High Society novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Library

I told Hugh about the offer in the coach, because I could not hold it any longer.

I gave him the sum and the lease in one breath.

He sat very still on the opposite seat.

The Dowager had gone home earlier in a second carriage, and Tilly was asleep in the corner with her slippers off.

"What did you say?" he asked.

"I said no."

"Why?"

"Because I do not sell things I haven't agreed to sell."

He looked at me then.

"I am not asking about the money," I said.

"I am telling you."

The coach turned into the square, and the lamps went by one after another across his face.

At Denholm House I walked into the hall, past the butler, past the sleepy footmen, and into the library.

I could not sit.

I walked up and down in front of the dead fire, in my blue gown and my gloves, with my heart going.

My hands shook.

I tore off the gloves and threw them at the hearth.

The door opened and closed behind me.

I did not turn around.

"Effie," said Hugh.

"I stood in front of four hundred people tonight and insulted a woman in a diamond."

"She started it."

"It was a mistake."

"It was the best thing I have seen in my life."

I turned around.

He stood just inside the door with his coat undone and his cravat loose.

He looked at me exactly as my mother had said.

I crossed the room.

"Nothing in this house is for sale," I said.

"I know."

"Not me."

"Not you."

"Not this."

"No," said Hugh.

"Not this."

I took his face in both my hands, and I kissed him.

He made a sound against my mouth, deep in his chest, and then his arms were round me and he lifted me off the floor.

My back met the shelves, and books shifted behind my head.

His mouth was hot and rough and sure now, and I bit his lower lip and felt him shudder from his scalp to his boots.

"Say it," I said.

"Say what?"

"My name."

"Effie."

"Again."

"Effie, Effie."

I pushed his coat off his shoulders and he let it drop.

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