“Then you are jesting.”
“I’m perfectly serious. If you must have it, I’ve had this in mind from the start.”
Felicity’s breath seemed to have become caught up in her throat. A vague, unformed hope living somewhere deep within her perished before she understood it, superseded by the unflattering significance of Raoul’s words. Fury lodged in her bosom. “You had it in mind? You actually thought of this? When, Raoul?”
He spread his hands. “I can’t be sure exactly. Certainly by the time we set out on this journey.”
“But you scarcely knew me!”
A muscle twitched in his cheek. “It’s not unusual for men of my rank to be little acquainted with a prospective bride. Besides, I knew enough. I knew you did not bore me. I knew you were a woman unlike the parade of debutantes to which I’ve been subjected year on year.”
“Am I supposed to be flattered?”
He flung up his hands. “I’m doing this all wrong!”
“I can’t imagine how you could possibly do it right.” She was up on the words, pacing away to the mantel. “I knew there was something. You wouldn’t say. You treated me to your enigmatic front.” She turned on him and found he had risen. “You waited to see if I was worthy, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did. Of course I did.” He took a hasty step towards her. “I had to, Felicity. I have a duty to my name, to my title. A marquis cannot marry to please himself.”
“But you are pleasing yourself, Raoul. From a worldly point of view, I could not be more unsuitable.”
“By birth you are perfectly suitable.”
“Is that all that matters?”
“It’s the one consideration I can’t ignore.”
“But you can ignore the fact I have been a schoolmistress for six years. You can ignore the fact Lord Maskery intended me for your mistress. Not yourwife, Raoul. You must have windmills in your head!”
He came up to her, and triumph lit in her as she saw the blaze of anger in his eyes. “You ought to be glad I don’t think of you in such terms, for heaven’s sake! Why are you behaving as if I’ve insulted you? I’m offering what I have never done to any other woman.”
Felicity struggled with herself, aware of the justice of his words. She forced her voice to a semblance of calm, but it came out clipped and frigid. “Sensible as I am of the honour,mylord, I must regretfully decline your very flattering offer.”
The effect of this was not at all what she had expected. The fire in Raoul’s eyes died and amusement took its place. “You idiotic girl! You are not in the least little bit sensible of the honour, though it is a considerable one. However, I can scarcely complain of that since it is your very lack of toadying to my rank that made me like you in the first place.”
Disarmed, Felicity felt obliged to apologise. “I should not have flown out at you like that.”
His lips twisted. “That sounded all too grudging. Never mind. I’m going to ring for tea and then we’ll start again.”
He crossed to the bell-pull and Felicity watched him, beset by a sudden yearning for a very different sort of approach. He tugged on the bell and gestured to the sofa.
“Come.” She hesitated and he smiled. “I won’t bite. Let us discuss this calmly, shall we?”
Felicity did not want to discuss it at all. An unaccountable wave of misery attacked her. She crossed to the sofa and sat down again, her spirits rapidly dropping while he settled beside her.
“Let me spell out the advantages.”
Heavens, not that! “There is no need.”
He waved her to silence. “It seems to me there is every need. I must obviously explain myself a little more.”
A catalogue of reasons? The last thing she wanted to hear. She said what came into her head in a bid to deflect him. “This is useless, Raoul. You must know it’s impossible.”
“You underrate me. I am in the habit of making the impossible possible.”
She could not repress a giggle. “Now you are talking nonsense.”
The wry smile came. “One of the charms of your society, my dear Felicity, is the unpredictable. I never know how you will respond.”
