AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He caught her hands. Drew them from around his neck.
She frowned with confusion. “Daigh?”
Sliding from underneath her, he shrugged himself back in his shirt. Tucked her skirts round her in demure virginity. Rapped once more on the carriage roof to signal the driver. “Return to the Halliwells’.”
She grabbed his arm. “What are you doing?”
“Not making love to you,” he answered through clenched teeth. “You can thank me some other time.”
For reasons of his own, Daigh refused to let her slink away with at least the tattered shreds of her dignity intact. No, he decided t
o play the gallant to the hilt. Handing her down from the carriage. Escorting her through the icy garden, still blessedly empty and silent. None to witness their illicit arrival. None to see the burn of embarrassment scorching her cheeks. If only he’d leave so she could find Jane, plead a splitting headache—not a fib—and go home to be mortified in the privacy of her own bedchamber.
Back through the French doors. Down the stairs. Up the corridor. Into the alcove. And smack into Jane and Aunt Delia who stood heads together, trading worried glances.
“There you are, darling.” Aunt Delia sighed with audible relief. “We wondered where you’d scampered off to.” Her gaze traveled up Daigh, brows drawing into a scowl. Sabrina could almost hear the wheels spinning. Perhaps her chance hadn’t been lost. She didn’t have to say anything. Aunt Delia’s filthy little mind would fill in all the blanks.
But before she opened her mouth to ask the obvious, Jane threaded her arm through Daigh’s. Grabbed him by the ear, drawing him down to buss him on the cheek. “Daigh, you beast. You did come. And you’ve found Sabrina already.” Swung around to Aunt Delia. “Mrs. Norris, may I present my brother to you. Mr. Fletcher is newly arrived in Dublin.”
That twinkle of amusement was back in Daigh’s eyes. And he actually smiled as he bowed over her aunt’s hand. An expression to turn any woman’s head. “I found Lady Sabrina at the punch bowl, complaining of a headache. Perhaps it would be best if she were taken home.”
Aunt Delia was no exception. She fluttered like a schoolgirl. “She always did have her poor mother’s constitution. The merest breath of wind would send her to her bed with a cold.”
“If you would allow it, I’m happy to escort the young women home.”
Sabrina’s head snapped around. Please no. She couldn’t take another moment of Daigh’s company right now.
“That would be perfect. Thank you, young man.”
Sabrina shot Jane a glare. Perfect was just what it wasn’t.
“Brother?” Sabrina complained. “Brother? What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking of your reputation. Something you obviously weren’t.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking of. Or rather the destruction of it. It would have worked. Aunt Delia would have been sure to tell Aidan. And Aidan would have been suitably horrified. Enough to send me back to Glenlorgan with the speed of a cannon shot.”
“That was your plan? A scandal with Daigh MacLir?”
“It would have worked if . . .”
“If what?”
“Never mind.” She rubbed her temples.
“You two were gone quite a while. Did he . . . and you . . .”
“Jane!”
“He is my brother,” she answered smugly. “I have a right to know.”
“You want to know what happened? The whole ugly, sordid episode? I’ll tell you. I threw myself at him. Did everything but stake myself out for his pleasure. Do you know what he did?”
“By the sounds of it—”
“Nothing! Not a thing. He was—more or less—a perfect gentleman. Drat him.”
“Is it the more or the less you have a problem with?”
