“You know what I am talking about, Louise. Tell me, what would anyone in thetonthink if they happened to come across the both of you?” Callum asked.
“I promise you; it is nothing like what you think,” Louise said, and for the first time, her anger seemed to have dissolved.
“Is that what he told you?” Callum asked.
“I... I believe him,” Louise said stubbornly.
Callum scoffed at Louise's inability to see reason.
“I am a bachelor myself and I can see things that you cannot. I know how bachelors act, especially the bachelors of theton,” Callum said.
“You are wrong about Pembroke. He is an honorable gentleman,” Louise continued.
Callum sighed, “Deep within you, do you truly think the reason he brought you into the library away from people is that he wanted to show you some book? He could have easily taken the book out of the library and shown you in the garden or even the drawing room but he did not. Think deeply about it, Louise.”
“I know what it looks like, Callum,” Louise said, in a voice that seemed like she was begging, “but that is, in fact not the case.”
“Is that really not the case or you are simply blinded by your desire to see the good in everyone?” Callum asked.
Louise shook her head vehemently as though she was trying to shake off the truth that was beginning to dawn on her. “I know you think that every gentleman is like you but Pembroke would never try to seduce me,” Louise said.
Callum was hurt by her pronouncement. “Why then does everything point at that fact?” Callum said.
Louise shrugged stubbornly.
“It might also interest you to know that Pembroke, in fact, did not attend Oxford,” Callum said.
“What?” Louise gasped, clasping a hand on her mouth. She looked genuinely shocked but also, hurt.
Callum itched to move closer to her and draw her into an embrace, to comfort her and tell her that it would all be all right but he did not. He knew that this was not the right time for that. “Indeed. Pembroke left home years ago after illegally selling some of his family's property. His father had to settle the debt incurred from what he did. He did not come home, not even when his father died and his brother became the heir. He continued to live a lavish life with the family wealth, drinking himself to a stupor and visiting tons of brothels in a day. It was not until his brother died, that he was summoned since he was the only son left,” Callum said, “even though he was the most dishonorable gentleman thetonhad ever seen in a long while, he still had to become the Earl.”
“Are you saying that he was not studying to become a physician at Oxford?” she asked.
“If that meant getting drunk and waking up in the sewers, owing the women of the night and being beaten up by them, then he, indeed has been studying to become a physician at Oxford the whole time,” Callum said.
“Why then did you not tell me about this all this time?” Louise asked as she held her head, looking disturbed.
“Do you want to take a seat?”
“I told you to be wary of him but you did not want to hear about it,” Callum told her. Callum could not bear looking at Louise's saddened look. “You do not have to be sad. You should only be happy that you have not fallen victim to his seduction,” Callum said.
Louise looked up at Callum and suddenly her eyes hardened. “Why do you care what happens to me, Callum? It is not as though we are together so that you would be obligated to protect me,” she said.
Callum sighed. “I tried to protect you because...because...” Callum knew he could not tell her the entire truth yet he did not wish to lie to her. He shrugged. “I guess I am just a good person,” he said simply.
Louise scoffed. “I am not the only lady you have seen who was about to get seduced by a dishonorable man. Do you try to protect them all?” She asked.
That is a smart question.Callum waited a while before answering. “You are right,” he said, “you are not the only lady I have seen get seduced, and in most of the cases, I did not bother to warn them.”
“Why then did you do it for me?” Louise asked, her blue eyes boring into his.
Callum fancied himself as someone who did not find it hard to lie if the situation warranted it, yet, as he stared at her, he knew that he could not lie to her. Not when she was staring at him with those doe eyes. “The same reason I pretended to court you,” Callum said. It was not a lie but it was not the complete truth either.
Louise huffed in frustration and she looked away. “You still have not given me a clear answer!”
“I do not know what you wish for me to say,” Callum said.
“Is that so?” Louise asked, her eyebrows raised. She rose from the chair suddenly and began to walk toward the door in anger.
