A loud scream jolted her.
Hector broke the kiss again but didn’t release her. “Your sister.”
Verity stood on the threshold of the French doors, her mouth hanging open. There were footsteps and the noise of a door being slammed.
Verity shut the French doors and pulled the curtains, blocking the view. “Nothing, Mother.” Her voice came muffled from the other side. “There’s a...rat in the garden. Two actually. Two big rats. You don’t want to see them. They’re, ahem, doing things to each other, naked. I mean, they’re rats, for goodness’ sake. A scandalous affair but completely natural.”
“Mother.” Maddie stepped away from Hector. “You must leave, or at the very least get dressed. Hurry.” She snatched his clothes from the portico and handed them to him. Her mother might have shown an unprecedented leniency towards Maddie, but a naked man sporting a full erection in her garden was a naked man.
He didn’t accept the clothes immediately. Frowning, he took them. “I apologise for having broken another rule.”
“That’s my mother we’re talking about. You’d be surprised by what she considers wrong. A very wide range of deeds.”
His eyebrows knitted together as he slid into his trousers and shirt.
“Hector, I’m sorry to hurry you out.” Her face flamed with desire, shame, and a million other emotions she couldn’t process right now.
He knelt to tie his shoes and gazed up at her. “Don’t worry about me.” When he straightened, with his dishevelled hair covered in show and his shirt half-buttoned, he looked completely ravishing as if he’d just finished a thorough fumble. Her knees threatened to buckle. He seemed about to say something, but then shrugged. “I’ll see you soon, won’t I?” He grabbed her hand in desperation.
“You will.” She glanced at the French doors still closed.
He kissed her hand before releasing it. And she was hot all over again.
“You may leave through the rear entrance.” She pointed at the gate on the other side of the garden.
“I don’t need it.” He climbed over a tree and jumped to the top of the wall. He blew her a kiss. “Thank you for the kiss, my angel.” Before disappearing on the other side, he waved at her, leaving her heart galloping after him.
She waited a few moments before walking around the house and entering through the back door. Her dress was wet, mud drops stained the hem of her skirt, and surely her cheeks were all flushed and scandalous. But she’d never felt better.
From the kitchen, she stepped into the corridor, avoiding the parlour, when Verity almost attacked her. She grabbed Maddie’s shoulders and shoved her to the pantry among sausage chains and barrels of spices.
“He was naked,” she said, her chest heaving.
“Shush.” Maddie glanced around. “I noticed that.”
“I want to marry him.”
Maddie laughed. “No, you don’t, silly. You love Ernest.”
“Then you’re going to marry Hector. You were kissing him.” Her eyes lit with too much enthusiasm.
“Yes, well, it was the spur of the moment. Thank you for covering me. Mother would have had a fit.”
“Ihad a fit.” She fanned herself. “Good gracious. The kiss was so romantic and scandalous at the same time. The snow, the lack of clothes, the way he kissed you. I want to be kissed like that in the snow with Ernest naked. It’s that or there won’t be a wedding. And I thought I was the scandalous sister! Amateur. You’re the real scandalous one.”
“You? The scandalous one? What do you mean?”
“I want a naked kiss in the snow.”
Maddie kissed her sister’s heated cheek. “Nothing happened aside from the kiss.”
Verity stared at her as if she’d been blasphemous. “That wasn’t a simple kiss. Promise me you’ll kiss him again.”
That was an easy promise to make. “Oh, Verity. I will.”
“I must talk to Ernest and tell him to get naked in the snow. I have to see him later for a piano concert. That’s it! Only piano music would make a naked kiss in the snow perfect.”
“Speaking of piano concerts, what did Annabelle mean when we were in Lord Quentin’s parlour?”
