Page 46 of Lords, Ladies and Love

“Ah.” She nodded slowly. “I understand now. So what we need to find is perhaps a previous case. Something similar. I mean, you are not the first to be forced into marriage. Perhapswe can find someone who has fought the same thing and won. If it has been found to be immoral, then a court cannot force you to adhere to such terms.”

His eyes lit. “Yes, that’s exactly it.” His brow puckered. “But wait…We?”

“Yes.” She grinned. This was just the sort of challenge she enjoyed and her medieval research could wait. Once the problem of Lord Seth and his strange inheritance clause was dealt with, he would be back to his normal life of seducing widows or whatever it was these rakes did and she could return to her research.

“I am going to help you, my lord,” she vowed. “And we will find a way out of this for you.”

The first true smile she’d seen all day cracked across his face. “I do believe with your help, Miss Hastings, that almost anything might be possible.”

Chapter Four

“If I look at another book, I may go addled.”

Miss Hastings ignored him and flicked over another page, sticking out her tongue slightly as she did so. Seth’s lips twitched. He’d become attuned to her habits over the past three days and sticking out her tongue when she concentrated was one of her most amusing ones. The way she wrinkled up her nose was strangely endearing too or the two little creases that appeared between her brows when she found something important.

He shut the book and rolled his shoulders. A crack echoed through the empty library.

She lifted her head. “That did not sound pleasant.”

“It did not feel pleasant either. My body is not designed to sit in chairs all day long, hunched over books. I do not know how you do it.”

“We have only read through thirty-seven books.” That nose wrinkle was back. “Plus eighteen journals.”

He lifted a brow. “How do you know that? I haven’t even kept track.”

She shrugged. “I have a way with numbers. They just sort of add up automatically in my mind. If I see something, I tend to know the quantity of them immediately.”

Seth leaned in. What a strange one this woman was. He’d certainly never met one like her. The more he observed her, the more he was convinced this whole wallflower, matronlylook was a cover for something. Maybe she was one of these mousy creatures that was simply waiting for her true beauty to be revealed. He’d seen it before, to be sure. A plain little thing enters Society and by the time the mamas and matrons are done with her, she was the prettiest thing anyone has ever beheld.

“So if I point to a bookshelf, you can tell me instantly how many books there are?”

“Almost instantly,” she corrected.

“What about that one there?” He thrust his finger in the direction of a row of books to their left, in various sizes.

The wrinkled nose remained while she ran her gaze over it. “Fifty-two.”

He shook his head. “Uncanny. Do it again.”

“I am not some jester, here for your entertainment.”

“Can you do anything else? What other secrets do you have, Miss Hastings?”

“No secrets at all, I assure you.” She motioned to the book. “Now, shall we?”

“No. I need respite. And I want to find out what else is hidden in that big brain of yours.”

A sour look crossed her face. “As I said, I am not here for your entertainment, my lord.”

“Is it wrong for me to wish to get to know you?” He offered a charming grin.

Her gaze landed on his lips then flitted upward. “There’s no need…”

“By the looks of it, we may be spending many more weeks together. I would feel it rude indeed if we did not know at least a little something about each other.”

Miss Hastings sighed and closed the book. “Very well. If we take a little break, will you promise to stop asking me about my…brain?”

“Perhaps.”

---