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“Then I suppose I must simply wait for the lady’s return.”
Grand started for the stairs and her sitting room.
“After last evening, sir, Miss Everley left orders not to admit you, my Lord,” the manservant announced. “I was presented specific instructions to do whatever is necessary to convince you that Miss Everley had severed your connection.”
This was the second time in as many hours that Grand had been told to end all communications with Miss Everley. Despite feeling the sting of her rebuke and half considering how well he would stand against Mr. Jones, who had the look of a man who frequently had used his fists as he came of age, he accepted the return of his hat and gloves from the lady’s servant.
“Then I suppose this is the end of my calling upon your mistress,” Grand said with a quick look to the stairs and the empty foyer. “Please relay my sincere regards to your mistress.”
With that, he exited the woman’s house. Dissatisfaction marked his features. Climbing into his waiting coach, Grand sighed heavily. He despised unfinished business.
He preferred his life well-ordered and without—. “Without her?” he asked aloud. The idea brought a deep frown to his brow to signal his unrest. “Without a purpose,” he declared, but he knew that was not the real answer.
Whether he was willing to admit it or not, Grand knew that he had grown fond of Miss Everley’s company. The lady did not bore him, as did the majority of Society. Miss Everley was unique — not a copy of the latest jewel of the first water.
“Yet, my fascination can go nowhere,” he warned the hope rising in his chest. “The lady is the daughter of an infamous jewel thief, and you are 8th Earl Harlow, whose ancestors have been in England since the Norman conquest. You cannot think to pursue her. Yet—”
Grand leaned back into the soft squabs of the seat and closed his eyes.
“This madness is a passing fancy: You simply require an evening in your mistress’s arms.” Opening the box, he instructed his coachman. “To Miss Susana’s house, Escher.”
******
Why he had bothered, Grand would never know. No matter Susana’s expert manipulations, he had known no satisfaction in the woman or the act, for his mind could not leave behind the image of desolation marking Miss Everley’s features with their parting.
He laid on his back staring at the bed drape over his head. He had awakened with a start, the fragments of his dream clinging with relentless consistency. He stifled the groan rushing to his lips. He did not want to wake Susana, for his mistress would insist on seeing to his supposed ‘needs’, when all he wished to do was to return to his dream. He closed his eyes to recapture the moment.
All silk and lemon-scented, Miss Everley appeared before him. They were in the hedge maze at his home estate. He was stalking her — her laughter drifting back to him, and his taunting her. When had he laughed last? Grand could not recall doing so for a very long time, but he could easily imagine a good laugh being shared with Miss Everley — to be free again to enjoy the simple act of laughing.
He caught a glimpse of her yellow day dress as she darted around a corner.
“I am coming for you, love.” Grand had called her ‘love’ the first time the dream had come to him. Was the lady his ‘love’? He had never hoped to love anyone beyond his parents and, naturally, his children, but, most assuredly, not their mother.
The idea of loving someone as imperfect as Miss Everley resonated through him — through the core of his very being. Instead of his subconscious rebelling against the feeling of confusion that the prospect of love brought to his door, he actually felt a certain ‘softness’ creeping through his veins, connecting to the most elemental parts of him.
“Catch me if you dare,” she called, while a giggle of happiness followed her taunt on the air.
“I dare, love,” he called as he rushed forward.
The tinkling sound of her voice drifted back to him, filling his heart with his own dose of contentment, and driving him forward until he overtook her a second before she reached the centre of the maze.
He captured her in his arms. A momentary tussle, which included another round of playful laughter, ensued. At length, he caught her hair where it had come loose from her chignon to hold her head still so he might look upon her ‘imperfect’ features — the same features that had haunted him since he first laid eyes on her.
“What do you wish, my Lord?” she whispered.
“You. Now and forever. I want your heart.”
She lifted her mouth to his, and Grand was helpless to resist.
Someone touched his chest, and, for the briefest of moments, he thought it was her — was Miss Everley moving into his embrace. Then, he heard Susana’s voice.
“I see you are ready for me again.”
She touched his semi-hard manhood to bring him to her, but Grand found himself shoving away from her. Standing, he searched the dimly lit room for his shirt and trousers. Grand felt an overwhelming urgency to escape, not only the room, but the woman bolting up from the bed, as well as his precisely ordered life. Dropping his shirt over his head, he turned to look at the voluptuous woman he had chosen to meet his baser needs. Yet, at this moment, Grand knew he could never return to Susana’s bed. Somehow, although, in truth, it made little sense to him and would certainly not make sense to others, he felt as if he had betrayed Miss Everley by being here. Demme! The woman was ruining him for all others.
“What is the matter, my Lord?” Susana asked in a quiet voice. “Did I do something to displease you?” She snatched up the sheets to wrap about her to cover her nakedness.
“As a whole, the world displeases me,” Grand grumbled. He managed to pull on his small clothes and one leg of his trousers before he turned to the woman. “You should dress, Susana. We have business to discuss.”
