Part 12 (1/2)
”I never said otherwise.”
”But you think me a complete tomboy. Admit it.”
He measured his words. ”I think you a woman with a few unusual interests that happen to be similar to those of some men. Those interests don't, however, make you a tomboy.”
No tomboy would fire his blood the way she did right now in her elegant redingote, despite the black smudges of powder along its sleeves and the mud caked along its hem. And no tomboy would have kept him up last night imagining what it would be like to raise her skirts so he could run his hands along the pale swaths of thigh that lay above her garters.
”And yet,” she said hoa.r.s.ely, ”you kissed me as if I were some mannish chit beneath your notice. G.o.d forbid you should treat me as a desirable woman in front of my suitors. It might give them ideas.”
He stared at her, thunderstruck. She was angry because he'd accorded her the respect she deserved? ”Forgive me, my lady,” he said acidly. ”I didn't think you'd want me to toss you down in the gra.s.s and ravish you. I see I was mistaken.”
Two spots of color appeared on her cheeks. ”There is a vast s.p.a.ce between ravis.h.i.+ng me and treating me like a child. The gentlemen expected you to kiss me on the lips, as they would have. You won such a kiss, after all. When you didn't take it, I'm sure they thought it was because I was somehow ... unattractive to you. And that only hurts my cause.”
Her cause, which was to be affianced to one of those a.r.s.es. Anger boiled up in him. ”Let me see if I understand you correctly. You wanted me to kiss you with some degree of pa.s.sion so your suitors would be convinced of your desirability as a woman. Is that right?”
She cast him a resentful look, then nodded.
He strode up close, unable to contain his temper. ”Isn't it enough for you that they're already barking at your heels like randy hounds? That they're seizing your hand at the breakfast table and inviting you for tte--tte practice sessions at their estates?”
”What good does that do me when you seek to turn their affections away at every turn? You provoked me to accept that shooting challenge because you wanted me to frighten them off with my enthusiasm for guns. Admit it.”
All right, so that was true. But he had good reasons for it. ”I wanted them to see you for who you really are and not for the woman you keep pretending to be.”
”Pretending to be?” she said in a choked voice. ”And who is that? A lady worthy of marriage? You wanted to expose me as some ... adventuress or man in woman's attire or ... oh, I don't know what.”
”No!” he protested, suddenly all at sea in their argument.
”You know what, Mr. Pinter? Ever since we made our agreement, you've only made matters worse, for some nefarious reason of your own.” She planted her hands on her hips and gave him a look of pure defiance. ”So you're dismissed from my employ. I no longer require your services.” With her head held high, she strode for the door.
h.e.l.l and blazes, he wouldn't let her do this! Not when he knew what was at stake.
”You don't want to hear my report?” he called out after her.
She paused near the door. ”I don't believe you even have a report.”
”I certainly do, a very thorough one. I've only been waiting for my aunt to transcribe my scrawl into something decipherable. Give me a day, and I can offer you names and addresses and dates, whatever you require.”
”A day? Just another excuse to put me off so you can wreak more havoc.” She stepped into the doorway, and he hurried to catch her by the arm and drag her around to face him.
He ignored the withering glance she cast him. ”The viscount is twenty-two years your senior,” he said baldly.
Her eyes went wide. ”You're making that up.”
”He's aged very well, I'll grant you, but he's still almost twice your age. Like many vain Continental gentlemen, he dyes his hair and beard-which is why he appears younger than you think.”
That seemed to shake her momentarily. Then she stiffened. ”All right, so he's an older man. That doesn't mean he wouldn't make a good husband.”
”He's an aging roue, with an invalid sister. The advantages in a match are all his. You'd surely end up taking care of them both. That's probably why he wants to marry you.”
”You can't be sure of that.”
”No? He's already choosing not to stay here for the house party at night because of his sister. That tells me that he needs help he can't get from servants.”
Her eyes met his, hot with resentment. ”Because it's hard to find ones who speak Portuguese.”
He snorted. ”I found out this information from his Portuguese servants. They also told me that his lavish spending is a faade. He's running low on funds. Why do you think his servants gossip about him? They haven't been paid recently. So he's definitely got his eye on your fortune.”
”Perhaps he does,” she conceded sullenly. ”But not the others. Don't try to claim that of them.”
”I wouldn't. They're in good financial shape. But Devonmont is estranged from his mother, and no one knows why. I need more time to determine it, though perhaps your sister-in-law could tell you, if you bothered to ask.”
”Plenty of people don't get along with their families,” she said stoutly.
”He has a long-established mistress, too.”
A troubled expression crossed her face. ”Unmarried men often have mistresses. It doesn't mean he wouldn't give her up when he marries.”
He cast her a hard stare. ”Are you saying you have no problem with a man paying court to you while he keeps a mistress?”
The sigh that escaped her was all the answer he needed. ”I don't think he's interested in marriage anyway.” She tipped up her chin. ”That still leaves the duke.”
”With his mad family.”
”He's already told me about his father, whom I knew about anyway.”
”Ah, but did you know about his great-uncle? He ended his life in an asylum in Belgium, while there to receive some special treatment for his delirium.”
Her lower lip trembled. ”The duke didn't mention that, no. But then our conversation was brief. I'm sure he'll tell me if I ask. He was very forthright on the subject of his family's madness when he offered-”
As she stopped short, Jackson's heart dropped into his stomach. ”Offered what?”
She hesitated, then squared her shoulders. ”Marriage, if you must know.”
d.a.m.n it all. Jackson had no right to resent it, but the thought of her in Lyons's arms made him want to smash something. ”And of course, you accepted his offer,” he said bitterly. ”You couldn't resist the appeal of being a great d.u.c.h.ess.”
Her eyes glittered at him. ”You're the only person who doesn't see the advantage in such a match.”
”That's because I don't believe in marriages of convenience. Given your family's history, I'd think that you wouldn't either.”
She colored. ”And why do you a.s.sume it would be such a thing? Is it so hard to believe that a man might genuinely care for me? That he might actually want to marry me for myself?”
The hurt in her words set him back on his heels.
”Why would anyone wish to marry the reckless Lady Celia, after all,” she went on in a choked voice, ”if not for her fortune or to sh.o.r.e up his reputation?”
”I didn't mean any such thing,” he said sharply.