The Earl's Complete Surrender by Sophie Barnes Page B

groaned while Ophelia nodded with great enthusiasm. “We know next to nothing about him other than that he always looks as though he’s about to fly into a rage. My heart certainly jolted when I walked into the music room and found him to be the only person present. I’d been hoping to practice my skills on the pianoforte. Instead I fled like an absolute coward.”
    â€œI suppose he can seem a bit frightening,” Chloe said, recalling the way he’d made her feel when she’d brought up his time at Eton. Since then, however, his scowls had only served to heighten her curiosity about him—­to tempt her with the prospect of discovering the reason behind them.
    â€œAnd yet you’ve just told us that you have spoken to him at length on more than one occasion,” Charlotte said. “How on earth did that come about?”
    â€œI confess I may have stumbled into him,” Chloe said. “Clumsy of me really, though he didn’t seem to mind overly much.”
    â€œWhy would he?” Ophelia asked with amusement. “I’m sure he rather enjoyed the experience of having a beautiful woman pressed up against him.”
    Chloe frowned. “Nobody was pressed up against anybody.”
    â€œAre you quite sure?” Charlotte asked. “You’re blushing all the way to the roots of your hair.”
    â€œSo she is,” Ophelia agreed with wide-­eyed amazement.
    â€œYou may be able to convince yourself that you’re interested in nothing more than his friendship,” Charlotte said as she leaned back against her seat and took a slow sip of her tea, “but you can’t convince me, my dear. Not by a long shot. Now, my greatest concern is that you won’t realize your tendre for Woodford before it’s too late.”
    â€œHonestly,” Chloe said, annoyed by her friend’s insinuation. “There is no tendre on my part, nor will there ever be.”
    â€œIf you say so. Just don’t think I’ve forgotten about all the tears you cried over that abominable scoundrel of a husband of yours, or the vow you made never to get hurt again.”
    â€œThank you, Charlotte, but you really needn’t worry,” Chloe said. She was grateful for her friend’s concern, but at the same time she also knew she would never give another man her heart.
    And yet, she’d sought comfort in Woodford’s arms only yesterday. Annoyingly, she’d lain awake late into the night wondering what it had meant and, more to the point, if it hadn’t been a remarkable mistake for her to do so. With a shake of her head, she said, “The biggest problem with my marriage was that I was desperately in love with my husband. Woodford is different from Newbury though. In fact, he’s nothing like him at all.”
    â€œWhich is precisely why I’m so worried,” Ophelia said with a sage expression.
    Chloe frowned. “I don’t—­”
    â€œWell, well, well . . .” a husky female voice remarked, “if it isn’t Lady Newbury and her boring group of housewives.”
    Turning her head toward the door, Chloe stiffened her spine and forced back a sharp retort as her gaze came to rest on the notorious Dowager Marchioness of Dewfield. “I wasn’t aware that you would be holidaying here as well.”
    Lady Dewfield’s eyebrows rose in pointy arches above her calculating eyes. “I just arrived.”
    Forcing herself to remain calm, Chloe struggled to say something else when Charlotte beat her to it, saying quite primly, “And to what exactly do we owe that unfortunate pleasure?”
    A snort was Lady Dewfield’s only response as she eyed each of the ladies in turn. She eventually shrugged one shoulder and said, “Seems to me that all the eligible gentlemen have congregated here at Thorncliff. I didn’t want to miss the fun.” Turning around, she then headed for the door. She