“But you weren’t.”
“Six reasonably attractive women, two of them in the range of diamonds, one a diamond of the first water. Any boy or man’s dream, wouldn’t it be?”
“No.”
A chilling laugh shook his chest. “The sixteen-year-old body doesn’t always agree. More’s the pity.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. “What made you finally decide to leave after…after being there for so long?”
“Allowing it for so long?”
She stiffened and tried to look at him, but his arm held her in place. “That is not what I said.”
“My mother died.” His voice was so soft she could barely hear him. “Jeremy would have had to come live on the estate. I couldn’t let that happen. And something was off with the…women. I never found out what, but there was a new intensity. Something different in their eyes. I let a few things slip to my father in a rage. My mother was dead, out of their reach, and my father could fend for himself. I couldn’t risk Jeremy.”
“Your father—”
“He figured it out quickly enough with the clues I’d given. He found me packing and gave me everything he had on him, which unfortunately wasn’t much. Jeremy and I left that night.”
“The women didn’t try to find you?”
“Oh, they did. I can’t imagine their faces. Their anger. But the servants’ network takes care of its own sometimes. We hid in London, as I said. I started doing odd jobs, tutoring Jeremy. I fell into an opportunity that was a little questionable, but I parlayed it. Eventually I earned enough money, enough favors, to take revenge, to put them down. Monetary or social revenge mostly—either by bleeding them dry around town or ruining them the same way. And the rest…” He waved his hand.
“You were very brave.”
“Bravery had nothing to do with it. I survived.” He drew lazy patterns on her back.
“They underestimated you.”
“Most people in the upper classes do. You’ll have to watch for that when you return.”
“It is doubtful I will return.”
“They will embrace you with open arms as soon as your brother is released. You’ll be the talk of the ton. Able to have anything you desire, as long as you grab it quickly—society is nothing if not fickle.”
“What if I don’t want to grab some fickle fate? It has held me powerless for so long.”
He tensed. “Take the opportunity when it presents itself. Always. And societywillpresent itself. A marriage proposal or five, I wouldn’t be surprised. Take the control when you can in a situation where you are otherwise at the whim of others.”
She chewed her lip. “Am I at your whim now?”
His arm moved, and thus freed, she turned her cheek to look into his eyes. “Are you?” he asked instead of answering.
“Yes, I do believe I am.” She pressed a hand against his chest as he moved to rise. “Your whim is not unpleasant, but I yearn to be my own woman. To control my own life and movements.”
His eyes turned unreadable. She thought for a second she had lost him. The second turned into two. Abruptly his eyes switched back to the watchful, slightly wary look he had long sported, but there was something else there too that she couldn’t read. Trust?
“Then teach me what it is you want,” he said. “Show me.”
She blinked. “I—I have nothing to teach you.”
“Do you not? Come. Teach me, Marietta. Don’t let my body do what my eyes don’t cede. Make me obey your will.”
“But…” She bit her lip. “Won’t that be—”
“No. Didn’t you say it is the will that is important? If I put myself in your hands, I trust you to take care of me.”
Shock, love, something crazy froze her stomach, working up her throat, choking her.
