CHAPTER TWO
“You are definitely not him.”
Jane stared at the strange man as her panic began to subside. Her panic had increased after her plan to hit the intruder she believed to be Lord Lewis failed.
She had gone through different scenarios in her head and yet, none of them involved her getting out of the situation with her reputation in tact or without ending up married to him.
“Him?”
She looked at the strange man and this time, when she pulled her hands from his, he released his hands, allowing her to wrench free.
“Never mind that.”
“Considering how close I came to being smacked due to thishim,I believe I have a right to know who he is and what this is about.”
“Ah, but it is as you said. You came close to being smacked but you were not. So, why don’t you leave me alone and carry on your way,” she suggested with a raised brow.
“Leave you alone?” he scoffed. “I saw how tense you were when you thought I washimand that you had been unable to inflict harm. Do you still wish to be here and chance him finding you?”
Jane stared at the strange man in disbelief.
Are all men like this or am I just unlucky enough to meet only the ones who irk me?
“You, sir, have no right to lecture me on what you think I should or shouldn’t do. Pretend I am not here if you will and do go on your merry way,” she said, rolling her eyes at the absurdity of the situation.
It seemed there was no peace to be found whenever men were around her.
“In case you haven’t noticed, you are sequestered in a garden alone, with a man, and without a chaperone, a fact that should have been painfully obvious to you by now if you were not so intent on trampling on my good intentions.”
“Perhaps if I had asked for your good intentions, I would not be so quick to trample on them as you put it,” she responded, not ready to back down.
He had another thing coming for him if he thought he could push her around. Years of always arguing with her father had left her prepared for situations such as these.
“You should be thanking me, you know. I am doing you a favor,” he said with a voice filled with arrogance.
She would feel pity for him if he hadn’t been so quick to act like a man and try to tell her what to do despite knowing nothing about her to begin with.
“Doing me a favor you say,” she scoffed, utterly amused.
“Yes. You need to return to your chaperone so that you can leave me alone with my thoughts and the peaceful garden I expected when I came here.”
“Perhaps you should be the one to leave. Much like you, I came here to be away from the noise and chaos out there and I do not intend to return until I have had my fill of the peace that is to be found here.”
He shook his head, staring at her as though she has grown two more where one should be.
“Have you no care for your reputation if you are caught here with me?”
“If you cared so much about my reputation, then you would heed my words and realize that the best thing a gentleman could do at this point would be to leave me alone with my thoughts while you returned to the party and forgot that you ever met me here.”
He had another thing coming if he thought he could so easily intimidate her into giving in and running away because he said so.
“Jane?”
Jane’s eyes widened as she listened to be certain that she had indeed heard her sister’s voice.
“Are you in here?”
She swallowed back a gasp and jumped into action, grabbing the annoying man’s hand in hers as she pulled him with her, dragging him into hiding.
