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Jack led Lizzie toward the large draperies that had two small boots sticking out from beneath the hem. Lizzie stifled a giggle, and Jack was hard pressed to suppress the grin that threatened to emerge.
Her dusky curls were threatening to escape her pins and she had bright pink spots on her cheeks as she grinned up at him.
Jack’s gut clenched and he had the strongest urge to kiss her. However, that thought was soon replaced as Lizzie reached out and snatched his hand. The contact had his brain short circuiting. Stupidly he stumbled along after her as she tugged them into a large wardrobe.
The tiny giggles and snorts of laughter emitted from the children could be heard behind the closed doors, but they were deeply muffled. Suddenly it became all too clear to Jack that he, a man, was trapped inside of a wardrobe with an arm full of a very curvy young lady that smelled of gardenias. The urge to kiss her again came on full force.
Not certain where to place his hands, Jack was trying his utmost to be a gentleman. However, Lizzie seemed to have other ideas as she squirmed this way and that in the small space.
Jack clamped his hands around her. “Stay still,” he hissed in her ear.
Lizzie, feeling unaccountably warm, had no intention of remaining still. Her skin prickled with awareness where his gloved fingers had landed. It seemed as if her mind had gone on holiday and all that was left was the instinct to run away from these new and unfamiliar emotions.
“No,” she snapped, although it came out rather breathlessly.
Jack’s jaw tightened. “Unless you want to find yourself thoroughly kissed, I would suggest you hold still.”
Anger boiled up inside of her as she whispered, “And just who are you to tell me what to do? You can’t go around putting your lips on people!”
His answer infuriated her, “Your husband.”
“We are not married yet, sir!” she snapped.
“Something I will be sure to rectify as soon as possible!”
Lizzie stilled. “Why?”
“Why?” Jack expostulated. “Because I should have done so ten years ago. Because it is my duty, my honour demands it.”
Suddenly Lizzie wanted to prove to Jack that there was more to her than duty and honour. She wanted Jack to see that she wasn’t just a responsibility.
“Well then, do it,” she taunted.
“Do what?” he asked distractedly. “Marry you?”
“No,” she ground out. “Kiss me.”
For the briefest of moments nothing happened. It was as if Jack was struggling to understand was Lizzie had said. Then his lips were on hers. Warm and surprisingly soft considering that they were smashed against her own.
Having never been kissed before, Lizzie was overwhelmed with sensations. Jack was pressed so slightly against her and she felt the strangest feeling inside as if she wanted to rub up against him like a cat.
His hand had slipped around her waist and the other sank into the back of her hair.
Never before had Lizzie ever felt so out of control. A large part of her wanted to kiss Jack until the sun came up, but just the very thought of it caused panic to well up inside of her. This wasn’t what she had expected at all. In a fit she shoved him violently away. In the cabinet, he didn’t go very far, however it was just enough for her to make her escape.
Not taking a moment to see if he was alright, she raced past the children who had gleefully come to find them. Not knowing where else to go, she ran past the library and up the stairs to the bedroom that she had slept in the night before.
With a cry, she hurled herself onto the coverlet and the tears began to fall.
It wasn’t more than a quarter of an hour later that a soft knock came at the door. When she didn’t answer, the door was opened, and she heard the voice of Mrs. Burke.
“Is it as bad as all that?” Mrs Burke asked kindly.
Lizzie tried to wipe her tears away as she sat up and turned her face to the side. “No, of course not, Madam. I am sorry to be such a watering pot.”
Olivia moved into the room closing the door behind her. “You know, it was not that long ago that I was being courted by Mr. Burke. Matters of the heart do make one terribly tender do they not?”
Lizzie nodded jerkily. “It is just so.”
“Well,” Olivia said in a conspiratorial voice. “We ladies need to stick together in these troubling times. I have alerted the staff to bring us some tea. Let us dry your eyes and have a little cose, shall we?”
Lizzie looked up, her red rimmed eyes causing Olivia’s mothering nature to kick in full force. “You are not being forced to marry the Viscount, are you dearest?”
Lizzie laughed, truly laughed. Olivia seemed somewhat taken aback. “I do not know what is so funny about that, but it is nice to see you smile.”
Lizzie shook her head, a wry smile on her face. “It is not me that is being forced to marry, you have it the wrong way around. The Viscount is being forced to marry me by his own sense of honour.”
Olivia’s eyes widened. “Nonsense! I have seen the way that he looks at you my dear. He is not being forced into anything. I would say that your young man was rather chomping at the bit.”
Lizzie frowned. “You must be mistaken. Jack has only ever looked at me with disdain.”
Olivia’s brows came together. “I am afraid that you are going to have to tell me the whole of it then. Because I cannot make tops or tails out of it.”
Lizzie started at the beginning. When she finished with her flight from Mangrove Manor Olivia was two parts horrified and a third highly amused.
“It was not very well of your cousins to escape with you. Not at all the thing, you know. Even with your maid in tow, the gossips love a story like this.”
Lizzie blushed. “I know it was rather poorly done of me. I just could not take his pity. I thought that one day Jack would learn to love me. But it never happened. I am tired of being his cross to bear. I want to give him back his life.”
“You want him to be just as miserable as you have been all of these years,” Olivia interjected kindly. “Call a spade a spade, my dear. There is nothing altruistic about your actions, is there?”
Lizzie’s face was beet red as she fessed up the truth. “Yes, madam, it is just as you say.”
“Oh! Do not poker up at me! I was young once myself and it seems that your young man did deserve a set down. I do not fault you, dear girl. However, I can see that man has feelings for you.”
Lizzie’s lip trembled. “He will never love me.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Nonsense! His eyes light up when you enter a room and he cannot seem to tear his gaze away. He may have made all the wrong choices in your courtship. But consider this, it is not him that is turning away now, is it? I want you to know that because of a few hot tears, the Viscount is beside himself with worry. That does not sound like a man that will never love you. Perhaps you have both misjudged each other?”
Lizzie sat dumbfounded. Could Jack actually have feelings for her?
Before she could respond, Olivia hit it home saying, “He does not seem like the type of man to be pushed into anything. If your viscount did not want to marry you, nothing would induce him to do it. Mark my words.”
A small kernel of hope that Lizzie had thought long dead leapt to life inside of her heart.
“Do you really think so, Mrs. Burke?”
The older woman nodded decisively. “I am positive it is so.”