Page 63 of To Pleasure a Prince
“You know an awful lot about things a young lady shouldn’t.”
She smiled. “Thank you. I do try to keep abreast of the gossip.”
“For what reason?”
“To help me distinguish my friends from my enemies.”
“What a fine world you live in, that you have to do such a thing,” he said, lifting his glass in a mock toast.
“And your world is different? You ignore the local gossip about your tenants? You don’t know who is trustworthy or who has mistreated his family or who is too proud to take a tuppence of charity? You don’t act on such knowledge?”
He drank some lemonade. “It’s not the same.”
“Why? Because they’re not of your station? Admit it, Marcus—your world isn’t that different from mine. It’s made up of the good and the bad, the dangerous and the benign. And if a sensible person is to survive in either world, he—or she—must be able to tell which is which.”
He had never thought of it in quite that way. “I suppose,” he conceded.
“Because you’ve made that world yours, you understand it, and that’s why you feel comfortable in it. But you could understand this one, too, if you chose. This is where you belong, you know. I don’t understand why you fight it so.”
“Because I have never belonged here before.”
“You nevertriedto belong.”
“I saw no advantage to it. I still see none.”
“Wouldn’t marrying Louisa off be simpler if you were around to watch?”
A reluctant chuckle erupted from him. “You are too clever for your own good, did you know that?”
She graced him with a brilliant smile. “No. Not until you said so.”
Her smile pierced the scales that had long encased his heart, spreading a sweet warmth throughout him. He wanted this woman. It made no sense, and God knew it was foolish, but he wanted her. And not just in his bed, either.
He wanted her beside him at Castlemaine and—if need be—in a town house in London. He wanted to possess her so badly his body ached with it. She reminded him of the “woman clothed in sun” in his very own Blake dragon painting. He wanted her sun to shine only for him, only for the dragon.
But could the dragon possess the woman without consuming her? Or being consumed by her sun? That he did not know.
“Well, if it isn’t the cozy pair,” said a bitter male voice behind them.
Regina’s smile stiffened into a polite mask as she turned to greet the newcomer. “Good evening, Henry. How good to see you.”
Marcus faced her idiot cousin, forcing himself to acknowledge the man with a nod. “Whitmore. We were just headed off to dance.”
“With full lemonade glasses? I think not.” Whitmore insinuated himself between them and helped himself to the depleted source of lemonade. “Besides, you need not pretend around me. The rest of these fools may fall for this ridiculous act, but I at least know what’s really going on between you two.”
Alarm sparked in Regina’s eyes. “I can’t imagine what you mean.” She set down her lemonade glass to take Marcus’s arm. “And we were indeed going to dance. So if you’ll excuse us, Henry…”
She tugged at Marcus, and he started to go along, not wanting her to endure a repetition of Whitmore’s accusations of a few nights ago.
“So what didyouget out of the wager, Draker?” Whitmore called out.
That arrested Marcus. Especially when he caught sight of the panic in Regina’s eyes. Extricating himself from her now-fierce grip, he faced Whitmore. “What wager?”
“Between her and her brother. You know, the one where Foxmoor wagered that Regina could not clean you up and make you presentable for society.”
When Regina didn’t deny it outright, Marcus went numb. “Oh,thatwager.”
Judging from the satisfied smile on Whitmore’s face, the man had guessed that Marcus was unaware of any “wager.” He saluted Regina with his glass. “So tell me, what incentive did Foxmoor offer to get you to take Draker on as your charitable project?”
