Read Online Loving Lord Ash by Sally Mackenzie - Free Book Online

don’t approve of me.”
    Of course they didn’t approve of her, but he didn’t wish to start that argument again. It would be far too exhausting to squabble about it anymore, especially if she were really going to stay until morning....
    How would they get through the hours until daylight?
    One obvious activity presented itself—
    He would not think about that now, or about the bed that took up a good portion of the room. The White Stag did not cater to the aristocracy. His bedchamber was simply that—a room with a bed. There was no separate sitting room.
    “How are things at the castle?” she asked, looking at the brandy bottle.
    Was she nervous? She’d never been at all reticent around him when they were children. It was one of the things that had first drawn him to her. Not that the other children deferred to him, precisely, but there had always been a distance, even with his brothers, that had never been there with Jess. With them, he was Ash, one day to be Greycliffe. With Jess, he was Kit.
    Or perhaps he’d just been fooling himself.
    “Well, I think. I left after Mama’s Valentine party.”
    Jess’s eyes widened. “That was over a month ago.”
    “Yes.” It was his turn to study the brandy. “I’ve been traveling.”
    “In all the snow? You must have left right after the blizzard.”
    He shrugged. “It did make things more difficult. That’s why it took me so long to arrive at the manor. Well, and I stopped along the way for a few days.”
    “Find some interesting architecture?” She smiled.
    He grinned. She did know him. “Yes.”
    The servant arrived then with their food, breaking their brief rapport.
    “Thank you,” Ash said. “That will be all. We shall serve ourselves.” They certainly didn’t need one of Winthrop’s people eavesdropping on their conversation and spreading the details throughout the countryside.
    “Yes, milord.”
    Once the fellow left, Ash held Jess’s chair while she took her seat. Mmm. He smelled lavender, the same scent she’d worn as a girl—he smiled—when the scent wasn’t overpowered by the smell of oil and turpentine and paint.
    He sat and carved her a slice of duck. “I don’t suppose you know if Winthrop’s kitchen does better with this than with beef? I tried some of that downstairs earlier. It was inedible.”
    “No.” She took a spoonful of peas. “I don’t leave the manor except for Sunday services.”
    “You don’t have any female friends in the area?” That seemed too bad, though now that he considered it, Jess had been somewhat solitary even as a girl.
    She met his gaze directly. “I don’t have any friends, male or female, outside the manor staff.”
    “Ah.” The rumors said otherwise, but perhaps her early success with the area’s male population had faltered. Hell, she didn’t need any “friends” besides that damn footman and the rest of the male servants.
    “Might I have some of the Madeira?”
    “Yes, of course.” He poured her a glass and then reached for the brandy.
    Jess concentrated on cutting her duck, not that it required much concentration. At least the inn’s cook had had better success with this dish. It was almost palatable.
    For a while, the silence was broken only by the scrape of their utensils. It wasn’t a companionable silence, but he couldn’t think of something to say that wouldn’t just pitch them back into an argument. He could ask her about her proposal, but he wasn’t certain he wished to hear what she might say.
    “So was your mother’s party successful?” Jess finally asked.
    At last, a happy topic. “Yes, indeed. After years of trying, Mama managed to bring Ned and Ellie together. We celebrated their betrothal at the closing ball.”
    Her eyes darted up to his and then back down to her plate. “Is that why you broke things off with Ellie?”
    “What?” Oh, that’s right. She’d mentioned that ridiculous rumor about his relationship with Ellie Bowman. “Jess, Ellie is my friend.