“No?” His gaze dipped. “You are in a gentleman’s bedchamber at midnight. You were hiding behind a screen and praying for providence to trip a latch.”
She flinched. He had made the inside of her public. It felt unfair.
“Why,” he asked, softer, “would you do this?”
“Please don’t ask me that.”
Something in his face changed.
“Very well. Let us keep to the practical. Since you detest the idea of being caught with me, we must ensure we are not.”
Her mouth parted.
“We?”
“I have no wish to marry, Miss Havenford,” he said. “Certainly not by force. And yet I am the one standing half undressed while you tremble at my sleeves. We must be grateful to Fate for her sense of humor, and then we must outpace her.”
“I thought…” She swallowed. “I thought only the woman is…affected.”
He laughed once in disbelief.
“Did you. Who taught you that?”
“No one,” she said, and had the dreadful sense that he heard the truth in it: the nun who had never been taught. How was she to know society’s ways when she had been far from it for too long?
“You act rather innocent for someone who is bold enough to pull off such a trick,” he said, amused again.
“But I am,” she argued, though it felt silly. But in her head, this was not meant to be nefarious. She really did have the right intentions, even though her methods of execution were far from perfect. As she was just discovering.
Would it have just been easier to play the long game and wait for Peter to ask for my hand instead?
“Is that what you believe?” he challenged. “Then perhaps the two of us have that in common.”
“I cannot imagine having anything in common with you,” the words came out before she could stop herself. She thought he would get angry, but instead, his amusement only deepened.
“Well, we both seem to think of ourselves differently than how others view us,” he replied. “Because from where I am standing, what you are attempting here seems to me the furthest thing from innocent.”
“And what is it that you think differently about yourself than the others?” she asked, folding her arms in front of her chest.
“They call me a rake,” he repeated. “As you have so delightfully referred to me as.”
“And you do not consider yourself one?”
She thought over what he was trying to say for a moment. Could it be possible that he wasnota rake? She had, of course, only heard the rumors. This was the first time that she was actually meeting him.
“I do,” he laughed, killing the little hope that she had sprouted. “But I consider myself to be more than that.”
“And that would be?”
“Would you wish for me to articulate everything that I am to you?” he raised a brow. “I would think that it would be much more fun for you to find out on your own.”
“But I am not here to havefun,” she found herself blushing profusely.
The house party was meant to be her chance to find a match. And not only did she not do that, she instead ruined things for herself.
If Peter were to find out that she met his cousin alone at an hour like this… heavens, she was positive that he would want nothing to do with her.
“I must leave,” she picked up the frock of her gown and began to make her way towards the door.