He shook his head, his expression turning curious. “Why are you so desperate to remain here? It’s more than apparent that this is no place for an innocent like you.”
Heat crept back up her throat, and she was sure she was flushing redder than a ripe summer cherry. “If you must know, I came here because I am soon to be engaged, and this house party is my last hope for experience before I settle down with a husband.”
He stared at her, saying nothing, his gaze so sharp that it may as well have been a knife.
“Well?” she demanded into the uncomfortable silence that had descended. “Have you nothing to say?”
His jaw was clenched taut. He swallowed—she knew because she watched the prominent bulge of his Adam’s apple dip in his throat. And still, he said not a word.
“You’re soon to be engaged,” he said at last. “Who is he?”
“The Earl of Carnis.”
He choked. “Carnis? Forgive me, minx, I daresay I heard you wrong. I thought you said that you’re soon to be betrothed to the Earl of Carnis, a man who has the personality of a garden bench and the brains of a chicken.”
She winced at his description of the man she would one day wed. “His lordship is quite intelligent, if you must know, and he is perfectly kind and sweet to me in all ways. He would never, for instance, lock me in a room.”
“If he’s so bloody wonderful, then why are you seeking experience with others instead of your future husband?” Richford demanded, ignoring her jibe.
Warmth prickled her cheeks at his familiarity. This discussion was wrong and wicked. But then, so was she, wasn’t she? A good, honorable lady wouldn’t wish to experience anything romantic or carnal with a man other than the one she was marrying. The kindly, perfectly polite, obsequious man she intended to wed.
“Because I…I admire Reginald,” she explained, struggling to find the words and make sense of her cumbersome emotions herself, “but I don’t desire him. Nor, I think, does he desire me. Our union will be built on mutual respect and courtesy. I wish for a husband who will treat me with kindness and give me children. Reginald will do that.”
“Reginaldwouldn’t know how to pleasure a woman if he took lessons from the world’s finest courtesan,” Richford said. “Why would you want to marry such a fool? Does Whit know of this? Please tell me he doesn’t countenance a match between you and that idiot.”
“Reginald isnotan idiot,” she defended, feeling guilty enough for her plotting. “He is exactly what any lady would want in a husband. And as to whether my brother knows, I’m not certain. He’s so oft preoccupied with his own life that I think there is precious little time for him to fret over mine.”
“Good God, you’re running wild beneath his very nose, and he hasn’t an inkling.” Richford shook his head. “Little wonder you were able to find your way here. You’re cunning enough to rout an army.”
She wasn’t certain if that was an insult or praise.
Rhiannon chose to consider it the latter.
“I’m hardly running wild,” she countered. “Did you not hear any of what I’ve just told you? I am planning to settle into a comfortable, staid marriage with a gentleman of great honor. One who has professed his deep and abiding love for me.”
“Oh, I’m certain he has,” Richford said with a bark of snide laughter. “And let me guess, you return his endless and profound love, yet you’re still here at a debauched house party.”
When he said it thus, it sounded inherently wrong. Because itwaswrong. But he didn’t understand.
“Why should I not experience a bit of life before I wed?” she demanded, planting her hands on her waist. “Have you never stopped to consider how unfair it is that a man can run about doing whatever he likes, bedding whomever he wishes, and all polite society looks the other way? Yet if an unmarried woman should be curious about what she is to endure in the marriage bed, she ought to be scorned?”
“You may be curious all you like, but you cannot wait until you’ve married the poor bastard?”
She glared at him. “Didyouwait until you were married?”
“Of course not,” he scoffed. “But I’m a man, and I’m not marrying anyone, not now, not ever.”
“Then perhaps I shall eschew the marriage altogether and simply take lovers as it pleases me,” she declared, frustrated with him.
“You’ll be cast from polite society. Your mother and your brother will no longer be able to acknowledge you. Surely that isn’t the life you’d want for yourself, Lady Rhiannon.”
“So you see? Itisunfair for a woman. We are judged by a separate set of standards that are far more rigid and unforgiving. That is why I came to this house party. It is my one chance for the freedom that men enjoy. Why should I not seize it?”
Once again, silence fell between them. Richford stared at her. What had he expected? She couldn’t humiliate herself by confessing her feelings for him as well.
She raised a brow. “Can you not answer?”
His eyes grew shuttered, unreadable. “You came here to see what pleasure is all about, did you not?”
