Robby asked, “Before these chits go mad, tell us then, what of Holland?”
He quickly recounted the events of the confrontation with Bernard and his subsequent visit with the squire.
Bess clapped her hands and said, “I have said this before, and I must say it again and again. You are brilliant. It was your plan, wasn’t it, to have the squire write his will like that?”
He smiled softly and said, “Och, lass, I merely suggested it as a way of avoiding the scandal he was so distressed would come of his relatives’ arrest.”
“It was very clever,” said Bess’s father. “I heartily approve, and the lad couldn’t want for a better guardian.”
“That wasn’t my idea. I was honored of course, but the squire felt that as Thomas and I get on so well, I would be in a position to give him a home. I am, in fact, a bit daunted by the fact that I shall soon be saddled with a ward.” He grinned, and Bess could not see that he was bothered by this. He looked pleased as could be.
“Well, this has ended quite well, though I hate to think those two awful people have gotten away with what they have done,” Bess concluded.
Everyone agreed to this, and after a few moments of everyone expressing their feelings on the subject the viscount said lightly, “Do you attend Jersey’s ball tonight, my lord?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” the earl said, looking at Bess.
The viscount gave him a calculating look and said, “Aye then, what say you now, Bess? Does it hold allure for you now, the Jersey’s ball?”
“Well, yes, now that Thomas is safe and sound,” Bess answered, a smile in her eyes as well as on her face.
The earl turned to Bess and said, “I must go now, as I have a few things to attend to, but do ye promise me a dance tonight, lass?”
“Aye,” she said with a lilt and a tease. “I dooo.”
“Och, lass,” was all he could manage under everyone’s interested gazes. He turned and started off, saying, “Tonight then.”
And he was gone.
Donna looked at her friend and said, “Well, well, well.”
~ Twenty ~
SALLY SONHURST ROLLED over on her bed and eyed her young maid, who stood hesitantly in the open doorway of her ladyship’s elegant bedroom. “What is it, Maggie?”
“Mr. Holland requested me to tell ye, m’lady, that he is wishful of a private word with ye,” Maggie said and bobbed a curtsey.
“Does he?” Sally sat up and thought a moment. “Very well then, send Mr. Holland up to me.”
If her maid disapproved, she did not show it by look or word as she nodded and said, “At once, my lady.”
“Leave my door open—he knows the way, so you needn’t show him up here.” She smiled wickedly. “Unless of course, you wish to join us.”
The maid, once again, did not display any expression as she turned and said simply, “Aye then, m’lady, oi’ll be leaving ye then.”
Sally Sonhurst laughed and sat up, pulling her gauzy nightdress low over her breasts so she was nearly exposed. As she waited for Holland she donned an appropriate pout. He had refused her when last they met. He had not wished to be embroiled in anything to do with the Earl of Dunkirk, who he said could be a dangerous enemy he did not wish to have.
Holland arrived at her doorway and said on a low, husky note, “Taking a nap before the ball?”
“Waiting for you, Bernard,” she answered with a welcoming smile. “Have you come to tell me you have changed your mind?”
“Indeed, I have most certainly changed my mind, and, my pretty, it will happen tonight, when your earl least expects it,” Holland said on a hard note and with a lift of his nose.
She sat bolt upright, exposing her breasts completely as she scurried across her bed towards him. He marched over and took them roughly in his hands as he said hoarsely, “Is that going to be a problem for you?”
“No, I have had the license ready because I was sure in the end you wouldn’t be able to refuse my offer. All I have to do is send round for that elbow crooker who calls himself a minister. I shall have him here, sober or no, but only tell me, what changed your mind? You said you didn’t want to make an enemy of the earl.”
“He changed m