Sapphire

Sapphire sank her elbow into Myra’s side and both women were able to contain their laughter only until Mrs. Dedrick disappeared through the swinging kitchen door.

Sapphire stalled for half an hour, finishing up in the kitchen and sending a sleepy Myra up the back stairs to bed.

“I’ll wait up for you,” she mumbled.

“Don’t,” Sapphire said, having a feeling that she and Blake might come to an understanding. “You’re exhausted. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Myra gave a little wave and started up the steps again.

“And thank you,” Sapphire called after her.

“For what?” Myra turned on the stairs. “For settin’ a lady straight who needed settin’ straig

ht?”

Sapphire smiled up at her. As awful as her situation here might seem to her at times, she would never have met Myra had Blake not kidnapped her. “For being my friend,” she said softly.

Another smile and Myra was gone. Sapphire then scooped up the clean sheets and towels and headed through the dark house for Blake’s bedchamber, and decided, at the last moment, to take the front grand staircase.

Sapphire tapped on Blake’s door, and when she heard him call for her to enter, she walked in, arms piled high with sheets and towels.

“I thought maybe you wouldn’t come,” he said, closing the door behind him. He had removed his frock coat and silk cravat and rolled up his sleeves to his elbows. He had a glass of scotch in his hand.

“The master ordered that his sheets be changed. I’m told by the other maids that if I don’t follow Mrs. Dedrick’s orders, I’ll be out on my ear.”

Blake pushed the pile of linens to the floor and pulled her into his arms, covering her mouth with his. “I’ve missed you, little vixen.” He pressed his hips to hers, setting his glass on a carved rosewood table beside the door. “Can you tell how much I’ve missed you?” he asked, his voice low.

She closed her eyes for a moment, resisting him and the little tremors he sent through her, refusing to allow her body’s desires to overtake her mind. She opened her eyes. “I understand Miss Lawrence missed you a great deal.”

He kissed her neck and dragged his mouth over her collarbone. “I told you. She’s my friend’s daughter. I can’t very well be rude to her. And you can’t poison her.”

Sapphire raised her hands to Blake’s shoulders, allowing herself a small giggle. “I didn’t poison her. She had designs on you. Illicit ones.”

“I have absolutely no intentions of bedding my friend’s daughter. She’s a child.”

“How old is she?”

He lifted his head. “Hell, I don’t know. Twenty, I guess.”

“I’m twenty,” she said softly, gazing into his eyes.

He was silent for a moment. “That’s different.”

“I don’t see how.”

“When do you and I ever see eye-to-eye?” He drew his thumb along her jawline in a tender caress. “Hmm?” he murmured. “I wonder, is this the way it will always be with us?”

She looked down. She had come to tell him in private that he must send her back to London, but she didn’t want to quarrel with him, not yet. “I don’t know.” She caught his hand in hers and threaded her fingers through his. “There are some things we agree on.”

He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I’ll say.” Then he reached down to remove her apron, but she pushed his hands aside.

“Don’t. I’m hot and sticky. I look a sight.”

“You don’t.” He kissed the top of her head and stepped back from her. “But why don’t you take a bath?”

She looked in the direction of his bathing room longingly. “I shouldn’t.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” He reached for his glass of scotch on the edge of the table.