Lady Laugherty's Loves Read Online Free

he
prodded.
    “It’s not fitting for a wife to speak
of her husband’s faults with another man,” she quipped.
    “Exactly,” he drawled slowly, looking
away from her and back toward the archery games. “You don’t see
them.”
    That was a challenge if she’d ever
heard one. She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. His gaze
lowered to dance across her décolletage and then back up to her
face. Damn him. Her nipples responded to his heady regard, pressing
insistently against the fabric of her bodice. “He snores,” she
finally croaked out.
    He cackled. Loudly.
“ That’s all you
have?  Sweetheart, he was snoring long before you met him. I
can’t remember a time when he didn’t snore.” He prompted her. “Got any
more?”
    “Well, he’s terrible at charades. He
has very little imagination.”
    Ellis arched one eyebrow at
her. “Is that so? I believe he has you fooled, because his
imagination has never been in question.”
    “Beg your pardon?” Olivia had to
admit, that comment ruffled her feathers more than a little. “I
happen to know he’s awful at charades. He couldn’t pretend his way
out of a satchel.”
    Ellis chuckled. “He’s a poor
pretender. I’ll give you that. But his imagination has never been
in question.”
    Just then Avery joined them,
collecting his jacket from a nearby footman. “What this talk of
imagination? What did I miss?”
    “Your wife says you have no
imagination.” Ellis grinned unrepentantly.
    “Oh, she does, does she?” He bent his
head to say softly in her ear, “I had enough imagination for you
last night.” The warmth of a blush moved up her cheeks as he
nuzzled the side of her face. She glanced up at Ellis, but his gaze
was upon them, his lids lowered, his eyes dark with something she
didn’t quite understand.
    “Behave!” Olivia scolded as she
swatted at Avery’s hands.
    Ellis leaned back against a tree and
crossed his arms over his chest, with one foot raised to rest his
heel against the bark. He just watched them quietly as Avery
nuzzled her neck. His gaze caught hers and she found it nearly
impossible to draw her own away from his. Heat crept up her face as
he arched one eyebrow slowly at her. He knew how much his appraisal
affected her. Oh, dear.
    “Oh, young love,” the Duchess of
Belgarden sighed as she walked by them.  “I remember when His
Grace was that amorous.” She longingly looked toward the man whose
sagging jaws kept him from sighting his bow and arrow properly. Of
course, she would tell him the arrow was crooked, instead, as she
had all afternoon. “In his day, he was insatiable,” the older woman
continued. She winked once at Olivia, who choked. 
    Avery rubbed Olivia’s back in small
circles as Her Grace took her place at the platform and sighted her
bow.  “Are you all right?” he asked softly.
    “I’m fine.” Mortified, but fine. 
She turned toward the manor. “I’ll be back in a moment.” She waved
both the men off as they started after her. “I’m perfectly capable
of walking by myself,” she snapped. At their shocked expressions,
she forced herself to stop, smile sweetly at them and then turn
casually away. In truth, her knees were knocking and her heartbeat
was thumping. Those men were waging an assault on her senses. And
they were winning.
    ***
    Ellis finally caught up with Olivia
when she darted back down the stairs with her shawl. But, instead
of returning to the back garden, she took a deep breath and entered
the blue parlor, her footsteps slow and quiet. She settled at the
pianoforte with a swish of her skirts and placed her fingers on the
keys.  Ellis propped himself in the doorway to watch
her.
    Instead of the haunting melody he’d
expected to hear, a rowdy tune better suited for a brothel
piano-master to play leapt from her fingertips. He smiled softly as
he picked up the chorus and hummed beneath his breath. He’d sung
that very tune on more than one drunken night. He’d just never
expected to hear