Love Then Begins Read Online Free PDF Page B

shoulder and sighed.
    “Holly,” he said above her. “I’m happy. Thank you.”
    He hesitated for a moment, looking down at her and her swollen lips, flushed cheeks and glittering eyes before he kissed her hungrily, nearly giving in to his ever rising need there and then. She finally caught his head between her hands and forced him to let go.
    She traced his features with her fingers and studied every inch of his generous mouth, his straight nose, the stubble on his chin and cheeks and the way his hair fell down over his forehead and almost hid those incredible blue eyes that saw all of her—clothed or not.
    “My dearest heart,” she said, “my dearest most beloved.”
    “I love you,” he answered. “There is only you. Everything is you.”
    “ B UT YOU’RE THE MISTRESS, YOU most certainly can change your mind,” the young husband said as he followed his wife down the stairs several days later.
    “Certainly I may,” she retorted without turning around, avoiding the danger of his persuasive eyes that had been so effective in keeping her upstairs for so long. “However, I do not wish to change my mind.”
    “Holly,” he began softly, but she twisted away from his hands that were just moving to encircle her waist.
    “No.” She ran down several steps before turning around and giving him what she hoped was a stern look, though not really trying to hide the smile that hovered behind it. “We agreed this morning. I am mistress of this house, and I should like to at last preside over a dinner at my own table.”
    He tugged at the knot around his neck, uncomfortable after nearly a week of going without. “I much prefer to see you presiding over a tray on your bed,” he said, eyes sparkling with mischief. “Come on,” he winked and tilted his chin toward the upstairs, “let’s go back up.”
    “But we already sent word to Mrs McLaughlin,” Holly protested rather weakly, “she’ll be expecting us to come down.”
    “She won’t mind, love.”
    As much as Holly knew that the housekeeper would indeed mind, she found herself in great danger of taking that outstretched hand and allowing herself to be convinced that one more dinner upstairs would not hurt anything. Thankfully, she was rescued in her moment of weakness by the sounds of scraping feet and gruff throat clearing noises at the bottom of the staircase.
    “Ah, Mr McLaughlin,” Lord Baugham said upon seeing the man awaiting their descent, “are you here to play butler and escort us to the dining room?”
    “No, m’laird,” the man said, “if ye’ll forgive me. I didnae want to trouble ye, but if I might have a minute . . . it’s just, the freeze being so bad and all, the drainage ditches hae iced over and the stables are flooded these past two days.”
    “Freeze? There was a bad freeze?”
    Holly took advantage of Mr McLaughlin’s lengthy explanation to send her husband a smile and steal away from his dangerous influence. She slipped down the hallway toward the dining room, but after thinking that she would very much like to enter that room for their first dinner together on her husband’s arm, she detoured into the library to wait for him to conclude his business.
    She smiled as she walked in. She had been down once or twice since she entered the house as its new mistress, of course, but it had always been a hurried visit to fetch a book, quills or paper, but now she could linger by the door as she took in that dear library that had born witness to so much revolution in their lives. There was a good fire burning, but very few candles lit. Mrs McLaughlin must have doubted they would pay the library very much attention on their sojourn downstairs. Or perhaps she thought they had no need of much light . . .
    Holly smiled at the thought. What the past few days had taught her about living under the capable and affectionate guidance of Mrs McLaughlin stopped her from blushing at the housekeeper’s ability to anticipate their needs and behaviour