“That’s very admirable, Mr. Savage. I’m sure he’ll be quite safe in your hands.” Roz thought no such thing. Never had she encountered such a worldly man. She trembled for the things he might teach Antonia. Lord, what a coil! “Ah, here is Mr. Burke. Please pour Mr. Savage a drink before dinner. I’ll just slip upstairs and give Anthony a message for the servants at the town house.”
“Oh, Roz, I hope I can carry this off. He is the most dominant, infuriating man on earth, with an opinion on absolutely everything. He thinks my education has been sadly neglected, but, Roz, he seems quite willing to teach me things, or rather quite willing to teach Lord Lamb. I’m going to soak up everything like a sponge. He began with nothing. Everything he now has he acquired with his own two hands.”
“Well,” Roz teased, “he certainly has you eating out of them.”
“That’s not true! I’ve been absolutely brutal with him. I told him to his face he was cold and indifferent to my pain and that I detested him.”
“And what was his reaction?” Roz asked faintly.
“He said we’d have to try to endure each other. Perhaps it would be a good idea if you slipped up to town in a couple of days.”
“Oh, darling, that’s a splendid idea. It’s highly improper for you to be alone with him, you know.”
“Oh, Roz, of course it isn’t. He thinks I’m a man—well, not a man, a boy, a very green boy to be truthful.”
“But you are not a male, you are a female, and Adam Savage the most spectacular man you and I are ever likely to see in this lifetime.”
“God, yes, the man with everything. So you are not immune to his magnetism either?”
“I’m an old woman. You, darling, are very vulnerable. Do guard against becoming infatuated and falling under his spell. I can’t believe your mother let him get away.”
Antonia was shocked at her grandmother’s thoughts. She tried to put herself in Roz’s shoes, then her mother’s, to view Savage through their eyes. The masculine features of his face looked as if they had been hewn with an ax from darkest mahogany. His long blue-black hair had a wild curl to it, making a woman long to release it from its leather thong to run her fingers through it. Tony wanted to dishevel it and learn if its texture was silky or coarsely springy. The planes of his face were broad, the nose and cheekbones prominent, the jaw square, stubborn, and bold.
His body was tall and powerful, the shoulders impossibly wide, his legs like young oaks. His hands were strong, brown, and exceedingly attractive. He had an air of supreme confidence about him that she knew did not come from being rich. It came from deep within the man. One look immediately revealed he was tenacious, resolute, determined, self-willed, unyielding, tough, and hard bitten. On top of everything else he was sinfully good looking. She suspected he was wicked and dangerous to boot. The single most riveting thing about him was his ice-blue eyes, so unexpected in that swarthy face. They could freeze a person to the spot with one glance.
She sighed heavily, realizing that through any woman’s eyes, of any age, he was devastatingly, dangerously desirable and she suspected the number of women who had made fools of themselves over the man were legion.
Chapter 14
It was going dusk when the pair of riders arrived at Edenwood. Tony had not viewed the finished house, and it took her breath away. She wondered briefly what Adam Savage’s reaction would be when he was presented with the bills for the costly imported marble, hand-painted tiles, and all the other expensive additions she had suggested. Then she shrugged. After all, they had been Antonia’s ideas; he could hardly blame Lord Lamb.
The vast stable with the fountain for watering the horses at its center housed a magnificent pair of matched bay carriage horses, leaving dozens of empty stalls to choose from for the horses they were riding. Tony thanked the stars she had learned how to tend her own horse, actually an odd accomplishment for a lady. Savage expected a man to put his mount’s needs before his own.
At the front door they were met by an exotic-looking creature in a silk sari of pale orchid. Her arms were filled with tall blue irises from the garden. She smiled shyly and bent her knee. “Welcome home, master. Edenwood is like a palace. The flowers are strange, but just as beautiful.”
Savage raised her and drew her small hand to his lips. “This is Kirinda, Tony. Sometimes we call her Lotus Blossom.” He watched Tony’s reaction to the lovely young woman and saw that he stared with great curiosity. Adam hid a smile. If Tony wasn’t aroused by the tempting female, the lad wasn’t normal.
The pale marble floor that began outside was carried through the cathedrallike reception hall. The mynah bird raised his small crest at the sight of Adam and screeched, “Savage! Sinner! Hellbait!”
“This is Rupee,” Adam told Tony.
“Let me guess,” Tony said, laughing, “that’s what you paid for him.”
Savage nodded. “I was robbed.”
Kirinda, holding a long taper, began to light the candles and lamps. She moved about so silently and gracefully, it was pleasurable to watch her. The light illuminated the creamy white marble and picked up its fine golden veins. James Wyatt had chosen well.
“No Bengal tigers,” Tony said lightly. “I thought all Englishmen who went to the Indies were great white hunters.”
Savage flashed him a cool look from his icy blue eyes. “I hunt from necessity. I do not take trophies.”
A native man came forward in immaculate white garments with a ruby-red turban. He carried a silver tray that held two small glasses.
“This man is like my right hand. John Bull, I want you to meet Lord Anthony Lamb.”
“Good evening, Excellency, good evening, my lord. I have waited many years to come to your beloved country. It is a great honor for me to meet an English Lord of the Realm.” His turban touched his knees.
“Oh, please, John Bull, do not bow to me. I bow to you. You are far more accomplished than I.”