Elizabeth meant to be very difficult indeed, as her mother seemed to guess.Mamma cast her another quelling glance.
“Guy can wait here while you two talk in the library.He’ll be close enough to come to your rescue, should you need it, Elizabeth.”Her tone indicated that there would be no such need and that her daughter was being unacceptably missish.Which was rich when they’d just met Tom and as far as they were aware, so had she.“The fire’s lit in there, and nobody should barge in to interrupt you.Even if they do, Elizabeth isn’t a debutante anymore.A few minutes alone with a man in the family home shouldn’t cause a major scandal.”
Even so, Elizabeth was surprised that her parents allowed her any privacy with her bugbear.It wasn’t the done thing, and if Papa intended to marry her off, surely he wanted to preserve her pristine reputation.A suspicion crossed her mind that he might want her ruined, to force her into marrying Tom.Could her father be that Machiavellian?
“I’ll treat Lady Elizabeth with the greatest respect,” Tom said.
“I’m sure you will,” Mamma said, as if it went without saying.Elizabeth couldn’t help thinking back to his effect on Cyril and Bruno and her own foolish self before she woke up to what he was really like.It was just as powerful when it came to prospective in-laws.
“And I’ll be within earshot,” her brother said.“Not that you’ll need me, sis.Tom is a good ‘un.Anybody can see that.”
Elizabeth begged to differ.But it was already clear that Tom’s charm had worked its magic on her family.They all thought that he was marvelous.She shouldn’t be surprised.She’d thought that he was marvelous, too, until she knew better.
When Elizabeth didn’t protest again – what was the point?– Mamma turned to Guy.“Guy, go in and fetch them in ten minutes.Then you three can come out as if you’ve been together the whole time.That should counter any gossip.”
“It’s the least I can do,” her brother said.“I feel like this is all my fault.”
Mamma turned to a sulky-looking Lord Tierney.Papa didn’t like it when his grand schemes went astray.He’d moped for a month when his American landscape designer eloped with a lady of the ton and left his extravagant new gardens in Cumbria unfinished.“Henry, shall we join our guests?”
“Yes, dear.”Papa extended his arm to her and they left.Mamma prevailed.She always did.
Guy stood in the open door to check the corridor was empty.“I’ll give you a quarter of an hour.Anything more and people will sniff out a scandal.”
“Lady Elizabeth?”Tom asked, presenting his arm.
She didn’t want to leave the room arm in arm with him, the way they’d walked together during those blissful hours in Hyde Park.She was having enough trouble clinging to her proud fury as it was.But an inquisitive glance from Guy made her curl reluctant fingers around Tom’s forearm.That brought her close enough to catch the delicious scent that had stolen her wits when they met.How could he smell so good and do such horrible things?
Straightening her backbone, she indicated the room across the corridor.“That’s the library.”She glanced at Guy.“Thank you for doing this.”
He shrugged.“Sis, give Tom a hearing.He really is the best of fellows.”
Elizabeth disagreed, but she remained silent as Tom walked forward and shut them in the library.
Chapter 7
To the sound of distant bell ringing, Tom released Elizabeth.She watched him close the door.
“You’re angry with me,” he said in the soothing tone that had allayed Cyril’s terror when he’d been stranded up the oak tree.
It wasn’t a tone that she appreciated hearing when he spoke to her.Elizabeth didn’t like to be managed.Particularly by someone who had manipulated her feelings from the first.“You don’t say.”
She stood in the center of the room and glared at him, even as her trembling hands tangled in her skirts.Because despite everything that had happened, she hadn’t mistaken how attractive he was.He’d looked appealing in winter outdoor clothes.In stark black-and-white evening dress, he was the most striking man she’d ever seen.
If she didn’t know that he’d set out to make a fool of her.
He lingered near the closed door, as though he knew that if he came too near, he risked sending her running.His hands spread in an apologetic gesture.“I’m sorry.”
“Are you?”The nervous movement of her hands in her filmy, rose-silk skirts betrayed that she wasn’t in charge of her emotions.With an almighty effort, she brought her hands to her sides and kept them still.
“I’m sorry I’ve upset you.I’m not sorry I met you in the park.I’ll never be sorry about that.”
His gray eyes were sincere, and he sounded like he meant it.But he’d sounded sincere when they met, and look how that turned out.She sidled from one foot to another, until she remembered Papa doing that and how guilty it made him look.“You knew who I was.”
He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, reminding her inevitably of the ruffled, laughing, magnetic man who had turned a bleak Christmas Day to gold.“Only at the end.For pity’s sake, please believe me.”
She folded her arms and resisted the heartfelt plea.“Why should I?”
His jaw firmed.“Because I’m not a liar.The minute you said you lived in Lorimer Square and your name was Elizabeth, I guessed you had to be the girl I was supposed to meet tonight.If I hadn’t been quite so bowled over, I probably should have guessed earlier.”He sent her a pleading look.“Guy described how pretty you are – and how spirited.”
