The headmistress smiled. “And obviously, Lex, you are in love.”
Chapter 21
Lucien arrived at Miss Grenville’s Academy a few minutes early.
He felt like a damned idiot waiting outside the front gates, a sinner banned from heaven, but Miss Emma Grenville had made it very clear that he was not to set foot inside the grounds. The old Lucien would have stormed the gates anyway, but today he didn’t relish the thought of scores of young ladies screaming and fleeing and fainting before him.
As the time for his rendezvous came and went, though, he was beginning to contemplate a strategic incursion. And then his goddess appeared, walking up the long, curving drive. It felt like far more than a fortnight since he’d last seen her, and he had to stifle the sudden impulse to break down the gates, throw her over the saddle, and make off with her.
“Lucien,” she said, as she reached the closed gates.
At least she hadn’t decided to pretend they’d never been acquainted. “Alexandra.” Belatedly he dismounted. He wanted to be as close to her as he could manage. “How is Shakespeare?”
She tilted her head a little. “My dog is well, thank you.”
“Good. And how are you?”
“I’m well.”
Lucien blew out his breath. This was fairly useless. He preferred the direct approach—and he knew she did, as well. “You have completely upset the order of my life,” he said. “I didn’t think anyone could do that.”
“Is that what you came here to tell me—that I’ve ruined your life? What do you think you’ve—”
“I didn’t say you’d ruined anything,” he interrupted, scowling. Obviously he wasn’t being direct enough. “You didchangeeverything—the way I look at people, and at myself. And considering the magnitude of that task, you deserve congratulations. And my thanks.”
She fiddled with a button on her pelisse, avoiding his gaze as he looked for a chink in her well-polished armor. “You’re welcome, then. That was what you paid me for, though.”
He shook his head. “I paid you so you wouldn’t leave.” Lucien reached through the gate’s iron bars to touch her cheek. “I miss you.”
Alexandra took an unsteady breath and backed away from his caress. “Of course you do. Now you have to go to the bother of finding someone else whose life you can play with.”
Her defensiveness hadn’t lessened a whit, but he understood it now. “No one else will let me play,” he said softly, and smiled.
She blushed. “Stop that. What are you doing here?”
“You do still like me.”
“It’s a purely physical reaction. You’re better off without me, anyway.”
“I thought I was going to be the one apologizing,” he returned. “Come out of there and walk with me.”
“No. Go away, Lucien.”
“I feel like I’m trying to steal a nun away from a convent,” he grumbled, watching her face for a glimpse of her usual humor.
Her lips twitched. “This used to be a monastery.”
He leaned against the gate, his fingers curled around two of the vertical iron bars. “It’s larger than the cellar, my dear, but you still seem to be trapped inside.” Experimentally he rattled the bars. “At least come closer and kiss me.”
She folded her arms. “Allow me to remind you that youlockedme in the cellar. I am here by choice.”
Lucien nodded. “You’re here because you can’t think of anywhere else to run.”
“According to you and my dear uncle, I don’t need to run any longer. I have his so-called support now.”
“I apologize for setting you free into Monmouth’s arms. But it had to be done.”
“Why did it have to be done?”
