The Ardent Lady Amelia (29 page)

“Only when I’m particularly cold.”

“Well, there won’t be any reason for you to be cold in bed when we’re married. Still, it’s rather becoming, in a way. Makes you look almost demure.”

“Not
one of my favorite poses,” she informed him, “but if it will get you to kiss me, I think I shan’t mind wearing it now and then.”

“You don’t need to wear a nightcap to get me to kiss you.” Which he proved right there on the stairs, gathering her lightly into his arms. Amelia felt the tremors of desire run through her again as his lips tasted hers. Only after several minutes did they continue their climb toward her room.

“How did you manage it, with Upham and all?” she asked.

“We put our case to him after dinner and he sent a message off to one of his men. Then he went and got Chartier from the inn. He wasn’t at all happy about it, you know. Being a smuggler is one thing; being recognized as one is quite another. It broke all bounds of civility to lay the thing out in the open. Peter had to promise not to stand in his way if he made an offer for your Aunt Gertrude.”

“Trudy? Good Lord!”

“Yes, well, she’s a grown woman, Amelia. She does seem to have been rather… ah... flirting with him.”

Amelia remembered Trudy telling her she’d long held a tendre for Michael Upham, and sighed. “And he does have the most beautiful home. But somehow I can’t picture Trudy married to a smuggler.”

They had reached the door to her room, and thoughts of her aunt rapidly disappeared from her mind. He cupped her face in gentle hands. “Do you believe I’m Lord Verwood?”

“Yes.”

“And do you think you can come to trust me again?”

His eyes were so very dark, and so very full of tenderness. She ran her fingers through the unruly locks above them. “I love you,” she whispered, meeting his intent gaze. “I trusted you with my life tonight, or at least I thought I did. I wouldn’t want you ever to deceive me again, but I understand why you did it. Don’t ever think I’m so unreasonable that I won’t listen to you. I want to be part of your life. Not just your hostess and your bedmate. I’m not very good at intrigues. Do you think you could do something I could work with you on?”

He grinned at her, and kissed the tip of her twitching nose. “I have just the thing, Amy. I’m going to take my seat in the Lords, and we’ll go into politics together. The new government needs a lot of direction in how to pursue this war with France. We could make it our business to guide them. Would that please you?”

“More than anything,” she said, her eyes sparkling in the dim corridor. “Oh, Alexander, you really are the kindest person in the whole world.”

“Only when I limp,” he teased, drawing her into his arms.

* * * *

When Amelia entered the breakfast room the next morning, the others had already finished and gone, but Verwood waited for her there, rising to hold a chair for her. There was no good-morning kiss in front of the footman, much to her regret.

“How are you feeling this morning?” Verwood asked.

“Marvelous!” She helped herself to a platter of eggs and ham, muffins and toast. “But I’m starving.”

“I could tell.”

She seated herself beside him and dismissed the footman, thinking perhaps they could have an intimate chat before they were disturbed. But no sooner had Robert left the room than Trudy came bustling in. “Ah, there you are,” she said.

“I’ve never known you to sleep so late, my dear. You mustn’t lie abed when you have guests.”

Amelia blinked across at her. “I’m going to marry Lord Verwood.”

“Excellent!” She smiled placidly at the viscount. “I told you she’d come round, didn’t I? Now, then, I have news of my own.

“Mr. Upham has asked you to marry him?”

“Yes. How did you know? Well, my dear, it is just what I’ve wanted these twenty years past, you know. I was so very put out with him for marrying that mouse when he could have had me for the asking. All these years I’ve carried a grudge about it.”

“A grudge?” Amelia asked, bewildered.

“It was
understood
we would marry, you see. Everyone thought so, including me. So I’m gratified that he’s finally done the right thing.”

“I wish you very happy,” Amelia said a little uncertainly.

“Happy? Nothing in my whole life has given me the pleasure turning him down did! Imagine his thinking I would marry him and give him respectability. The very thought of it! One would have thought a smuggler had more intelligence than that.”

It was a little more than Amelia could handle at that hour of the morning. She burst out laughing. “You can come to Derbyshire and London with us, love. We would be pleased to have you, wouldn’t we, Alexander?”

“Of course,” he agreed readily.

“Well, that’s kind of you,” Trudy replied, heading for the door. “But I shall stay here with Peter and Mlle. Chartier. They’ll need me about the house a great deal more than you will.”

They watched her go in silence. When the door had closed, Verwood sighed and said, “So much for longstanding attachments.”

Amelia grinned at him. “I dare say it runs in the family. Do you really want to take a chance on me?”

He lifted her stubborn chin with a gentle finger. “I’m determined on it,” he said, and kissed her waiting lips.

Copyright © 1984 by Elizabeth Rotter

Originally published by Signet

Electronically published in 2005 by Belgrave House/Regency reads

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.