“Don’t you look away from me,” he warned. “Not until you give me answers.”
Rachel could barely hear him now. Her pulse was crashing loudly in her ears.
When he was that close to her, it was impossible to come up with an answer.
“What was your reasoning?” This time, he was asking nicely. She felt her stomach knot up. “I’m offering you an opportunity to clarify yourself—maybe the final one. This is our first encounter; we are completely unfamiliar with one another. Tell me.”
Rachel gulped, her hands shaking with fear. She struggled to keep her gaze fixed on him, but his intense stare caused her breath to catch.
It is best if I just come clean now. Tell him the truth. It’s not as though things could get any worse than they already are.
“I—I was trying to help my sister,” she admitted, her voice trembling now—despite her best efforts to steady it. “I thought if people believed I was engaged to you, it would improve her chances of finding a husband.”
“A noble motive, perhaps. I would almost respect it if it wasn’t also afoolishone.”
She hated how he emphasized that word. It made her feel silly.
“How was I supposed to know that it was going to reach you?” she tried to argue.
“Why would it not?”
“Because…” Rachel bit down on her lip. “You know what your reputation is like. No one has seen you in months, nor do you ever concern yourself with society’s gossip. That is the reputation you have.”
“That does not give you license to tell people that you and I are engaged.”
She didn’t want to admit to him that she thought, if she got caught, it would have taken longer than it had.
“Sure,” Rachel shook her head. “But then you cannot blame me either for assuming that news would not travel to you.”
For a moment, Simon only stared at her without saying anything.
“I am surprised by your audacity,” he said finally.
“Well, you shouldn’t be,” she replied, “considering you already know the audacity I had by starting the rumor in the first place.”
Rachel did not know where this sudden spark of boldness had come from. Simon seemed surprised himself.
But then in a flash, he pulled her closer to him. “You argue too much for someone who is in the wrong.”
Suddenly, Rachel could no longer think of a retort. If anyone—her father or Letitia—were to see them in this state, she would never hear the end of it. She would be forever accused of bringing dishonor upon herself.
“You are too… close,” she managed to say.
“Does it matter?” His lips curved upwards into a smirk. “We are engaged, remember? At least that is what half of the ton seems to think.”
Rachel’s heart thundered in her chest. She should have felt fear, she thought, but fear was the farthest thing from her mind. What she felt was something else entirely—a strange heat that curled low in her stomach and left her unable to move.
“You look pale,” he commented. He was close enough to notice the slightest shift.
“I am… fine,” she tried to argue again. Even though he was having a great impact on her, she did not wish to give him the impression that he was.
Though she was unsure how successful she was in hiding it.
“No, you are not,” he stated it like a fact. “You look scared.”
“I am not afraid of you,” she tried to scoff, but the words died in her throat as he glanced down at her.
“You’re not?” he hummed. “If you were smart, then you ought to be. There is a reason why people stay away from me.”
