Teasing Your Wicked Heart

CHAPTER 9

To his surprise, watching Lady Sarah Jane eat her supper was a pleasant affair. She had hurried through the soup and bread but it was incredibly more graceful than what he had observed from breakfast.

Sarah Jane seemed energized for the night, which was why he allowed himself to accompany her in viewing the Killsworth ancestry. At supper, Anthony deduced that Lady Sarah Jane was not informed of the details of her transfer any more than he was.

She confessed that she thought that her father, though intoxicated at that time, could not have given an Earldom to an unrelated peer. Her father had no delusions that he was king.

"Why did Mr. Collins remain at Thurstason," he inquired solicitously.

"Mr. Collins needs to facilitate arrangements of the funeral and fix some documents." She shrugged. "I think; however, that you need not worry about it. The Earldom is yours as far as I am concerned. He would not have thrown me here if that weren't what he believed."

But he wasn't interested in the Earldom. He was more interested in what that had to do with him.

They entered the room and he began his introductions of the Viscounts of Killsworth and their wives. The paintings grew exponentially larger from the 1st Viscount to the last one. Sarah Jane also noticed a wall with a plaque of Anthony's name but had no portrait.

"They don't look happy."

Anthony looked at her curiously. Portraits never looked happy. "The Viscounts?" He had never seen a formal portrait of aristocratic families with smiling expressions.

"Yes. They looked rather burdened." She shook her head and pointed at a particular cinch in the 3rd Viscount's lips. "He seems very displeased about something."

She then moved to the blank wall. "When will you be taking yours?"

"I haven't put a mind to it." His father, of course, had insisted for him to have his portrait taken while he had been still alive. But Anthony had many other pursuits, women and drinking were his favorite recreational activities and that took too much of his time to be idly sitting and posing for a portraitist to paint him.

She answered with a nod, and resisted the urge to ask why he had put it off. She moved slightly to the side and gazed at the portrait of his mother. Somehow, it made Anthony very uneasy.

"She's heartbreakingly beautiful."

"My father used to comment that she is either heartbreakingly beautiful or beautifully heartbreaking," he answered gruffly.

"I can imagine." Her words were soft and admiring. She knew that even if he wanted to conceal it, Anthony loved his mother very much.

As Anthony watched her eyes glisten with tears. He almost reached out to touch her, but the action seemed too intimate that he drew his hand back. He watched her as her face fell, and a shadow of doubt crossed her features, eyes unmoving from his mother's portrait.

"Whatever is the matter?" He just couldn't help himself.

She looked at him and then back at the painting. "Nothing."

The painting room, no matter what house she was in held great significance for her. Although it was not a Tuesday, she could not help but find herself in low spirits.

Even with less than 24 hours of acquaintance, Anthony knew that Lady Sarah Jane was not a girl who took to sadness easily. She was breath of fresh air, cheerful and almost childish in her happy nature.

It was hard to find someone like that, especially in a society where gossip and scandal taunted every individual.

"You can tell me," he urged her and waited if she would trust him with her tales of woe.