Page 16 of Not Quite a Lady
‘What other things, precisely, Miss France?’
‘Your luggage from the Green Dragon. I thought it best to have it removed and your account settled. They know where you are in case there are any replies to your advertisement,’ she added hastily when the dark brows drew together.
‘And how did you discover my direction?’
‘From your notebook. I had to check, I had no idea if anyone would be waiting for you, expecting you back. And I did not read anything, I only skimmed through to find some clue as to your lodgings. Now, please rest. I am going to eat my soup before it gets cold.’
‘I cannot stay here.’
‘Why not, for goodness sake?’ Lily put down her soup spoon impatiently. ‘You have had a very nasty blow to the head, the doctor says you must rest, and this is much better for you than staying in that cheap inn.’
‘You are a single lady and I am not a charitable case.’ For some reason he seemed to be becoming positively annoyed.
‘I did not suggest that you were. You may certainly refund me whatever Percy expended at the Green Dragon. But if you think I am going to allow someone who has come to my aid not once, but twice, to nurse a bad head wound in some third-rate hostelry, you may think again, Mr Lovell.’
They glared at each other.
‘Miss France, if I may suggest, you are in enough trouble with that business this morning and the ending of your engagement to Lord Randall to add harbouring a down-at-heel mine owner in your bedroom.’
‘Who is to know?’ Lily shrugged. ‘And this is the spare bedroom, not mine, and you are not down-at-heel. Your hair may need cutting and your clothes are a trifle out of fashion, but your boots are admirable.’
The grey eyes narrowed dangerously at this sweeping assessment, but much to Lily’s surprise he laughed. ‘I like to get my priorities right. Do you get your own way in everything, Miss France?’
‘I try to,’ Lily confessed. ‘I do not see the point of being extremely rich if one does not get the benefit from it.’
‘That is certainly frank. But money does not buy you everything.’
His smile was wry and Lily stiffened. Was he criticising her? ‘Most things it does,’ she retorted.
‘But not obedience from those who are financially independent of you as I am. Please ring for your footman and my clothes, Miss France.’
‘No. I am not asking for yourobedience,you exasperating man, just for you to show some common sense and do as the doctor orders.’
‘I will get up anyway.’ Jack gripped the edge of the bedclothes and sat up straighter.
‘You cannot. You have no clothes on.’
‘That, if I may say so, is your problem, Miss France. Not mine.’ Jack Lovell tossed back the coverlet and blankets and tugged the sheet free where it had been tucked in. ‘Now, ma’am, am I going to have to find where my luggage is by myself, or are you going to ring for it?’
He was bluffing, he had to be. He would never do it. ‘No.’
‘Very well.’ Before Lily’s horrified gaze Jack swung his legs out of bed, swathed the sheet around himself toga-fashion and stood up.
The effect was decent, in that he was certainly better coveredthan most Classical statues that she had seen, but the impact of bare legs, one exposed shoulder and most of his chest was to suggest all too vividly the nakedness that the sheet concealed.
‘Mr Lovell.Get back to bed!’
The door opened to reveal Blake with a loaded tray. He stopped dead at the sight of the apparition facing him, then stepped forward hastily as Aunt Herrick bustled past him, saw Jack and let out a piercing scream.
Blake dropped the tray, showering all of them withCrème de Cressyand claret as Percy shot into the room.
‘Are you all right, ma’am?’ He stared around wildly, then gawped at the near-naked man dominating the bedchamber.
‘No I amnotall right.’ Aunt Herrick waved a frantic hand at Jack. ‘This perverted brute was trying to assault my niece. Send for the constables!’
Lily, torn between hysterical laughter and horror, pressed her hands over her mouth as Jack took a hasty step forward. ‘Madam, I assure you my intention–’
He could not have untucked all of the sheet from under the mattress. With his long stride it caught at the back with a jerk, pulled from his grip and fell to the floor.
