“No, I haven’t read every book in my library.”
She scoffed. “I bet you wouldn’t even have missed it. If you hadn’t caught me in the library, you would never have known that I’d taken it at all.”
“Perhaps I wouldn’t,” he mused. “Be that as it may, however…Ididcatch you. And now I think you and I might be in a position to help one another.”
“How can we do that?”
He fixed her with his gaze. “You can help me by agreeing to court me.”
He couldn’t have shocked her any more if he had burst into song. “What—why would you want me to do that?”
“It’s as I said. Too many people are too interested in me, and they won’t let go of the idea of trying to secure a match. You’ve bought me a reprieve with this little scandal, but it will blow over soon enough. If people think that you and I are engaged in a proper courtship, thought, they will be forced to give up on the idea of me as a romantic prospect.”
“And why would I want to do any of that?” she asked him.
“If you do, I’ll help you complete this list of yours,” he said. “I can see it’s important to you, if you’re willing to break into my house over it. You’ll return my book to me, but I’ll allow you to come over to my estate whenever you’d like to read from it. And whatever other items are on your list, I’ll help you complete them as well. We’ll court for a couple of months, and then we’ll end things in such a way as to make me look like the villain. No one will think any the less of you.” He rose to his feet. “You might be the only person who can help me. You have nothing to lose by doing so, and I’m willing to offer you the thing you appear to want most.”
Agnes was jarred by his request. Court him? Publicly? She had never dreamed that any man would ask such a thing of her. It was the last thing she wanted, and her first instinct was to turn him down outright.
But she paused.
He could help her complete her list. That did matter. She needed help.
Oh, I must be out of my mind.
“All right,” she said slowly, hoping very much that she wasn’t going to regret this. “We’ll try it.”
CHAPTER 4
“So you and the spinster?” Nathaniel Thorne, Duke of Henshaw, leaned back in his chair and flashed a grin that was full of his trademark humor and charm. “I never thought I’d see you take an interest in someone like her, Gabriel—but then, I never expected to see you take an interest in marriage at all. You continue to surprise me.”
“Oh, I don’t think we ought to take this story at face value.” Jonathan Ellington, the Duke of Alderwick and the other of Gabriel’s two friends from university, surveyed him through narrowed eyes and swirled his glass of ale in his hand. “You know those scandal sheets are often nothing but foolishness. And our friend Bellmoor here has never indulged in foolishness a day in his life.”
“And it’s high time he did,” Nathaniel said merrily. “Gabriel, you know I’m right in saying this, don’t you? You spend far too much time on your worries and not enough on enjoying yourself.”
“Of course what you saw in the scandal sheets is not true,” Gabriel murmured, taking a sip of his drink. “Do you really think I would bring a woman like that into my home with Helena there? I’m all she has in the world, you know, and she’s at a very impressionable age.”
“I don’t think anyone is questioning your devotion to your niece,” Nathaniel assured him. “You’ve always been a wonderful uncle and guardian to her, ever since the unfortunate death of her parents.”
“I agree that it would be a very inopportune moment for her to spend time in the company of a spinster,” Jonathan said. “That’s not the kind of thing you want her to pick up and try to emulate.”
“She’ll be making her debut in just a few years,” Gabriel said, though the thought of it made him uncomfortable, just as it always did. It was difficult to think of Helena, who had been in his custody since the tender age of nine, navigating the social minefield of the ton. “I want her to remain focused on finding a gentleman who is worthy of her.”
“So then, are you saying there’s no truth to what I read at all?” Nathaniel pressed him. “Lady Agnes was not seen leaving your house?”
Gabriel avoided the question. “How can I tell you what anyone did or didn’t see?”
Nathaniel rolled his eyes. “You can tell me what did or didn’t happen, Gabriel, and you know perfectly well that’s what I’m asking.”
“I do notice that no one approached you in the street when we were on our way here,” Jonathan mused. “Usually going out with you is a blow to any man’s ego, because we have to witness the way every lady in London looks your way.”
“Oh, it’s only because they think he’s so handsome,” Nathaniel said with a grin. “You know that’s what all the ladies say. I’m sure they’re devastated to think that he might actually be courting someone.”
“That’s not it,” Jonathan said. “He’s tarnished his lily-white reputation by going around with a spinster. He’s no longer the most eligible bachelor in London.”
“And happy to say so,” Gabriel said firmly. “But the truth of the matter is that you’re both right, at least in part.”
“So she was at your house?” Nathaniel leaned forward.