Page 56 of Nothing But a Rakehell
He could tell her.
The evil imp whispered again in his ear.
He could. He could take what she offered, take her at her word. Teach her the ways of men and women. He nearly groaned at the thought. She’d given her word, after all. Friends. And she wouldn’t expect more.
Except—she would. He knew why she asked after the street girl. He knew the story she was spinning in her head. She meant to make a hero of him.
“It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change anything.”
You cannot make a purse from a sow’s ear. And not even she could fashion a decent man from a broken, bitter wreck.
“You’ve changed me.” She reached out and took his hand. She held it sandwiched between her own, small, cool palms. He could feel her bounding pulse with a fingertip and wondered if she could feel his.
“I went down to the dining room this morning and the buzzing talk stopped when I stepped in,” she said in almost a whisper. “It was early. Not everyone was up. Neither Tensford nor Hope had yet come down. I stood on the threshold and looked at their faces, either quietly averted or deliberately blank, and I went and gathered up pockets full of muffins and apples. I went straight to the stables. As I left, the talking started up again.” She looked up at him and smiled. “I didn’t care. It wasn’t nearly as painful as it once would have been—because of this.” She squeezed his hand. “Because I know you see me. And you feel something for me—even if you don’t want to.”
Oh, bloody, sodding hell. She was going to kill him—or at least make him wish she had. He closed his hand around hers and tugged her closer. Their gazes met and held. His hand rose to touch her cheek. She sighed and leaned in and he lowered his mouth toward hers—
“Miss Ruddock? Lady Glory?”
He closed his eyes. For the second day in a row, Miss Munroe rescued him from folly. He should probably put her on retainer—she could keep saving him from himself until he could get back to London.
He dropped Glory’s hand and she stepped back.
Miss Munroe ducked under a branch and stepped around the first, widest trunk of the tree. “There you are.” She looked past Glory to him, wearing an odd expression. “We were looking for you.”
“We?” Glory asked.
Another young lady followed in her footsteps. She straightened and met his gaze with a wide, challenging smile.
Bloody. Damned. Hell. Fate, the gods, destiny, what have you—they’d all apparently upped the ante in this game masquerading as his life. He didn’t even have to break the rules to be punished. Apparently, all he had to do was contemplate it—and they smacked him down with a leveling blow.
“Keswick!” Miss Vernon said his name with possessive delight. “There you are, at last!”
Chapter 12
Glory bristled a little as the new arrival focused intently on Keswick and ignored her existence.
“Who would have thought that we’d be together again, and so soon?” the other girl said almost triumphantly.
“Not I, and that is a certainty,” Keswick replied. He didn’t seem very enthusiastic about seeing the girl again, despite her excitement.
“And in such rustic surroundings!” The other woman looked about her with just the slightest hint of disdain.
There was nothing rustic about her, to be sure. Tall and thin and all sharp angles, she was dressed in an elegant walking dress and striped pelisse, far more fashionable than anything else that had been worn at the house party so far. Her nose was her most striking feature, long and also elegant and pointed. Glory spent a moment wondering what Miss Myland would think of it.
“When I heard that two of my cousins were having a visit together up here in Gloucestershire, we decided we had to come.” She cast a smile on Miss Munroe. “Family is so important, is it not? And when was the last time we were all together? You and I and dear Cousin James?”
“Never, in my memory,” Miss Munroe said shortly. “Although my mama recalls a time when we were all in the nursery together, when we were very small.”
“Exactly! It has been too, too long.” She grinned up at Keswick. “And besides, all of the really interesting people had already left London.”
Miss Munroe looked as if she might debate the first part of that statement, but she turned to Glory. “Forgive my manners, Lady Glory. If I may present Miss Alice Vernon? She is a distant cousin and has arrived for a visit. Your sister very kindly included her in today’s luncheon.”
Glory curtsied. “How do you do?”
“Very well, thank you, now that I am here.” She turned back to Keswick. “And just in time too! Never fear, Lord Keswick, I am here to rescue you from such bucolic pursuits.”
Keswick glanced at Glory. “No one is in need of rescue. In fact, I’ve discovered the country has unexpected appeal.”
