“I was referring to that word you used to address me.”
“George?”
She shuddered.
He seemed vastly amused and pleased with himself.
But she was smart enough to realize if she made an issue out of that horrid name, then he would only use it to irritate her. “I don’t see that the manner in which I deal with my servants is any concern of yours.”
“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong.” He finished off the bread, wiped his hands on the front of his shirt, and straightened. “You appear to be a woman who can handle her problems with little opposition.”
“Heaven knows, I’ve had enough practice,” she muttered.
“Trouble in paradise?” He glanced around the grounds. “I’d think a place like this would insulate you from trouble.”
She just raised her chin and didn’t say anything, but some weak part of her wanted to bare her secrets and tell him just how much trouble she was really in.
“I suppose your children obey you as well as the help.”
“Not that it should matter to you, or that I should tell you anything about me, but I am not married.”
His expression flickered with something ever so briefly. “Your family must be disappointed.”
“My family is dead,” she shot back. He made her sound like a spinster. “And I’m only twenty-two.”
Just the barest of smiles hinted around his mouth, but his eyes still held hers until he looked down and shook his head as if the oaf found her amusing. “Old enough to handle servants.Old enough to handle parties, but not children.”
“What do you mean by old enough?”
He gave her a shrug.
“Age doesn’t matter unless you are cheese. And I never said that I couldn’t handle children.” She’d never handled a child in her life, but she wouldn’t admit that to him.
His stance was relaxed, nonchalant, but it was his knowing grin, so cocksure and arrogant, that rankled her.
“I can handle anything.”
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “So, George, you think you can handle children.”
“I think I’m handling one now.”
He laughed then, and the sound was warm and rich and made her want to laugh with him.
A truly annoying thought.
A second later he had closed the distance between them in two long strides that caught her completely off guard. He moved swiftly and stealthily for so large a man.
“What a waste that you have no husband, George.”
He looked as if he wanted to touch her, so she stepped back quickly. “I don’t have a husband yet. And my name is not George.”
“Yet?” He gazed down at her with amusement. “Are you planning on finding a husband in the next hour?”
“Yes, actually. I am planning onexactlythat.” She grabbed her skirts. “Now if you will just let me by, I’ll see if I cannot remedy my marital situation, the one you obviously find so interesting and amusing.”
“So you want to be married.”
She just raised her chin.
