The Lady and the Earl (Seabrook Family Saga) Read Free Page B

the
sound of his deep, seductive voice. The warmth of it curled around her body.
How did he do that? With her back toward him, Amelia whirled about and
walked toward his side of the stream. Actually, with all the dry weather of
late, which was so unusual, it resembled a trickling brook more than a stream.
    “Lord Bridgeton, how nice it is to see you again.” He seemed different today
than in days past. Tilting her head to one side she studied his face. Oh, yes, his
eyes. They were clear, no obvious pain clouding them now.
    “Don’t you think it’s time you called me William?” he suggested. “The
title belonged to my brother and to my father before him. I never thought it
fit me.” Some desolate emotion wavered in his eyes, then disappeared.
    “If I am to call you William, you must call me Amelia.” Dear Lord, if
her mother found out about this private conversation with the Earl of Bridgeton
and his request to call him by his Christian name, she would surely have the
vapors. “If I may ask, what brings you to this stream today Lord…William?” What
a silly question. Ever since their first meeting, they had come here daily
hoping to see each other. So why was Amelia playing coy?
    William’s lips curled into a devilishly handsome smile. It lit up his
eyes, making him look years younger. Mayhap William was not as old as Amelia
had first thought. Surely not any older than five-and-thirty, though her first
guess had been around forty at least.
    “Do I make you nervous?” William asked as he ventured closer.
    “Yes… I mean, no.” Suddenly her feet became her focal point. Even so,
Amelia watched William’s hand reach out toward her. Behaviors ingrained in her over
the years had her wanting to step back. She didn’t, though, and held her breath
as his fingers lightly touched her chin, then tilted her head up though her
eyes stayed downcast.
    “Look at me,” he said.
    “I can’t.”
    “Why not?” William whispered, close to her ear, his warm breath
caressing her cheek.
    Amelia could not look at him for fear he would see the truth in her
eyes. The truth that she found him interesting and handsome and that she
possibly desired him––that simply would not do. She could not desire anyone
else. She could never be with anyone again. An innocent twenty-year-old should
not know desire. Even though she was no innocent, he could not know that.
    “I’m sorry, I must go.” As she turned to walk back across the stream,
his hand reached out and touched her arm briefly.
    “Please don’t go. I did not mean to make you uncomfortable.” William
walked over toward a large flat rock, sat down, and patted the empty spot
beside him. “Please sit with me awhile.”
    Amelia, hearing the note of loneliness in his voice, sat down next to
the earl, deciding to stay for a while. She smoothed her skirts, covered her
bare feet with them, and kept a proper distance between their two bodies. “Tell
me, William, what do you do all day here in the country?”
    “Besides running the estate? I enjoy looking over the cliffs out into
the English Channel. I watch the repairs being made to Dover Castle. I spend
time here.”
    “Don’t you get lonely?” Amelia asked as she swatted away a bumblebee.
    “Sometimes.”
    “I’m leaving for London in three days,” she admitted, “and I don’t know
exactly when I’ll return. I suppose when the Season ends in late June.”
Amelia’s heart lodged in her throat. London? She did not want to go to London.
Why did her mother insist she have another Season? Amelia fought down the panic
rising up inside her. She would not make a scene in front of William. Besides,
she learned long ago how to control her panic attacks.
    ***
    William, becoming serious, stood up and held out his hand to Amelia,
offering her his assistance. “Come, I’ll walk you across the stream and see you
home.”
    When she placed her small soft hand in his, his skin itched from the
heat of the contact. The afternoon