“In this manner? It would be wise.” He didn’t back away as she approached, looking down into her face with another of those half-smiles. It truly was a shame he was not a pirate, but perhaps she could persuade him to kiss her anyway.
“Then it hardly matters what passes between us,” she said. Now there was very little space between them. “What are you doing here all by yourself?”
The pause that followed her question made her think perhaps he would not answer, but then he tilted his head as he looked down at her. “Avoiding my family,” he said with more of that dryness. She suspected he was not without humour, but this statement seemed more to conceal some kind of pain. “They are breakfasting in the gardens.”
That statement intrigued Louisa enough to postpone her thoughts of seduction. “Are they so bad?”
“Perhaps not to a stranger, but suffice it to say that my father and I do not see eye to eye.”
“My father is delightful,” she said with a sympathetic smile. “Truly, the best of men.”
“Then you are very lucky.”
“My mother, however, is a tyrant.”
He coughed, and she suspected it was concealing a laugh. “That is less fortunate. What makes her so disagreeable?”
“Nothing much, save that she has no designs for me other than that I enter Society, find a husband and bear children.”
A flicker of interest sparked in those clear blue eyes. “That is not what you want?”
“I suppose a husband is inevitable eventually, but I’m in no rush. Papa has enough money to support us, and there is so much of the world to see.” She put a finger to her cheek and smiled, forgetting her bid to be flirtatious in her thoughtfulness. “And I should like to paint.”
“Can you not paint now?”
“Watercolours,” she said scornfully. “I should like to paint with oils and become one of the great artists.”
The young man looked at her as though he had never seen a woman before, but although she had half expected to see scorn there, there was merely curiosity. “I have never met anyone with such an ambition.”
Louisa opened her mouth to reply and educate this young man about the things women could be capable of if they were given the opportunity, but voices interrupted them. A giggling lady and a young man murmuring something to her.
She froze. The gentleman opposite looked at her with something approaching dawning panic, and he pressed a finger to his lips. All her ire disappeared as he took her arm and drew her a little further into the maze.
“Stay quiet a moment,” he whispered. “They will soon pass.”
Louisa looked up into his face, lingering on the strong line of his jaw. He could not be more than a year or two older than her, but he was already so tall, dressed as though he had taken his place in Society already.
“Would I ruin your reputation if you are discovered here with me?” she murmured, her heart beating fast as he urged her intothe prickling hedge. A branch caught her hair but she made no move to free herself. For all her talk, she did notwantto be discovered with a strange gentleman. Especially if, after all that, he was not inclined to kiss her.
He looked down at her again, the concern on his brow dissolving into reluctant amusement. Something about the way he looked at her, as though he wanted to disapprove but found himself unable to, made her oddly eager to break down his walls.
“Indubitably.” His breath gently brushed the curve of her neck. His hand was still on her arm, and although they were not touching in any other place, her skin felt sensitised under her clothes. “My reputation hinges, in fact, on not being seen seducing a young lady of dubious morals.”
“Dubious morals?” Her whisper was almost a shriek.
“Be quiet, or they will hear us.” He leant away, his hand dropping from her arm as though he had not so much as noticed it remained there, and disappointment stung her. “And may I remind you that you were the one who came upon me unchaperoned and, it would seem, on the run from respectability.”
If she had not seen the dimple at the corner of his mouth that bespoke the presence of another near smile, she might have been offended. As it was, she freed herself from the hedge with a disgruntled sigh.
“I had been hoping to come across a hardened rake,” she said, only half teasing, “and instead I came across you, a paragon of propriety.”
He raised an eyebrow as he glanced back at her. “A paragon of propriety would not be hiding in a hedge maze with you.”
“No?” She adjusted her gloves. “Then whatareyou?”
“Making a mistake,” he muttered, looking once more at where the other couple were now hiding and giggling. “Are we going to have to remain here until they leave?”
The couple’s voices lowered and disappeared completely, replaced instead by the lady’s low moan.
