A Night of Forever (3 page)

“What do you suggest?” Lady Whimple asked, picking
up her teacup and sipping.

“A…a…” She paced the room, in deep thought. “Why,
perhaps charades?”

Parlor games? Really! They weren’t twelve!

But the nods of agreement coming from the ten other
coifed heads in the room only confirmed her worst fears. Perhaps
she could cry off because of a headache.

“Any other suggestions?” Meg asked, smiling. She was
obviously amused with the younger girl’s excitement, and trying to
appease the group, but Mary Ellen knew her sister well enough to
know she’d rather be cuddled in her bedchamber with Grayson than
here.

“I’m not quite sure.”

Just then Grayson entered looking handsome in his
dark evening attire, with a group of young men who looked equally
as handsome trailing behind him. But for Aidan. No, Aidan walked at
Grayson’s side as if he was his equal when he was the mere son of a
baron. She wasn’t sure if his lack of manners was refreshing or
obnoxious.

“Oh Mr. Callaghan!” Elizabeth raced toward him, all
atwitter. Mary Ellen had the sudden urge to reach out her foot and
trip the obnoxious oaf. “I was just suggesting a game. Have you any
ideas?”

Aidan lifted a dark brow as he paused near the
center of the room. “Poker? I hear it’s quite the thing in
America.”

“Gambling?” She gasped, than slapped his biceps
playfully. “Quite dastardly sir! How dare you!”

The rest of the women giggled, only their aunts
frowned in outrage. Why was she the only one to find his charm more
annoying that amusing? Perhaps because he rarely used it upon her.
Instead of moving away, Aidan, the bastard, merely smiled down at
Elizabeth as if he enjoyed her flirtatious banter. Frustrated, Mary
Ellen surged to her feet and strolled to the windows. Why had Meg
invited her anyway? Didn’t she remember how the woman had mocked
their hand-me-down frocks and bonnets? Didn’t she recall the day
she had invited the entire town to her garden party, but had
omitted their family? Pregnancy was making her sister’s mind
muddled.

“I have an idea,” Aidan said.

She didn’t dare look back at him, for then he would
think her interested but she couldn’t help but search out his
reflection in the windows. What would he suggest…hymnals? No doubt
he had a rich and deep singing voice that would send Elizabeth’s
heart aflutter. Mary Ellen rolled her eyes, scoffing at the man
even if he couldn’t see her.

“The women will hide, the men will find them. The
last to be found will be the winner.”

Mary Ellen stiffened. Women hiding in shadowed
corners waiting for men to find them? The idea bordered on the
scandalous, and she was shocked someone as dull as Aidan would
suggest such a thing. Surely he was jesting, as he had been when
he’d suggested poker. So why did the thought of being in a darkened
corner alone with Aidan send a thrill of excitement down her
spine?

“Oh yes! How truly amusing!” Elizabeth declared.
“Shall we?”

“I do believe, dear sister,” her aunt Rose said,
“This is our time to retire for the night.”

“Do sleep well,” Meg called after them politely as
they shuffled from the parlor. No one was sad to see them go, their
dour faces were darkening an already dreary atmosphere.

“We’ll count to twenty,” Aidan said. “You hide.”

This caused a scurry of rustling skirts as the woman
raced from the room like sheep in a herd. The other men laughed in
amusement, no doubt enjoying the chase. There was something
entirely too predatorial about the situation that made Mary Ellen
uneasy. She hadn’t the least desire to be hunted.

“Sally,” Meg warned, as their sister started for the
door. “You will hide with me.”

Sally sighed, impatiently crossing her arms over her
chest and waiting. Before they could escape, Grayson leaned down
and whispered something in Meg’s ear that caused her sister to
blush. Sally caught Mary Ellen’s gaze and rolled her eyes. They
were used to their public displays of affection. Although they both
mocked their sister, Meg didn’t mind in the least.

As Meg and Sally disappeared into the hall, Mary
Ellen realized that suddenly she was the only female left. Although
the other men were too busy chatting to notice her presence Aidan’s
mysterious gaze found hers immediately. His lips quirked into the
tiniest of smiles as if he knew something she didn’t. A shiver she
couldn’t quite identify raced over her skin urging Mary Ellen to
flee.

Without thought she bolted from the room and up the
stairs. She ignored the scurry of colorful skirts headed toward the
east wing and instead turned west. Parlor games were for children,
and the thought of Aidan finding her was too much to bear. She’d
find a nice, safe spot at the back of the house where the rooms
were being renovated, and hide until the game was over. Hopefully
no one would miss her.

Breathless and cursing her tight corset, she tried
the first door she came to, but it was locked. Funny how only a few
years ago she would have given her best bonnet to be friends with
Elizabeth and the other women giggling and racing about the estate.
How she would have adored sitting in their richly furnished parlor
while gossiping, and chatting about fashion and yes, even
participating in minor flirtations with local lads. With Meg’s
marriage to Grayson, she finally had the means to hold her head
high, to have an introduction in London and experience all the
excitement most girls her age do. So why did she feel in no hurry
to leave their small shire?

She tried the next bedchamber, relieved when the
door opened. No one would think to search for her here, in an
unoccupied wing by herself. She closed the door softly behind her,
happy to be alone. Ever since Aidan’s arrival everything had seemed
to turn upside down. Left was now right, north now south. Nothing
made sense. Why, oh why, couldn’t she get the man out of her
bleeding mind?

She sighed and moved toward the windows, brushing
her hand down the velvet curtains. Although she had never said as
much, Mary Ellen knew that Meg had planned this party for her. As a
younger girl she’d often complained about their lack of
socializing. She should have been grateful. Instead she only had
the desire to return to her room and read, or paint. Her fingers
curled, itching to draw. Something that she had found she enjoyed
since Meg had married. Before they hadn’t been able to afford
charcoal and paper, let alone paints. Now…now she had everything
she could want, yet was still not satisfied.

She sighed and rested her head against the cool
glass window. The sun had set, the skies growing gray. How long
would she be forced to hide? How long before they gave up their
childish games? She turned toward the bedchamber. The large
four-poster and two chairs near the fireplace were covered with
cloths, the paper on the wall having been torn down and removed
weeks ago. It gave the room an abandoned, eerie sensation that made
her feel very much alone in this world.

Slowly, she made her way around the furniture and
toward the mirror that hung above the fireplace mantel. Sally’s
voice whispered through her memory.
“Cook said if I look into a
mirror, I’ll see the face of the man I’m to marry.”

There was no one but her…pale face…embarrassing
freckles…gaudy hair. No one else. Perhaps she’d done it wrong.
Mayhap she must spin in circles, or say a chant of some sort. She
frowned and stepped closer, peering at herself. “Or perhaps I’m a
bloody idiot.”

Aidan suddenly appeared in the mirror, standing
directly behind her. Mary Ellen gasped, stumbling back into his
hard chest. Oh God, he was real. His hands gripped her upper arms,
holding her close to him. Real. Too real!

“Do you always talk to yourself?” he asked, the
words whispering like a cool breeze across her ear.

She took in a deep trembling breath, resisting the
urge to laugh at her own silliness. Aidan was not for her. He had
not appeared out of thin air. She had nothing to fear. Slowly, she
turned to face him. They were close, so close that if she took in a
deep breath her breasts would brush across his jacket.

“Only when no one else is around.”

He smiled a slow half-smile that sent her pulse
racing. Lord, he was much too handsome. She would not fall for this
man, she would not! She’d spent her entire childhood toiling
because of a lack of money, being mocked and belittled. She would
not live the rest of her life in poverty, and she most assuredly
would not see her future children suffer because she had fallen for
a man who couldn’t support.

“So then, you’ve found me. The game is over.” She
stepped back, out of his hold, feigning indifference. “Do you
always sneak up on unsuspecting women?”

“Sneak?” He laughed. She liked his laugh, a deep,
rich chuckle that vibrated through her. “I thought I was quite
loud. Perhaps you were merely too lost in thought.”

“Nonsense.” She started around him, only to draw up
short. The door was closed, which meant somehow he had opened it
and closed it without her hearing. Was she truly that far gone that
she hadn’t noticed him enter? She spun on her heels to face him.
“Besides, I’m not playing the game.”

“No? Why not?” He strolled toward the windows, his
back to her as if barely interested in what she had to say. She
tried not to notice the way the fading light shone upon his profile
and highlighted his hard planes, making him appear fiercely
handsome and slightly ruthless. “Why, pray tell, would a young,
unattached miss not participate in harmless fun? What could
possibly keep you from enjoying life?”

She frowned, annoyed. He acted as if her world was
completely unimportant. “You seem to think young women are of no
consequence, and have little to worry over. We have plenty to
occupy our thoughts.”

He turned toward her, and quirked a dark brow in an
infuriating way. “Such as?”

“Such as…a lack of control.” She crossed her arms
over her chest and started toward him, drawn to the man, determined
to prove her point…whatever that may be. “An unmarried woman has
little say in her life. We are at the whims of first our fathers,
than our husbands.”

He turned his head, gazing out onto the rain-soaked
gardens. “Well then, I suppose you should make sure to choose your
husband well, or not marry at all.”

She paused next to him, staring out onto the same
damp gardens. Their conversation was becoming much too intimate yet
she couldn’t seem to stop. “I’d rather marry. As a married woman
I’d have my own money, my own life. I could travel where I
wished.”

“Yes, if your husband allows it. But let’s face it
as a wife you’d have as little say as you would a child,
correct?”

His words were blunt but true. How infuriating he
was! “What is your point, sir? As women we have no say at all, so
we should merely give up on life?”

He grinned, a flash of extremely white teeth. “No,
widows have quite a bit of freedom.”

She released a wry laugh. “Wonderful, I’ll have
something to look forward to when I’m fifty. I tire of these
games.”

Insufferable, hateful man, indicating her life was
pointless, and she was merely a pawn, trapped. She realized, with
mounting irritation, that perhaps what angered her most of all was
the truth to his statement.

Frustrated, she started around him, determined to
get as far away from Aidan as possible. She needed to think, and
she could not think when the man was near. “Good day.”

He reached out, grasping onto her arm. Startled, she
froze, her bewildered gaze on his hand, his fingers wrapped tightly
around her delicate wrist. The differences between them, his brawn
and her feminine weakness, had never been so apparent. No man had
dared touch her so intimately.

Slowly, she tilted her head, meeting his hard gaze.
Her heart hammered madly, her mouth went dry. “What are you
doing?”

“Someone’s coming.” He pulled her gently toward him.
“You don’t wish to be caught, do you?”

“I don’t hear anyone.”

Ignoring her comment, he tugged until they were both
hidden behind the curtains, enfolded in their soft velvet comfort.
She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move while held so tightly to
Aidan’s hard body. Shock soon gave way to pure awareness. She could
feel every steel muscle, every cool breath he took as it brushed
across her cheek, a harsh reminder of the inappropriateness of
their situation. Slowly, she tilted her head back and stared into
Aidan’s fathomless eye. Enraptured, she couldn’t look away…not even
when the door creaked open and they were sure to be caught at any
moment.

“Do you think he’ll find you?” someone giggled.

“Of course he will.” Elizabeth’s familiar voice
interrupted her heady cocoon. “Isn’t it obvious he’s interested?”
She sighed long and loud. “Is there anywhere to hide?”

They were the words she needed to hear. Elizabeth
should marry Aidan. They were perfect for each other. Mary Ellen’s
cheeks flushed. If she was caught with Aidan, either by the women
in the room, or by someone strolling past the windows outside, her
reputation would be destroyed. Worse, she might be forced to marry
the man. Her hands grew damp. Every beat of her heart counted down
the seconds toward certain exposure.

“Oh bother it, there’s nowhere here, unless perhaps
the wardrobe?”

The suspense was too much. Mary Ellen resisted the
urge to tear aside the curtain and tell them to leave already. The
shock upon their faces would almost be worth exposure. But no,
instead she was forced to endure Aidan’s hard body against hers,
his cool breath brushing her loose tendrils, his lips close…so
bloody close!

“It’s full of junk,” the other woman pouted. “Hurry,
or we’ll be caught.”

Mary Ellen could hear the patter of their feet as
they raced from the room, finally leaving them in peace. Relief
should have been immediate. But Aidan didn’t let go.