Read Online Indiscreet by Mary Balogh - Free Book Online

at the back. She was not wearing a cap today, as she had last evening. Her wool dress was as blue as the sky outside and fell straight from its high waistline. It was completely unadorned. The sleeves were long. He would wager that the neckline was high. But the wool clung enticingly to her figure.
    It was a dress that suited her—simple and apparently modest and yet designed to tease one’s imagination to the woman’s body inside it. He wondered how many of the local gentry she had driven to madness in the past few years. His eyes narrowed on her.
    He wondered if she ever looked over her shoulder at herself in a looking glass to observe what interesting things wool did for her derriere. Even more interesting things when she leaned forward over Will’s shoulder. Both his indignation and his temperature moved up a notch.
    â€œVery nice, William,” she said when the scale stumbled to an end. “You are playing far more fluently now. But do try to remember the correct fingering. You will find that the scale will move far more smoothly if you do not run out of fingers at crucial moments.”
    â€œAunt Daphne!” Juliana exclaimed brightly, noticing them at last and bounding to her feet. “Uncle Rex! Have you come to listen to me?”
    â€œCertainly we have,” Daphne said. “And to hear Will too. I promised, did I not? And your uncle insisted on accompanying me.”
    Viscount Rawleigh was unable to join in the conversation for the moment. Will had jumped to his feet too, with all the exuberance of an escaped convict. And Mrs. Winters had looked sharply behind her and met his eyes.
    She did not look away again as he expected her to do. Neither did she blush. She kept her eyes steady on his and her chin came up perhaps half an inch. He almost disgraced himself by allowing
his
eyes to waver from
hers,
but he pursed his lips instead and forced himself to look at her with deliberate nonchalance. She was made of stern stuff, it appeared. And he had to confess that she was refreshing after half a morning in Ellen Hudson’s company.
    The neckline of her dress
was
high. It somehow accentuated the pleasing shape of her bosom. As, of course, it was meant to do. She was obviously a mistress of the art of teasing. He raised one eyebrow.
    â€œMrs. Winters,” Daphne was saying, “how wretchedly ill-mannered of us to walk in on your lesson like this and disrupt it. We intended to creep in and listen undetected. Did we not, Rex?”
    â€œLike thieves in the night,” he said, and was reminded of how he had approached her cottage via the postern door last evening.
    â€œChildren need to be appreciated even at the expense of some lesson time,” Mrs. Winters said, smiling. But she had removed her eyes from his to Daphne and could not thus be accused of smiling at him. “I take it you
did
come to appreciate? William hasdone particularly well with his scales this morning. It is the first time he has consistently played them through without stopping. I am so glad you were here to witness his triumph.”
    Will’s chest swelled with pride.
    â€œI want to play something,” Juliana wailed. “I can play Bach, Aunt Daphne. Listen to me.”
    â€œI believe,” Daphne said, “it is Will’s lesson time, Julie.”
    â€œWilliam, being the perfect gentleman,” Mrs. Winters said, addressing herself to Daphne, “will be quite pleased to relinquish his place at the pianoforte to Juliana, I am sure.” She laughed.
    And looked quite dazzlingly beautiful. He had not seen or heard her laugh before, the viscount realized. On the few occasions he had seen her, she had appeared as a woman of quiet dignity. A very quiet and subtle tease. He wondered if the laugh was for his benefit, to tie his stomach in knots. If so, she had failed miserably. His stomach felt only the merest flutter. He was still angry with her for making such an ass of him last