This is what he expected. What he did not expect was to find the fair maiden sitting in the middle of the pond, covered in debris, soaked from head to toe… and laughing. Genuinely chuckling until the tears rolled down her flawless cheeks.
The little boy, Martin presumably, had joined in and the pair of them laughed and laughed and gave no indication that they realised they had company.
"Rebecca," Lady Caroline's sharp voice rang out bringing an abrupt end to the merriment. There was a world of disapproval, admonishment and anger in that tone. Rather impressive to have packed so much into one name, Edward thought distractedly.
The lady, Rebecca, turned incredibly big and sinfully dark eyes toward Lady Caroline. Edward found he had to gulp around his dry throat again.
"Caroline, how nice to see you," her voice was warm and soft, terribly mischievous and made Edward think very inappropriate thoughts.
"What in God's name are you doing?" Caroline hissed. "Get out of there at once. Can you not see that we have company?"
At Lady Caroline's word, the lady turned the full force of her incredible eyes on Edward and Tom. Edward bit back a gasp as the impact hit him in an area that had no business feeling anything in broad daylight. He heard Tom's audible gasp and imagined he suffered the same affliction. For some reason, this irritated Edward.
"So we do." The young lady was speaking again. And rather than sound upset, or scramble to her feet in mortification, she grinned unapologetically at the two gentlemen. "The Duke of Hartridge, I presume, and his cousin Mr. Crawdon?" She spoke politely, for all the world like they were being introduced in a drawing room or ballroom in London.
Tom, finally unable to contain his mirth, burst into laughter, which he desperately tried to cover up as a cough.
Lady Rebecca grinned even wider at Tom's obvious amusement at the situation. Who was this woman? Edward had never seen anything like it!
Lady Caroline stepped closer to the edge of the pond, her back ramrod straight. "Get. Up," she hissed menacingly through clenched teeth.
Lady Rebecca gave a defeated sigh and stood. As she did so, the water gushed off her person. Edward found he had to bite back a groan of pure, unadulterated lust. Her gown had originally been white, he would hazard, but had now been turned a slight shade of mud from the contents of the pond. The fact that it was wet meant it clung to her form like a second skin.
As she stood there, dripping wet and futilely wringing out her long tresses, Edward found he could only stare like an immature adolescent. Never had he seen a body like hers. Never had he seen the curves of a lady so well, who wasn't also standing naked in front of him and preparing to make love.
The thought set his heart hammering and his body stirring. It was terribly embarrassing but he could not bring himself to care. There was a lump the size of a rock wedged in his throat, and he could no more have looked away than he could have plucked the sun from the sky.
"Must you be such a bore Caroline?" Lady Rebecca asked, not a bit concerned with the other lady's disapproval that was practically rolling off her rigid frame.
"I told you we were to have guests today," muttered Caroline in a frantic whisper. The gentlemen could still hear her very well but neither one was much inclined to pay attention at that particular time.
Lady Rebecca finally seemed to be taking in the gravity of the situation. Her eyes travelled from Lady Caroline's furious face to those of the two gentlemen who both looked like they wanted to eat her alive.
She drew herself up to her full height and inhaled a deep breath before speaking again. "I apologise, Caro, really. I had quite forgotten the time." Her apology was met with stony silence.
"Gentlemen," she continued turning slightly towards them, "pray forgive my – er – less than proper appearance. I assure you, I do not usually greet guests of my father in such a fashion."
Her words snapped Edward out of his frankly inappropriate daydream.
"You are Ranford's daughter?" he asked, and was irritated to hear how husky his voice was.
"His youngest," the goddess confirmed. "Lady Rebecca Carrington." She dipped into a curtsey worthy of any daughter of a Peer, but since she was still standing in the middle of the pond, it rather seemed a little late for propriety.
"A pleasure," he answered a little dazedly.
"Ahem."
"Excuse me. My cousin, Mr. Crawdon." Edward gestured behind him.
Tom stepped forward and gave a deep bow. "An honour to meet you Lady Rebecca," he said, his eyes twinkling with mirth.
Her responding smile felt like a punch to Edward's abdomen and he suddenly wanted to pull her out of the pond and shield her from Tom's appreciative eyes.
"Rebecca," snapped Caroline, a blush of embarrassment rising in her cheeks, "please return to the house and clean yourself up."
Lady Rebecca rolled her eyes slightly but Edward caught it and could not bite back a slight grin. The chit was incorrigible.