Page 31 of My Lord Rogue
The captain grunted his approval, then redirected the conversation toward his experiences in the war on the Peninsula. For a while, the table was consumed by stories of cavalry charges and the relative merits of French versus English artillery. Theo let her mind drift, listening only to the thrum of the lake, the hiss of insects in the grass, and the distant laughter of Verity as she organized a game of rounders.
Teddy reached for the fruit basket and selected a strawberry so ripe it threatened to collapse under its own weight. He held it out to her, not as a jest but as a challenge.
“Will you trust me?” he asked, the question buried in his smile.
She hesitated, then leaned in. His fingers hovered at her lips, just a shade too long, then withdrew. The taste was shocking, sweet and vivid, the juice running down her chin before she caught it with her napkin.
“Perfect,” she managed, the word as much an accusation as a compliment.
He smiled, then offered the next to Lady Amelia, who declined with a barely concealed shudder.
Theo retaliated, selecting a cherry and holding it up for Teddy. He opened his mouth, and her pulse skipped as their fingers brushed. The moment was brief, but the current it released rippled through her entire body.
“You play the game well, Lady Pattishall,” he said, voice low.
She felt the blood rise to her cheeks, but kept her tone even. “I learned from the best.”
Lady Amelia cut in. “Do you intend to remain in England, my lord, or is this only a temporary diversion?”
He shrugged, his attention never leaving Theo. “That depends on whether I can find a reason to stay.”
A silence fell. The captain, sensing an opening, began a tedious story about a hunting trip in the Carpathians. Theo was grateful for the cover. She finished her lemonade and glanced up to see Verity watching from across the lawn, a satisfied smile on her lips.
It should have felt like victory. Instead, she was aware of every nerve, every breath. Teddy’s presence at her side was a constant pressure, equal parts comfort and threat.
The meal wound on, the sun climbing higher, the conversation dissolving into smaller groups. Teddy’s hand drifted to the small of her back, a gesture so natural it could have been mistaken for unconscious habit. But Theo felt it—felt the warmth of his palm, the assurance of possession.
Lady Amelia watched, eyes narrowed. When the men rose to fetch cigars, she leaned in, her breath cool and sharp against Theo’s ear.
“I do hope you know what you are doing, Lady Pattishall. The baron is a dangerous man.”
Theo let herself meet Amelia’s gaze. “Danger can be managed, if you respect it.”
Amelia smiled, a brittle, lovely thing. “We shall see.”
She drifted away, her lavender skirts trailing in the grass.
Teddy returned, offering a cigar to the captain and ignoring the outstretched hands of the other men. He sat beside Theo, a little closer this time, his knee pressed against hers under the table.
“You handled that well,” he said.
She laughed, the tension in her shoulders dissolving a little. “You have a strange idea of ‘well,’ Teddington.”
He tilted his head, the sun catching in his hair. “I mean it. You are better at this than you believe.”
They sat like that for a while, side by side, their bodies tuned to the same pitch. Around them, the party broke into smaller knots, the laughter fainter as the heat of the day reached its zenith.
Teddy was silent for a long time. Then, gently, he reached for her hand, his thumb tracing a slow, deliberate line along the inside of her wrist.
“Let’s give them something worth talking about,” he whispered.
She looked up, surprised, but there was no mockery in his eyes. Only that same hunger she had glimpsed in the library, raw, unguarded, almost tender.
Theo nodded, just once.
And for the first time since Charles’s death, she let herself want something. She let herself believe, if only for a moment, that it was possible.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN