Looking annoyed at the interruption, the earl glanced away from Alexandra. “No, you wouldn’t.”
Alexandra gritted her teeth. “Your cousin has requested your opinion, my lord. And very prettily, too, I might add.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Very well. I shall stay.” With another lazy look at Alexandra, he crossed the room and dropped into one of the waiting chairs.
All right, that settled it. Lord Kilcairn was being deliberately difficult. And in his arrogant, cynical way, he found the whole thing amusing. Alexandra turned her back on him and allowed Madame Charbonne to continue her measuring. Ignoring the earl was like ignoring chocolate, but he didn’t need to know the effect he had on her.
He’d been correct in expanding her teaching duties to include himself. No doubt he considered the challenge a joke, but she didn’t. This was her area of expertise, and Lord Kilcairn was about to go back to school.
Lucien put up with the tittering and complaining and preening for nearly an hour. Deciding he’d thereby qualified for sainthood, he stood and stretched. “Excuse me a moment, ladies.”
He stopped just outside the shop’s front door and pulled a cigar from his coat pocket. When the door opened behind him, he knew who it was without having to turn around.
“You look better in that burgundy than cousin Rose does,” he said.
“I am not looking to find a titled husband. And that is a filthy habit.”
Lucien turned around, amusement tugging the corners of his lips upward. “You need to be more specific where filthy habits and myself are concerned. Did you follow me only to stop me from smoking cigars?”
“I’m afraid you need a great deal more work than that.”
Immediately intrigued, Lucien returned the unlit cheroot to his pocket. “Let me guess. You want another wage increase before you’ll take on such a horrific task as reforming me.”
“No, I do not.”
“Pray tell me what concerns you, then.”
Alexandra cleared her throat. “I am a governess. I shouldn’t be wearing a gown made by Madame Charbonne.”
Lucien eyed her. “If you hadn’t wanted one, you wouldn’t have let her measure you for one.”
She blushed. “Perhaps not. But the point is not what I want, but rather, what is proper. It is not proper for—”
“No, it’s not proper,” he interrupted, stepping closer. “But you’ll wear it anyway, won’t you?”
She took a step backward, which he immediately pursued. “My lord, I—”
“Won’t you?”
Again she hesitated. “Of course I will. I have no doubt it will be the finest gown I’ll ever own.”
He had his doubts about that. She was only trying to make him feel like a blackguard, though, and at the same time giving him the opportunity to say something honorable or noble. He was, however, a full-blooded blackguard. Achieving that title had taken years of hard work at debauchery. And a few cleverly worded sentences would not even begin to convert him. “Then thank me, instead of lecturing me about my bad habits.”
Alexandra lifted her chin in the way he found so damned appealing. “I will not thank you. You’ve made a poor decision, which I think you’ll regret as soon as one of your peers realizes what your governess is wearing. And who she is.”
“Alexandra,” he murmured, wishing they were somewhere other than the middle of Bond Street so he could kiss her, and wondering why that stopped him this time. “I have long since ceased caring what my peers think. I wish to see you in that gown, and so I will.”
“It is not a great victory, my lord.”
He nodded. “But I consider it the first of many. Actually the second, when we take into consideration that you are, after all, working for me.”
She met his gaze squarely, only the color in her cheeks belying her perfect calm. “One of many mistakes I’ve made, my lord,” she answered.
“And one of many more to come, I hope.” Letting her read into that whatever she chose, Lucien glanced back toward the shop. “Give my excuses to the incarnation of hell on earth and her mother.”
“She’s not so bad, you know.”
Wanting to touch her, he settled for stroking one finger across her soft, smooth cheek. “Tell me that again on Friday morning. You have three days, Miss Gallant.”
