“Hah, so there you are!”
Glancing over her shoulder, Olympia saw Thomas walking toward them. He had a look on his face that told her he knew exactly what she and Brant had just been doing. Refusing to be embarrassed about being caught in a man’s arms, she slowly stepped back from Brant and smiled at Thomas.
“Yes, here we are,” she said. “I was about to call for you.”
Before Thomas could express his opinion of that claim, Brant grabbed the boy by the arm and pointed out the door. “We have a place to stay.”
“Oh. So we will not be here to eat what Enid and Merry cook then. Are we to get our own cook?” Thomas asked with little enthusiasm.
“We will eventually, when we finally settle in our own home. For now we will slip in and out of the Warren to get our meals.”
“That will be good. I will also be able to see Merry whenever I wish.”
“Then let us go and collect our things so that we can get settled in.”
“I will send Merry and Enid over to be certain the beds are made and you have all you need,” said Olympia even as she started out of the room.
The moment the door shut behind Olympia, Brant found himself faced with a scowling Thomas. “Is the house not to your liking? Would you rather stay here?”
“I would rather you do not play any rogue’s games with her ladyship,” said Thomas. “I may be but a small lad but I can see when a fellow is being a mite forward with a lass.”
“Ah, well, yes I was being a bit forward. It is why we will not stay here. I fear Olympia is a woman I feel a strong inclination to get, er, forward with. I did nothing she did not accept willingly though,” he added quietly.
Thomas nodded. “That be all right then. Best we go and get settled. I have a feeling we will be doing a lot of running about soon.”
Olympia sipped a glass of wine and stared into the dying fire. Thomas and Brant had joined them for the evening meal and then hurried back to Argus’s house. Although Brant had not been cool toward her, he had not acted much like a man who had melted her bones with a kiss only a few hours ago, either. Olympia did not want to be just another plaything for him but she did not particularly like how he could blow hot and cold. She was still struggling to regain her senses after that kiss, her mind filled with thoughts about what she should or should not do next.
“The man is a rogue,” said Enid as she entered the room to bank the fire. “But a day in his presence and he is already kissing you.”
She looked at Enid. “What makes you think he kissed me?”
“The way your lips were all swollen and red after he trotted away to your brother’s home.”
Olympia touched her mouth. “Swollen and red?”
“Not grotesquely so, so do not look so worried. But, you should have enough sense to know when a man is a rogue. You have a lot of them in your family.”
“Enid, I know Brant is a rogue and has wallowed in being one for two years. He was no angel before that, either. Howbeit, I am also a woman of six and twenty, not some virginal, innocent child. It was but a kiss.” She sighed. “He looked so hurt about how his mother has so thoroughly destroyed his good name, that I felt compelled to try and comfort him. In all fairness to that rogue, I kissed him first. He but responded with enthusiasm.”
“You want him.”
“Aye, I do and that both alarms and pleases me. I fear I may not be able to, well, enjoy a man and yet am pleased that I would even consider doing so.”
“It has been thirteen years, Ollie,” Enid said quietly. “It was horrible what you suffered but most of the fear and hurt must have eased by now.”
“I think so yet I worry that, at some point, I might find that it has not.”
“Do you think the earl is the man you want, the man you could love?”
“I do not know about loving the man, but I do want him. The very fact that he makes my blood heat makes me want to both run away and throw him to the floor so I can ravish him.” She grinned when Enid laughed. “I do not know yet what I plan to do with the man.”
“If he makes you feel an attraction, makes your blood heat when it never has before, then I say you should see how it goes. You do not have to worry about losing your virginity and then trying to explain it to whatever man you might wish to marry. You are a widow. Maybe it is past time you found out just how broken or healed you are.”
“Just what I was thinking.” Olympia finished off her wine and then started out of the room. “And, when one considers the matter, who better to help me find that out than a man who has had so much practice in the art of loving?” She closed the door on Enid’s giggles.
Chapter 6