"Must I?" If she had not been well familiar with his eyes by this time, she might have been convinced by his look of abject humility. "Must I confess that I was consumed by embarrassment when I realized that I was breaking in upon a grand moment of romance?"
"You were neither lost nor embarrassed," she said indignantly. "Why do you never simply say what is on your mind? Why do you make a joke of everything?"
' 'I must confess,'' he said,' 'that I did pause for a moment when Peabody seemed undecided whether to go down on one knee and plead his cause with greater eloquence or to seize you and conquer you with his ardor. I think I would not have had the heart to interrupt him if he had chosen the former course."
"You would have been too busy laughing," she said crossly.
"On the contrary," he said, "I would have been all admiration for a man who was willing to make an ass ofhimselfin the cause of love. Unfortunately, Peabody is not made of such stern stuff. Were you sorry to be interrupted, by the way?"
"I was not." Diana looked about her, wondering if after all she could find the small knoll from which one was afforded a splendid and unexpected view of the castle. She had been there before more man once, but always in company with Teddy.
"Ah," he said, "I thought not. And I am not really interested in picturesque views of castles, Diana—or at least, not at the moment. I merely wanted to lure you deeper into the woods on my own account, you see."
"If you expect to see me quake with terror, my lord," she said, "you will be disappointed. I know I have nothing to fear from you."
"Ah, yes," he said. "I hadforgotthat you have discovered my darkest secret—that I am a gentleman at heart. But tell me, Diana, why are you always socrosswith me? Apart from the delectable embarrassment of our first—no, our second—encounter, what have I done to offend you so?"
"Nothing," she said."Nothing at all."
"And I have never known anyone," he said, "who can make 'nothing' sound like such a great deal of something. Your cheeks are flushed, your eyes flashing, your chin leading your advance. I would be in fear and trembling indeed if I had ever donesomethingto offend you. Tell me what I have done."
Diana jerked her hand from within his arm and turned to face him. "Nothing is serious to you," she said. "Nothing and no one is of any value. Everything and everyone is to be used for your own amusement.Especially women.The barmaid at that inn.Me.That chambermaid at the house.Doubtless dozens of others."
"Ah, the chambermaid," he said, clasping his hands behind his back and looking down at her. "I wondered when she would be introduced into the conversation between us. I am sorry you were a witness to that kiss. It was careless of me to do that in an open doorway. Did I put you to the blush?"
"You can never get beyond surfaces, can you?" she said. "What do my blushes matter? It is your character, your morality that is the question here."
He raised his eyebrows. His eyes were still laughing at her. "Ah, yes," he said, "it was greedy of me, was it not, to take the stairs two at a time after having my wicked way with you in the music room so that I could do the same with the maid.A trifle exhausting, too.I was hard put to it to find the energy to drag a croquet mallet about the lawn with me afterward."
Diana flushed. "That is not what happened between you and me," she said.
"No." He smiled. "But that is what Ernie thought had happened when he came huffing and puffing into the room after you had left it."
"Then he was mistaken," she said indignantly. "Did you explain to him?"
"No." He strolled toward a tree that was a few feet away and set his back against it. He crossed his arms over his chest. "I very rarely interfere in what a person wishes to believe, Diana. Neither do I intend to deny that I went from our— embrace to an hour of vigorous sport with the chambermaid."
"But did you?" she asked sharply.
He lifted one eyebrow and looked at her mockingly. "What do you think, Diana?" he said, the amusement in his voice bringing the color back to her cheeks again. "That is all that matters. You do not believe half of what I say anyway."
She frowned and took a step closer to him. "What is important to you?" she asked. "What gives life meaning for you? Just pleasure?"
He was still smiling, but some of the mockery had faded. "Now," he said, "you must tell me, do you wish to hear what you wish to hear, or do you wish to hear what I choose to say?"
''What you choose to say,'' she said after pausing to work out the riddle of his words.
"Ah, well, in that case," he said, "I would have to say I value my family—my mother, my two sisters, my nephew. My estate is important to me. I like to spend my summers there with my own people. But of course—" the mockery was back in his eyes— "I need the rents that the land brings in order to finance my, ah, pleasures for the rest of the year."
Diana turned away from his blue eyes, which were mesmerizing her, and looked at the trees around mem.
"Why do you like people to think the worst of you?" she asked quietly.
"The worst?"He slid one booted foot upward to rest against the trunk of the tree. "I believe I am much envied by a large number of gentlemen of the ton, Diana, and much sought-after by certain, ah, ladies. I have a reputation to uphold, my dear."
She looked back at him, frowning. "But it is a mask," she said. "It is a mask, is it not?"
He shook his head, all the mockery back in his eyes and in the lift of one corner of his mouth. "No, Diana," he said, "you will not find a worthy gentleman hidden behind the, ah, libertine. I am what you see, my dear. And you are attracted to what you see, are you not? And so must try to see goodness and worthiness in me so that your attraction can be justified."
