Merrick announced, then sipped the red wine as he watched his ward eating her cottage pie with enjoyment, licking the fork and her lips with her small tongue. He thought she looked quite enchanting wearing that new shirt and blue cravat that Paris had taken many minutes to arrange on her person. Just ripe for the plucking, though any such thought was against God’s rule of nature. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. Not now and hadn’t been able to for the last two weeks. It was hell!Christine looked up, and her heart did a startled kick at the thought of being without him. “Why are you leaving?” she asked, knowing already that he wasn’t going to take her with him. London, she thought. He was going to London. He was going to see Lady Anne Wilson.He put his wineglass down. Christine didn’t know that his hand was gripping the stem of the glass and that it would break any second now if he were to apply more force.“Parliament,” he said curtly. “And then the season.”Aye, the season, with balls and parties and women, he thought.
