“I cannot be impressed,” she said. “But as I have already explained, I am not on the marriage mart. If, however, you are truly serious about helping Coventry to obtain a bride, you might take greater care with your manner of wooing.”
He arched a brow, his lips twitching as if he suppressed his amusement. “What fault do you find with my manner of wooing?”
“For one thing, you have been following me about like a lost puppy,” she said.
“I have not,” he protested, true outrage in his voice.
Good, she thought unkindly. Let the beautiful scoundrel see that not every female in his presence would so quickly succumb to his rakish allure. “You most certainly have. You just did so now.”
“I was bored,” he clipped. “And you, Miss Winter, are impertinent.”
“Honest,” she corrected him. “I am being honest, Lord Ashley. I am beginning to suspect that you are a rather poor emissary for your brother to send in his stead. You have no notion of how to properly court a lady.”
“I bloody well know how to court a lady.” His tone, too, had grown cool. All the flattery was gone.
He had been sleepy and serpentine before, affecting boredom, spouting off nonsense. Undoubtedly, he had expected her to simply eat up every word he had said because that was how he was accustomed to being treated. Ladies likely took one look at his face, and they melted inside. She, however, was made of sterner stuff. While she could not control her body’s attraction to him, she most certainly could rein in her mind and words.
“For a man who claims to know how to court a lady, you are not doing a very good job of it, are you?” she could not resist needling him. “I stand before you as evidence. No indeed, Lord Ashley. If you truly mean to help secure a bride for your brother, you must try harder.”
A muscle tensed in his jaw. “What would you suggest I do, Miss Winter? Perhaps if I am as inept at courting ladies as you charge, I require some assistance.”
His words gave her pause. She had not truly pondered the notion too carefully. She had been more interested in goading him than aught else. And look where she had landed herself now.
She thought for a moment, before seizing upon a reasonable way of eluding his question. “Why does your brother not do the courting himself, Lord Ashley?”
“Coventry is a man of few words,” he said, unsmiling. “He is painfully shy when surrounded by those he is not familiar with, whereas I am not. He also has precious little experience with ladies. I, on the other hand, am quite familiar with the fairer sex.”
For some reason, his last statement peeved her.
She was sure he was familiar with ladies.Veryfamiliar. Indecently so.
“There you are,” she said airily, forcing such thoughts from her mind. “That is the reason you are no good at this. You are a man who is too accustomed to wooing ladies. It has made you arrogant. Complacent, even.”
He toyed with the fall of his coat, his searing gaze never leaving hers. “Arrogant and complacent, am I? Perhaps we should merely turn our minds to where I have erred. Tell me, Miss Winter, what have I done that is so wrong?”
Drat.He had routed her quite neatly. They were once more back to where they had begun, and she had no choice but to answer this time.
“We already discussed your following of me,” she said.
“Like a puppy,” he agreed, his tone bitter.
“Yes, alostpuppy,” she amended. “There is also the matter of the assumption you made. You simply supposed that because I am unwed and am of marriageable age, and that your brother is a duke, I would be overjoyed to accept a proposal of marriage from him. However, you were vastly wrong, were you not?”
His lips twitched again. “It would seem I was. Thankfully, I have you to show me the error of my ways.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “Furthermore, if you wish to court a lady, the best way to do so is not by plying her with lies. Instead, you should attempt to woo her in other ways. Dance with her. Discuss what she likes to read. Make her laugh. That sort of thing.”
There.He could hardly find fault with that, could he?
“Indeed, Miss Winter,” he said. “These are all excellent suggestions, and they rather have me thinking that perhaps a bargain of sorts is in order.”
“A bargain?” A tiny seed of misgiving burrowed itself into her heart.
Bargains with rakes only ever led to trouble, she was sure of it.
“Yes,” he said smoothly. “Since you have no intention of marrying, and since you have such a plethora of ideas for ways I may become a more successful proxy suitor for my brother, it is only fair that you tutor me.”
She should tell him no. Immediately.
