“I did. Nor do I make any apology for it.” He ordered the groom to secure their horses, then stepped toward her. “A woman like you shouldn’t be carrying a pistol to protect herself.”
Oh, the audacity of the man! “A woman likeme? An heiress, you mean? A duke’s daughter? A young lady? Seems to me that being those things gives me all the more reason to carry a weapon in a city famous for its crime.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Unless you meant something else by ‘a woman like you.’ Perhaps you think I’m too stupid to know when it’s appropriate to draw a weapon.”
He narrowed his gaze on her. “If you choose to think so, that’s your affair. But you know damned well I don’t consider you stupid.”
“Then why shouldn’t I carry a pistol, if I learn to use it properly?”
“Even men seldom carry pistols, and certainly not to the sort of activities you and I will be attending.”
“Yetyouintend to carry one.”
“To protect you, which is my job.” His tone was infuriatingly calm, as if he were arguing with a child. “Thornstock is paying me well enough for it, so let me make sure he gets his money’s worth.”
“What about when we leave London to return to Armitage Hall? Do you mean to spend the rest of your life protecting me?”
That seemed to produce a ripple in his calm. “Of course not. But after this Season, you’ll have a husband to protect you. And Malet will no longer be trying to kidnap you because you won’t any longer be an heiress, just a rich wife.”
She could hardly reveal that she never meant to marry. Even if she dared to tell him why, he would never understand her reasons. He wasn’t a woman. “You sound awfully sure that I’ll snag a husband this Season. I wish I could be as certain. At my age, even a tidy dowry doesn’t always guarantee a quick marriage.”
“You’ll snag a husband, trust me.”
The bitterness in his voice took her aback. It implied he might actually—
No, not Joshua. By refusing even to acknowledge their kiss yesterday, he’d made it quite clear how he felt about her. And as he’d said before, he regarded marriage cynically.
Not that it mattered what he did or didn’t feel for her. He would not want a “woman like her” once he learned the full truth of what that meant.
Suddenly, the groom returned from tying off the horses, effectively putting an end to their rather personal conversation.
“So,” Joshua asked her, “do you want to learn to shoot a bow and arrow? Or should we mount up and return to town?”
His smirk and his lifted brow told her he expected her to say no and march off in high dudgeon. It wasn’t as if she could threaten again to choose Thorn over him as a bodyguard. Because that wouldn’t gain her anything but her twin watching her every move, keeping her from paying Lionel.
She and Thorn had played hide and seek too many times as children—they knew each other’s tricks. She had a better chance of slipping away from Joshua than she’d ever have from Thorn. But that meant she had to trick the major into letting down his guard, which required figuring out his weaknesses. Archery lessons might provide a good chance for that.
Though she began to wonder if hehadany weaknesses. So far, she’d only found one—his difficulty with loud noises. But usingthatagainst him would be cruel.
“How about this?” he said. “Shooting arrows and shooting pistols aren’t much different when it comes to aiming, so you could use some of what you learn in archery in learning to aim a pistol. Archery also strengthens the arms and shoulders, which is helpful when dealing with a pistol’s recoil. So if you can prove yourself capable of excelling at archery, I might—might, mind you—consider teaching you how to shoot a pistol one day. In the far distant future.”
Was he actually trying to coax her into staying by dangling the prize in front of her that he’d initially denied her? She simplyhadto see where this went. But she wasn’t about to let him know how eager she was to do so.
“Oh, very well, if you insist,” she said coolly. “We’re here already, and archery is supposedly a popular—and respectable—pastime for ladies these days. So why not?”
Why not, indeed? She would make Major Joshua Arrogant-As-Hell Wolfe show her every possible lesson in archery, until he was sick to death of it and she was proficient. Because that was the only way she could think of to get some of her own back on him for his trickery.
Chapter Eight
It didn’t take Joshua long to recognize the gross miscalculation in his strategy. Gwyn was an agony to teach. And not because of her ability—or lack thereof—to learn archery.
“I know I’m holding the bow wrong,” she complained. “My arrows keep missing the target entirely.”
“I told you, it has nothing to do with your grip on the bow. It’s because you keep trying to draw the bowstring too far back.”
“Oh, right. Show me again how far to draw it. I promise I’ll pay better attention this time.”
Gritting his teeth, he came up behind her and put his arms around her to place one hand on her bow hand and the other on her draw hand.
“You don’t need as much force as you think,” he said. Again. “You can work on sending your arrows farther and faster once you’ve strengthened your drawing arm sufficiently to sustain the draw while you aim.”
