Page 57 of How to Tempt an Earl

She’d introduced Prudence to Ian earlier, and he’d been charming and polite. Prudence had stuttered and then smiled up at him like a lovesick schoolgirl.

“Are you nervous about the wedding night?” Prudence asked.

“A little.” Of course, she was nervous. Terribly so. She’d heard the servants talk and had even gossiped about it once with Prudence, but it was hardly enough. She realized she knew almost nothing at all about what really lay ahead. She caught Ian’s dark gaze. He looked like a wolf, hungry, intense, and she shivered partly in fear and partly in anticipation.

If he was such a skillful kisser, how would he be as a lover? Grace placed her empty glass on a passing servant’s tray.

“Do you think he’d hurt you?” Prudence looked at her in concern.

“No.” Her response was unhesitant. He’d never harmed her all the times she’d gone to his home.

But it’s different now, she thought. You will share his bed night after night.

Prudence glanced away. “He’s headed this way and has eyes only for you.”

He was. Grace held her breath as he wove through the crowd with purpose. Did everyone see him as she did? A confident self-made man who had no need of a title but looked like the most powerful man in the room?

She braced herself to speak with her husband, but Prudence distracted her, touching her arm. “My mother is waving. She wants me to meet the Marquess of Stanton’s son. No doubt now that you are married, she will increase her pressure for me to find a match. Wish me luck,” Prudence said as she hurried away.

Grace felt overheated as Ian approached. He stopped only to grasp two flutes of champagne from a liveried servant’s tray. Then he stood in front of her, and Grace forgot to breathe.

“One last glass before we leave.”

She raised a glass. They were to leave for his country estate in Kent for a week as newlyweds. The thought of being isolated with Ian for a week made her nervous and excited at the same time.

“Isn’t it too early to leave?” she asked.

“Nervous?”

“Perhaps.”

“I’m told it’s normal.”

“You don’t appear nervous.”

“I’m thinking of other things,” he said, his voice husky.

“Such as?”

“Our wedding night.” He lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “You look beautiful, Grace.”

“Thank you,” she breathed. The way he was looking at her made her senses spin. She was nervous. Bloody nervous.

But she was also curious.

She licked her lips. “You should know that you charmed Prudence.”

“That’s good. I like her, but I don’t want her coming with us.”

Grace chuckled, and her nerves eased a notch. He could do that, she realized, make her laugh and allay her fears.

“I’ll see to the carriage,” he said. “Then I’ll return to say our goodbyes.”

…

Grace finished the champagne and said her farewells to her family and friends. She searched the crowd for Lady Castleton. She’d never had the chance to speak with the dowager, and a concern gnawed at her. Did the woman dislike Grace?

She could easily believe Grace had trapped her son into marriage. Ian was a handsome, wealthy earl, and she was the daughter of an impoverished baron. The notion did not sit well with Grace. She needed to speak with the woman and explain that such an entrapment had never been her intention, and that she would try to make her son happy.