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She’d thought Nathan would be in her room by now, ready to engage in marital coitus. Then once he was sated and sleepy, she planned to broach the subject of his cousin and whether Robert might be capable of murder to inherit a title.
Instead, she was fairly certain Nathan was not even in his room.
With an exasperated sigh, she clutched her robe tightly about her and went to her door to peek out. She would not care if her friends saw her, though she might care a bit if their husbands did. They were all in another wing of the house and unlikely to leave their rooms. Her parents and Nathan’s cousin and wife, however, were in the family wing of the house with her and Nathan.
If only they had moved to the earl’s suite, they would not only be in a separate wing, they would also have adjoining doors. Now, she had to worry about Robert or Letitia coming out of their rooms at the end of the hall. Scowling, Lily muttered under her breath, annoyed with her husband’s absence.
Gathering her courage, she pressed her lips together and scurried into the hall and over to his door. Though part of her wanted to knock, she was too worried some of the other occupants in the hall might hear, so she turned the knob and looked inside.
Empty.
Blast the man.
Buoyed by an increasing sense of being wronged, Lily abandoned all modesty and went in search of her husband.
Barefoot.
In nothing but a nightgown and robe.
If he was upset when he found her wandering the hallsdishabille, it would be his own fault.
The first place she checked was the study, but he was not there. Nor was he in the billiards room with the other gentlemen, which had occurred to her as a possibility. She would have expected her friends to kick up a fuss if that had been the case since none of them trusted the men to keep them informed. Gatherings without their wives were almost certainly meetings to discuss matters she and her friends wanted to be involved in.
Huffing, Lily made her way to the library, slowing when she heard the sound of male voices within. It only took her a moment to recognize her husband and Harker. Whatever they were talking about was coming to an end, and someone was coming to the door.
Lily scurried back into one of the dark corners, next to a tall pedestal and vase, hoping if she was still, her nightgown would blend next to the pale stone. The door opened, and Harker stepped out, striding purposefully in the opposite direction from where she was standing.
She could have collapsed with relief.
She waited to see Nathan, but he was not there.
Frowning, she counted to thirty in her head, wanting to see if he would follow Harker out, but it appeared he was not coming.
With a sigh of exasperation, she straightened up. If her husband would not come to her, she would go to him.
* * *
Nathan
The door to the library opened, and Nathan barely stifled a groan. Had Harker remembered something else?
Steeling himself, Nathan got up from the chair and turned.
Blinked.
The apparition before him was certainlynotHarker.
His wife had decided to dress for seduction this evening, and it was working. Did work. Immediately.
The barely-there nightgown peeked through the matching peignoir, which did not do nearly as good a job covering her as Nathan might have wished, considering she was running about the house. She was not even wearing shoes. Dark hair curled about her shoulders and down to her waist, adding to the exotic image she made.
“Lily? What are you doing here?” he asked stupidly. His brain was struggling to work, distracted by the vision she made and his ragingly hard cock.
“Looking for… something to read.” She blinked at him, sauntering past and going to the shelves.
Just as she had at Talbot House, she seemed to have an uncanny sense of where the private family collections were. She headed right for his and his brother’s folios, the ones he had not taken with him to London. Nathan groaned inwardly. Now that they had guests, he really needed to move those folios elsewhere.
It had been so long since anyone had stayed at the manor, neither he nor Sebastian had thought a thing about placing their private folios in the library once his father was dead. The servants were not going to bother with them. He really should have taken them down from the shelves when he knew guests were coming, yet he had forgotten.
