He turned at her entrance, and her lungs seized. Heaven above, he was devastatingly handsome. His eyes were like liquid gold in the afternoon light.
“Good day, Miss Greene.” He bowed slightly.
“Sir.” She bobbed a curtsy, relieved when she didn’t topple over. He had a knack of putting her dreadfully off-balance. “Mr. Grantham is here. Have you come to see him?”
“No.” There was no flicker of surprise, no spark of interest. “I’ve come to take you for a drive.”
She tensed. “Now?” she asked stupidly.
“If it wouldn’t be inconvenient.”
Emilia pressed her hands to her worn skirt, trying to ground herself. “May I ask why?”
Finally he looked away from her, pulling a pocket watch from his waistcoat and flicking it open for a second before replacing it. “The favor I asked of you.”
In exchange for his pursuit of the Sydenham viscounty. In spite of herself, Emilia was desperately curious about that. “Oh?”
He nodded. “I want to show you.”
Now her brows shot up. “Show me?”
He cleared his throat. “After a fashion.”
Emilia stared at him. “Mr. Dashwood, would you please simply tell me what it is? There’s no need to be coy.”
He just looked at her. “Will you come?”
She bit her lip in frustration. “Why won’t you tell me what you want? I have bared all to you.”
He went still, amber eyes fixed on her with sudden heat. Emilia flushed crimson as she heard her own words, hanging in the air between them. She had a true genius for embarrassing herself in front of him.
But he looked away before she could stammer an apology. “I beg your pardon.” He ran one hand over his head and gazed out the window again. “I’m not playing coy. My request involves... a delicate subject, which is very dear to me. I am not accustomed to speaking of it.” A rueful smile flashed across his face as he glanced at her, making her sway slightly.
“F-Forgive me,” she stammered. “I’ve been very nervous about it, and I tend to ask too many questions in that state.”
“You’ve no need to be nervous.” He frowned, clasping his hands behind his back again. “If you find it objectionable, you may decline.”
Emilia wasn’t so certain she believed that. He’d gone to some effort to extort that promise from her, and she needed something to make him keep his word to her, about Lucy. Unless he was about to ask her to murder someone, she didn’t know how she’d say no.
“But if you decline,” he was saying, “I must insist that you keep the request in strictest confidence. Not even telling Lucinda.”
“I—Very well,” she said after a startled pause. “If I decline.”
“Yes.”
“If I accept,” she continued cautiously, “will I also be bound to secrecy?”
“No.” He sighed, his chest rising and falling heavily. “If you accept, it will become public knowledge.”
She had to know what it was—to distract her from whatever the solicitor was doing, if for no other reason. “All right. I’ll come.”
Nick couldn’t saywhen he began to regret making any sort of bargain with Emilia Greene, but he did not appreciate the unaccustomed lash of his conscience.
What he wanted was utterly respectable, he argued to himself. Charlotte needed a governess, and Miss Greene was a highly regarded one. Miss Greene wanted something from him, which made it fair to ask something in return. He was only seeking her professional skills, and he meant to offer her a proper salary for them.
But by the time she put on a green pelisse, with dark curls escaping her straw bonnet to fall around her neck and her eyes bright with wary curiosity, he regretted it. Perhaps because he’d spent far too much time thinking about her in that tight blue bodice getting tipsy on Madeira and daring him to refuse her. Perhaps because he’d remembered, a bit too late, that he liked women like her too much for his own good. Perhaps because it had dawned on him that if she accepted this proposal, she would end up living in his house, where he would be unablenotto think of her and see her and talk to her and—likely—provoke her into arguing with him, and then he might lose his mind.
And now she was climbing into his carriage, leaving the little girl watching anxiously from the window, and Nick told himself it was time to show his cards. He said a word to his driver and swung into the seat facing her, pulling the door shut behind him.
