The Emerald Viscountess

~24~

Frantically finding the closest room to hide away and retreat in, Eleanora found herself in what looked like Kate's room, closing the door behind her and sliding down against it until she reached the floor.

"Oh dear god," she sobbed, pressing her palm against her mouth to quiet her cries.

She felt her whole head and face pulsing from the intense emotional convulsions but couldn't find herself to stop. Was it her fault that the Sheffields withdrew the trust fund? Eleanora let out another sob at the daunting thought.

A knock came from the other side of the door she was laying against. "Nora?"

Eleanora widened her eyes at the familiar voice of the viscount, quickly standing up and wiping away the tears, knowing that her smudged makeup would give away she'd been crying. She slowly opened the door, peeking out with one eye at the viscount.

"Anthony," she said in a whisper, letting him into Kate's dark bedroom, closing the door slowly behind him.

"Have you been crying?"

Anthony felt foolish asking the obvious, but he wanted to check in on her.

"Yes, I've been giving the floors a good washing with my tears," she said with a small laugh, thankful that he couldn't see her current state in the lack of light.

"Miss Sharma and I have had a short talk," Anthony began hesitantly, leftover anger still residing in him from dinner. "To be quite frank, the Sharmas are as angry at you as they are at me-"

"Oh, god," Eleanora drawled, putting her head in her hands.

"Nora, I need to get out of that engagement, no matter how fond of Miss Edwina I am," Anthony confessed, letting out a long sigh.

She set down her hands to her sides, furrowing her eyebrows at him. "I do not understand, Anthony!" she exclaimed, the ascent and descent of emotions getting the best of her. "You have been set on finding a wife this season, and once you did, after your impressive feats of pushing past Miss Sharma's objections, you no longer wish to marry Miss Edwina?! Has she done something?!"

Anthony took a hard swallow, hesitant as to what he was going to say next. "She has done nothing. It is you. You have made this match impossible."

Eleanora scoffed. "I beg your pardon? I am to leave for the Americas, how many times must I say-"

"And it is not far enough!" Anthony spat.

The darkness in the room made Anthony's hissing frustration send shivers down Eleanora's spine.

"Do you think there is a corner of this Earth that you could travel to, far away enough, to free me from this torment?" he asked rhetorically. "I am a gentleman. My father raised me to act with honor, but that honor is hanging by a thread, that grows more precarious with every moment I spend in your presence. You are the bane of my existence . . . and the object of all my desires."

Eleanora closed her eyes, basking in his whisper, replaying "The object of all my desires" in her head.

Say it again, she wanted to say.

The floor creaked under Anthony's weight as he made slow steps towards Eleanora. "Night and day, I dream of you, and what I . . ." He let out a breath, and the two were in such close proximity that Eleanora could feel his warmth. "Do you even know all the ways a lady can be seduced? The things I could teach you."

Their noses touched, and Eleanora had to close her eyes tight in order to resist herself from the urge to crash her lips to his and strip him of his clothes.

"I did not ask to be plagued by these feelings," Eleanora whispered. "Being driven to distraction everytime you enter the room."

She could feel Anthony's fingers pushing back strands of her hair behind her ear, and he cupped her face in the same, swift motion.