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“Well…” The footman offered a playful smile that prompted Jeremy to laugh.
“You know me well. Let us go home, James. I am in no mood for this tonight.” As he climbed into the carriage, James returned to his place beside the carriage driver, and they set off.
Once in that darkness, Jeremy didn’t bother lighting the lantern that swung above his head from the roof of the carriage. He tipped his head back and let his eyes close, permitting his mind to indulge in things it had wanted to wander to all night.
Lady Elkins walked into his mind. She was in the carriage with him, leaning toward him as Mrs. Arlington had done. She was pulling on his waistcoat, and he was allowing her to undo it, one button at her time, as she moved toward him.
He could picture a kiss between them so perfectly. It was vivid, passionate, to the point that he would be pulling her into his lap so that she straddled him there on the carriage seat. When he could have sworn that she moaned, audibly, his eyes shot open, reminding him it was all in his imagination.
“Enough of this,” he murmured. “Enough.”
He would not break his rule, even for the temptation of Lady Elkins. Yet, his entire way home, his thoughts kept returning to her. If he was not imagining her in his lap, kissing him, with her knees either side of his hips, then he was imagining her with someone else.
The mere image of her being with Sir Arnold made his blood boil and his heart race.
No. She should not be shown such things by him.
The implication Lady Elkins had made was that her husband had not been particularlyadventurousin that department. The thought that Sir Arnold could be the man to introduce such things to her sickened Jeremy.
“I cannot stand this,” he muttered aloud as his carriage pulled up at home. “Something must be done.”
* * *
“Woah, wait here, boy,” Jeremy murmured to the steed beneath him, urging the horse to a stop. They came to a hasty halt, with the horse whinnying in objection to the sudden movement.
At last, Jeremy had made it to the Earl of Elkins’ house. Here, he could see the building set far back from the street. Unlike the townhouses in London, this one portrayed the wealth of the new Earl of Elkins, for the building was detached from others and set well back in its own grounds that were bordered by a high wall.
Moving his steed to the entrance, Jeremy could just about peer past the gate to see the red and white house beyond. It seemed busy this morning. With the front door open, he could see the new Earl standing there, making hasty instructions to two men who had just arrived in a carriage. They seemed to be ready to conduct some sort of business.
Jeremy cursed inwardly as he eyed them. He had come to have a conversation with Lady Elkins, and he most certainly did not want the Earl around for such a conversation.
“Where are you?” he murmured, his eyes flitting between the windows as the steed was restless beneath him, driving one hoof repeatedly into the ground. He couldn’t see much movement beyond the windows, but then he caught sight of something moving in the garden.
Someone was running through the estate. She flicked between trees, her gown moving swiftly behind her, and she was carrying something too. Yet her appearance had been so momentary that he couldn’t see what it was.
There you are.
Jeremy urged the horse to action once again, rounding the wall that bordered the estate, determined to follow Lady Elkins’ path through the grounds.
All night, he had been restless, unable to sleep easy. Each time he had closed his eyes, he had seen her in his dreams, driven mad by the mere suggestion of them spending a night together. He saw it all and lived it all in those dreams, until he woke each time as a clammy mess, with sweat beading down his chest. Once, he had tried to see to himself to end the desire, but it didn’t work. Still, when he woke this morning, he desired her.
There was usually one way to end his desire of a woman. That was to have her.
When Jeremy reached a dip in the wall, hidden by the main street thanks to a small clump of trees, he jumped down from his steed and tied the reins to the nearest branch. As Jeremy climbed up over the garden wall, digging his hessian boots into the stonework, the horse snorted in objection.
“You want me to be caught?” Jeremy asked the horse with humor as he reached the top. The horse snorted once again, as if he had understood Jeremy. With laughter, Jeremy dropped to the other side, landing on the earth with a bend of his knees.
Lifting his head, he peered through the grounds. So deep into the garden, he was hidden from the house by the sheer depth of the trees. Now, he just had to find Lady Elkins without being seen.
Slowly, he made his way through the woodland. Sometimes, he hid behind a tree, nervous of finding a stranger, or a gardener around the next shrub, but no one appeared. He was beginning to give up hope of finding Lady Elkins at all when a sound caught his ears.
It was of someone singing. The voice was soft and melodic, almost hummed as if she were afraid of being heard. When Jeremy recognized Lady Elkin’s tone in that voice, he smiled and moved toward the sound.
Gradually, a lake appeared between the trees. Completely hidden from the house thanks to the plants, it was a small thing, glistening in the strong sunlight of the day. In the very middle was Lady Elkins, swimming.
Oh, good Lord…
Jeremy came to a stop by some tree roots where he found her gown and corset beside him on the earth, along with a towel. He lifted his eyes to her in the water once again, only to see that there was some slim white linen across her shoulders.
