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Rosso
stared down from the window of his study, his attention caught on
the fast-moving female in royal-blue garb.
    He must be losing his senses because he
somehow could not stop looking at her. From where he stood, he
could make out firmly sculpted legs, imprinted beneath the flowing
fabric as she moved towards the gardens enveloping the courtyard.
Her raven colored hair, as he’d observed earlier, was tightly
pinned up on her head with springy ringlets brushing against her
temple.
    She was pretty.
    Shoving away from the window, he reached for
his tankard and took a deep swallow. The liquid burned down his
throat and settled heavily in his stomach. It was not an admission
he had wanted to make but he had to, even if mentally.
    Her dirt-covered face had apparently been
scrubbed clean and her womanly figure neatly clad in cool light
fabric. He supposed he should not have had judged her appearances
so readily but now that he realized, disappointment sunk in his gut
like a solid brick.
    When he had stumbled upon her in his
library, he had been standing there for several moments just
watching her as she stared out the window at something he could not
see. From then, with her back turned, he had noticed a rather
well-curved backside and rounded hips. But no, it was when she had
pivoted that he had noticed the unintentional tease in her glossy
brown eyes and the tempting curve of her mouth.
    By God, he had nearly been tempted to walk
straight up to her and show her all that a man’s mouth could do.
Ulric had also fully intended on dismissing her from the room at
once but when she’d moved, he’d caught a sniff of something
pleasant. Something akin to sandalwood and the subtlest scents of
lilac. By that point, his fool senses had taken over and he had
found a good excuse to keep her in the room a while longer.
    He hadn’t
been able to take his eyes off her then, despite his best efforts.
So while he’d been contemplating on the fact for the past hours,
he’d decided that he indeed was losing his
senses.
    Draining the contents from his tankard,
Ulric slouched in his chair and sighed. A moment later, Edwin came
shoving in with a tray in hand.
    “How about a game?” he offered, pulling up a
chair.
    Groaning, Ulric glanced up as his friend
placed down the tray of warm jelly-filled biscuits and then began
arranging a chess board. It had been a while since they’d made a
good sport of it.
    Ulric reached for one of the delicacies and
bit into it. “Cook is obviously trying to persuade my sister to
stay longer. She hasn’t made these since Ryia had first left all
those years ago.”
    “Or mayhap, she’s trying to add a little
sweet to your bitterness.”
    Ulric chuckled, licking a trail of jelly
from his finger. “After all this time?”
    “Better late than never.”
    “Mm. Where were you?”
    “I had a missive I wanted to deliver
personally in town. I received a letter from Henshire.”
    Ulric sat up. “Is your mother alright?”
    “The letter did not say much but I believe
she might be more ill than she let on in writing. I’m making
arrangements to set out early in the morning.”
    “Safe travels and my regards to Mrs.
Montagu.” Edwin nodded and although Ulric could not see his face,
he knew his friend was worrying. Edwin Montagu was that sort of
fellow. “If you’d like, I could ride out with you.”
    Edwin chuckled now and looked up, his eyes
lit with sad humor. “And leave Ryia here alone? You’d return to see
the entire estate transformed into a blasted ladies’ pen. And you
have a felon on your watch, in case you’ve forgotten.”
    Ulric swallowed the rest of his biscuit.
“Ah. That.”
    “ Precisely. That . Black or
white?”
    Ulric glanced down at the chess board.
“Black.”
    “Prepare to be defeated.” Edwin shove one
white pawn two spaces up. “She appears to have cleaned up rather
nicely.”
    Ulric moved one black pawn up one space.
“Who? Ryia?”
    “Your felon.”
    “ She’s not my