“Thank you.”
“Then what shall we talk about?” he asked.
Alice blinked at him. How wonderful that he simply wished to converse with her. Most men wanted to dance, compliment, kiss, and then do more. Yet none she’d met had ever shown an interest in honest discourse.
“Tell me what brought you to Bath.”
To her surprise, he went a little pink in the cheeks before answering.
“Believe it or not, I am escaping my life in London.”
Her heart thudded painfully, having done precisely that herself, two years earlier.
“What do you mean?” In Lord Diamond’s case, he might be engaged, secretly married, or running from debt. All those thoughts flitted through her head before she quickly dismissed them. Lady Beasley knew his family and would not have allowed Susanne within a furlong of him if he was involved in any such miscreance.
“The young ladies of Mayfair have known me or knownofme for a few years, ever since I escorted my sisters to public events. Some families seem to have put me on a list of possible suitors.”
Alice couldn’t help pointing out the obvious. “Quite high on the list, I would imagine.”
“Indeed, whether I wish it or not,” he said. “And I do not.”
“Why?” She knew she was being a nosy-poke, but didn’t most men want the attention and obvious flummery of pretty ladies?
“They were all of a kind, like Lady Susanne.” Immediately the words were out of his mouth, he gaped. “I cannot believe I just said anything so ungentlemanly, offensive, and...”
“Honest,” Alice supplied when he trailed off, looking chagrinned. “I cannot speak for the other ladies you’ve met, but Lady Susanne seems younger than her years and has a stubbornness set against filling her mind through literature, history, or music.”
He nodded sagely, clearly unwilling to say anything else that even hinted of a derogatory insult. She liked that about him.
“And yet, if I may point out, you are amongst the same sort of people here in Bath. You came calling at the Beasleys’ home, and you went to a ball.”
“I have also attended a few dinner parties,” he told her.
“To what aim, my lord, if you wish to remove yourself from the marriage-minded females?”
“Not all of them,” he said. “Only the pushy London ones. I would like a wife in the not-too-distant future, and where else can I look if not at balls and in the homes of the quality folk?”
Alice supposed he was correct, and yet there he was, on a bench with her, seemingly a lowly governess.
As if reading her thoughts, he added, “And in all the time I’ve been in Bath, I have enjoyed your company most of all. In fact, after I saw you on the street and returned your package to you, I began to search for the mysteriouslady, which, in answer to your question, was why I was out in the small Season, attending dinner parties with strangers.”
Alice had not expected such a confession.He’d been searching for her!Yet that was precisely the type of statement Richard would have made to press his case and make her thinkhis devotion was genuine. Having been such a fool once, it was difficult to believe another man with an equally smooth tongue.
And thus, she quelled her blossoming enthusiasm for Lord Diamond. Or tried to.
Adam couldn’t believehow thrilled he was to eat Sally Lunn buns. And it wasn’t because of their soft texture and lightly sweet goodness, reminding him of a French brioche. Rather, the simplest pleasure of sitting on a bench by a river had become extraordinary for doing itwithMrs. Malcolm. The only thing blighting his satisfaction was having promised not to pry.
Her romantic past did not matter greatly, but he wanted to know more of her previous life. If he was going to stretch the boundaries outside the usual sea of females in which he fished in order to pursue her, which he had all but decided to do, then he wanted some assurance. Even if they were merely going to have a secret affair, she needed to be of sound mind, free from any ties to nefarious individuals, and of acceptably virtuous character. The latter meant willing to cavort in his bed while not simultaneously doing the same in anyone else’s.
He would wager his last farthing she was all three. Still, it would be reassuring to hear from her own lips. Thus, after his last bite, he deigned to ask a personal question.
“How did you meet your husband?”
She frowned over the rim of her cup. Then she set it down.
“I thought you weren’t going to ask personal questions.”
“I answered yours,” he pointed out.
