He leaned in far enough to cause her to catch her breath. “Do you want the truth?”
