Page 41 of The Lady is Trouble

From that first moment on the earl’s drive, when he’d stepped from the carriage delivering him from Seven Dials and noted a golden shimmer by his boot. He’d grasped the locket, and the vision had been clear, compelling, and for the first time,restorative. Her lovely face came to him, yes, but also such a potentsenseof her. Loneliness, determination, recklessness, generosity, the characteristics that made Piper so unique.

So damned maddening.

An instant connection unlike any he’d ever experienced, then or now.

She’d joined his family before she ever saw his face.

Before he ever truly saw hers.

They’d become quick friends, his attachment already in place. Those enchanting summers, home from Rugby, and then Oxford, where they’d conversed about numerous topics, forthright conversations unlike any he conducted except with Humphrey. Her wit, her fearlessness, her vitality had utterly riveted, and he’d been hard-pressed to turn away.

This before his desire began to be a hindrance.

She’d been discarded, left to her own maneuvers—which were habitually foolish and impulsive. Desperate cries for attention. When he returned to the earl’s manor each summer, he found her isolated, hungry for knowledge, for companionship. He saw himself in her—lonely and struggling to make sense of a supernatural gift while stranded among those lucky enough to be deemednormal.

This mirror of insight only heightened his feelings.

And, for a while, he’d given her what he’d never given anyone—a view into the mind of the introspective lad. A lad who’d longed for his father’s acceptance and upon receiving the opposite had turned into a very wrathful person indeed. He’d shared what it felt like to be forgotten and abused because she understood as well as anyone he’d ever known.

Then, that final summer, God, he would never forget.

She simply grew up.

He’d stepped from the carriage to find her waiting. The day disagreeable, as he recalled, stormy and dismal, but when she’d thrown her arms around him, there had been an enormous shift. Sunlight flooded his vision, dispelling those wicked clouds. Breasts clearly defined and pressing against his chest, a curious new scent layering her skin. Those details had gained his rapt attention, but the realization of how much he’d missed her, the list of things he had to tell her, collected like treasures, had acted like a mallet to the head.

Standing on that pebbled drive in a misting rain, he’d never felt more accepted for precisely who and what he was.

The conclusion had been clear:this is my person—the other half of my soul.

In the days that followed, to bring some semblance of control, he began to sketch her, bringing her, though she was unaware, into a very intimate space. A space he shared with no one.

Confessions on bits of foolscap.

And then the birthday kiss.

She’d caught him on the back lawn after a drunken night of roughhousing with Humphrey, the broach he’d given her earlier in the evening pinned to her collar. The encounter had been sweetly innocent and impossible to deny, as she was.

He retrieved his saddlebag and hooked it in place atop his horse. The earl had presented a lifetime challenge with his dying breath.

She is not yours.

Perhaps not, but his desire hadn’t abated.

And no matter Harbingdon’s steadfast fortifications, there were no guards posted at the entrance to his heart.

“Headed out, are you?”

Julian squinted into the sunlight tumbling through the stable door. Dashed if he wanted to deal with anyone right now, even his best friend.

“Mayfair bound, it looks,” Humphrey said, settling in if the sound of his bulk perching against the door was any indication.

Julian tightened the saddlebag strap and gave it a good jerk. “The Duke of Ashcroft holds a midsummer gala at season’s end. I want to see the room from the vision before we approach him.”

“Fire from his fingertips.” Humphrey dragged his boot across the straw-covered floor. “That’s a new one. Has to be what happened at Scamp’s hotel, both times. Meaning, he can’t control it for shit. Though it looks like, by breaking into your townhouse, he’s trying to.”

The silence lengthened as Julian adjusted his bridle and checked the stirrups. He wished Humphrey would leave him in, well, there was no way to leave him in peace, but there was a way to leave him alone. “Is that it?” he asked, darting a glance over his shoulder.

Humphrey shrugged, gaze rising to the rafters. “I don’t think bolting outta here in a black mood, alone, mind you, is the best idea.”