“It was notnothing.”
Lewis’s eyes snapped to her face. “It was. You might believe that you are knowledgeable, young miss. However, it is obvious to me that you know little about the world. Certainly, you know nothing of debauchery.”
Lady Bridget’s nostrils flared. At first, she appeared angry. Lewis idly wondered if she might snap at him or do something moredramatic, like strike him. Then, her shoulders fell, and she seemed to wilt like a flower struck by an untimely frost.
“It meant everything to me,” Lady Bridget said.
“Did you love him?”
Lady Bridget swallowed hard and clasped her hands together. “Why does that matter? Are you going to chastise me for behaving so—so foolishly?”
“Of course not.”
Lady Bridget sighed. “I suppose I was more in love with the idea of being in love than in love withhimif that makes sense. I forced myself to believe that I loved him because I had always wanted romance.”
“Love?”
“More than anything.”
“I see.”
“But I was young and naïve, then,” Lady Bridget continued. “I know much more about the world now.”
“Do you?” he asked incredulously. “I would think that you are still quite naïve. You believe that a kiss is some great scandal.”
“Most of thetonagrees that it is,” she said primly. “You are clearly a disreputable and contrary man for believing otherwise.”
“Or maybe I am the only consistent man.”
“If everyone in London believes something, except for you,theyare not the problem,” Lady Bridget said. “Is that why you have remained unwed until now? You have no idea what constitutes proper behavior?”
“I clearly know what proper behavior is,” he said. “Propriety demands that I marry you, and I am doing so.”
“Oh, please! You offered me your hand over something that was barely a scandal at all, and we both know it was accidental. Do you always follow the rules?” Lady Bridget asked. “Given your resolve to marry me and your seeming disinterest in my kiss, I am left to wonder if you are instead a hypocrite. That would make you quite like most men I have met. You certainly seem very quick to please thetonover a rather fickle matter.”
His jaw clenched at her fiery defiance. Worse, he could not deny that her argument made sense. Lewis could not simply choose which rules of society he followed, but he had been wild once. Wild that night when he returned to his grandmother’s fear and wide eyes when he was scarcely twenty years of age.
A kiss was nothing. He could show Lady Bridget everything else and some things that even most proper ladies would never know. Lewis imagined Lady Bridget’s eyes widening, as hewhispered all the salacious things he might do to her in the privacy of his bedchamber.
“You will soon learn that some rules must be followed,” Lewis said. “And I would love to show you precisely what happens to little minxes like yourself. Regrettably, we are in a public place.”
His palm tingled in anticipation, his pulse jumping when he imagined himself showing her precisely what discipline misbehaving young ladies received.
“I know what happens,” Lady Bridget said curtly. “Those ladies are forced to marry detestable men.”
“You did not seem to find me so detestable last week,” he said, making his voice low and sultry.
She inhaled sharply. “How dare you?” she hissed.
“How dareyou?” he retorted. “Do you believe that such behavior is befitting of the future Duchess of Wheelton?”
She tipped her chin defiantly up. Lewis’s eyes snapped backwards, glancing briefly at Elias. The man was too far away to hear his conversation with Lady Bridget, but Lewis had no doubt that he would notice if Lewis dared reach for Lady Bridget.
“If you find my behavior so unbecoming, you should not marry me. You can find another bride, after all.”
He chuckled. “No need. You are young and clever. You will learn to be what I want—a perfect, obedient wife.”
Lady Bridget visibly bristled. “No lessons will be sufficient for turning me into that, Your Grace.”
