Susan Johnson - Perfect Kisses

Carlyle was there to get the corset, of course. He had planned to borrow a book from the library-it was on the second floor, next to her bedroom-dash into that feminine sanctuary, rifle through her chest of drawers, and leave.

He put a booted foot on the top step, countering Mr. Patchen’s blocking of the doorway with a slight leaning forward of his body. The manservant leaned back a little, just enough for Carlyle to bring up his other foot and tower over the fellow.

“And what may I do for you, sir?” Mr. Patchen said, in a tone that sounded a trifle more agreeable.

“I had hoped to borrow a book-something on India. I know it is in the library, but not exactly where. If I might browse for just a few minutes…”

“I suppose you could, sir. Miss Fowler would know where it is, though.”

Carlyle gave him a jovial smile. “Oh, I don’t think so. May I come in? Thank you.” He squeezed past Mr. Patchen, tempted to remind him who paid his salary.

He brushed past the new maid, Molly, who gave him a surprised look and then a tentative smile. Good. He had at least one ally within the house. He smiled back and took the stairs two at a time.

Carlyle reached the upper landing and went directly into the library, opening the door without making a sound. He shut it just as quietly and looked about. The room held thousands of volumes, shelved in double rows, the newer books in front of the older ones. Susannah came into it to read, he knew.

Her bedroom and sitting room were next to it, and the brief glimpse he’d had when he’d seen her in the corset would help him. Not that he had taken in the details of the decor on that startling night.

But she had told him that she and Lakshmi had made the round of the shops, and decorated with bright colors and pretty trinkets. He had no doubt that her rooms were as charming as their inhabitant and quite unlike the sobriety of the library.

There had been a chest of drawers and no doubt there was a closet. He hoped it would not take him long to find the corset.

He would need a book. Carlyle looked at the shelves. It would be best if the book were large enough to hide a corset, with floppy covers and a well-worn spine. In other words, an old book.

There were many that would fit that description-he pulled a few out at random. Now in India, Dr. Josephus, the owner of both the houses, was a scholar of ancient languages and the author of several tomes on Sanskrit that only a few people had read. He had been happy to let the place to a well-recommended young woman who had penned a note of appreciation to him in graceful Hindi.

None of the books seemed large enough. Perhaps something more like a monograph, or a book of art prints. That would do to hold the thing.

He coughed and it echoed. For a room that held nothing but words, the library was profoundly silent. There was not a speck of dust in it, but the room had the faintly musty smell of old paper.

Carlyle kneeled down to the lower shelves, which held taller books, and drew out a volume bound in tattered silk brocade. He opened it carefully and saw the first illustration of lovers, quite naked, in a pavilion under the moon. He leafed through it, realizing he had found an exquisitely painted manual of the arts of love.

He could not read the ancient script but the paintings were ravishing. Tender couples entwined in dreamy bliss upon page after page, pleasuring each other in myriad ways. It was the perfect hiding place for the corset of a woman he would have loved to love in just that way.

Carlyle closed the book and walked out of the library, grateful for the thick Persian carpets that muffled his steps. He looked about on the landing, then peered down the stairwell. No one seemed to be polishing or sweeping anything. Most important, no one was coming up the stairs.

Her bedroom door was only a few feet away, but he would have to work fast. Carlyle turned the knob and took a precautionary peek before entering. He went straight to the chest of drawers, set the book on top of it, then began to open each one. He looked through the contents without leaving them in disarray, but doing it made his skin crawl. Should Mr. Patchen catch him at this underhanded business he would whack Carlyle with the poker and it would be just retribution. But he had to get those diamonds.

In the last drawer, in the back, he saw a bit of pink silk. He lifted up the rest of the clothes and there it was, limp. Something that would never happen to him if he was next to her skin, he thought, grinning.

He pulled it from the drawer and examined the ribbon rosebuds in the frill. They were still intact, tightly furled. He could feel a diamond deep inside one. Carlyle looked to her dressing table for scissors and saw a little pair that would serve very well.

He used one blade to open the rosebud, squeezed it just so and eased out the first diamond. It lay in his palm, giving off a cold light that seemed somehow accusatory. It took him less than a minute to remove the other five and put them in his pocket.

There was no time to resew the rosebuds and they looked much as they had. He folded the corset and put it back in the drawer, then picked up the book of love. He was looking forward to further study of its beautiful pictures.

Well and good. He had done it. Carlyle turned to go, but a noise in the garden made him cross the room to look out of her bedroom window.

Below him was the quince tree, near the end of its bloom, the center of a boxwood maze that had been carefully tended by the old scholar. Carlyle had wandered in it just last week with Susannah-if twenty steps down a right-angled brick path could be called wandering, especially with Mrs. Posey a discreet distance away.

Susannah and Carlyle had lingered for awhile all the same. The flowers reminded her of India, she’d said. He heard the wistful longing in her voice-ah, how he loved the sound of her voice. It was as if he was hearing it right now.

But…he was. Susannah and Lakshmi were standing outside the door. He was caught in her bedroom, a place he had no reason to be.

“So you are a thief,” Susannah said quietly.

He was momentarily speechless. There was nothing he could say or do to extricate himself from this situation. Lakshmi looked at him, trembling all over, her doe eyes wide with fear. No doubt she could guess why he was there, but she wouldn’t give him away.

Carlyle could not confess everything. He had no idea how Susannah might react and there was much was at stake. But he had to say something.

“I came up to borrow a book.” He held it up but kept it tightly shut. If she saw what was inside it, he would be a dead man. Which sounded rather restful.

She barely glanced at the tattered brocade cover. “That is not mine.”

“No, it isn’t. It belongs to Dr. Josephus.”

“Do you think I have the right to lend out his books?”

“I will ask him myself,” Carlyle said boldly, then realized his mistake.

“Really? But he is in India,” she said icily. “And you should not be in my bedroom. Do not try to tell me that that book was in here. I have never seen it.” Susannah came into the room, putting down her things and brushing so close to him that he had to step aside. She turned around and did it again, and Carlyle realized that he was being herded out the door. If he stayed in her room a second longer, she would probably nip at his heels.

He had been bested and with a trick very like the one he had employed to get past Mr. Patchen. Humiliated by his undignified position, Carlyle told himself he was getting exactly what he deserved.

He stepped out into the hallway, nodding to Lakshmi and holding onto the book, trying to make the best of it. Susannah put her hands on her hips and glared the nonchalant expression right off his face. He straightened up.