The young earl stood on his toes, reaching for the item in question. “Izzy! Give him to me!”
“Why should I?” Nick heard the teasing in her tone—was drawn to it. “I’m the one who saved him. By all rights, he belongs to me now.”
“You don’t even like turtles!”
“And for that, brother, you should be eternally grateful.” She looked past him with a laugh then, and noticed Nick. He knew the moment that she registered his presence. Her smile vanished and she immediately looked around the room. For Georgiana. She was hiding her from him. Anger flared, fleetingly, at the discovery—that she did not trust him.
Not that she should. He was about to reveal their location to the world.
One hand went to her hair in a movement he was coming to recognize as the product of her nervousness. Distracted, she lowered her arm, delivering the item she had so proudly procured into James’s grasp.
Nick felt a keen sense of loss at her change in demeanor. He wanted to know the smiling, happy Isabel. He’d had enough of this serious one.
He dipped his head. “Lady Isabel. Once more, we meet under … peculiar … circumstances.”
She gave a quick, almost imperceptible curtsy, more to avoid meeting his gaze than for anything else, he guessed. “Lord Nicholas. If you would stop turning up uninvited, I assure you I would seem less peculiar.”
“I never called you peculiar. Unique, yes. Intriguing, certainly. But never peculiar.”
Color rose on her cheeks, and Nick felt a wash of pleasure at the sight. Even as he considered acting on the feeling, however, he was reminded of James’s presence. Turning his attention to the boy, he crouched low. “I very much like turtles, Lord Reddich. Yours appears to be a fine specimen. May I have a look? ”
James proudly held his pet out for inspection. Nick made a show of looking the turtle over. “Good-looking, indeed.”
James beamed. “His name is George. After the king.”
“I am certain the king would be very proud to have such a namesake.”
“I found him in the spring. Izzy and I built the vivarium for him. It took us several weeks to make it perfect.”
Nick looked up at Isabel, curious about a young woman who would spend such time developing a habitat for a turtle.
“Did you?” His gaze did not leave her. “What an excellent project.”
Isabel huffed her irritation with the conversation, deliberately looking away and crossing her arms, pulling the fabric of her dress until it stretched tightly across her br**sts.
He willed himself not to notice.
She had lovely br**sts.
“Yes, well, if we do not move this vivarium, George shall lose all of his land,” Isabel said, drawing Nick’s attention back to the matter at hand. “The leaky roof has taken aim at the turtle.”
James and Nick followed the direction of Isabel’s finger, pointing at the ceiling. There was a leak in the roof and George’s habitat was, indeed, under siege.
“You might as well stay, Lord Nicholas,” Isabel said, and Nick noted the dryness of her tone. “We could use your brute strength.”
Nick felt a primal satisfaction at her words—a recognition of the most basic of differences between them. The unrefined response was not something of which he should be proud, he knew. “I shall take it as a great compliment that you think me useful at all, Lady Isabel.”
He noticed a small smile played across her lips as she turned back to the giant glass enclosure. She was not the unflappable female she wished to be.
“Put George down over there,” she said to her brother, indicating a low table in the far corner of the room, “then come over here and help.” She looked up at the ceiling again, considering her options.
Finally, she looked back at Nick and, indicating the far corner of the room, said, “I think over there is our best bet.”
With a nod, Nick took his place at one end of the vivarium. “I do not suppose you would allow me to fetch Rock to help instead of doing this yourself? ”
Isabel matched his stance at the opposite end of the enclosure. “If I needed help, St. John, I would call for a footman.”
“Of course you would,” Nick said dryly, wondering which of the motley crew of footwomen she would summon. It was not worth the argument. He put his shoulder to the container and pushed. Good Lord, the thing weighed a ton. He did most of the work of moving the vivarium, Isabel lending her strength to guide it into its new home, James looking on, clutching George.
And then the sky fell.
One moment, he was catching his breath, waiting for Isabel to indicate that she was satisfied with the new location of the enclosure, and the next, there was an ungodly crash behind him. He whirled around at the sound to find that an enormous piece of the ceiling plaster had fallen, landing in the exact place where they had all been standing not a minute earlier. A cloud of dust marked the path of the chunk of wet ceiling, heavy with rainwater that had soaked through the roof overnight.
There was a moment of stunned silence as they all took in the damage before Isabel let out a long sigh. “I suppose it was only a matter of time before that happened. Now you see why I was repairing the roof yesterday, Lord Nicholas.” She turned to James. “You might as well go find your governess. I cannot imagine you’ll be using the schoolroom today.”
James blinked up at his sister, considering his options. Apparently, an afternoon with his governess somewhere other than the schoolroom was too enticing. Returning George to his home, the boy tore from the room, leaving Nick and Isabel to the mess.