Page 40 of Tempting Her Viscount

Chapter Fifteen

Kit glanced around the room and nodded. For the most part he did know which of the men attending the ball might serve Celia’s needs as a lover. Even if the thought of setting up such an introduction curdled his blood.

“Very well.” They spun at the corner of the dance floor and he looked down at her again. “May I ask a question?”

“Of course.”

“Why don’t you want to marry? It wouldn’t have to be like the last time.” Married for money to an older man who couldn’t perform his husbandly duties. She could marry for any number of reasons. Common interests, respect, lust… love. Or all of them. He cleared his throat.

She shrugged. “I told you. I have a fairly large settlement from Hamlin. I’ve no need for a man to take care of me. And no desire to turn my fortune over to a grasping husband.”

“I see. What if he had his own fortune? Or if not a fortune, if he was settled enough not to need your money?”

“It might make it easier to see his true intentions, but again, why? I had no choice when my father forced me to marry Hamlin. Now I can make my own choices and do what I wish. I’d be a fool to give that up.”

He nodded, understanding the allure of freedom and independence when she’d been without.

“May I ask you a similar question?” She tilted her head. “Why do you want to marry?”

She’d already asked him this question before they’d become lovers. Perhaps, she expected a different answer now.

“I’m a viscount. I’ll need an heir at some point. But it’s more than just the duties of my title. I’m alone. And have been for some time. My friends are finding love and starting families. It would be nice to have someone. Someone to share my life with. Being someone’s lover is just about pleasure. But I also want the everyday things. I want to laugh and talk about mundane bits of the day. To spend the winter months in our home, just sitting and reading by the fire. I’m sure it sounds boring. But most of all I want someone to whom I can belong. To be part of a family again. I’ve almost forgotten what that feels like.”

“I hope you’ve felt part of our family as small as it may be.”

“In a way, Gray has been something of a brother to me, but I’ve never thought of you in a sisterly way. Not since I returned to London at nineteen and made it my life’s work to sneak a look down your dress.” He laughed.

“I thought you gave that up after I caught you that one time.”

He shook his head. “No. I’ve just become better at it.”

“You’re doing it right now, aren’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Scoundrel,” she accused.

“I never claimed to be anything else.”

*

The next morning,Celia called for her maid to help her dress as was usual even if the time of morning wasn’t.

“I expected you to be abed late this morning since you only returned from the ball in the early hours,” Nettie said with a knowing lift to her brows.

When her comment incited no response, the woman added, “I’ll have to have someone look after your clock as it must not be keeping correct time. You are going to breakfast earlier and earlier each morning.”

Celia had sent Nettie away the first morning Kit appeared in her room. The other mornings she’d locked the door between her rooms and Nettie’s chamber and hoped for the best. There was a sitting room between Celia’s bedroom and Nettie’s door. Surely, that was enough to keep her older maid from hearing anything.

But from the smug smile on her maid’s lips, it was apparent she knew something was going on.

“You know?” Celia confirmed.

Nettie shrugged. “I wouldn’t say I know, but I suspect. After getting you ready for the Harrington Masquerade, I expected you to have many invitations to a fine fellow’s bed. I never expected you’d claim the one that came each morning to have breakfast with your brother, but a fine specimen he is, so I don’t blame you for grabbing hold of him with both hands.”

Celia swatted at the woman with the edge of her shawl. “Such insolence from a servant,” she joked, causing Nettie to laugh.

“Do you wish to talk of it?”