Chapter 15

15

T ricia gasped. "Thomas!" Then she clamped her hand over her mouth. "Pardon me. I should have said ‘my lord.'"

"What are you doing about?" Thomas asked. "Shouldn't most of you ladies be retiring after the lawn party?"

Tricia frowned. "I don't require a nap, my lord."

"I see."

"You're forgetting that I wasn't raised this way. There was no time for napping as a tenant on the Lybrook land. Mummy and I worked from dawn until dusk, and so did Cam. Even little Kat put in a full day. We did what we had to. The privilege of lying down after a meal just seems…all wrong to me."

Thomas simply stared at her, his gaze meeting hers.

"My lord?" she questioned.

"I'm sorry. I should have been watching where I was going. I'm afraid my mind was…elsewhere."

Tricia shook her head. "No need for apologies. I tend to be a bit clumsy. Seems I'm always in peril one way or another. Thank goodness you were there last night to save me from falling off the parapet."

His gaze darkened. "I don't know what I would have done if something happened to you."

Patricia widened her eyes. "Oh?"

"I simply mean…" Thomas dropped his gaze to the ground for a moment before meeting hers once more. "You're a guest of my estate. If anything happened to you, it would have been my responsibility."

Now it was Tricia's turn to drop her gaze. "So I'm simply a responsibility to you, am I?"

Thomas raised a hand in front of him. "Patricia, all the guests on this estate are my responsibility. Your safety is my priority."

Tricia's heart broke a little. Thomas was clearly attracted to her. He had nearly taken her last night, and she would have allowed it. But that was all there was between them in his eyes.

She was simply a guest—albeit a guest he found extremely attractive and wanted to bed.

"If you'll excuse me, my lord, I should like to take a stroll about the estate."

"Without a chaperone?"

Tricia blinked several times to avoid rolling her eyes. "It's the afternoon, Thomas. Broad daylight. I shan't go far. I shall keep the mansion in my sight at all times."

"Still, it's not proper for a young lady of your age to be walking about during a house party without an escort."

Tricia pursed her lips. "Then why don't you escort me if it's so important to you?"

"That would be even more improper." Thomas looked over his shoulder quickly. "For us to be seen together without a chaperone."

Tricia made no effort to conceal a second eyeroll. "For the love of God, Thomas, you nearly?—"

Thomas grabbed her, placed his hand over her lips. "We must not speak of that."

Tricia wriggled out of his grasp. "You read my mind now, is that it? You know exactly what I was going to say?"

"You were going to speak of last evening." Thomas lowered his voice. "The parapet, the fourth floor."

He was right, of course. That was exactly what she was going to speak of, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

"You are wrong, of course. I was going to say something else entirely."

"What then?" he asked. "What exactly were you going to say?"

"I shan't tell you now." She flounced away.

Hoping he would come after her.

* * *

Oh, how he wanted her! Would it be more improper for the two of them to be seen together? Or for her to be seen alone?

Did it even matter?

He cared about her well-being, and he could not let her go roaming around the estate on her own. He trusted his houseguests, of course, but servants and tenants were another matter.

They didn't always abide by the rules of society.

If anything happened to Tricia…

No, he could not allow that.

He walked after her swiftly, grabbing her arm and turning her toward him. "You shall not leave this estate. I forbid it."

She laughed then.

Burst into a fit of giggles, and it was a joyful sound. It aroused him, despite himself.

"You shall forbid it?"

"Your brother is on the hunt. While he is gone, I am responsible for you. He would not allow you to go walking around aimlessly on an estate you're not familiar with."

She crossed her arms. "I've been to this estate before."

"On a few occasions, perhaps. However, that does not mean you're familiar with this estate. And for a young woman of your stature to go walking about alone is just not?—"

"Proper?" Tricia turned her back to the new earl. "You and your rules, Thomas."

"They're not my rules, Tricia." He grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around to face him. "They're the rules of society, and we must all abide by them to remain in good standing."

"Must we really?"

"We must."

She broke away from his grasp. "Perhaps you must, Thomas. I should like to take a walk."

Thomas sighed, exasperated. If she was going to walk, she was not going to go alone.

Indignant, he caught up with her. "Then I shall have no choice but to accompany you."

"There's always a choice, Thomas."

"You have not given me one. Let us proceed." He wanted to grab her, pull her back to him, into his body, kiss those beautiful lips, feel her lush skin against his.

Instead, he took her arm. "We shall leave through the servants' door."

"Yes, we must," Tricia said sarcastically. "Because someone might see us otherwise."

She wasn't taking this at all seriously. She had no idea what society could—and would—do to her given the chance. She'd been lowborn, and those gossiping hens would love to call her out, ruin her.

And she didn't seem to care one bit.

He led her down the hallway toward the servants' quarters, and through another hallway still until he reached the door that led outside.

"You're not taking this seriously enough," he said to her. "Don't you care whether you're ruined?"

"Of course I care," she said. "I understand the rules by which we are bound. But I never asked to be part of this upper crust."

"So you want to go back to the way things were?" Thomas quietly closed the door as they walked out into the sunshine.

"No, of course not," Tricia admitted. "It's lovely not to have to worry about things such as having enough money for new clothes or other luxuries. Mummy always saw that we had enough to eat, and Cameron did more than his duty taking care of us after Papa died." She looked back on the Ashfords' sprawling mansion. "But everything is so…so…tightly wound."

Thomas couldn't help a chuckle. "You're certainly not wrong about that."

Tricia kicked a pebble across the ground. "I never used to have to ask permission to go on a walk after luncheon. I never used to have to ask for an escort to leave the premises."

"And believe me, I'm not the optimal escort."

"But you are, Thomas." She held onto his upper arms. "I would have let you do it last night. I was ready."

Thomas growled. "Tricia, you have no idea of what men go through. We can't speak of it."

"Why not? You know very well that my brother ruined your sister. And he was a nobody when she was lady of the peerage."

He drew in a breath. "Yes, you're lucky I didn't pummel your brother to the ground. It was no less than what he deserved."

"But they were in love, don't you see?" Tricia squeezed Thomas's arm. "It was beautiful, Thomas. It was a love story written in the heavens. And the fact that my brother turned out to be of the peerage… Well, that was just dumb luck. He happened to be in the right place at the right time, and the dowager marchioness recognized him."

"My father would have never allowed the match otherwise," Thomas said.

"Would he have had a choice? Rose was of age. She could have gone with my brother. Sacrificed her dowry, her allowance?—"

Thomas shook his head. "Rose would have always gotten her allowance. The trust is very specific on that."

"Then everything would have been fine. Indeed, at that point, Cameron already had a well-paying job as a composer for the Regal Theatre."

Tricia was yammering on and on about things they both already knew. And all Thomas could think about was the ache in his groin. How his body wanted to take her to bed, meld itself with hers, pluck that virginity right off her.

"For the love of God, Tricia, do you ever stop talking?"

She stopped talking then, her lips slightly parted and glistening.

One of Thomas's favorite oak trees was only yards away, and he walked toward it. They would be sheltered there, on the other side of the tree. The men would be returning from the hunt from the west, so they were safely ensconced. Besides, the men would not be back for several more hours.

But then he thought better of it.

They should keep walking. If they sat down in the shade of the beautiful tree, who knew what might happen?

They continued to walk about the estate until the silence became deafening.

"All right," Thomas said, "now I wish you would talk."

"You don't mind my mindless chatter?"

"For the love of God, Tricia, you do try a man's patience."

She harrumphed, walking ahead of him until she cried out, tumbling to the ground.

He rushed to her. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, fine." She resisted his arm that he offered for help. "Seems as though I tripped on a tree root. Again, I'm the clumsiest person on earth. Thank goodness you're the only one who saw it."

Thomas chuckled. "I find it absolutely adorable, to be honest."

Tricia brushed the soft dirt from her skirts. "Seems all I do is be clumsy around you, Thomas. What I really want is to…"

He couldn't help himself. He slid a finger over her cheekbone, savoring the feel of her satiny skin. "What is it that you really want?"

She blushed. "I believe you know."

"You only think that, Tricia. You've no idea what any of it entails. No idea the pain it will inflict on you."

"But the pain is only the first time."

"I don't mean the physical pain. Yes, it can be unpleasant when a woman is initially deflowered. But I'm speaking of the pain that will be inflicted on you by the higher-ups in our society if they find out you offered yourself to me before a marriage promise was secured. One simple night of thoughtless pleasure could lead to your undoing in our sphere. And at any rate, a lady should not speak of these things."

"I'm not an ordinary young lady, then, am I?"

Thomas chuckled again. "You are anything but an ordinary young lady. You, Lady Patricia, are quite extraordinary."

She bit her luscious lower lip. "Do you truly think so?"

He brought a hand to her cheek. "I'm not in the habit of saying things I don't mean."

Tricia brushed his hand away. "Why didn't you dance with me last night, Thomas? From what I heard, you danced with nearly every other woman there, including my friend, Lady Sarah, who, by the way, was standing directly next to me when you asked her."

Thomas widened his eyes and took a step back. The truth was he had no good answer for Tricia. At the very least, not one he was willing to explain out loud. He had stayed away from her for her own good, for he was afraid he wouldn't be able to control himself if he had her in his arms once more.

In fact, he wasn't sure he could control himself in this very moment.

And he found that he couldn't. He pulled her to him, and in the next second, his lips were on hers.