‘I think it perfectly obvious Lord Guildford,’ she said through gritted teeth eventually. ‘I am simply out for a walk.’
‘Alone?’ he questioned, eyebrows raised.
‘Yes, alone,’ she snapped before muttering, ‘damn and blast, I hate these bloody shoes.’ Lifting her dress again, she finally succeeded in putting them back on her clearly dirty feet.
‘So,’ she declared haughtily, as though she hadn’t just sworn in front of a titled gentlemen, ‘I will bid you good day, my lord. Come Freddy.’ Fighting the urge to cry, she held her head high and made to step around the Marquess who hadn’t moved.
Fully aware that he hadn’t, so far, handled their chance meeting at all well, Max sought to rescue the situation. ‘Allow me to accompany you to your destination,’ he offered. ‘I do not believe it safe for you to be abroad alone at such an early hour.’
Patience frowned before opening her mouth and promptly shutting it again. Truly, the whole conversation was going from bad to worse. Taking a deep breath, she inclined her head, doing her best to respond in an appropriate manner. ‘I thank you for your concern, my lord,’ she murmured politely, ‘but I am accustomed to walking alone and think it unlikely that anyone will seek to accost me whilst I’m being guarded by Freddy.’
‘And such a good job he was doing a few minutes ago,’ was the Marquess’s clipped response. ‘Such habits may well be harmless enough in the country, but this is a town, and if you are not concerned about your safety, then mayhap you should consider your reputation, given that you are not yet ready to be ruined. Unless of course things have moved on since last evening.’
What the devil was the matter with him? If he wanted her help, he was most assuredly going about the wrong way.
‘I … I…,’ Patience found herself lost for words, a rare occurrence as her family would readily attest. The odious man was making it perfectly clear exactly what he thought of her. Why, oh why had she chosen to speak with him at the ball last eve. If she’d remained in the shadows, he would not have been alerted to her presence and would simply have left, completely unaware.
At length, she drew herself up before saying coldly, ‘Please accept my apologies for confiding in you last evening Lord Guildford, it was entirely wrong of me. My actions are no concern of yours, and as I am certain you do not wish to be cast as the villain in my downfall, I believe we have lingered for long enough.’ She bent her head politely and trying to ignore her sudden urge to cry, continued past him.
Conceding that his notion of how to rescue a situation possibly needed work, Max searched for something to say that would stop her from leaving. ‘I have a proposal,’ he declared abruptly to her back as she began to walk away. For a second, he thought she would keep on walking, but she stopped, and a moment later turned back towards him. To his surprise, her face was thunderous.
‘Oh, you have a proposal do you, my lord?’ she spat scathingly. ‘Would it have something to do with my thoughtless words last evening perchance? Are you making yourself available?’ In her fury, which, in truth, was mostly at herself, she took no note of his increasingly glacial expression but ploughed on. ‘No doubt you think me easy pickings, my lord. A country girl you can simply tup and forget about. Indeed, I laid myself open to just such an offer by being foolish enough to confide in you. Well, you may rest assured that even if you were the last man on earth, I would not…’ She stopped abruptly, suddenly all too aware of his icy silence.
‘Have you quite finished Miss Shackleford?’ he asked coldly, his face now a mask of stony contempt. She stared back at him, realising she had gone entirely too far. Her words had been not only rude but vulgar. She had just insulted a peer of the realm and the worst of it was, she had no idea why.
‘Indeed, you are correct in describing yourself a country miss,’ he went on in the same frosty tone. ‘What you failed to mention is that you are also an uncouth, foulmouthed harridan and I pity any man who has the misfortune to become involved with you. You may rest assured that it most certainly will not be me.’ He narrowed his eyes and regarded her with complete distaste. ‘Or mayhap you think I have a peculiar taste for ill-mannered women whose feet look as though they’ve been dipped in soot.’
With that, he gave the barest nod of his head and strode past.
Staring after him, Patience fought back angry tears. Obnoxious man,’ she muttered to herself defiantly. What on earth made him think she would even entertain being his mistress? How dare he ask such a thing? Suddenly, she stopped, feeling as though she’d been punched in the stomach. She could hardly breathe. He had not suggested such a thing. Not once. She had just assumed that was what he was suggesting.
Dear God, this time she really had gone beyond the pale. She had insulted a peer of the realm. And not just insulted. She’d sounded like Haymarket ware. Her behaviour had been appalling, even by her low standards. It would cause untold embarrassment to her family should they discover she’d been so unforgivably rude to the Marquess of Guildford. What the deuce had caused her to be so angry? She thought back to the tingling sensation at the touch of his hands and swallowed a sob.
The truth was that just for one tiny second, she’d wondered what it would feel like to have such a man love her. Nay, it wasn’t even that she’d wondered. She’d simply yearned.
∞∞∞
Max was furious. At himself, at Patience Shackleford, at his good-for-nothing brother, at the whole bloody world. How had it come to such a pass? Bandying words with a foulmouthed chit with dirty feet. He shook his head. She might have had the manners of a trollop, but his had been no better. His response had been unfairly vicious. It wasn’t his habit to be needlessly cruel, but something about Patience Shackleford put him on edge.
She wasn’t beautiful. In truth she wasn’t even that pretty, but she had a vitality about her that he’d never seen before in any woman. He tried to remember the last conversation he’d had with a female. Truthfully, the only woman with whom he’d ever had a meaningful exchange was Queen Charlotte. And by necessity, such conversations were fairly one-sided. Even those women he’d bedded were not interested in anything beyond his pretty face and title.
But Patience Shackleford said what she thought and to hell with the consequences. Her words might be ill-mannered, but they were also curiously refreshing. As was her complete disregard for society niceties. As his anger began to dissipate, he actually found himself chuckling in remembrance of her attempts to put on her shoes without him seeing how dirty her feet were. But she would never help him now. That much he recognised.
He sighed as he finally climbed the steps to his townhouse. Today, he would make a list of debutantes currently on the lookout for a title in exchange for a generous dowry. As he reached the top of the steps, the front door was opened by the butler who came with the establishment. Nodding his head affably, Max strode past the servant and requested his breakfast be served in the conservatory.
‘Err, my lord,’ the butler’s agitated call caused him to pause, and looking back enquiringly, Max couldn’t help noticing the retainer was now wringing his hands anxiously.
‘Is there a problem Travis?’ the Marquess questioned with a frown.
‘Indeed, I do hope not my lord.’ The butler’s response sounded more like a prayer, and Max’s frown deepened. ‘The … there is a … youngladyto see you,’ the servant continued before the Marquess lost what little temper he had left. ‘Alone.’ The butler pursed his lips, a clear indication of his thoughts on the matter of young ladies entering bachelor establishments unchaperoned.
‘What lady?’
‘She says her name is Patience Shackleford,’ the butler went on, his hands now twisting themselves in knots. ‘She has asked me to inform you that she has come to apologise. She has adogwith her.’
For a second, Max thought he’d misheard. ‘What the devil?’ he muttered to himself. Was the chit determined to hang herself?
‘Show her into the conservatory,’ was all he said, ‘and have Mrs Crawford bring us some tea.’
