“You are welcome to take whatever takes your fancy,” Elijah assured her, gesturing around the garden. “I have no use for it, and I am sure there is far too much here for my cook to use everything.”
“Itwouldbe a shame to let any of it go to waste,” Lady Belmont said, looking quite excited at the prospect of having new herbs and flowers to play with.
Again, their gazes met, and Elijah’s breath caught in his throat. The way her face fell, the excited smile dropping from her lips, caused Elijah to wonder whether she felt exactly the same way. He opened his mouth to ask her, but she quickly shook her head, breaking their connection with a blink.
“My Lord, I fear I have overstayed my welcome. I should be on my way.” Her words were such a change from a moment ago that they took Elijah by surprise. He stammered to protest, but she quickly curtseyed and began to call to her dog, slipping past him as if she meant to hurry back up to the house.
Guilt gripped his already painful stomach, and he wondered whether maybe he had done something to frighten her off. Suddenly fearful that he would not get a chance to ask her what he really needed to ask, he instinctively reached out and gripped her wrist.
She whipped around the moment he did as though he had stunned her, and their gazes met for only a second before she glanced down at his hand upon her wrist.
“My Lady, I must ask you something.”
At that, Lady Belmont turned her grey-blue eyes back up to his. The moment she did, his breath caught in his throat, and a lump formed, the likes of which he could not bring himself to speak past.
“Yes, My Lord?”
She looked at him enquiringly, more beautiful than ever, and Elijah’s stomach clenched tighter than ever before. How could he ask this woman for help? She was so magnificent, so kind and caring, and she already looked at him so sweetly. He couldn’t bear the thought of her looking at him as though he were a sickly little man.
Shaking his head, Elijah reluctantly released Lady Belmont’s wrist. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he gave a farewell bow. “I wished to ask you to return home safely.”
The words felt stupid even to him, and though she looked suspicious, Lady Belmont did not press him. Instead, she clapped her hand upon her hip and called, “Flit, come!”
The dog came back through the garden like a bull in a china shop, practically sticking to Lady Belmont’s leg as she started to walk away.
“Good day, Lord Spurnrose.”
“Good day, Lady Belmont,” he called after her rather forlornly. The moment the words left his lips, he started to cough. Overcome by it, he struggled to suppress the sound, grabbing his handkerchief to muffle the noise. The last thing he wanted was to go and give himself away after being unable to admit the truth.
When he straightened up again, he saw that Lady Belmont had paused beneath the archway that led back to the rose gardens. Though she was not looking at him, her face was slightly turned as though she had been caught by the sound of his coughing.
Elijah gritted his teeth, praying she would not press him for information on what was ailing him. How was he to tell her that consumption had been a worsening part of his life for the last four months? He hadn’t even been able to tell his father or brothers for fear they would begin to write him out of everything before his day had even come.
Again, he thought,she cannot help me any more than all the doctors in London.
Chapter 5
Almost the moment they left the viscount’s estate, Flit rushed ahead of Melissa, leaving her to walk leisurely back. No doubt she would find him awaiting her on the porch steps the moment she arrived in the yard. He never wandered off too far and with only fields all around them, he couldn’t get into too much trouble.
Besides, she was much too distracted by her own thoughts. Her wrist still tingled where Lord Spurnrose had gripped hold of her, and she found herself looking down at her arm, unable to understand the sensation. Being a woman of medicine and science, it was an odd experience that she couldn’t quite come to terms with. Worse was the sensation in her stomach like fluttering butterflies, and even worse still was the heat she felt between her thighs at imagining the lord touching her further.
No man had touched her so spontaneously since her husband, and though she had loved him dearly as one might love a best friend, Melissa had never felt the shock of energy with him that she felt when Lord Spurnrose had touched her.
She even touched her wrist with her other hand just to be sure he hadn’t left some substance upon her skin that was causing her to tingle so wildly. When she realised not, a strange sense of guilt started to gnaw at her stomach.
No man had ever made her feel such a way, not even her late husband, the man she had given her heart to because he had always been so sweet to her and made her smile where nobody else could.
And yet, all she could think about now was how Lord Spurnrose had made her feel, how he had caused her cheeks to blush and made her feel quite uncomfortable but not at all in a bad way. In fact, she already longed to feel the sensations all over again.
None of it made any sense to Melissa. If it was not something she could bottle or read in a book, she did not understand it. At least, that was what she told herself because, in truth, she didn’t want to understand it. She had been alone, isolated, and happy for so long now that she didn’t like the thought of something or someone coming in and changing that.
Like Flit, she greatly enjoyed her freedom. Perhaps a little too much. Determined to try and let off a little steam, she decided to take a leaf out of his book.
As soon as she was out of sight of Lord Spurnrose’s manor, she glanced around, hooked up her skirts in her hands, and started to run. Feeling as free as a bird with the breeze in her hair, having no bonnet to get caught up in it, she squealed with delight and laughed aloud when Flit came rushing back as if he meant to join her.
He yipped, barked, and danced about her legs as she ran, threatening to trip her over, but she did not care. All she cared about was the feeling of being free and forgetting all about the things that Lord Spurnrose had made her feel.
She had completed her task and given him what she intended to provide. If her medicine did indeed help him as she anticipated, then he would most assuredly search her out for more. At least, a part of her hoped he would. Otherwise, she wasn’t certain how she would feel at the thought of his being just like every other nobleman, determined that she was the Devil and to stay away from her.
