“The thing I like about you, Chelford,” Aunt Millie said to Grantham as she savored a long draw of tobacco smoke, “is your generosity. All of these women whom you invite to holiday, Undesirables who have nowhere else to go. What is it you want in return? I don’t think you are the pleasure-seeking type, not anymore.”
“Aunt Millie!” Elinor exclaimed. How impolite!
Her aunt shushed her with an arc of her cheroot. “No need to be prudish. We are all friends here, aren’t we?”
“For better or worse, madam,” de Winter agreed. Amusement played in the flames of his eyes. “Let’s hear more about Chelford’s pleasure-seeking ways.”
Grantham pushed away his wine glass and sat back in his chair. He, too, watched Aunt Millie with subtle amusement. “You’re doing an admirable job of calling me to task, Mrs. Rebmann. Yes, I’ve been a blackguard. I don’t deny it, for there is no point. But that’s just the trouble. There is no point in debauchery. Rather, I’ve learned that this pleases me.” He motioned at the people seated around him. “Seeing Chelford House used as it was meant to be. I have no cousins and my only sister, my beloved sister, died. But this is a house meant to be shared with others. A dozen rooms standing empty. A dining room that can seat an army.” He caught Elinor’s gaze with such heat, she lost herself in it.
Oh, dear. Grantham wanted a family.
“When I die,” he continued, “this estate reverts to the Crown. Or, it can pass to my children. The irony of it is, by using this place as I’ve seen fit, I shall have no children to pass it to.”
A drip of wax ran down one candle. It hardened over a buttress of similarly condemned wax and turned pale. No other movement marred the moment.
Grantham wanted a family.
Elinor couldn’t look away. Not even when Aunt Millie’s husky voice broke the silence. “Lord de Winter offered to show me the gardens. I find myself suddenly overcome by a desire to witness this moonlit magic for myself.”
She pushed back from the table. Grantham and de Winter leapt to their feet. “No!” Elinor protested, but Lord de Winter moved behind her aunt to assist her from her chair. “Allow me, Mrs. Rebmann. No, no need for your wrap. I promise to keep you warm, should the need arise.”
With that outlandish suggestion, Elinor’s aunt and Grantham’s friend disappeared, leaving Elinor and Grantham very, very much alone.
Elinor suddenly stood.
Chapter Nine
GRANTHAM COULD have strangled de Winter. Leave him alone with Miss Conley? Even if her aunt was forward-thinking, she provided at least the pretense of an obstruction between himself and his baser urges.
He reached for his wine glass. “We seem to have lost our chaperones. Or do you prefer to follow them? Lord de Winter didn’t exaggerate. The gardens are undeniably magical at night.”
Elinor’s head whipped around. A gasp parted her lips. After that…
Just her wide blue eyes searching his. Oh, how he adored her guilelessness.
“In more usual circumstances,” he said, twirling the stem of his wine glass between his fingers, “I’d insist upon it. I have no desire to be caught in a compromising position. But as you have plenty to condemn me with already, I see no reason to be propriety’s slave if we prefer to stay warm inside.”
Her bosom leapt as if she’d drawn a sharp breath. “Do you trust me so thoroughly, Lord Chelford?”
His brow dipped as he considered whether he did. “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I suppose I do.”
“Oh,” she said quietly. Then she sank into her seat.
He watched her scratch spirals against her dessert plate with the tine of her fork. “Is something amiss?” he asked. It wasn’t a trick of the waning candlelight; she’d gone pale.
Her gaze didn’t leave the plate. “No, my lord. And…thank you.”
Intuition told him something was wrong, but just as strongly cautioned him against pressing. Still, he couldn’t leave the topic wholly alone. “The pleasure is mine. I am sorry you met my accomplices. I hazard to say we would have started off much better had I never invited the sorry lot of them to Chelford.”
She turned the wane color of candle wax. Then a furious blush crept across her face. Poor darling. If only he’d known she was coming when she did, he would have gone about things differently. But the past couldn’t be undone, and besides, until her arrival, he hadn’t realized the extent of his revulsion for the life he’d lived since the passing of his sister. He’d needed her in order to see it.
Her gaze finally lifted. “You’re not in the wrong, my lord. What a man does in his own house is his business alone. You shouldn’t have to fear strange creatures descending on you without warning.”