Mar lunged at her. “You deceiving bit—”
The earl stopped both his forward movement and his words as Rose pressed the barrel of her snub-nose revolver against his forehead. The man’s blue eyes almost comically lifted upward as she cocked the weapon.
“Bloody hell, what are you doing with a pistol!”
I don’t go snooping without itwas probably too revealing an answer—although Rose’s hopes of sweet-talking the man through an extended stay on Hamarray were dashed. Clearly her ruse of pretending to be interested in a marriage was over. But she wasn’t about to leave this island. Not after she’d just arrived.
“Protecting myself from unwanted advances.” Rose pressed the gun farther into his forehead just enough to show him that she wasn’t shy about using force.
“You were practically begging for my attention, you little conniving c—” He choked off the slur as she redirected her aim toward his crotch.
“No one asks to be mauled,” Rose corrected. “If you’d like to stay intact, Mar, I suggest that you don’t use offensive language. It makes me rather trigger happy.”
“You’re mad!” Mar paled as he moved his hand protectively over his lower half.
“You do realize your palm is rather ineffective at stopping a bullet? It is just sinew, flesh, and rather delicate bones,” Rose said archly.
He stumbled backward. “I will ruin you for this. You shall have no choice but to marry me. Your parents will be begging for me to take you off their hands.”
“Mother would be delighted by an offer from an earl,” Rose replied, “but it will mean nothing to Daddy. He won’t force me to marry you if I don’t wish it.”
“Do you think you’ll have any standing in Society after this?”
“If I were worried about my reputation, I wouldn’t have traveled here in the first place. I am not known by my virginity but by my dowry,” Rose pointed out. The earl was hardly the first who thought he could coerce her into marriage by threatening to kiss and tell. He was the only one, though, she’d had to ward off at gunpoint. “In fact, out of the two of us, it is you who should be worried about a black mark upon your character.”
“Me?” The earl scoffed, but he still watched her Bull Dog revolver carefully. “If you claim that I tried to force myself upon you, they shall simply blame you for tempting me in the first place.”
Sadly that was true, and the unfairness of that stoked Rose’s already inflamed temper. “Oh, my dear Mar, I am much more diabolical than that. I know which repute really matters to a man like you. It is not honor but prowess.”
The earl looked as waxen as a melted candle. “What do you mean?”
“If you claim that you tupped me, I won’t deny it—or at least I won’t repudiate that you tried your hardest, but in the end you just, well ... couldn’t.” Rose feigned a pout. “It is really not your fault that you bored me, I suppose. It is hard for a man of your age to satisfy the appetites of a young, adventurous woman like myself. Although after such ascandal, it might be difficult for you to find a youthful heiress to agree to be your wife.”
A curious expression fell over Mar’s face as he realized that he really did not have power over her. It must have been a very alien concept for an entitled man like him to even comprehend, let alone accept. Hisfacial muscles contorted, but before he could lunge in her direction, Rose jerked her gun threateningly.
“Get. Out.” The earl snarled the words, all pretense of gentlemanly polish long since rubbed away. “Get off my island now.”
“No.” The response was instinctual, but by the time Rose spoke again, a plan was beginning to form. “No.”
“This is my land,” Mar roared. “You have no power here.”
“I am going to buy Hamarray and Frest,” Rose said, not even bothering to demand rental rights instead. She had made an enemy out of the earl, whether or not he was involved in the spy ring. If hewasa foreign agent, it would be better for her to have complete control over these islets.
Yes.Control.
The household staff and the crofters couldn’t dodge her questions ifshewas landlord. It would be a perfect excuse for asking questions, and no one could stop her from poking around every sandy, rocky, grassy inch of the place. And Myrtle could finally lead her own dig into any tumbledown rock heap that she desired.
“You are what?” the earl bellowed.
“It is clear the place is falling down, and you can no longer afford its upkeep,” Rose pointed out. “I shall pay you top dollar, which is more than you deserve. You can use the money to prop up your entailed estates until you can find a bride title hungry enough to marry you.”
“I have no intention of selling Hamarray and Frest toyou,” Mar huffed.
“I wouldn’t be so hasty in rejecting my kind offer. After all, you might have trouble off-loading it if rumors of its shabbiness start circulating, especially combined with other tales of my thoroughly unsatisfying stay.”
“Are you blackmailing me?” Mar started to puff out his chest and then seemed to belatedly recall her pistol. He huffed out his breath, looking a bit like a schoolboy who’d dropped his favorite sweet in the mud.
“I’m forcing your hand. Something I’m sure you’ve done to others.” Rose lowered her gun to her side. She had the earl in her sights without it raised, and they both knew it.
