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“Leaving us so soon?” she asked softly, her husky tone rasping over his skin and tugging at the desire he had been resisting.
“I thought to have a drink and then some light reading.”
“About farming techniques.” This time her tone was amused.
Still, he did not turn around. If he saw her now looking as he’d seen her in the drawing-room, her hair curling softly around her cheeks, her freckles glowing under the firelight of the candle and lamp, the way she tilted back her head when she laughed. Truly he might do something foolishly improper and disreputable.
But I have warned her, the devil in him whispered, and she still came down.
“Would you like to join me?”
He heard a slight hitch in her breathing.
“For a drink and some light reading?”
“You would be comfortable drinking brandy with me?”
He smiled. “I was going to offer you sherry, but from your tone, I can guess you are acquainted with brandy.”
“I am. Though I would prefer sherry or wine.”
“Then—”
“But I cannot bear the thought of reading farming techniques,” she said, sounding perfectly aghast.
Ethan chuckled.
“If you will allow me to grab my copy of Emma by Jane Austen, I shall join you shortly.”
“Emma?” He bet it had some romantic nonsense as the theme.
“Oh, yes, a most delightful book! The main lead is Miss Emma Woodhouse,a very interfering yet wonderfully witty and kind young woman whose misplaced confidence in her matchmaking abilities occasions several romantic misadventures. I predict you will like it.”
“I doubt it,” he said blandly.
“Oh.”
The soft disappointment in her tone led him into making an uncharacteristically impulsive decision. “Would you do the reading?”
“I would be happy to!”
Now he risked a glance at her. In the dim lighting in the hallway, he could see that her cheeks were rosy, and her eyes glittered. He had pleased her and absurdly felt ten feet tall instead of the six feet he stood.
“Then I shall see you shortly in the library. Ethan continued to his library, noting how his heart raced with anticipation of drinking and reading a romance book with Lady Charity. Truly which one of his friends would believe this nonsense.
But what perfect nonsense.
