Chapter 5

CHAPTER5

“Woah!” Seth stepped forward. With one hand wrapped around Lady Bridget’s, his other found her waist and held her perfectly still on the ice, halting her fall. “Nicely done, Lady Bridget,” he whispered, his voice barely audible at all.

Lady Bridget stood so close to him now that they were wrapped up in one another’s embrace. He looked down at her, finding her blushing despite the cold of the day. Her gaze shot between the center of his chest and his eyes.

“Did you do that on purpose?”

“No!”

“Shame,” he murmured. “If you did, I would have said that was excellent deception, indeed.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Lady Bridget insisted.

Seth realized that he hadn’t pulled away. By now, he should have released her. He should have loosened his grip on her waist at least and increased the space between the pair of them, but he had no wish to, and strangely, she was not pulling away.

Distracted, his gaze shot down to hers. Being so close to her made his mind run mad. He imagined being this close to her in a bedchamber, far away from others’ gazes, without her gown between them. His fingers would brush her bare skin and then grip her waist as he moved toward her, the feeling intense…

“You should probably release me now,” Lady Bridget whispered, interrupting his thoughts.

“I suppose I should.” He laughed and released her waist, walking on, before she pulled her hand out of his and clearly chose a path that was not so icy.

“You said there were two types of flirtation. I have seen you flirt many times with words, but how do you know what to say?” Lady Bridget asked. The innocence of her question made him look at her, his feelings softening to something warm. “Do not look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“As if I am a child.”

“You are not a child.” Seth laughed heartily at the idea. “It’s simply the nervousness that I find so endearing. You must have noticed that I can turn nearly anything into flirtation. For instance, there are many things I have found endearing about you over the years, My Lady.”

“See? There!” Lady Bridget flicked her fingers at him. “You can turn any mundane subject matter into flirtation.”

“Nothing mundane when talking about you, My Lady.”

“Oh! You cannot stop now.” She turned away from him and huffed, walking down the path.

He laughed and raced after her. “Did you wish me to stop? I can stop talking, and I’ll do other things if you wish.”

“Oh, my.” She turned sharply to face him, walking back fast. “Everything you say can be a flirtation.”

“Precisely.”

Seth kept walking forward, and she backed up further and further until she suddenly was in danger of colliding with a tree. He jumped forward, putting his arm behind her just in time. Her collision was softened by walking into his arm before they both collided with the tree.

“Be careful, My Lady,” Seth whispered, stopping in front of her. “I wouldn’t wish to see you hurt.”

Lady Bridget’s lips curled into the smallest of smiles, and Seth looked down at those lips. They were full lips, plump and tempting, and out in this cold, they were rather pink. Not for the first time did he imagine himself kissing those lips, wondering what she would taste like. He imagined she’d also be nervous about kissing, and that made him even more tempted to be the one to show her how thrilling it could be.

Something he liked about Lady Bridget was that there was always more to her. She didn’t wear her heart on her sleeve, but tried to keep it hidden. It was a privilege that he was the one who could sometimes glimpse beneath the walls she kept around her heart.

“Your turn,” he whispered, snapping his eyes back to meet her gaze.

“What did you say?” she murmured, seeming distracted as her chest rose and fell with quick breaths.

“It is your turn to try flirting with me,” Seth said, lowering his head toward her. “For instance, you could point out that I seem rather eager to keep putting my arms around you. You could say that I have a habit of finding you in the shadows, even out here in the woods, and there must be a reason for that.”

“I…” Lady Bridget blinked, then chewed on her full lips, clearly thinking about what to say.

“Go on,” Seth urged, bending toward her.

I could do it.

The thought struck him suddenly, yet he didn’t act on it. They were so near to one another that stealing a kiss would be easy. From the way she was staring at him, he half thought she might be receptive to such a kiss, that she would even kiss him back, but then he remembered why they were here at all.

She wishes to seduce the Earl of Burnington.

That fact made him lift his head a little, realizing that he could be very mistaken about Lady Bridget. She might even slap him if he dared to kiss her.

“I was going to say that you have a habit of looking at my lips, My Lord.”

Her words stunned him, and he smiled at once. “Maybe I was wrong.”

“Wrong? About what?”

“Maybe you do not need a lesson in flirtation, after all.” He leaned an inch toward her again. “You are right, I do keep looking at your lips. Do you wish to know what it is I am thinking about when I look at you?”

“You are too good at this.” Lady Bridget laughed suddenly, and he smiled at her. “I struggle for what to say, and you come up with the next flirtatious thing to say within a heartbeat.”

“Well, perhaps I have had a little practice.”

I need distance.

Seth released her and stepped back, moving down the path once again. He had to put some distance between them if he was going to behave. Seeing her flirt was apparently more than he could handle.

She continued to laugh softly and followed him. “How much practice have you had exactly?”

“You wish to know?” Seth looked at her in surprise as she walked alongside him.

Lady Bridget nodded, still looking forward.

As they walked under a tree lined with white frost, she reached up and toyed with some of the bare twigs, her fingers trailing across the frost.

There was something sensual about the touch that made Seth inhale sharply.

“Quite a bit of practice,” Seth confessed after a minute of silence as they walked on. “You’ve heard of my reputation.”

“Yes, yet in all the time I have known you, I have never seen you in the company of just one woman,” Bridget said hurriedly. “I know you are a rake because people tell me you are, not because I have ever seen it.”

“Ah, you think me an actor? That I know how to act as a gentleman?”

“That’s not what I said.” Bridget stood taller, her jaw falling slack. “You are a gentleman.”

“Perhaps not as much as you think.” Seth sighed as they came upon a lake. It was half frozen in the cold, its edges white and the center the only part that was still liquid. “I have my faults, Lady Bridget, and yes, I have been wayward, as some might say. Yet, I respect women as well. I have a heart, even if I am a cad.”

He walked on quickly, finding he couldn’t understand her expression, and he feared what it meant. He heard the frost-covered grass crunching beneath his boots as he walked around the lake.

“I have always known you have a heart, My Lord.”

Her words made him halt. He turned back to face her, his eyebrows raised. “Was that your next flirtation, My Lady?”

“What? No.” Lady Bridget shook her head. “I was not aware that was even flirtation at all. I have always known it, though.” She smiled softly. “I believe you to be a good man.”

“Well, you might be one of the few,” Seth confessed in a whisper. “Even my friends like to remind me of what kind of man I am.”

She walked toward him, a pained expression on her face. “Are you hurting, My Lord?”

“Ooh, penetrating question.”

“Well, you have offered to help me. You have seen into my heart. Even when I hid in a corner in the ballroom last night, praying no one would see me, you saw me. Perhaps I wish to help you too,” she said softly. “Are you hurting?”

“We all have our own pain.”

Seth thrust his hands into the pockets of his frock coat, wondering what she would say if he ever had the courage to tell her of his first love and the rejection. Would she sympathize with him? Or would she agree with that lady?

“I—”

Suddenly, they heard a twig snapping underfoot. They both looked toward the woodland nearby, where two shadows were moving.

“We’ll be seen without a chaperone,” Lady Bridget hissed in a panic.

“Go. Now.” Seth urged, indicating a path nearby. “I shall stay here and explain that I was taking a walk alone.”

“Thank you.”

Lady Bridget hurried off, running down the path as she grasped her skirt. Seth watched her go, all too aware that halfway down the path, she halted long enough to glance back at him. Her gaze made him stiffen.

What a shame you are forbidden to me.

* * *

“Where have you been?” Jacob asked sharply as Seth shrugged off his frock coat in the entrance hall.

“Good morning to you too, my friend. Is it not a glorious morning? Quite beautiful.”

“You expect me to believe you have been taking a walk for this long in this weather?” Jacob pointed out of the front door, which he hadn’t closed yet.

It had started to snow, and the frost-tipped grass was buried beneath a thin layer of ice that might melt by the end of the day.

“Why wouldn’t you believe it?” Seth laughed. “You may have no liking for the cold, Jacob. I have always liked it.”

Jacob shuddered in emphasis and shut the door tightly. “I need your help.” He took Seth’s shoulder and steered him through the house.

“A popular opinion at the moment,” Seth muttered, though Jacob took no note of the words. “What can I help you with?”

“First, with this one—Maya! What have you done now?”

They stepped into the parlor, where Maya, now just old enough to start crawling, was trying to clamber under a settee.

“Maya? Come out from there.”

Jacob took hold of Maya’s little legs and drew her back. The little girl squealed, falling on her tummy. He lifted her high into the air.

“Here, take her.” He thrust Maya into Seth’s hands.

“Good day to you, Maya. Is your father causing trouble?”

Maya giggled in Seth’s arms and started pulling at his cravat, toying with it.

“What’s got into you?” Seth asked as he carried her around the room and followed Jacob, who was currently trying to clear up the mess of her toys.

“Is it me, or has my mother gone wild with all her parties recently?” Jacob asked in exasperation, tossing the toys into an ottoman.

“She is enjoying herself. At least, that’s what I thought. Do you think differently?”

“My mother has just confessed to me that she enjoys seeing me and Emily married so much that she wishes to see all my friends just as happy.” Jacob poked his head above the ottoman. “Be warned, she’s hoping to play matchmaker for you too. It is why she has invited so many bachelors and single ladies here this week. She has plans.”

“Plans, eh?” Seth drawled with a smile as he looked at Maya in his arms.

There was something warming about the idea of being the next man to marry. He could have a child of his own, something he longed for. Even as he made the wish, though, the words of someone from the past came back to him.

“You’re not a man ladies marry, Seth. Imagine, you, a father someday? Pah! The idea is laughable.”

Sudden sadness overwhelmed Seth so strongly that he sat down with Maya in his lap. She continued to play with his cravat, pulling on it so strongly that she was in danger of choking him a little, but he didn’t stop her. It was nice just to see the child enjoying herself.

“So, yes, be warned,” Jacob went on, clearly not paying attention to Seth’s reaction. “She’ll be partnering you up with some poor, unsuspecting lady by the end of the week. Woe betides the woman pushed into your company, eh?”

“So kind, Jacob, as always,” Seth drawled, though he struggled to laugh this time.

“Bad time?” Daniel’s voice made Seth jump. He angled his head around to see Daniel had appeared in the doorway.

Seth shifted, wondering how long Daniel had been standing there.

Did he hear the whole conversation?

Something Seth was all too aware of now was the way Daniel was looking at him.

“Just tidying away the toys,” Jacob said as he closed the lid of the ottoman. “I swear everyone that has come this week has brought a gift for Maya. We’re overrun with toys.”

“Then you shall have to have another child,” Daniel said with a smile.

“Don’t tempt me.” Jacob laughed at the notion. “Emily is already talking about such a thing.”

Seth stiffened and stood, carrying Maya with him. The thought that Jacob could be a father of two children when he would have none was making his mood even worse than before. He pushed Maya into Daniel’s arms, who happily took his niece.

“You all right, Seth?”

“Yes,” Seth lied and forced a smile. “Perfectly.”

“Good, then I can commandeer your help to come and organize this shooting party tomorrow. Too many people have too many ideas, and it has become confusing.”

“Too many cooks spoil the broth, eh?”

“Just so.”

Seth followed Jacob through the hallway and into the great drawing room, where people were still gathered, talking about the hunting party. All the ladies had joined the men, and the room was full to bursting, with teapots and coffee pots overflowing, and people competing for space on the various rococo settees and wingback armchairs.

Despite Seth insisting he was perfectly well, there was a sight in the room that made his stomach clench. Sat by the fire was the Earl of Burnington and Lady Bridget. Clearly, she had mastered the art of flirtation after just one lesson, for they were sitting so close that her leg practically brushed the Earl’s.

“You sure you’re well, Seth?” Daniel whispered, adjusting Maya on his hip.

“I’m fine,” Seth muttered.

Yet, even to his own ears, the lie was obvious.