Chapter 3 #2
I might have been sorry once, but now I could not be further from such feelings of remorse! He is… insufferable. And wrong! And he needs to know it.
So it was that Alison came up with a plan.
She was far too stubborn for her own good, and for that reason she refused to let this little spat lie. It might smart of me to do so, she knew, but I would not be able to live with myself if I do not get in the final word.
The Earl would admit what he did. He would apologize to her. And only then would Alison be able to remove him from her thoughts, so she never had to think about him again.
Or so she told herself… it was just easier that way.
“Excuse me!” Alison shouted after the Earl. “Lord Grayhill!”
It was later in the evening, and Alison was doing something stupid. Something that deep down she knew she should not have been doing. Something that had she given herself time to stop and consider, she certainly would have realized this and made smarter decisions.
But she didn’t wish to make smart decisions. She was angry at what happened over supper. She was furious that Lord Grayhill had gotten the better of the situation. And despite just how foolish this all was, she was determined to make him admit what he did.
So it was that once she was dismissed from supper she hurried to her room and changed into a heavy winter’s cloak and more comfortable shoes.
Then she sneaked downstairs and waited by the back door.
There she listened until she heard her mother and Lord Pemberton bidding the Earl farewell.
And once she was certain he stepped outside, she acted.
Through the back garden she hurried, cloak pulled in tight to keep herself from shaking because it was so cold that she could feel her bones freezing.
She made her way around the side of the manor, down the path which cut between the two estates, and soon found herself bursting from the hedges just in time to see the Earl strolling casually toward his own property.
Her eyes lit with fire, and she gave chase, calling out for him to turn around.
Once he heard her shouting, he acquiesced immediately. He slowed down, tilted his head as if in thought, and then turned to find her coming in hot and angry.
The night was dark, the Earl was darker, so all she could see were his eyes which glimmered as they found her. And, as she was starting to expect from him, there was his mocking smile front and center.
“What was that!” she demanded as she came for him.
He said nothing.
“Well?” she continued when she reached him, coming to a stop just a few feet away. He was still too dark to make out clearly, but she saw now the smirk he wore to match that found in his eyes. “Do you have nothing to say?”
He made no reply. He just stood there, grinning at her, letting her anger mount to such a point that her entire body started to tremble from it.
She widened her eyes at him, more furious than ever because it felt like he was mocking her. Worse, she felt like a child being judged by an adult for something that was not her fault. As if he felt little more for her than pity.
“I did not steal from you,” she snapped, needing to break the silence. “That music box was mine by rights and you know it was.”
Still, he remained silent. Head tilted, studying her through the night. No sense that he was surprised to find her there. No sense that he found her tone or accusations disrespectful. Again, it was as if he thought so little of her that he could not bring himself to react.
“You were the one trying to steal from me,” she continued, the anger fading because she was starting to feel like this was a terrible idea.
“I… I had already said I was going to buy it. You were the one… the rack of lamb… if you had said you wished for a particular cut, I would have… you know I did nothing wrong!”
Finally, he spoke. “Is that what this is about? You need me to assure you that you did nothing wrong? You followed me out here, in the dead of night, in the cold, so I would ease your conscience?”
“Yes!”
He chuckled darkly. “Is your ego so fragile that you need it massaged?”
“I…” She balked. “This is not about my ego.”
“Then what is it about?”
She scowled, trying to hold onto that anger. “I do not appreciate being accused of something I did not do. Just as I would appreciate you not acting so… so…”
“So what?”
“So smug!”
He narrowed his eyes, and she felt a chill. As if he controlled the storm and was focusing it right on her. “You are quite tempestuous, you know.”
“I am not.”
“And quite unruly. Do you want my advice? Be glad that I chose to keep your behavior to myself, rather than having to explain to your parents the type of daughter they have raised.”
Alison balked at the comment. “I did nothing wrong. You are the one who –”
“Is trying to return home peacefully. An action made all the more difficult by your pestering.” He glowered at her in warning, and she felt a shiver run through her body. Not fear… but something else.
“All I want is an apology,” she said, but without the same command that she had earlier. His hardened stare unsettled her, and she felt the sudden desire to turn and flee as if for her own safety. “Do that, and I will happily let you go home in peace.”
“Let me?”
“Yes.” She widened her eyes at him. “I am not someone who you can simply bully into submission. I am in the right, and until you admit it, I am not going anywhere.”
“Please…” He gritted his teeth, and she saw his hands begin to tremble. “Go home, Lady Alison. I assure you that it is for the best.”
“I will not.”
“Just as I will not apologize.”
“Just as I will not – oh!”
The Earl moved quickly. Without blinking, without giving her a chance to react, he stepped into her, one hand finding her waist as the other snatched at her chin. Her eyes widened and her breath caught to feel him on her, and when she tried to wiggle free… well, she didn’t try that hard.
“You have a mouth on you.” His voice turned to a growl and as he spoke he moved his thumb to press down on her lips. “It will get you into a lot of trouble one day. You ought to learn to control it.”
Her eyes were wide in rebuke, but her body melted into the Earl because she was overcome by his presence. Stranger still was how much she enjoyed the low dip of his voice and the touch of his fingertip on her lips.
The way he looked at her caused her knees to quake.
His eyes were wide —alarmingly so. There was a storm building behind them.
But what drew Alison in most of all, was that he saw her like she had never been seen before.
In that moment, it was just she and the Earl, and she had his attention completely.
“I’m going to let you go,” he said to her, his voice now a whisper, his thumb still pressed on her mouth. “And when I do, I expect you hurry on back inside. I do not wish to argue, just as I do not wish to be tested. Now…” He kept his stare on her. “Are you going to do as you are -- argh!”
Alison bit him!
She couldn’t say what came over her. It was like a fire had been lit inside her belly. It grew quickly, hot and fiery, threatening to consume her unless she released it. And with his thumb pressed onto her lips, she did the only thing she could think of.
It wasn’t a hard bite. It wasn’t one that might draw blood. But she found his thumb and latched on just enough so he could feel it.
The Earl released her and took a step back.
He held his hand to himself, but he clenched his jaw in anger as he looked from it toward her.
And his eyes, they flashed with fury and with something that looked almost like curiosity.
He tightened his brow, licked his lips, and she could quite literally see the effort he was taking to control himself.
“I was right about you,” he said.
“You do not know me at all.”
“Just as you do not know me,” he said with a growl. “Which is why you would do well to do as I asked and return home.” A beat of silence reigned as he let that sit between them. “Before both of us regret our actions.”
Alison glared at him because she thought that she must. She wanted to appear infuriated and vengeful as if she hated him. Just as she wanted him to do the same to her, to prove that he saw her and knew that she was not one to be taken lightly or ignored.
But then he turned away. His body was shaking, and she did not think it was from the cold. A hulking mass of darkness, shoulders hunched, still holding his bitten thumb, he stalked into the night and vanished before another word could be said.
And all Alison could do was stare after him.
She was still unnerved, and her body was so hot that she was forced to remove her cloak.
So rattled was she that Alison nearly collapsed.
Her breathing was heavy. Her chest hurt from how hard her heart was beating.
And despite her best efforts, she could still feel the Earl’s hand around her waist…
as she could taste his thumb on her lips.
What has gotten into me! Why am I… why does he… what is going on!
Alison had no idea what to think, because nothing like this had happened before.
All she could do was find gratitude that in a few days she would be heading north for the rest of the year. What she needed was distance and time away from the Earl. What she needed was to get control of herself.