Page 17 of Seduction of a Widow

Chapter Five

“What are you dreaming about, Leslie?”

The softly spoken question startled Leslie from her thoughts. She set her tea cup on the breakfast table beside her toast and shifted her attention from the two riders she’d spotted through the window to Alice, who stood to her left.

“Oh, Alice, I did not hear you enter. Join me for breakfast. Baroness Trent’s cook is quite good.” She nodded at the table, laden with eggs, bacon, toast, pheasant, meat pies, pastries and more.

“I don’t believe you would have noticed Prinny himself.” Alice settled in the chair to Leslie’s left.

“I was merely admiring the view.” Leslie lifted her steaming teacup to her lips and sipped.

“Hmm.”

She lowered the cup. “You must admit, it is a lovely day.”

Alice chuckled. “I see the lovely sights this morning.” She nodded toward the riders. “The gentleman on the right is Sir Stirling,” she said an instant before they disappeared into the stables. “The other is Mr. MacLaren, if I am not mistaken.”

She was not mistaken.

Alice’s mouth twitched with laughter. “No wonder you are so dreamy this morning.”

Leslie inhaled her cup’s fruity steam and wished she might request something stronger. But such a request would be unthinkable this time of day. “I admit to feeling a little dreamy.” She lifted the cup to her lips and said, “I did not sleep well.” God knows, she should have slept well, given how spent she’d been after her lovemaking with Evan in the garden. Leslie sipped the tea.

Alice’s face crinkled with concern and she paused in filling her coffee cup. “Oh dear, not another sick headache?”

Relief loosened her shoulders a smidgen at the change in subject. Leslie set her cup down and smiled. “No, I haven’t had one of those in ages. Truly, I believe the doctor was correct. They were part of my grief over Carr.”

Grief or guilt? Guilt over the worry she had caused her late husband over antics that most wives would never have dared. Most women would have been too intimidated by Carr to do aught but submit and obey. Even she had trembled, inwardly, a time or two at his stern reprimands. But her exuberance had always rebounded until she found herself pulling at the reins again.

His doctor had said his self-controlled ways and his desire to attain perfection in the running of his estate had put a strain on his heart. But she had caught Carr’s unguarded glance, a time or two—steely gray eyes softened, just a tad, by love. Her wild ways are what had put a strain on his heart.

I am who I am. He knew when he wed me.

A too-familiar tightening in her chest made her seek solace in her tea. Perhaps one day the guilt would fade. But her guilt was born of her genuine and deep affection for him. Yet, for all his kindness and patience in the bedchamber, outside of it, he’d refused to understand her. He had never accommodated her as she had tried to him. He had asked too much of her. She would never again subject herself to wedlock.

“There he is.” Alice’s voice cut through her reverie.

“Who?” Leslie lifted her gaze.

“Young Mr. MacLaren.”

Leslie shifted her attention to the window. He walked alongside Sir Stirling, tall and lean in his well-cut riding clothes. Her pulse skipped a beat. Even from this distance, Leslie fancied she could feel the reckless, youthful energy that radiated from him. Warmth settled low in her belly at the memory of him driving deep inside her last night. She released the breath she had unknowingly caught.

Alice laughed. “When I see you dreamy-eyed and sighing over the mere sight of a gentleman, I fear we’re in for quite a time.”

“I told you. I had a frightfully disturbed night.” Leslie pursed her lips and used all her willpower not to look out the window again. “I think I shall retire for a nap.”

“But the gentlemen are coming in.”

“They will be at their cards all day.”

“Perhaps they will indulge us ladies in a card game.”

Leslie frowned and pressed a hand to her head. “I do not want to chance a headache.”

Alice studied her, doubt in her eyes. “I have never known you to be afraid of a man, not even Carr.”

“Afraid? Now you are being silly.”