He should be grateful she didn’t know he was a duke, or he’d find himself halfway down the aisle before he knew what he was about.
Feeling decidedly ungrateful, Hal ground out, “It was no coincidence.I was coming upstairs to escort you down to breakfast.I wanted a few words with you before the work of the day begins.”
“Oh.Well.As you can see, I’m not yet ready to receive visitors, so if you wouldn’t mind waiting downstairs…” She paused delicately, color flooding her cheeks.“And if you could send Lucy up to assist me.”
She gestured vaguely in the direction of a pair of large trunks, bulging with the frills and fripperies ladies of her sort seemed to find necessary.Hal’s sister-in-law had employed a small army of maids to lace her into her daily finery.No doubt Lady Gemma was missing the experience of being waited on hand and foot, petted and cossetted and painted and powdered to within an inch of her life.
Ignoring the impulse to offer to help with her clothes himself—not only would it be beyond inappropriate, but he also wasn’t certain he could trust himself to put her clothesoninstead of taking themoff—Hal contained himself to a tight nod and started for the door.
He reached for the knob, but her soft voice stopped him.
“And, Mr.Deveril.I’m sure we agree that no one needs to know about what happened here this morning.”
Despite the fact that it was exactly what Hal had been thinking, he felt his temper flare.“Oh, do we?”
“It would be embarrassing for me,” she went on, as if unaware of how that sounded.“And I wouldn’t want my mother and sister to worry.After all, nothing really happened.”
Nothing really happened.
To her, that kiss, a kiss that had shaken Hal to his foundations, was nothing.
“You might have thought of that before you kissed me,” he said, slanting her an unimpressed look.
“What?”She blinked as though surprised.“No, not the kiss.I meant the bit about when my shift got accidentally the teensiest bit scorched.If my mother heard about that, she’d fret every time I was in a room with an open flame for the rest of my life.And if Lucy got wind of it—well.It’s not to be thought of.I should never hear the end of it.”
“Whereas they should think nothing of you having a liaison with a servant, I suppose.”
“Well, they have met you,” she pointed out, her tone as reasonable and matter-of-fact as a professor giving a lecture.“I don’t think they’d be surprised I was unable to resist.”
Hal scowled.“Aren’t you the least bit concerned about—” He paused, groping for the right words.
“My reputation?”Gemma gave a faint smile that was more a quirk of her pretty lips than an expression of true amusement.“My maidenly virtue?”
“Yes!”
She shrugged.“Not especially.Leaving aside the fact that we’re miles away from London and anyone whose opinion I might care for, I’m hardly some dainty little debutante making her first appearance at Court.I’ve been out for ages, long enough to almost set me on the shelf if I weren’t a duke’s daughter.I assure you, I’m past the first blush of…well, anything that might make me blush.”
Hal felt a sudden, acute awareness of the chasm between them—Lady Gemma, with her dashing, sophisticated attitude and all her experience of decadent London on one side, and himself on the other.
An impoverished younger son who was never meant to be duke, who’d spent most of his life rusticating in the country and despising every aristocrat he met.
He wasn’t a monk, by any means.He’d gone to university, after all, and nearly drowned himself in depravity before Jonathan had gotten hold of him and sorted him out.But here at home, it was rare for Hal to meet a woman who either hadn’t known him since he was in leading strings, or whose livelihood didn’t depend on him in some way.Neither circumstance made for an appealing bed partner, and besides, he’d been too focused on his goal of rebuilding the village and the estate to allow himself the indulgence.His own right hand would suffice until he had fulfilled his vows and was able to offer a woman something other than empty coffers and a manor house falling down around her ears.
In the meantime, this conversation was a perfect reminder of why Lady Gemma and her family needed to leave town as quickly as possible.
Hal was committed to his purpose, but he was no saint.If he was offered enough temptation in the form of Lady Gemma Lively’s fiery kisses and slaying looks, he would break.And if that happened…there would be no turning back.
He would be trapped.Doomed to the same sort of regret-ridden, acrimonious union that had overshadowed his own childhood, made his mother and sister-in-law wretched, and reduced his father and his brother to their worst selves.
Making his voice cold to counteract the still-coursing heat of his blood, Hal said, “You may not care what anyone in Little Kissington thinks of you, but I will have to live here long after you’ve flitted off back to London.So I would appreciate it if you could keep your kisses to yourself and leave me in peace.”
She had the temerity to shrug those lovely, smooth shoulders, as though none of this mattered to her in the slightest.“I’m sure you are right, Mr.Deveril.I have my own plans to consider—they would certainly not be helped by a dalliance with a local, however handsome.And I would hate to be the cause of damage to your reputation as a fine, upstanding, honorable barkeep.”
A chill washed through him.Hal’s grip tightened on the doorknob, and he took a moment to crack the door to ascertain that no one was in the hall to see him emerging from the room of an unwed young lady.That done, he said over his shoulder, “I’ll send your sister up to see to you, my lady.We can discuss your plans later, when you’ve had time to compose yourself.Until then, I beg you will remember that every man is entitled to his sense of honor, whatever his station in life.Indeed, I have known men of rank who couldn’t spell the word ‘honor’ much less live up to the idea.And I have known farmers, laborers, servants and more whom I would trust with my life.”
He took one final glance at her, and was surprised by the downturned cast of her countenance.She almost looked sorry.
Hal shook off the notion; women like Lady Gemma were never sorry for anything they said or did to someone they considered beneath them.“Make no mistake, my lady.I have worked hard for the goodwill and respect of the people of this village.They matter to me, even if they are of no consequence to you.I will help you with your plans, because we share the same goal—getting you out of Little Kissington for good.I’ll play along…but I am no rich woman’s plaything, and the people here are not pawns or props for you to use.”
