He couldn’t have said that with more condescension.
“Thank you.” Lucy sniffed. She had no place where to put it, so she kept pressing it into a smaller and smaller ball, while the duke kept looking at her in an austere way that gave her the chills.
What on earth was wrong with him? They were alone in the library. He could drop his mask.
“Well?” She raised her chin.
“Well?”
Lucy’s nerves snapped. “If otherwise you have nothing to say to me, I suppose I’ll return to the drawing room.” Wonderful, now she’d dismissed the duke in his own home. She turned and started marching to the door.
“Two things.”
Lucy froze in her tracks.
“Well?” For heaven’s sake. Couldn’t she think of another word? “I mean, Your Grace.” She kept forgetting that blasted title of his.
“First. Why are you here?”
Lucy gave him a blank look. “Because Felix asked me to come?”
“Felix?” He frowned. Then his brow cleared. “The footman. Pray, let us not repeat that discussion. I don’t mean the library, but Ashmore Hall.”
Was he stupid? She’d already told him the entire story when they’d met. She’d not retell it again. It was humiliating.
She lifted her chin and said in her most disdainful voice. “As I’m sure His Grace recalls, I mentioned the other day I’d like to ask His Grace for a letter of recommendation. Which His Grace has declined to write.”
“I did not want to discuss this in Brown’s presence. The letter of recommendation is superfluous.”
“Why?”
“I shall explain momentarily. Regarding that letter, I do not believe one minute this is the genuine reason you are here. Do you care to explain yourself?”
“No.” She lifted her chin mulishly.
“Did you run away from your previous position as a governess?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t like it there, so I left.”
He stared at her for a moment. “Forgive me, Miss Bell, but your entire story has neither hand nor foot. The only thing I know for a fact is you are the miss who nearly drowned my sister. Aside from involving her in a string of other misdeeds.”
In other words, he didn’t trust her. Lucy decided she hated him.
“I didn’t purposefully attempt to drown her,” she snapped, “as you very well know.”
“Arabella isdelighted you’re here, and your presence seems to lift her spirits. She’s been missing the company of her school friends.”
“Of course.She’s lonely here. You never have time for her.”
His head jerked up as if her words hit home, but he quickly restrained himself. “If you don’t care to reveal the true reasons, you leave me no other choice but to believe that you intend to inveigle Arabella in some nonsense, least of which is to talk her out of the engagement she is to make at the end of the week.”
So that was what bothered him. He feared her interference in their oh-so-orderly life.
The duke crossed his arms. “I don’t know what ultimate reason you have for being here, but if it involves Arabella, if you jeopardiseher engagement, or cause her to get into trouble or worse, I’ll have no compunction to send you packing. Is this understood?”
“You’re right. I intend to kidnap her and drag her to Gretna Green, where I’ll force her to marry the local blacksmith. Really. Who do you think I am?” She jutted her chin.
For a moment he studied her intently. “I’m not sure. You are like a wind that refuses to be contained.”
