Page 51 of A Lady of Conscience

“Normans weren’t very tall, I gather.”

He smiled. “Perhaps not.” He led her through the entrance of the tower to the winding stair. The steps were solid stone. So too were the walls. They were in no danger, but the way was steep and narrow. It was impossible for two people to ascend except single-file.

Hannah climbed ahead of him, still holding his hand. “It’s exceedingly cold up here.”

“It was when I visited too,” he said. “Jack claimed it was because the tower is haunted.”

“Haunted?” She stopped short on the step above, turning abruptly to look at him.

James inelegantly bumped into her. Hannah’s foot slipped on the stone. She fell against him, her hands clutching his shoulders for balance. He caught her waist, steadying her before they both lost their footing. “Careful,” he said.

Their faces were nearly level. James found himself staring into her eyes. She looked back at him in breathless silence.

And he didn’t think. He didn’t strategize. For once, he acted purely with his heart, doing what he most wanted to do. What he’d dreamed of doing from almost the first moment of their acquaintance.

He bent his head and he kissed her.

Chapter Sixteen

Hannah’s eyes fell closed as James’s mouth captured hers. Her body listed against his. Indeed, she may well have sighed. She wasn’t entirely certain. Her mind had gone to porridge. It was impossible to breathe, let alone think. She could only feel. The granite-hard breadth of his shoulders beneath her fingers. The unyielding strength of his arms encircling her waist. And his lips, warm and sweet, as he kissed her slowly, tenderly.

Her own lips softened under his. Their breath mingled. It was a shocking intimacy. And there was no mistaking the gentleman with whom she was sharing it. It was James Beresford. Not the icily controlled viscount who had intimidated her all those months ago at Beasley Park, but the real James. The man who had been miserable after she’d rejected his proposal. The one who had risked his heart and his pride to come back to her, knowing full well he might be rejected again.

It was surely that which made him hold her a little too tightly, kiss her with a trifle too much heat.

Hannah didn’t mind it. Quite the reverse. Her heart thumped rapidly, and her blood surged in her veins. She curved a hand around his neck. “James,” she murmured.

The single whispered word seemed to recall him to his senses.

His mouth stilled on hers. At length, he drew back. His color was high, his chest rising and falling with unusual rapidity. “I have been unforgivably forward,” he said gruffly.

“Oh no,” she objected, breathless. “You haven’t— That is, it wasn’t⁠—”

“Forgive me. I did not bring you here to take advantage of you.”

“You haven’t taken advantage of me. Indeed, if you hadn’t come to my aid, I’d likely have fallen down the steps.”

“A generous depiction of what just occurred. I must beg your pardon.”

She looked into his eyes. For all his sudden formality, he was still holding her fast in his arms. “Pray, don’t spoil it,” she said softly.

He stared down at her, his brows notched. “Hannah⁠—”

“Miss Heywood?” a lady’s voice drifted into the tower from the churchyard. “Lord St. Clare? We have come to join your explorations!”

Hannah swiftly withdrew her hands from James’s shoulder in the same moment he abruptly released her from his arms. “Good heavens,” she said under her breath. “It’s Miss Paley.”

“They must be here,” a male voice replied from below. “There’s nothing else of interest for miles.”

“She isn’t alone,” James said to Hannah.

Hannah stepped back onto the step above. She hastily smoothed her dress in case the muslin had been unduly wrinkled during their embrace. When she’d finished, she gave James a terse nod.

He nodded once in reply before answering Miss Paley and her companion. “We’re on the stairs!”

In short order, the sound of Miss Paley’s skirts brushing against the stone announced her presence on the winding steps. She soon appeared behind James. “You are braver than I, to have ventured up so far,” she said. “What if this pitiful structure should tumble down on all our heads?”

Lord Fennick came after her. An almost imperceptible flicker of annoyance crossed James’s face at the sight of him. “It’s stood for centuries,” Lord Fennick said. “It’s not going to fall today.”