Page 15 of A Lady’s Rules for Seaside Romance (The Harp & Thistle #3)

As she stood at the door and quietly unlocked it, she could still hear him walking around.

Anne lifted a fist and her knuckles hovered at the door. For a moment, she hesitated. But then she forced herself to knock.

There was a pause before the footfalls went over to the door. And a moment later, the door flung open. Victor, backed by a fully lit room, did not look pleased to see her. And the severe shadows that framed his frown, due to her bedroom lacking any light, only made it worse.

After giving him a pleasant smile, Anne slid past him and began looking around his bedroom. While hers was nautical-themed, his was just another masculine room with dark-wood paneling and furniture. The bedding was dark green, as was the wallpaper.

“What do you think you are doing?” Victor asked in a dark voice, still at the door that was now behind her.

“Being nosy,” Anne replied as she began meandering about the room. She noted a small traveling trunk set to the side. “Do you have a valet here?”

“No,” he replied, still sounding irritated. “I don’t have one and there are no extras sitting around. You can’t be in here, Anne.”

Anne, of course, had no intention of leaving just yet. She spotted the twine-tied stack of papers his grandfather had given him and went over to it.

“Have you looked through this yet?” she asked, not picking it up but noting it was still tied closed.

“It’s not exactly on my list of immediate priorities.”

An envelope sat neatly beside the paper stack. “What’s this?” She picked it up.

Victor immediately appeared at her side and took it from her hand. “Correspondence for Keer. He will be updating me on business matters once a week unless something comes up. I wanted to let him know I’ve arrived, and to remind him of expectations while I’m away.”

“I see.” She let her hand drop to her side. “How do you like your room?”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s a handsome room,” Anne replied.

Victor pressed the envelope back down to where he had placed it before. It was this moment Anne realized Victor was still in his day clothing. “You’re still dressed.” Her eyebrows pulled together.

Victor stilled, causing her to look up to him. “What, exactly, were you expecting to find when you knocked upon my door?”

She felt her face redden. “Oh! I meant… I meant that you’re still in your day clothes! I wanted to talk to you before you went to sleep.”

“I am not the least bit tired,” he replied. “Unless I leave the pub early, which doesn’t happen often, I generally go to sleep after two in the morning and get up around the noon hour.”

Anne realized she didn’t even consider this as a problem he would have to face. “You’re going to have to get accustomed to different sleep patterns.”

“Yes.” He crossed his arms and gave a single nod. “You said you wished to speak to me.”

“Oh. I did say that, didn’t I?” Anne licked her lips and realized with a bit of embarrassment that Victor watched her do it. It finally hit her, then, how truly inappropriate this situation was. She cleared her throat. “Why are you mad our bedrooms are connected?”

Victor dropped his arms to his side. “Are you serious?”

She gave a nervous chuckle. “No. I mean, yes. I mean—” She closed her eyes to slow herself. “Your ire is too much for the situation. Look, I know this is an odd arrangement, but it couldn’t be helped.”

“No?”

“Vivian said these were the only available rooms for you and me.”

“And you believe her?”

Anne hesitated, then frowned at such a question. “Why else would she put us in connecting bedrooms?”

Victor looked her over before crossing the room to his windows. With his back to her, he began cranking them open just as Dutton had done in Anne’s room. “You’re right. Nothing else was available.”

Again, Anne’s eyebrows pulled together. Victor was acting rather odd about all of this, so she decided to go for humor. “I don’t need to worry about you breaking into my bedroom to ravish me, do I?” She tacked a laugh onto the end.

Victor spun around, his face as white as snow. The man looked truly horrified by the mere suggestion. “Of course not!”

Surprised by his severe reaction, she placed a hand over her heart as if she could push back the humiliation that rose. “I was only jesting!”

Victor rubbed a hand over his jaw. “I’m exhausted. I should call it a night.” Before she could protest or point out just minutes ago, he’d said he’d been wide awake, he began to gently nudge her to her back to the door by placing a light hand on her back.

“Tomorrow morning,” she said while looking up at him, noting he looked wide awake, too.

Was the closeness of their bedrooms too much for him, making him uncharacteristically shy with her?

There was one way to find out. “I know something that will help you adjust to a new sleep schedule. It will include hours of rigorous activity and you’ll be too exhausted to have trouble sleeping at night.

” Still trying to insert humor into the strange moment, she was actually referring to activity like horse riding and lawn games.

Though she’d purposely said it the way she had to see how he would react.

He let out a groan of frustration as they finally arrived at the door and hastily reached for the doorknob, as if eager for her departure. Notably, he did not ask to which activity she was referring.

Goodness, she didn’t even get an eyeroll from that one. “I often go to the stables first thing,” she explained to, hopefully, cover up her failed joke. “I prefer it when the rest of the house is still asleep. Find me there?”

“I will,” he replied in that dark, raspy voice of his. It seemed to spark something in her.

Anne stepped through her doorway and turned around. “Goodnight, Victor.” She gave him a pleasant smile.

“Goodnight.” Immediately, he shut his door and locked it.

As Anne did the same, she couldn’t help but giggle to herself.