He was undoubtedly also a flash swell!
What’s more, astonishingly enough, the man was walking directly toward her. She rose to her feet when he was two yards away.
“What are you doing here?” He was even bolder than Richard Fairclough had been. But this time, she was not a reckless debutante, eager to kiss and ready to be deceived.
“I was visiting Lady Susanne, but I had hoped to see you.”
“A governess does not sit in the drawing room during a visit,” she pointed out.
“I realize that. After I took my leave, I appreciated the benefit of a corner house and strolled along the hedgerow until I saw you.”
She folded her arms, wanting to present him with a wall of strength.
“You cannot see me through the hedgerow. It is a privacy hedge of the thickest yews.”
“Truthfully, I peered between the branches, hoping to get a glimpse. And when I saw you, I pushed my way in.”
Her heart was beginning to pound. “You are a scoundrel, as I suspected.”
“I assure you I am not.” He looked amused, which was infuriating. “No one has ever said such a thing before.”
“What do you call kissing me behind the ballroom?”
“Delightful,” he said. “Until you punched me, that is. I thought women only slapped a man’s face.”
Ah-ha,Alice thought. He was a rascal. “You would know, I suppose.”
“I have never been slapped, nor called a scoundrel before. And that is no lie,” Lord Diamond vowed. “Nor have I ever kissed a woman who didn’t wish to be kissed.”
“Until now.”
He cocked his head.
She wondered if he doubted her. Maybe he was so full of himself he imagined she’d wanted and enjoyed his kiss. In truth, she’d been so surprised by the swiftly unfolding events, when suddenly, he had drawn her close and kissed her, for a second — before she regained her senses — she had enjoyed it. Immensely. Her body had thrummed with pleasure, and she’d wanted to melt against him. He smelled good and kissed better than he smelled.
“Until now,” he agreed finally. “Which is why I came here today. I wish to apologize. It seems I keep having to apologize to you.”
That was probably a ruse. After all, he was compromising her at that moment by sneaking into the yard and being alone with her.
“You have said your apology. Thus, you may go, and we shall hopefully never see one another again.”
A foolish statement since he was apparently in Bath for the small Season, and she was stuck here until the girls outgrew her in about four years.
“I have said my apology for my ill-advised, rash action, but have you accepted it? Perhaps if you do with the understanding the kiss was born of an impetuous nature, combined with your loveliness and my own mistaken notion you were chasing me...” He trailed off and rubbed a hand over his handsome chin.
“Chasing you?” she muttered into the pause, rolling her eyes.
The old Alice of four years ago might have done just that. She had, in fact, done something similar on a few occasions before the final ruinous event that had led to her demise and into a marriage of the utmost disappointment.
He cocked his head and appraised her.
“Well?” she prompted when he remained silent, her cheeks warming under his scrutiny.
He grinned suddenly, then shook his head. “I confess I have entirely forgotten where my meandering thoughts were going.”
Alice felt a smile tug at her own lips, but she managed to restrain herself. Just because he had called her lovely and apologized profusely didn’t mean he wasn’t a cad.
“No wonder you have lost the message you intended to impart, after all that fluff. And if I accept your apology, then what? Does it make a bit of difference?”
