“Why didn’t you offer to escort Lord Dodd’s aunt—?”
“Aunt by marriage,” Hargrove interrupted.
“That signifies nothing,” she said. “Wouldn’t it have been the gentlemanly thing to do?”
“She’s an odd gander, that one,” he said, and Glynnis instantly relaxed. She wished it wouldn’t have bothered her if Hargrove had been complimentary over the lady, but it would have.
“I thought so, too. And she ate dinner without her shoes.”
He laughed. “I suppose she felt comfortable in her own home.”
“But it’s not. It’s Lord Dodd’s.”
“And he’s an odd goose, too.”
Glynnis was taken aback. “Whatever do you mean? He seems perfectly normal. Keeping a well-run household.”
“Staying with a woman who is not really his aunt, but passing her off as such. Why?”
“What are you suggesting?”
He laughed. “I don’t wish to shock you. What did she call you? A proper, starched miss.” And then he laughed some more.
“I am not,” she protested.
“Oh, I know that,” Hargrove said too quickly. “Only too well.”
She would have to let that go for now — mostly because whatever he thought she’d been doing in London, he would be correct.
“What are you insinuating about Lord Dodd?”
“I doubt he behaves as if he’s her nephew, and I’ll leave it at that.”
If Hargrove was saying what she thought he was, then...
“Why would he offer to escort me to the Castle Hotel tomorrow night, and in front of Isabelle?”
Hargrove held the door to the Old Ship open and ushered her inside.
“For appearances, perhaps?”
“Are you implying you don’t think he can actually be attracted to me?” Without thinking, she nodded to the night manager and climbed the stairs, assuming Hargrove would see her to her door.
“Of course he is! Any man with eyes is attracted to you,” he said to her back, ascending close behind her.
Glynnis smiled.How wonderful to hear him say such a thing!
Then he added, “But any man with an ounce of sense will fight that attraction.”
She grimaced, which he also couldn’t see.
“Anyway, whether Dodd is attracted to you or not should be irrelevant. After all you’re engaged. The question is, why did you accept his invitation?”
She hesitated, and they’d reached her door. Facing him, she leaned her back against it.
“I accepted because it seemed polite. He’d invited us to dinner and we all got along well. Lord Dodd knows I’m engaged, so he must have offered to escort me simply to be friendly.”
“Perhaps to take the burden from me,” Hargrove added, leaning an arm on the door frame beside her head.
