Romancing His English Rose (Entangled Scandalous) (10 page)

Chapter Twelve

There is something to be said for non-verbal communication…no pun intended, of course.

—The Duke of Lancaster

From across the ballroom, Simon watched Rose talking animatedly to her friends, Emily and Sarah. She looked lovely in her mauve gown, which brought out the rose in her cheeks—even from across the room.

Although, he supposed irritably, her flushed appearance could be from all the dancing she was doing. It seemed that every man in the room had taken a turn around the dance floor with her and yet he could not even drum up the courage to go say hello.

He thought he saw her glance his way during her quadrille with David Rochester, but within a blink she was looking elsewhere and he wondered if he had imagined it. He really needed to just go over there and talk to the girl. The sooner he found out how she was feeling, the sooner he would know how to behave around her. He would very much like to get back to the kissing phase of their relationship as soon as possible, if he were being honest.

So much for keeping my hands off her, Simon thought, kicking himself mentally.

Squaring his shoulders, he headed across the room to speak with his fiancée. Before he was even halfway there—the Abingdon ballroom was one of the largest in the London area, after all—he saw Emily grab Rose’s arm and nod in his direction.

…

Rose turned to look and when she saw Simon striding toward her, her heart leapt in her throat.

It is about time, she thought with exasperation. He had been watching her from the back of the room all night. In fact, she had just been arguing with Emily and Sarah about the wisdom of approaching him herself. Of course, Emily had advised against it. Apparently a lady never chases after a man, but that was easy for the prettiest girl of the season to say. Every man in the room was chasing her, save a few married ones, and even they couldn’t seem to keep themselves from looking.

Frankly, had Rose not taken the initiative of involving him in her intrigue earlier in the week, she was quite sure she and Simon would still be going along with absolutely nothing to say to each other.

But it appeared the point was now moot as the gentleman in question was finally coming to her. She found her gaze drawn to his and the intensity she saw in his eyes caused her breath to catch. Any negative thoughts she may have been harboring all faded away in an instant.

…

Within moments Simon was at her side and the two stood there staring at each other for what could have been forever, except for the glaring fact that Rose’s two friends were standing next to them, gawking openly.

Simon turned to give Emily and Sarah the most pointed of looks. “Can I help you with something?” he asked, clearly implying they should leave forthwith.

Therefore he was quite disappointed when Sarah replied, “Yes…you can. You can explain why it took you all night to come over here.”

Emily had the decency to look a little aghast at her friend’s forwardness, but that lasted only the briefest of seconds before she reconsidered her stance and began nodding in agreement and looking at him expectantly.

Ah, yes, Simon thought. This was Miss Sarah Jardin, the young debutante with absolutely no verbal filter. He had heard other men, in particular David Rochester, speaking of her and her mouth…and not in the way most men discussed a female’s mouth.

For some reason David had a soft spot for his sister’s awkward friend and could always be counted on to ask the girl to dance, which was, in Simon’s estimation, something worthy of a medal. One did not return from a dance with the tall clumsy Miss Jardin without being hobbled in some way.

In addition to her abominable dancing, Miss Jardin was also known for saying exactly what she thought when she thought it, regardless of the situation. He remembered her comments at the dinner party he and Rose had hosted. Simon had actually found her outbursts somewhat amusing then; tonight he had a feeling he would not be so amused to be on the receiving end of her unusual candor.

“I, ah,” Simon began uncertainly. He looked briefly at Rose, but judging from the way she was looking back, he suspected she was as interested in the answer as her friends. Taking a deep breath, he decided to stand his ground. “I’m quite sure that it isn’t any of your business,” he said in a tone that indicated the matter closed. Or so he thought.

“Oh, please,” Sarah huffed. “You didn’t honestly expect that to work, did you?”

“I rather thought it would, yes.”

All three women crossed their arms and stared at him.

“Fine!” Simon said, throwing up his arms in defeat. “I didn’t approach Rose immediately because when I left her company earlier today it was with a rather bad impression and, frankly, I wasn’t sure if she still wanted to have anything to do with me. Are you happy now?”

Sarah nodded slowly. “Yes, thank you.” She then turned to Rose with a knowing look and said, “And just what did he do to give you such a bad impression, hmmm?”

Emily’s jaw fell open at Sarah’s blunt implication and Rose blushed deeply.

“Ah, I see.”

“No, no, you don’t,” Rose rushed to say. “I…he…ah—”

“Say no more,” Sarah interrupted, holding up her hand. “Emily and I will leave you two lovebirds alone. It sounds like you have much to…talk about.” She winked suggestively and Emily groaned before pulling the taller girl away.

When he looked back at Rose, she was still flushed with embarrassment. She quickly said, “I am so sorry about Sarah. She sometimes doesn’t know when to be quiet.” At Simon’s arch look, she amended, “All right, Sarah never knows when to be quiet, but she does mean well.”

“It is fine, Rose, really,” Simon replied. “It’s nice that your friends care about you so much. And honestly, I should have come to talk to you the minute I arrived…I just didn’t think I could bear it if I found you were still disappointed with me. The truth is, I have done a lot of things in my past of which I am not proud. Recent events with Collicott—and with you, if I am being honest—have given me a lot to think about. I have begun to realize that your opinion of me matters, perhaps because we will be married someday. I would hate to think the progress we have made in our friendship may have been lost due to something stupid I have done in my youth.”

“No,” Rose admitted. “I find I am enjoying our new friendship as well. I should have told you earlier that I understood, rather than let you stew about it all evening…”

“But you probably felt I deserved it a little bit?” Simon finished for her.

Rose smiled and held her thumb and index finger apart about an inch. “Maybe just a little.”

Simon laughed and pulled Rose in for a quick hug, propriety be damned.

Rose blushed furiously, but Simon could see she was pleased by his impromptu action. And that pleased him. Good Lord, this was getting out of hand.

“Perhaps we should discuss our next steps in finding Caleb’s ring?” Rose said, thankfully distracting Simon from his dangerous thoughts.

“Good,” Simon said. “I managed to locate the invitation to the Yorkes’ house party and it is a three day affair, starting yesterday. Which means tonight is the best night to try and find the ring, for we cannot guarantee when Caleb will return home tomorrow.”

“That sounds logical enough,” Rose agreed. “So, what time will you be at my house tonight?”

“Your house?”

“Yes, you don’t expect me to walk to Shrewsbury Manse alone in the dark, do you?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” Simon replied.

“You are taking me along with you, aren’t you?” Rose asked.

“Of course,” Simon replied. He would need her help locating the room, after all, but suddenly he wondered if he should be putting her in such danger. Great, now he was worrying about her safety. What was next? Falling in love with the girl? Simon waited for the overwhelming fear that afflicted him every time he was even remotely close to falling for a chit. It never came. That’s when his stomach clenched. When did possibly loving a girl stop making him panic?

Rose smiled cheerfully, clearly unaware of Simon’s private thoughts. “Splendid! I shall be ready at midnight. I will be hiding in the alder buckthorn on the southeast corner of the house.”

Simon groaned. This is a very bad idea.

“Will you be able to get out of the house all right?” Simon asked resignedly.

“Oh, yes,” Rose chirped. “I am very adept at climbing down the rose trellis under my window.”

This was definitely a terribly bad, insanely idiotic idea. “Should I even ask why you are so adept at climbing down the rose trellis?” Simon sighed. He shuddered to think of her using the trellis as some nightly escape route to God knows where.

“Nothing so tragic. Mother simply bought too much furniture during one of her sprees a few years back and the way to my room was blocked for a number of days. It seemed easier to climb the trellis—it is very much like a ladder, you know—than to tell my mother that her purchases were blocking the way to my room.”

Simon shook his head in astonishment. He had no doubt that what she said was true. No one could make up something like that.

“All right, Rose-love,” Simon said, the endearment rolling very naturally off his tongue and he immediately knew he needed to get out of there. “I will be by at midnight. I suggest you dress in dark clothing. It is only a short way to Caleb’s, but we do not want to chance being seen.”

“Oh, yes,” Rose agreed. “That is a great idea.”

“Then I shall see you then,” Simon said with a bow.

He gave Rose one last long look and then turned on his heel and walked out of the ballroom.

Chapter Thirteen

There is nothing quite like the thrill of the hunt.

—The Duke of Lancaster

At five minutes to midnight, Rose was climbing down the rose trellis outside her window. It had been a number of years since she had used the trellis as an exit and she was surprised by the amount of growth there was in comparison to the last time she had made the descent. It seemed every step was fraught with more thorns and vines that snagged at her clothing and attempted to thwart her endeavor.

Rose jumped down the last few feet to the ground. Once again on terra firma, she ran quickly to the corner of the property where a large alder buckthorn shrub grew. Crouching there, Rose waited. Simon would arrive shortly, she knew, but as she hid there among the branches, she was very glad she had borrowed one of David’s old childhood coats from Hannah. Her pelisse would have done very little good against the cold winter night.

“Rose?”

Rose broke off her rambling thoughts quickly when she heard Simon call her name from somewhere nearby.

“I’m here,” she whispered as she stepped out from behind the buckthorn.

…

Simon was standing just in front of the large shrub, partially hidden by its shadow. The moon that evening was large and bright and it provided a surprising amount of light, once one’s eyes adjusted. And once Simon’s eyes had adjusted, it took him barely a second to realize that Rose was not wearing what he expected her to be wearing.

She was dressed all in black, certainly, just as he had requested. However, where there should have been skirts cascading down from beneath what appeared to be a young boy’s overcoat, there were instead legs clad in breeches. Presumably from the same young lad’s closet.

“Rose…what, may I ask, are you wearing?” Simon asked with what he considered surprising calmness.

Rose looked down at herself. “It’s all dark, per your suggestion, is it not?”

“It is not the color that I am questioning, my dear.”

Smiling, Rose said, “Oh, these are some old childhood clothes of David’s…er, Rochester, you know. Hannah loaned them to me.”

“I see.”

Rose’s smile faltered slightly. “Ah, Hannah found them useful during a…er…nighttime excursion she went on recently and she thought I might find them beneficial, as well. Certainly, they will be more maneuverable, don’t you think?”

Rose proceeded to twirl around so that he could see the entire ensemble. As Simon watched, he caught a glimpse of her adorable derrière encased in the rather snug fitting pants and he thought he would expire on the spot from the desire running rampant through his suddenly rock hard body.

Groaning, he closed his eyes tightly and willed certain parts of his body to relax. When he opened them again, he found Rose staring at him with concern.

“Are you all right, Simon?”

“Not exactly,” he said roughly. He just had to avoid touching Rose while she was in her thoroughly enticing attire. If he touched her, he would be lost.

He had only caught a glimpse of the delectable curve of her buttocks when her whirling caused the edge of the overcoat to lift. If he were to see the rest of what promised to be a deliciously shaped body, he would have no choice but to take her right then and there under the alder buckthorn.

Running a frustrated hand over his face, Simon let out a ragged breath. Rose stepped forward with some alarm and was reaching up to caress his cheek when he caught her hand and rasped, “Not now, Rose…not now.”

Seeing the crestfallen look on Rose’s face was almost more than Simon could bear. Turning his hand to twine his fingers through hers, he lifted her hand to his mouth for a brief kiss.

“I am fine, darling. Just anxious over what we are about to do,” Simon assured her. And that much was true, he thought. Any number of things could go wrong tonight. It would be wise to be worried. “Now then, shall we be off?”

“Yes,” Rose replied and—hand in hand—the pair made their way down the back alleyways and shadowy streets to the Shrewsbury Manse.

The trip didn’t take long and even Simon had to admit that Rose was able to move faster, easier, and with more stealth than if she were wearing a full dress. He just had to make sure she remained behind him or next to him, for the one time she darted ahead, he was so distracted by the beguiling curve of her calves, he narrowly missed running into a tree.

However, the couple made it to the mansion without any real mishap and soon they were creeping alongside the house to where the telltale circular window was seen. One look at the window, however, proved that it would not be as easy as he hoped, for it was a good ten feet off the ground. Rose and Simon stood below the blasted thing for a number of seconds just staring at it, as if somehow that would cause it to lower itself four or five feet.

“Now what?” Rose whispered, looking at Simon.

“Do you think if I held you on my shoulders you could reach the window?”

“Enough to see inside, maybe, but I don’t think I would be able to open it.”

“That’s all right,” Simon replied. “I don’t believe that type of window opens anyway.”

“Then why do you want me to reach it?”

“I just want you to look around. Hopefully something you see will give us an idea of where to look for the entrance.”

“Oh,” Rose said. “That’s quite a good idea.”

“I’m so glad you think so,” Simon responded wryly.

Rose caught his tone and she stuck her tongue out at him.

“Very mature,” Simon muttered, as he crouched down to allow Rose to sit on his shoulders.

“It would behoove you not to make snide comments to a person who will very soon be able to step on your head,” Rose suggested.

“And it would behoove that person not to do anything that may cause me to drop her on her pretty little bum.”

“Point taken,” Rose acknowledged with a nod as she climbed gingerly onto his shoulders, clinging uncertainly to his head.

“Hmph,” Simon grunted, both in response to Rose’s acquiescence and with the effort needed to raise them both up from his bent position.

Once he was fully standing, Rose was still about a foot below the window. Using the wall of the house for balance, she moved to a kneeling position on Simon’s shoulders, from which she was able to successfully stand, one foot on each shoulder.

Simon reached up to encircle Rose’s ankles with his hands to provide her more stability.

“Thank you,” she called down softly.

“Don’t thank me,” came his strained response, “just tell me what you see.”

Rose didn’t reply and Simon could only hope she had turned her attention to what lay on the other side of the small window.

“Well?” Simon asked a minute or two later.

“I think I’ve seen enough,” Rose whispered back. “I’m coming down.”

Simon released her ankles but did not move his hands away. Instead he used them to help her back into the sitting position. From there, he sank back down toward the ground where she was able to climb off of his shoulders.

For some reason, Rose chose to dismount over his head instead of down his back, and when the end of her coat caught on the back of his head, Simon got a glorious view of her entire scandalously clad body.

“Oh my,” Simon groaned as his mouth went very dry. Rose had the most amazingly curvaceous body. Who would have known that under all those voluminous gowns there was such a shapely and womanly figure? No one, he hoped. And as far as he was concerned, no one would ever know.

In fact, when she was his wife, he planned on insisting she wear even fuller, more concealing clothes than she did currently. He did not like the way the necklines on the currently fashionable dresses seemed to be dropping lower and lower.

His wife? When had he started thinking of her in those terms? And with something like jealousy? He had always known she would be his wife, but he never thought to feel any responsibility for her, much less toward her. Damn, this was really going too far. As soon as they found the evidence against Caleb, Simon was going to have to figure out how to keep Rose at arm’s length…figuratively, not literally. Definitely not literally.

“Simon, are you all right?” Rose asked, once she had righted herself.

“I’m fine,” Simon ground out. “Just tell me what you saw in the room.”

And I will try to forget what I just saw under your coat, Simon thought irritably.

“I, ah, saw a number of display cases against all the walls but one. The wall between this room”—Rose pointed to the room he just had her look in—“and that room”—she pointed to the room to the left of them—“is only lined with built-in bookshelves.”

“Hmmm, well that makes sense,” Simon said slowly. “That is the wall of the second library Pembroke and I told you about.”

“I would guess, then, that our belief the secret entrance is in the second library is correct. Somehow that bookshelf is hiding the way in.”

Simon nodded. “I agree.”

“So how do we get inside?”

“This way,” Simon said, motioning for Rose to follow him.

Staying low and in the shadows as much as possible, Simon led Rose around to the back corner of the house. Just as he remembered, there was a basement level window behind a thick cluster of ferns.

“When I was little, I used to hide in the basement to get away from Caleb. This window latch was broken, so I was able to get in and out through here, which allowed me to avoid the little hellion no matter where he may have been.”

“Do you suppose the latch has been fixed by now?” Rose wondered, as she knelt down to peer into the window.

“There is only one way to find out.” Simon got down on all fours and, using his fingertips, he felt around the bottom sill of the window. It took a moment, but soon he was able to pry the window up an inch or two.

“You did it!” Rose exclaimed softly.

“Al-most,” Simon grunted. Apparently it had been a while since the window had been used, but with a few more tugs and pushes the window finally opened the rest of the way. Sticking his head in to look around, Simon received a nice face full of cobwebs.

“Ugh,” Simon grumbled as he drew back out of the window, gossamer-like wisps covering his hair, face, and ears. He ran his hands back and forth through his curly hair and over his face in an attempt to remove all the sticky strands. He truly hoped the spiders that had made the webs had moved out long ago and had not just been transferred to his being.

Rose giggled at the sight of him covered in webs, but when he glared at her, she immediately stifled the laughter and started helping him clean off the remaining mess.

In her attempts to help, Rose was unaware of how her breasts kept rubbing up against Simon’s chest and shoulder, but he was painfully responsive to her movements and soon, he no longer cared about the cobwebs. Much more important was the need to kiss Rose until she was just as frustrated as he was. Grabbing her hands and wrapping them around his neck, Simon pulled her close until her face was barely an inch from his. He waited until Rose met his gaze and her eyes registered that she knew exactly what was about to happen.

Then Simon leaned in to capture Rose’s lips with his own. He was gratified to hear her moan softly and to feel her melt willingly into his embrace. He may have been the one thinking about doing things to her from the moment he saw her that night, but she seemed just as ready for a little physical interaction as he.

Simon’s kiss was fierce and passionate. He knew before he even touched his lips to Rose’s that this embrace was not going to be sweet and gentle. He had hoped that by indulging in one soul-searing kiss, he would be able to purge the worst of the desire from his system and again concentrate on what they needed to do that night.

However, Simon quickly found out that the kiss simply made him hungry for even more. Now was certainly not the time and definitely not the place, so, as much as he would like to continue making love to Rose right there among the ferns, Simon knew he needed to put an end to this madness.

…

Rose found that she was unable to hold herself up. It was as if Simon’s kiss had completely melted every bone in her body and replaced them with molten lava. She felt on fire from head to toe. In an instant, she forgot where they were, what they were supposed to be doing, and—in all honesty—she doubted if she could even recall her own name if someone were to ask her right then.

All of a sudden, with a low groan, Simon pulled back from Rose and held her an arm’s length away from him. It took Rose a few seconds to realize what had happened and when she finally did, she began to blush hotly.

Good Lord, where was her self-control? What kind of woman allowed herself to be seduced in the middle of a flower bed? Truly, the minute Simon touched her, she was lost. Rose found that fact both humbling and rather mortifying.

She needed to do something to remove herself from his presence—both physically and emotionally. So, moving with purpose and efficiency, Rose maneuvered out of Simon’s grasp and went over to the window. After a quick glance at the floor below the window, she turned and began lowering herself down into the basement.

…

“Bloody hell!” Simon swore, as he saw Rose disappearing through the window. “What are you doing?!”

Jumping to action, Simon hurriedly grabbed Rose’s hands to help her drop safely into the dusty basement. Then he quickly followed her through the window.

When he, too, was safely inside, he turned to Rose and said, “Are you crazy? What if you had fallen?”

Simon knew without even looking that Rose was rolling her eyes as she said, “If I can climb two stories down a rose trellis, I think I can handle a small drop into a dark basement. Besides, if we don’t quit wasting time and start getting on with this mission, we won’t be done before sunrise.”

Feeling properly rebuked, Simon muttered, “I didn’t realize kissing me was such a waste of time.”

“Did you say something?”

“No.” Simon sighed. Apparently all this raging, unrelenting desire was making him cranky. He really needed to get away from Rose soon, otherwise he was going to end up stark raving mad—just like Caleb, Simon thought in a weak attempt at humor.