“Then I’ll accompany you,” she said, brushing past him on the way to the greenhouse. Really, how did he expect them to decide if they would suit if they didn’t spend any time together?
He reached out to grab her, then remembered that his hand was covered with dirt. “Miss Bridgerton,” he said sharply, “you can’t—”
“Couldn’t you use the help?” she interrupted.
“No,” he said, and in such a tone that she really couldn’t continue the argument along those lines.
“Sir Phillip,” she ground out, completely losing patience with him, “may I ask you a question?”
Visibly startled by her sudden turn of conversation, he just nodded—once, curtly, the way men liked to do when they were annoyed and wanted to pretend they were in charge.
“Are you the same man you were last night?”
He looked at her as if she were a lunatic. “I beg your pardon.”
“The man I spent the evening with last night,” she said, just barely resisting the urge to cross her arms as she spoke, “the one with whom I shared a meal and then toured the house and greenhouse, actuallyspoketo me, and in fact, seemed to enjoy my company, astonishing as it might seem.”
He did nothing but stare at her for several seconds, then muttered, “I enjoy your company.”
“Then why,” she asked, “have I been sitting alone in the garden for three hours?”
“It hasn’t been three hours.”
“It doesn’t matter how long—”
“It’s been forty-fiveminutes,” he said.
“Be that as it may—”
“Be that as itis.”
“Well,” she declared, mostly because she suspected he might have been correct, which put her in something of an awkward position, andwell,seemed all she could say without embarrassing herself further.
“Miss Bridgerton,” he said, his clipped voice a reminder that just the night before he’d been calling her Eloise.
And kissing her. “As you might have guessed,” he continued sharply, “this morning’s episode with my children has left me in a foul mood. I thought merely to spare you my company, such as it is.”
“I see,” she said, rather impressed with the supercilious edge to her voice.
“Good.”
Except that she was quite certain shedidsee. That he was lying, to be precise. Oh, his children had put him in a foul mood, that much was true, but there was something else at work as well.
“I will leave you to your work, then,” she said, motioning to the greenhouse with a gesture that was meant to seem as if she were waving him away.
He eyed her suspiciously. “And what do you plan to do?”
“I suppose I shall write some letters and then go for a walk,” she replied.
“You willnotgo for a walk,” he growled.
Almost, Eloise thought, as if he actuallycaredabout her.
“Sir Phillip,” she replied, “I assure you that I am perfectly fine. I’m quite certain I look a great deal worse than I feel.”
“You had better look worse than you feel,” he muttered.
Eloise scowled at him. It was a blackened eye, after all, and thus only a temporary blight on her appearance, but truly, he didn’t need toremindher that she looked a fright.
