"I did not say I wished to go to the castle with you!" Diana had stopped her horse and glared indignantly at the Marquess of Kenwood.
"True," he said, smiling at her, "but you did not say you did not wish to go (here with me either, Diana."
"And I have never suggested that I show it to you by daylight," she said.
"Are we going to stay in this one spot in the middle of nowhere indulging in a lovers' quarrel?" he asked. "Or are we going to move on to the castle and more picturesque surroundings?"
"A lovers' qu—?Well!" Diana was speechless.
Why, then, did she find herself a few minutes later trotting along meekly at his side in the direction ofRotherhamCastle? Had she lost all her willpower?All her sense of independence?All her common sense?She had the uncomfortable feeling that the answer to all three questions was yes.
And a mere ten minutes had passed since he had bidden his ex-mistress good day, lifting her hand to his lips as he did so. And he had disappeared with her into the garden for as many more minutes while the rest of them sat sipping tea and making polite conversation. And now he talked of a lovers' quarrel. Was he mad? Was she?
' 'Wewill tether our horses here,'' he said, when they were close to the castle. He lifted her to the ground, his lips forming a whistle though he made no sound. "You must show me the courtyard today, Diana. I have not seen it, you will remember, since the countess thought it would be far more romantic for me to see the moonlit moat in your presence. She was undoubtedly right, too. Had Ernie not decided to play zealous sentry, it might have been a very romantic moment indeed."
"You would have had a stinging cheek to remember it by," she said coolly.
"Ah, but I believe we disproved that theory later in the music room," he said.
They strolled toward the causeway, and he took her hand, lacing his fingers with hers.
"I am quite capable of moving of my own volition, I thank you," Diana said, staring straight ahead.
He looked down at her in feigned astonishment. "I am quite sure you are," he said. "I would have swung you up into my arms if I had thought you were not." He retained his hold of her hand.
But this was ridiculous. Her mood of earlier that morning and of the last two days was ridiculous. The man was a rake. He was out for only one thing. And it did not particularly matter to him which female would grant him what he wished.
What was she doing here all alone with him? It would be highly improper even if he were a perfect gentleman. But then, of course, if he were a perfect gentleman, they would not be here in the first place.
"Ah, quite ruined," he said when they stood on the grass of the courtyard. "It is amazing, is it not, that the outer walls are so well preserved when the inner ones have been obliterated. One can only imagine what it must have been like."
They gazed about them at the outlines of rooms and keeps, but only the very lowest stones of the walls remained in place.
"Hundreds of people lived here once,'' she said.' 'It must have rung with sounds and bustle."
''Including your handsome knight galloping up to the drawbridge," he said.
"Yes." She felt a wave of nostalgia, almost as if she had lived in those times.
"And including the knight who slunk around to the back during the evenings to cuddle his lady."
"Oh," she said crossly, looking to find, as she had fully expected, that he was grinning at her, "mustyou spoil everything?"
They strolled, still hand in hand, around the perimeter of the courtyard.
"If Ernie's word is to be trusted," he said, "and it usually is on such matters, the staircases are not safe."
"No," she said. "The stone is crumbling. Though Teddy did take me up once."
"Did he?" he said, stepping inside one of the great round bastions and peering up the stairwell.
The stone steps spiraled upward around a massive central pillar. Lord Kenwood set a hand on it. Diana shivered.
"It is cold inside here, is it not?" he said, turning to set his back against the pillar. "Do you need warming, Diana?"
It was inevitable, of course. She knew herself to be naive and inexperienced, but she was not that naive. It had been very clear as soon as he had mentioned the castle that it was not his interest in medieval architecture that took him there. She had known all along that she was being brought for just this reason.
And she had come anyway.
