Page 27 of The Scholar's Key
“How do you know that I have integrity?”
“I just do. You are a gentleman, if there ever was one.”
Which was true. If there was ever a man she would say she trusted to do the right thing, it was he.
He leaned forward. “Lady Percy. Do not concern yourself with what I will or will not do with Mrs. MacNall. The most important thing is that I succeed in finding the necklace, is it not?”
“I suppose.”
Except it wasn’t. It wasn’t at all.
“Well, there is one more thing that you might need to learn,” she said, uncertain why she was grasping for a reason to stay.
“Which is?”
“The art of seduction.”
CHAPTER10
The art of seduction?
Noah lifted his brow. “I am interested to know why you feel that you should be the one to teach me,” he said. He had always assumed that she was an innocent young woman, but was he, perhaps, wrong in his assumption? He supposed there was only one way to find out. “Flirting, perhaps, but seduction? Is that a topic you are skilled in, Percy?”
Her cheeks began to flush, the pink rising from her neck up to her defined cheekbones most becomingly.
“I-I am not, exactly,accomplishedin the matter, but I have read a great many books. And I thought I could help. Who else can you speak to about this?”
“Are you assuming that I do not know how to seduce a woman?”
“I never said that. I—”
“It’s all right,” he said, taking pity on her. “I wouldn’t blame you if you did. But I assure you, I shall be just fine.”
He also had no wish to discuss this any further with her, lest she find out his true inexperience with the subject. It wasn’t that he had never been with a woman before — it had just not been particularly often.
“I find it quite interesting to study the most renowned of seducers,” he said instead, changing the subject. “Casanova, Cleopatra… Lord Byron.”
“You are going to seduce Mrs. MacNall, then?”
“Does it matter to you?”
Her jaw snapped shut at that, and she looked away from him. He had to tamp down the small glow in his chest that she apparently did not want to see him with another woman.
“I do not want to see your name associated with a mistress who is connected to another man,” she said.
“I see,” he said. “So you are concerned for me, then.”
She let out a sigh as she began to stand, but he reached out and placed a hand on her arm. “My apologies. I was only teasing, but perhaps I am not so proficient at that, either. I would like you to stay. Please.”
“Very well,” she said warily. “Let me see it then.”
“See what?”
“This seduction that you are so proficient at.”
“Oh,” he said, sitting back now. He hadn’t thought that he would be expected to perform, here in this library in the middle of the day. But if he didn’t, he was sure she would assume his ineptitude.
He took a breath. He could do this, just as he had flirted with her at her house. He just had to pretend that he was someone else – someone like his brother. Take on that personality.
