*-*-*-*
Elizabeth was pacing the foyer when Robert strolled into the house along with her father, Lord Bradford and James. When she spotted them she stopped pacing at once. “Well?”
The men looked her over. She was wearing a long white cotton nightgown and a wrapper. Her father and Lord Bradford looked disapproving. James looked amused. Robert looked hungry, causing her to shift nervously.
“Go to bed, dear. It’s handled,” her father said as he kissed her forehead.
“Please tell me that he’s still alive.”
“He wishes he wasn’t,” James said with a chuckle.
“A little bit of an overkill, wouldn’t you say?” Robert asked. His eyes never left hers as he watched her possessively.
“I-I had to make sure he wasn’t getting back up.”
The rest of the men laughed louder at this while Robert continued to watch her. “Oh, believe me, my dear, he’ll never get up again,” Lord Bradford said.
Her face colored. She wasn’t exactly sure what they were talking about, but she had an idea thanks to that night in the orangery. She had kicked him pretty hard.
Repeatedly.
“From now on, you do not go anywhere without an extra man to watch you. Now go on up to bed and have Jane fetch you some tea.”
“I sent her to bed hours ago. I’ll just go to bed.” She threw one last look at the men. Obviously the man was alive. That was all she cared about. That and Robert was safe, but she didn’t want to look too deeply into that.
*-*-*-*
Robert waited an hour until the rest of the men were relaxed and deep in their card game before he excused himself for the night. He made his way upstairs. After a quick glance around the upstairs hallway, he went to the family quarters.
He already knew which room belonged to Elizabeth. Thanks to all the times he’d snuck into her room to place something gross or dead in her bed he knew the way by heart. He listened at the door before slowly opening it. His ears were met with light snores. Cute little snores, he thought.
The door shut quietly enough. After a slight pause he decided to take his boots off. He didn’t want to wake her as he crept over to her bed. The only light in the room came from the fireplace, making it hard to see where he was going. He threw on another log and went to the bed.
Elizabeth was curled up on her side. She looked like an angel, his angel. His minx. He had to hold her. Now. He raised the covers and crawled beneath them. He curled up against her body and gently pulled her against him, careful not to wake her and not really caring if he did. Finally he released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. She was safe. She was here safely in his arms. With that thought repeating in his mind, he fell asleep.
Chapter 15
“That look isn’t going to work on me, my dear. Ask your mother,” Richard said without looking up from his newssheet. “You are not going.”
Elizabeth stopped pouting immediately. It usually worked. Well, only if her mother hadn’t already used the same tactic. Her mother must have asked to redecorate the pink sitting room this morning. That was fine since her backup plan never failed.
“You’re right, of course, Papa,” Elizabeth said.
Her father huffed his agreement. She picked up a plate and headed to the side table and filled the plate to the rim with meats, cheese, sweets and bread, noting that the servants had started putting out a spread large enough to feed a small army since the Bradfords came to stay with them.
It was at least three times more food than was necessary, but she knew that not a crumb would be wasted, not with Robert staying here. She remembered that he’d always had a rather large appetite, something that she’d teased him about when they were children. The amount of food that he went through in a day was rather frightening. Even his family seemed to be troubled by his eating habits. She couldn’t help but wonder how he wasn’t fat by now, but that was a thought for another time. Right now she had a mission to accomplish.
When she placed the plate down at the spot next to her father, she made sure the plate clattered loud enough to catch his attention. As she turned around to return to the side table for another plate, she saw her father peer around his paper to look at her plate. His eyes widened considerably. She turned her head quickly to hide her smile and filled a second plate with pudding, muffins left over from breakfast and a few scones and the rest of the raspberry jam. She placed the second plate near the first and sat down. Her father shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
Elizabeth ignored him as she made a big show of spreading butter on a piece of brown bread. She brought the slice of bread halfway to her mouth, gave a little shake of her head and added more butter to it before bringing it towards her lips once again.
Her father spoke up before she managed to take a single bite. “Isn’t that a bit much, my dear?” he tried to ask casually, but failed miserably and for good reason. This was exactly how Heather started her road to spinsterhood. She went from having a figure other women envied to being rather plump all in a relatively short period of time.
He wasn’t worried that she would be pushed into the life of a companion. She was financially well off and wouldn’t have to worry about money a day in her life. Her father was genuinely concerned about her. He wanted to see her well cared for and he craved more grandchildren.
She sighed heavily. This was a trick she could only use every few weeks. If she did it too often, it lost its affect.
“Isn’t there something you would like to do instead, my dear?” he asked nervously, glancing towards the large plates of food.
“Well, yes,” she said only to shake her head and sigh heavily. “No, you said I couldn’t go without you or mother.” She gave her father a sweet smile. “It’s okay, Papa. I can manage to get those things done some other way.” She looked back at her plates. “The scones look delicious…hmm, I wonder if there’s extra cake.”
He put down his paper and cleared his throat. “Sweetling, let’s not be hasty. The man is in jail and, with an extra footman, you should be more than safe.” He eyed the plates in front of her anxiously. “Give me a few weeks to clear my schedule or come up with a better alternative. I’m sure we can figure out a way for you to go visit your estate up north.”
Her hand stilled halfway to her mouth once again. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, yes I think you should go out. I’m sure you have plenty to do.” He gently pulled the plate full of sweets away from her, afraid she’d eat it before she made a decision.
She exhaled slowly and put the bread down. “I suppose I could go out.”
“That’s the spirit, my dear,” he said cheerfully.
“Well,” she pushed away from the table, “If I’m going to get my errands completed, I should go now.”
Her father rubbed the back of his neck, looking as if he’d just averted a disaster. She bent down and kissed his cheek. He mumbled something before sending her off.
She had to hide her smile as she left. In a few weeks she would be free of Robert and start her new independent life early. Things were going very well indeed.
*-*-*-*
"That smile can only mean one thing," James mused as he held the front door open for her and stepped to the side as she stepped out onto the front stoop.
"Oh? And what's that?" Elizabeth asked as she accepted his escort. She placed her hand on his bicep as he took the large basket from her and walked with her to the waiting carriage.
"You've eliminated my brother once and for all and even found the perfect spot to dispose of the body," James said with a wink as he helped her into the carriage and placed the basket on one of the benches.
She sighed heavily as she shook her head, still smiling, "I'm afraid not."
James chuckled as he climbed into the carriage and sat across from her. Once she was settled and a maid joined them, he knocked on the wall twice, indicating for the driver to go.
"You don't mind if I invite myself along, do you?" he asked w
ith that charming smile that used to make her little heart skip a beat, but now just made her smile.
It was funny how childhood infatuation worked. One day he was all she could think about, wanted and wished for and the next.....the next she'd moved on without realizing it. When exactly had she gotten over her silly crush on him? Most likely when he’d stepped out of her life for Robert's sake.
She was just thankful that she did eventually get over him. She'd hate to be that obsessed over a man ever again. Actually, thinking back on how she used to act around him was quite embarrassing. Thankfully he'd always been too kind to tease her about it, unlike Robert, she thought with an inward sigh.
Once Robert figured it out, and now that she thought back on it she probably hadn't been as discreet as she’d thought, he’d tormented her with the knowledge. After that horrible day in the park, he seemed to go out of his way to humiliate her. He wrote insipid love letters to James and signed them from her, making sure to leave them where anyone could find them. He made kissing sounds whenever James was around and tried to make it seem as though she was the one making those noises. He openly taunted her about it until it became so bad that she refused to be in the same room as James and Robert.
Robert's antics probably softened the blow of having James suddenly withdraw from her life. It had been difficult and she remembered crying more than once, but it probably would have been worse if she'd been free to secretly adore him. In a way, Robert had actually helped her, not that that had been his intention. Thanks to him she could sit here across from the devastatingly handsome man in front of her and not have to worry about being nervous or saying something foolish. When she looked at James, all she saw was a good friend in the making. She certainly didn't want to kiss him like she did Ro-
Well, it really didn't matter who she wanted to kiss. She was leaving soon and didn't want any complications. She certainly didn't want any more toe curling kisses from Robert. Since she didn't like him in the least, she didn’t want or crave his touch.
She didn't.
"Where exactly are we going?" James asked, thankfully pulling her away from her rather disturbing thoughts about being in Robert's arms and how good it felt to have his lips touch hers.
"I'm taking a basket to a friend," she said distractedly as she once again wondered why, out of every man that she knew, Robert was the one that made her nervous, made her want to smile and made her ache to touch him. It was ridiculous. She didn't even like the man, but she couldn't help the way her body reacted to him.
It was utter madness!
"And who exactly is this friend?" James asked
She opened her mouth to tell him that Robert wasn't her friend when she remembered what they were talking about. Why in the world was she daydreaming about a man that she couldn't stand, she wondered not for the first time since he came back into her life.
"It's for one of the maid’s nieces that’s been ill," her maid answered with a sniff.
"A maid’s niece?" James asked, looking confused as Elizabeth sent her maid a glare for her big mouth. Jane gave her an apologetic smile even as she noticeably winced. No one was supposed to know what she was up to. Annabel, Heather’s old maid and now a housemaid, was worried sick about her niece and for good reason from what she’d been told, but her father refused to give the woman the day off to check on her without an explanation.
"She helps me from time to time," she lied, shooting Jane a warning.
Annabel’s niece had recently been tossed into the streets by her employer, Jonathan, the Earl of….well, she still couldn’t quite remember his title and she didn’t care. The only thing that she cared about was that the bastard had used the girl until it became obvious that she was carrying his child. Without a thought or a penny for the child, he’d thrown her out into the street. She was now living in a rundown rooming house in a section of town that was a bit dangerous. When Elizabeth had discovered the situation this morning, she’d decided to take the girl a basket herself and make sure that the girl had everything that she needed.
James frowned. "Then why not send a servant to bring her the basket? Or at the very least bring an extra man or two. You really shouldn't be making deliveries to servants, Elizabeth. It's not seemly."
"I have other errands to run and I thought I would handle the matter myself," she said with a warm smile, hoping he'd just let the matter go, but of course he didn't.
For a moment he didn't say anything as he considered her words, but finally with a shake of his head and a heavy sigh he said, "One of the men will handle the girl while I aid you with the rest of your errands."
As much as she wanted to argue, she couldn't. If she was stubborn about this, he would no doubt alert her parents and that was the very last thing she needed at the moment.
So it was with a heavy heart that she nodded and thanked James. She would just have to trust whoever James selected for the chore to make sure that the girl had everything that she needed.
*-*-*-*
"Isn’t that your brother with Lady Elizabeth?" Jenkins asked.
Robert looked up from the parchment his solicitor had given him at the end of their meeting and barely held back a string of curses that would have sent the genteel ladies walking along the shops gasping before they fainted dead away.
"She's at it again," he said through clenched teeth as he shoved the parchment into Jenkins' hands and headed across the busy street.
"At what, sir?" Jenkins called after him.
"Wrapping my brother around her little finger," he said, not caring if Jenkins heard him or not as he watched his brother smile down at Elizabeth while they walked past a bookshop. His gaze dropped down to his brother's arm and he felt his jaw clench so tightly that he was honestly surprised that his teeth didn't crack under the pressure.
She was touching James, again. In the back of his mind he knew there was nothing inappropriate about his brother offering his arm to Elizabeth, but that didn't stop him from seeing red as he moved towards them.
"Would you like a bit of chocolate, Elizabeth?" he heard his brother ask as they neared a sweet shop.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea," Robert said brightly as Elizabeth opened her mouth, probably to accept. He moved past the two large goons and the unhappy looking maid that was following them and moved to Elizabeth's right, making sure of course to brush against her. He nearly groaned when he saw that beautiful blush crawl up her neck and burn her cheeks.
"Are you alright?" his brother asked when he too noted the deep blush painting her cheeks.
"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you," she said, forcing a smile for James as she pointedly ignored Robert.
Now that would never do, he thought with an inward sigh. He also didn't appreciate the fact that she was moving away from him and closer to James. No, that wouldn’t do either, but of course that was easily fixed.
"What are you doing here, Robert?" James asked, giving him a pointed look over Elizabeth's head to get lost. If his brother had been with any other woman, he might have taken the hint and left them alone, but this was Elizabeth, his minx, and it would be a cold day in hell when he allowed her to marry his brother.
"I had a craving for chocolate," he said, pausing at the door of the sweet shop and gesturing for Elizabeth to precede him.
After throwing him a cautious look that he really couldn't blame her for, she released James' arm and walked into the shop. When his brother moved to join her, Robert cut him off and smoothly moved to Elizabeth's side, offering his arm and knowing damn well that she couldn't refuse him.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously on him as she reached up and took his offered arm. He sent her a wink as they stepped into the line. When she dug her nails into his arm he could only chuckle, which seemed to irritate her more judging by the way she dug her nails even deeper into his arm. That was more than fine with him, because she wasn't wearing gloves and he was in heaven. He couldn't even begin to describe how good it felt to have his minx holding onto him tightly.
>
When his scowling brother joined them, Robert pointedly ignored the man. He was doing his brother a favor after all by making sure that he didn't end up married to Elizabeth, which would just be pure misery for the man. He honestly couldn't imagine anything worse than being married to Elizabeth. Having to deal with her every day and night after night where he would take his time to explore her beautiful body with his mouth and hands before he-
"Get out of here and don't come back!" the shopkeeper's wife yelled, drawing his attention to two children being chased out of the shop with a broomstick.
"We just wanted some lemon drops," the little boy, whose clothing looked like it was being kept together by all the dirt covering it, said as he held up a silver piece.
The little girl with him, whose clothes were in worse condition if that were at all humanly possible, tripped when she moved to dart out of the path of the broom and fell against Elizabeth's legs, leaving a large dark smudge against Elizabeth's light blue skirts.
"Look what ya did to m’lady!" the shopkeeper's wife screeched as she raised the broom and brought it down towards the cowering child.
Even as he reached out to grab the broom, he prepared himself for Elizabeth's outburst. Her dress was completely ruined and he'd seen women go into hysterics over less. He really didn't want to deal with it, but maybe it would be for the best if she showed James exactly what he was in for, he thought as he caught the broom in his hand before it slammed into....
Elizabeth's back?
He'd been so focused on the shopkeeper's wife and the broom that he hadn't seen Elizabeth drop to the ground to cover the crying child with her body. As he ripped the broom away from the woman's grasp, he forced himself not to soften at the sight of the woman he once thought as a selfish brat protecting a helpless child. This changed nothing, he reminded himself, except that now for some reason he would rather die than see her married to James and it had nothing to do with hating her.
As James moved to have a very loud word with the shopkeeper and his wife, Robert helped Elizabeth to her feet, forcing himself to ignore the urge to pull her into his arms.
Truce (Neighbor from Hell) Page 11
