Chapter 5

William knew that this conversation had been going on for far too long. If anyone could see them, then it would certainly be considered inappropriate. Especially since they did not have a chaperone, but it was not their fault Paul was nowhere to be seen.

Plus, right now they were living under the same roof, so surely that changed things. Surely that meant the rules did not apply in quite the same way.

It was hard for William to really care about society rules when he was looking at the animated excitement in Violet"s eyes anyway. He was lost, captivated, completely impressed by her. He could sit and listen to her talk all night long.

The more he got to speak with Violet and the more he got to know her, the less like Paul she seemed. It was almost impossible to believe that they were actually siblings.

"...And binding with briars, my joys desires."

"My goodness," William declared as he leaned back in his chair. "I do not think I have every heard Blake sound so lovely."

Violet let out a laugh, which was a musical sound. Lovely to William"s ears. He had not heard Violet let herself loose like this until tonight, and it drew him to her even more. He enjoyed getting close to Violet before, it was fun to see her react to him, but he was starting to realize that he was drawn to her for more than just that.

There was an intense magnetic pull between them, one so strong he could hardly resist getting near to her. He was supposed to be at Eagleton Manor to tease Paul and teach him a lesson, but there might have been a purpose for this that he had not even counted on. He had certainly not prepared for Violet.

Violet was the innocent one here, so he wanted to make sure that she was alright once she left Eagleton Manor. He had already established that much, and that she did not deserve this.

"Would you like another drink?"

William picked up the decanter and headed over to Violet"s side of the table. He craved the warmth of her body and the sizzle that ran through him when he could feel her. She had a special scent which thrilled him in a way that he had never felt before.

There was something special about her, and he could not get enough.

"So, do you love any other poems?" he asked her as he leaned down closer to her. He watched the liquid pour into her glass as the cogs ticked around in Violet"s brain. "Because I think I could listen to you reciting poetry forever."

He smiled at her, causing Violet"s eyes to glaze over. William was surprised by how much her body relaxed around him, despite the thickness of the tension surrounding them both. It ignited the flames of desire, he could hardly contain himself around her. If he was not careful, then he knew how easy it would be to succumb to temptation and kiss her.

I cannot kiss her, he reminded himself fiercely. I cannot ruin her.

She wanted a wealthy husband, Violet needed to find a man who would take care of her, and she needed to do so within the next few weeks. There was no way that he could make things more complicated for her.

Even if he had a feeling that she wanted to kiss him just as much as he did her. Violet was not looking away as their eyes locked in. He could almost see the sensations cascading over her as well, which only made it far more challenging to resist her.

William stayed where he was probably for a beat too long, but he finally managed to pull away because it was the right thing to do. Much as he wanted to kiss her, he knew that they should not. It would not be a good idea.

"I erm…" Violet fluttered her eye lashes as she started to come back to the real world. "I cannot think of any other poems right now. My mind has gone blank."

There was a strange pinkness shining in her cheeks. She blinked a few times as she rose to her feet. William sucked in and held a breath as he waited to see what Violet was about to do. He had always been the one to edge closer to her, so this was a surprise.

He already knew that if Violet wanted to kiss him, he would not be able to resist. However wrong it was, however complicated it became, he would not be able to stop it from happening.

But as Violet met his eyes again, he realized that there was a panic there now.

He may have pushed things too far.

"I think I should go to bed now. It has… it is rather late. I should sleep."

Guilt washed over William as he heard the stress in Violet"s voice. It was easy for him to get carried away with Violet, and to forget that she was on the edge of a massive life change. Even if she had the desire to kiss him, she had to think about her future husband and what he would think of such behavior.

He stepped back and watched as Violet scurried from the room, needing to get as far away from him as she could before things got even harder for her. He was starting to think that maybe he should have just told her that he never really intended to take Eagleton Manor from her and her brother. Put an end to this before it began.

While trying to teach Paul a lesson, he was also making life much harder for Violet as well, which was never what he intended. It was fun to wind Paul up by talking about what he intended to do with the house, but he did not wish to upset Violet.

Not any more than she already was.

* * *

Violet might have tried to hide from him that she was responsible for a lot of the housework at Eagleton Manor, but he had seen her regardless. Since he had spent most of the night trying to work out what he could do to make things easier or her, that had cropped up a lot.

So the first thing he did the moment he woke up was send for his staff. He did not just want his chef here any longer, he wanted the maids, his valet, his gardener, and his foot man, Harris, to come and spend some time with him at Eagleton Manor as well.

They were all amazing workers, which was why William would always keep them on the staff, so he knew that they would do a great job with this home too.

"What is this?" But Paul, who was the first one to see the new guests in the house, was not happy about it. "What on earth is going on, Your Grace? Who are all of these people? Staff? I thought that we were being given a month. You cannot make changes now."

"The moment you lost to me at cards, you lost the right to tell me what to do with this manor." This irritated William, because he was only trying to do something nice for Violet. It was almost as if Paul had no idea what went on in his own house. He had no idea how much his poor sister had to put up with. "We need some help here."

"And what about Iris?" Paul threw his hands in the air in anger. "And her job?"

"Ivy?" William scoffed.

"Yes, Ivy. What will happen to her? She has been with my family for a very long time. You cannot just kick her out on the streets. That is not fair."

"You did not even know her name, Lord Eagleton, so you cannot be too worried about someone who has been living in your home forever. But you do not need to worry about Ivy. I have brought people here to help her, to make her life easier. You do not think this place is a little too big for just one house maid?"

That silenced Paul. Of course he did not have anything to say to that. Why would he? He had likely not even noticed how much went on under his own nose. He was far too busy in bars and gambling halls to even see his own house.

"Is there anything else you wish to discuss, Lord Eagleton?" William pushed. "Because it always seems like you have a lot to say. Perhaps when I leave the room, you talk about me. I am not sure, but I think it would be better for you to say things to my face."

Of course William knew that Paul spoke about him as soon as he left the room. He did not usually wait until William was even out of ear shot, but that was not what William noticed. He was usually far more interested in the fact that Violet never criticized him.

She likely wanted to, but she did not, which meant a lot to him.

But of course, Paul was not going to admit the truth to William. He was far too cowardly for that. It was moments like this which made him remember why he did this in the first place, and why he needed to keep it up.

Paul had to open up his eyes, to see the real world. This was ridiculous. The way that he did not seem to understand anything about how the world worked was baffling.

Both Violet and Paul would be better off if he learned how to behave properly… or if she found herself a husband that took her far away from him.

William could not help but wonder how Violet"s search for a man was going. He had asked her teasingly, but never seriously, so he did not know the truth. Perhaps it was time for him to find a way to communicate with her properly about things. Since they"d been lucky enough to have a proper conversation the night before, it did not seem like quite such an overwhelming possibility.

"Violet, have you seen this?" William snapped back into the present moment as he heard Paul cry out to his sister. "His Grace has brought in all of his staff. I thought you said that we were going to have a month to work out what is next for us. We are only a few days in and that man is already trying to take everything away from us. It is not right."

Violet did not even look at her brother. She stared at William in shock and horror. "What is happening?" she asked in a fearful whisper.

"I just want to help." William wished that he could express himself better, but it was not quite as easy with Paul also staring at him. "I thought that Eagleton Manor could use a little bit of assistance."

He was not trying to be rude, but that statement seemed to offend everyone. Paul stormed off outside, probably to leave for the day, but it was Violet that William ended up following. Her expression bothered him, and he wanted to make himself clear.

"Wait, Miss Lambourne, give me a moment." He just about managed to grab her arm, to stop her from running too far away. "Just a moment."

Before he knew it, William had Violet in a little alcove in the hallway, staring up at him with shining eyes. Guilt flooded through him because he never wanted her to cry.

"What are you doing?" Violet snatched her arm away. "You cannot just follow me like this. I know you have inherited Eagleton Manor because of my brother, but that does not mean I get no privacy for the month that we are both here. We did not agree to that."

William knew that she was right. Perhaps they had not exactly laid out the terms of how everything was going to work with their agreement, but at the same time it was only fair for Violet to be allowed to come and go as she pleased.

"I am sorry." He held up his hands in a surrendering gesture. "I did not mean to make you uncomfortable, I simply wish for you to understand…"

"That you are trying to help yourself," Violet bit back. "Thus you want the house to look a certain way when it becomes yours, Yes, I understand that. It does not mean I have to like it. I am allowed to be upset by all of this, there is nothing you can do to change that."

She broke off, breathlessly. As William watched her chest rising and falling heavily, he was overwhelmed with the sensation that all he wanted to do was make her feel better. He reached out and lightly grazed his finger down her cheek. Violet gasped, not quite sure what he was doing, but since William also did not know what his next move was, he did not stop.

It just felt right to cup her cheek in his hand and to embrace the smoothness of her skin. He could not stop himself from leaning in again to breathe her in deeply. There was something so beautiful about the moment, it was as if they were the only two people in the world…

But just as William realized that he could not hold back any longer, and that he finally needed to kiss this beautiful woman before he lost his damn mind, a voice ricocheted down the hallway, causing them both to leap apart as if they had been shocked.

"Miss Violet, are you here? Miss Violet, I need to talk to you."

"Ivy."

Violet"s eyes widened in shock. Horror washed over her as she pulled back away from William. Nothing had happened, but they were dangerously close to breaking all the rules which had clearly surprised Violet.

It shocked William as well, but he did not wish to pull back from the kiss. That almost moment had made it clear just how badly he really wanted to kiss her. To unravel her a little, and to see how much he could corrupt this good girl.

Perhaps he was going to have to kiss her, and maybe more, before she did get married, just to get it out of their systems.

That might be best for both of them.