“Yes.”
After an uncomfortable pause, she accepted that he wouldn’t tell her. If she pursued it, she might anger him. He might change his mind about supporting the orphanage. Still, she couldn’t let it go entirely. “Are you sure it won’t happen again?” she asked, gentling her voice.
He raised his brows, and when he placed his arm along the back of the seat behind her, it brought them closer. “You seem concerned for my safety, Miss Lacey.”
She breathed in his cologne and his unique male smell. The heat of his body permeated along her thigh through her dress, sending her thoughts whirling. He knew his proximity unsettled her; it was a ploy to distract her and make her stop asking questions. She averted her eyes from the wide expanse of chest in the striped waistcoat, revealed by his open coat.
“I don’t like to think of you in danger.”
He leaned forward and lifted her chin with a finger. She breathed in. Would he kiss her again? She was unsettled to discover she wanted him to. Very much. And she usually knew her own mind.
He dropped his hand. “You mustn’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”
But all of a sudden, she was. Most dreadfully worried. Kiss me. She was tempted to throw herself into his arms and seek his assurance.
His hand curled over her shoulder. “You’re trembling, Miss Lacey.” His gaze settled on her mouth, and for a moment, she feared she’d expressed her wish aloud.
The carriage stopped, jerking them back against the squab. Breathless, Bella looked up. They’d arrived at Hartnoll House. Mary stood waiting on the porch.
With a look of regret, Lord Eaglestone jumped down and held out his hand to assist her. “I shall write to you with my suggestions for repairs to the orphanage,” he said with a bow. “Then we can proceed.”
“Thank you, sir. I’m very grateful for your generosity.” With the imprint of his big hand in hers, she watched him leap back into the carriage and settle his top hat over his dark hair. His brougham disappeared around the corner just as her father’s carriage arrived.
Bella directed the coachman to the milliner’s address and sat back. “What have you been doing, Mary? Did you help the housekeeper while I was gone, as I instructed?”
“Yes, Miss Lacey. I did so enjoy it. Those children are such scamps. Do you think your mother will let me come again?”
“If you don’t mention my drive with Lord Eaglestone, I’ll ask mother.”
“Ooh, thank you, Miss Lacey.”
Bella watched the busy streets pass by. Lord Eaglestone refused to indulge her curiosity. He was most intriguing. She didn’t want their relationship conducted through letters, although it was now unlikely that her sinful night would take place with him, or any other man. Only a few weeks remained before her parents went to Brighton to attend the wedding of a business associate of her father’s. She had persuaded them to allow her to stay behind with Gran, who went to bed with the chickens.
And if it couldn’t be Eaglestone, she didn’t want any man.
CHAPTER SIX
AFTER DINNER, Bella visited her grandmother in her suite of rooms on the second floor while her father fussed with the drinks tray and her mother played the piano in the dining room. She found Gran in her favorite chair with a fire in the grate, despite the warm evening. She was knitting a scarf for Bella’s father.
Bella settled on the rug at her feet and watched the swift clattering needles. She hugged her knees and told her about Eaglestone.
Gran put down her knitting and eyed Bella over the top of her eyeglasses. “So you’ve met an Eaglestone, have you?”
“The viscount has promised to become a patron of Hartnoll House.”
“My, my.”
“Did you know the family, Gran?”
“I knew the young viscount’s father in my youth. His estate was in the same county. We danced at assemblies, and for a while, I hoped he might court me.” Gran paused, and her eyes lost focus as if gazing back into her girlhood. She took up her knitting again. “My father didn’t approve of them. He had other plans for me.”
Bella wondered if Gran was sorry that she’d married Bella’s grandfather. He’d died when she was a baby. In the picture Gran had of him on her dresser in a silver frame, he appeared rather long-faced and humorless.
“A handsome man was Christian,” Gran said. “All the Eaglestones are good looking. Bit of the rebel in them too.”
“Rebellious? In what way?”
“Unorthodox, one might say. None of them showed any inclination to fit in with society’s mores. By the sound of it, this young viscount might be cut from the same cloth. Never bad men, though. A bit wild in their youth is all.”