She laughed, covering her mouth with her hand as she did so.
“Very amusing,” he said, his tone caustic.
“Your face!You know, Lord Montaigne does sell you short.You looked positively worried about me.”
“My apologies for showing a moment of human weakness.I will try harder next time to be more inhumane.”
“I appreciate the effort.”
“You will remember, Miss Salisbury, that you are not the usual run of courtesan.My apologies if I regard you with a bit more caution.”
“That is fair,” she said, wiping a tear of laughter from her eye.
“And you were raised as a gentlewoman.”
That brought her up short.
It made her think of her father.And what his ambitions for her had been once.And the fact that those ambitions had not just belonged to her father.But to her mother, too.
“Indeed.”
“Under the circumstances, you can excuse me for fearing you an innocent.You are the cousin of an earl, after all.”
“Third cousin.And I assure you that you needn’t worry for my innocence.”
His attention had long switched from the window to her.Unfortunately, somehow, she found herself on the defensive.
“Explain to me, then, Miss Salisbury, why you need my help at all.If you are so experienced in the bedchamber, then why do you need my instruction?”
His entire body was taut across the carriage from her.He looked scornful, but, also, incredibly tense.He was a man who liked neatness, she wagered, and this entire scenario with her was mussing his order.She could recognize it on him because she was the exact same way.She liked to be in control.
“Many courtesans begin their careers at bawdy houses, learning their trade from more experienced practitioners.If I am to find a protector of means and aim to keep him, then I need this specialized knowledge.While I am experienced with men, I am not experienced with this class of man or what he expects from a paid companion.”
He snorted.His arms were crossed, his nostrils flared.“And what class of manareyou experienced with?”
She thought for a moment.“Linen drapers.Ditch diggers.What men of your station might call ‘the yeomanry.’”
Really, she was exaggerating.She had only been withoneditch digger.But she enjoyed the affront that spread across his features.
“Let me make one thing clear, Miss Salisbury.While you are under my protection, you will have no other men.Do you understand me?”
His face was a mask of tightly controlled rage.She had been enjoying provoking him, but she was shocked by the look of absolute seriousness on his face.
“Of—of course.”
He looked at her for a beat, his expression of wrath completely unchanged.
And then he burst into laughter.
Bastard.
“Your face,” he drawled.
“I’ll be sure to find a ditch digger during intermission.”
“You will do no such thing.While you don’t stir me to a jealous ardor, Miss Salisbury, I will not share my mistress with any man.Even if she has been foisted upon me by circumstance.”
Beatrice suspected that she was unsuccessfully fighting back a blush.He had really seemed sincere in his jealousy.She supposed that she deserved it, for what she had done to him.She usually was better at reading people, men especially.
