*
Susan kept tellingherself it was of no importance if Griff didn’t follow her to Thicketford Manor. “He may come, and he may not,” she told Emma, trying to sound nonchalant about it as the footmen cleared away the last of the dinner plates.
“He’ll come,” Rebecca insisted.
“What makes you so sure, Mother?” Gabriel asked, an unmistakable teasing glint in his wide eyes.
“Just a feeling I have,” Rebecca replied sweetly, avoiding Susan’s glare.
“He’ll come to see Orion,” Patsy declared, aggravating Susan’s inner turmoil.
Out of the mouths of babes…
“It is getting rather late for a visitor to arrive,” Emma conceded. “Perhaps he’ll come tomorrow. The guest room is ready, whatever the case.”
A polite cough announced Frame’s arrival in the dining room. “The Earl of Pendlebury apologizes for the late arrival, my lord,” he told Gabriel.
“Told you,” Patsy declared, sliding off her chair. “May I be excused?”
She rushed off without waiting for permission, her exuberance jolting Wellington from his nap beneath the table. Barking and growling, the poodle followed Patsy into the foyer where he was soon joined by Princess and their entire yapping brood.
Gabriel and Emma left the dining room to greet their guest.
Paralyzed by the sheer joy flooding her body, Susan feared her knees might buckle if she attempted to rise. She longed to throw herself into the arms of the man she’d missed terribly in the few short hours they’d been apart. Instead, she met Rebecca’s smug gaze. “What?” she demanded.
“Nothing, my dear,” her friend replied. “Aren’t you going to greet the earl?”
Left with no alternative, Susan stood and flounced out of the dining room.
The foyer buzzed with noisy activity. Yapping poodles scampered about underfoot, rendering Frame uncharacteristically nonplussed; Gabriel shook Griff’s hand, bidding him welcome; Emma exhorted Patsy to take charge of her dogs; Patsy tugged Griff’s sleeve, peppering him with all kinds of questions about horses.
Susan studied Griff, elated when he shifted his gaze to her. She couldn’t hide her joy that he’d come. And neither could he.
Welcome to Thicketford
Griff’s inner turmoildrained away when he saw Susan staring at him. Amid the noisy chaos in the foyer of Thicketford Manor, they were the only two people. She made no effort to hide her pleasure at his arrival. Nor could he deny he was glad to see her again though they’d been apart only a few hours. The woman whose very existence should raise his hackles had suddenly become important to his heart’s contentment.
The butler’s loud cough alerted him to the fact the din had subsided and everyone was staring at him. “Er…I sincerely apologize, Farnworth,” he told his fellow earl. “I’ve come uninvited, unannounced and very late.”
“Nonsense,” Gabriel’s wife replied. “We’ve been expecting you.”
“Yes,” Susan confirmed. “I explained you would be setting off from Clifton Heights shortly after me and Rebecca.”
A titled gentleman had a right to expect this kind of warm welcome at a noble household, and it was a far cry from the insult he’d been offered at Withins Hall. The heartwarming greetings at the Farnworth mansion was clearly genuine. Well, the butler was standoffish, but that was to be expected. Like Potts, Frame would likely faint dead away if asked to crack a smile. Griff decided not to spoil the jovial atmosphere with mention of the rude stranger at Withins Hall.
“You’ve come in the nick of time,” Farnworth said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “As the only male in the family, I never get the chance to withdraw to the library for a glass of brandy and male camaraderie while the ladies do whatever ladies do when left to their own devices after dinner.”
Brandy sounded tempting, but Griff hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
To his surprise, Susan linked her arm with his. “I suspect Griff hasn’t had a chance to dine yet,” she said.
Patsy asked him something about Orion. Mrs. Waterman arrived on the scene and greeted him warmly. Frame corralled the dogs with Frederick’s help. Emma sent a maid off to the kitchens to procure food for him. Gabriel gave assurances the butler would provide his footman with a bed in the servants’ wing.
Griff must have uttered all the appropriate responses but was only vaguely aware of the people around him. Not only was Susan back to using his nickname, she’d taken his arm as if it were the natural thing to do, as if they belonged together. The press of her breast against his bicep was highly arousing and slightly terrifying.
*
A woman ofstrong convictions, Susan had never second-guessed her actions. Everything she did was based on rational thought. Linking arms with Griff, pressing her breast to his upper arm, and acting as though they were more than close friends was therefore perplexing to say the least. Next, she’d be back to fluttering her eyelashes at him. Not that she ever had.