A slow and infinitely wicked smile curved Dominic’s lips. When he spoke, his voice was husky and deep. “Enough of the rest of this crazy world. Come, let me see if I can convince you of just how irrevocably I love you.”
His lips closed over hers, and Georgiana, swept away on a tide of passion, gave herself up wholeheartedly to that enterprise.
“Ahem!”
The discreet cough from the doorway brought Dominic’s head up. “What the devil?
” Frowning direfully, he turned his head and located the intruder. “Duckett?”
At the door, Duckett stood correctly to attention, his gaze fixed on the far wall. “I’m sorry to interrupt, m’lord, but I thought you’d want to know that Lady Winsmere has just arrived.”
“Bella?” Dominic’s incredulous question hung quivering in the air, but Duckett had already gone, leaving the door ajar.
Brows flying in disbelief, Dominic looked down at the woman still held securely in his arms. “I suppose we’d better go and see what your chaperon has to say.”
Georgiana smiled. “I wonder why she’s come.”
“Precisely my question. We’d better ask her.” Keeping Georgiana within the circle of his arm, Dominic strolled to the door.
In the doorway, they paused to take in the scene. Only one of the large double doors was open, with one of the footmen standing in its protection with a branch of candles, trying to cast some light on to the steps outside. Blasts of cold air hurled into the hall, bringing swirls of snowflakes to flutter and melt on the tiles. On the porch a carpet of snow, already some inches thick, bore witness to the intensity of the storm outside. As Georgiana and Dominic watched, two footmen emerged from the darkness, bearing Bella between them. Duckett followed immediately behind, the shoulders of his dark coat already dusted with snow.
As soon as everyone was inside, the footmen slammed the door shut against the elemental fury ravaging the night.
Immediately her feet hit the floor, Bella glanced about. Her eyes found Georgiana and Dominic, side by side in the drawing-room doorway. “There you are! Really, Georgie, you’re going to have to be more careful!” She bustled up and embraced Georgiana before turning a censorious look on her brother. “And you, of all people, should have known better!”
Intrigued, Dominic allowed one brow to quirk upward. Holding the door wide, he bowed slightly, ushering both Bella and Georgiana into the drawing-room. He closed the door firmly.
“Now, Bella, cut line. What on earth made you leave Green Street in this hoydenish fashion?”
In response to her brother’s crisp question, Bella simply stared.
“Hoydenish? Dominic Ridgeley! To call me hoydenish when you’ve all but compromised Georgiana by unthinkingly bringing her here when you might have guessed the snows were coming on. Why, if I hadn’t set out as soon as the first snowflake fell, she’d have had to spend the night here with you unchaperoned. I would have thought with all your experience you would have seen the danger as well as I.”
“Precisely.”
The exasperated tone brought Bella’s eyes to his face. Her confidence faltered. “You knew…” Bewildered, she glanced from Dominic’s face to Georgiana’s, then back again. “I don’t understand.”
Dominic sighed. “Before your arrival interrupted us, Georgiana and I were examining a number of the reasons for our impending marriage. As my affianced wife, she most definitely does not need the services of a chaperon when with me.”
“Oh.” Bella looked at Georgiana, but her protégée was watching Dominic, a strange little smile on her lips.
Dominic, meanwhile, had crossed to the bell-pull. “Yes. Oh! And, what’s more, you’ll have brought your husband out in these foul conditions—”
“But Arthur doesn’t know,” Bella interrupted to assure him.
“Most assuredly Arthur didn’t know when you left Green Street. However, he will certainly have found out long since and be close behind you. Talking about people who should know better, dear sister, in your condition you have no business to go gallivanting around the country in snowstorms.”
Bella gasped. “My condition? Whatever do you—?”
“My lord?”
Dominic turned to the door. “Ah, Mrs Landy.”
But before he could give any orders, there came again the sound of the great front doors opening. Voices, all masculine, were heard in the hall.
Bella put a hand to her lips.
Dominic glanced at her but said nothing, his attention returning to the door.