Oh, the ice in her voice could form glaciers.
His head cocked in question. “Mr. Deverill?”
“Isn’t that your name?”
“It is,” he said slowly. “But how do you know it? Have we been introduced?”
She shook her head. “We haven’t. If we had, you would’ve forgotten me within ten seconds of our parting.” An edge of acid ran the length of the hollow laugh that issued forth. “All society knows Lord Devil.”
His gaze narrowed. “Then you have me at a disadvantage.”
“A rare occurrence, I dare say.”
His mouth pursed and released.
Her eyes were left with no choice but to watch.
Simply, he had the loveliest mouth she’d seen on man or woman.
“And if I might be so bold as to ask your name?”
She drew herself up to her full, inconsiderable height and resisted the urge to adjust her bonnet, which had gone precariously askew. “I’m Lady Beatrix St. Vincent.”
“A name replete with aristocratic forebears, I presume.”
She felt her mouth do something odd.
It twitched.
Then, out of the murky gray sky, for there was no clear blue around, she was restraining a sudden tide of laughter that demanded release. Hysteria, it had to be. Or…
This situation was…
Funny?
She summoned every shred of willpower yet in her possession and suppressed it.
She didn’t want to share a laugh with this man.
Instead, she asked, “You’re not expecting an invitation for tea, are you?”
Enough scorn infused her voice to turn the ocean into dry salt.
Something dark and inscrutable passed behind his eyes, and they went flinty as stone. “Of course,my lady.”
Anothermy lady.
Blimey.
Dignity hanging about her in fraying tatters, she tore her gaze away from the magnetic Mr. Deverill and turned, taking the steps carefully, one by one.
Once she’d made it to the top—without yelping once—she heard at her back, “A physician will be at your door within the hour.”
She glanced over her shoulder, a refusal ready on her mouth.
“Answer it,” he said, then turned on his heel and strode down the street.
Once the front door clicked shut behind her, Beatrix pressed her back against solid oak and exhaled the breath she’d been holding these last thirty minutes.
