A Lady of Rooksgrave Manor - Kathryn Moon Page 0,2
not quite that,” he said, checking the hall around us again. But I knew that the other maids were busy with washing and drying the linens—exactly where I was meant to be—and the kitchen staff was already trying to scrounge a meal together with the little that was left.
He stepped closer until I had to tilt my head back to look up at him. He had a gentle face with high cheekbones and lips for kissing, and I thought if he took one step closer, I could either lean into him or fall back against the wall and let him corner me. I liked that game when it was with a nice fellow.
“There is a house I…patron. The girls who live there are well cared for and treated kindly.” And with that, his eyebrows, the same reddish-brown as his short hair, waggled up.
“And would I be a maid or…?”
“If you wanted,” he said, brow furrowing. “But there might be other…employment you would enjoy more.” Then he did step in again, and there was a whiff of tobacco on his jacket and the soft blue of his eyes hardened a little. But his smile was sweet when I didn’t step back and our chests brushed together. He bent his head and whispered in my ear, “Work for a girl who can’t keep her hands off herself in a hallway where anyone could see her.”
“What makes the great buzzing sound?” I asked, staring up at him.
He grinned, and the affable, nervous doctor returned. “I could show you, if you like. And I’d rather tell you more about the manor in private. Would you come to my practice on Harley Street? I’ll stay late this evening.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, watching a flash of eerie green flicker in his gaze.
I arrived after dark that evening. Dr. Underwood answered the door himself, and there was no one else in the office. I felt very small in the hall as he closed the door behind me. Dark paneled wood stretched up above my head, and a lamp glowed golden on a side table next to me. The door latched shut and the lock tumbled, the clank echoing in the open hall and drawing a shiver down my spine.
“Ms. Reed, if you are at all uncomfortable—” Dr. Underwood started, taking a step back to give me room.
“It’s not that,” I rushed to say, spinning and nearly bumping my nose into his. His eyes were a very pretty blue, I noticed, and I dismissed the distracted thought. “I just don’t usually…plan this sort of thing.”
He blinked at that, eyes growing wide, and I laughed and looked down to the floor, shaking my head. “Oh it’s happened, loads more than it ought to have. But I never talked it over with the gent before and had to think about how it might go all day and then all evening.”
Dr. Underwood smiled, freckled cheeks dimpling. “Ah, anticipation,” he said. “Yes, I’ve suffered from it today as well. Come.”
His hand landed on my back underneath my shawl, and while his fingers were gentle, I had to resist another shiver at their urging touch. He led me past a receptionist’s office, down the hall, and into a richly furnished room lined with bookshelves and an enormous fireplace with a roaring blaze already started. It was chilly outside, but Dr. Underwood’s office was burning hot and I pulled my shawl off my shoulders straightaway.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I didn’t think you’d want to be cold,” he said, glancing between the fire and me.
“Did you think about it often, sir?” I asked, the question coming unbidden, but I'd never made much of an effort in life to stop my mouth. His brow furrowed, so I added, “About me, sir. Bringing me here?”
He might have blamed the fire for the flush in his cheeks, but I wasn’t sure what caused that shift of color in his eyes again, from sky blue to a strangely vivid green.
“Many times,” he said, and his voice shifted too, the rough edge of a growl appearing. I would have said he hadn’t seemed the growling sort if it weren’t for the fact he was doing it so well at the moment.
My legs squirmed beneath my skirt, thighs pressing together as I tipped my head back to stare up at him. “And what did we do when you thought of us together?” I asked, biting at my lip to tame my grin.