“If you believe that, perhaps you should haveyoureyesight checked.”
I heaved a sigh, increasingly tired of his fictive flirtations. I felt bad for all the women he’d ever pretended to be interested in. He no doubt had a string of broken hearts from here to London.
I frowned at the thought. EvenIwould have believed him sincere in his attentions.
What if Damon’s plan could work? What if Damon pretending to court me could turn Ollie’s head? I bit my lip. But if his plan didn’t work, then I’d be stuck here all summer, forced to watch Ollie fall in love with another woman—the mostbeautifulwoman he’d ever seen. I could think of nothing worse.
“You look as if you’re about to reject your breakfast,” Damon said.
“I suppose it’s fortunate for your boots that I did not make it down to the breakfast room this morning.”
“Quite,” Damon said, then he waited silently for my answer.
Part of me wanted to stay, but . . . I didn’t wish to have tofightfor Ollie’s affection. I wanted him to love me simply because he loved me. I wanted what my parents had, the type of love that just exists.
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t pretend to be interested in Damon in hopes of winning Ollie. I’d barely made it through last night’s ball. There was no way I would be able to endure an entire summer of the same. It was impossible.
“I’m sorry, but I’m going to go home with Papa as soon as the weather permits.”
Damon nodded curtly and walked toward the door. At the threshold, he paused. “I didn’t think you had it in you to give up so easily.”
His words stung, but they did not change my mind.
“I don’t believe your plan will work,” I explained.
“Let me show you that it will.” He glanced down the corridor, then stepped back into the room. “We will stage an experiment. Tonight, after dinner. I’ll demonstrate my preference for you, and you will respond to my advances. I will prove to you that a pretend attachment between us will open Ollie’s eyes to you. If my plan works, you stay. If it doesn’t—”
“I leave.” I pondered his proposal. I didn’t want to stay here another night, but I didn’t have a choice. “Forgive me if I’m wary of your experiments.” I smoothed the ringlets framing my face behind my ears.
“I saved you at Rumfords’ ball. You owe me this much.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “I owe you nothing. One measly set does not make up for an entire childhood of torture.”
“Torture?”
I glanced purposefully at my trunk, then trained my gaze on him. “I could hardly call it otherwise.”
A muscle in Damon’s jaw ticked. “Call it what you will. The fact remains that until the rain stops and the roads have dried, you are stuck here.”
He was right. And I had to admit, curiosity tugged at my mind. If his experiment failed, I lost nothing. But if it succeeded, I stood to gain everything. Slowly, I nodded. “You have one night.”
Chapter Seven
Later that afternoon, my trunkwas packed, and I paced the length of my bedchamber, my mind alternating between replaying events from the ball with Ollie and my conversation with Damon. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make sense of anything that had transpired. Not Ollie’s denying me our dance and certainly not the ridiculous charade Damon had suggested.
“You’re going to wear a hole in your slippers, miss.” Nora warily eyed my feet from her seat at the vanity.
“If I come to a resolution, it will have been worth it.”
Nora sighed and returned to her mending.
I resumed my pacing. My thoughts were in such a knot that I didn’t think I’d ever untangle them. Ollie had barely glanced in my direction all through the night before, and when he had, it had been without affection. If only I could make him see me, he would realize that I was as worthy a marriage prospect as any other young lady, better even because we had a solid foundation, an entire lifetime of shared memories.
Though I hated to admit it, Damon was correct; I didn’t have it in me to give up on Ollie so easily.
I stopped in the center of the room.
Nora looked at me hopefully.
