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“I still know that we are very high,” she whined.
He steered her to the middle of the roof. “Just look straight ahead. It isn’t as terrifying if you look into the distance.”
Her chest moved on a deep intake of breath. Richard laughed. “Are you so very miserable?”
“No. I wouldn’t say miserable.” She shook her head, but her worry-filled gaze belied her words.
Richard paused, thinking how he could make her more comfortable. He took her by her arms and turned her to face him. “How about we lie down?”
She looked down, aghast. “Here?”
Richard laughed. “Yes.” He swiftly took off his coat and spread it before them. “What do you think?”
Jo raised her brow at him as she chewed on her lip. This was a terrible idea, and his refined actress hated it. He could see it.
Instead of screaming in horror, Jo held on to his hands tightly and lowered herself to the floor of the roof. She then lay flat on her back, leaving him room on the coat to join her.
Richard smiled and lay carefully beside her, his back on the roof, his gaze straight ahead at the sky.
“I love the fluffy clouds here in the countryside,” Jo said.
Richard glanced at her with a teasing smile. “Are there no fluffy clouds in London?”
“There are,” she agreed. “But with all the smoke and dust of the city, I think the beauty of nature just gets lost.”
Richard grunted. His hand moved until his knuckles encountered Jo’s soft skin. He paused, then slowly grazed her fingers again. His insides turned to molten lava as a tingle spread over his body.
Just a simple action. Barely even a touch. And it ignited all his senses.
Suddenly, he could feel all of her with every fiber of his being. His right side burned from the mere nearness of her. His nostrils flared to take in more of her sweet rosewater scent. He didn’t need to turn to her to see her, for, in his mind’s eye, she was as clear as if he was looking at her.
He inhaled a lung full of her scent and held it in. If he could bottle it up and carry it beneath his nose all the time, he would. And not just perfume… but her. Just her.
“Tell me about your childhood,” he prompted.
“I grew up in the theater,” she said with a brilliant smile as she turned toward him. “The theater manager raised me as his own. He was in love with my mother, so when she died, he took me under his wing. He didn’t have his own children and he died soon after. But the time I spent living with him was probably the happiest I remember being.”
He raised a brow. “Not when you were with your mother?”
She pursed her lips and shook her head. “Theater was his life. So I spent most of my days watching plays, writing plays, performing.”
He noticed that she evaded his question about her mother. But he decided not to push. “Hm… No time to look up at the clouds?”
She laughed. “I had plenty of free time. The theater doesn’t run all the time. And when there was no production, I was allowed to do whatever I wanted, as long as I didn’t leave the premises of the theater and the gardens. I imagine I had more freedom than you did,my lord viscount.”
“I wouldn’t argue with that, Miss Claremont.” He smiled. “How old were you then?”
“Hmm…” Her pleasant humming reverberated through his soul. “I was about eleven when he took me in. But I don’t remember days when I wasn’t at the theater. It’s always been my passion. He died a few years later, but I was able to look out for myself and earn a living by then. I am very grateful for what he did for me. He had no obligations to me. And yet, he gave me everything I now own.”
Richard studied her troubled features. “He must have loved your mother very much.”
“He did.” She nodded.
“Do you resemble her?”
Jo looked at him queerly, then pulled on a beguiling smile. “What about your childhood?”
That’s a no, then.“Well, as you may have noticed, I am from a big family.”
