“Very well,” she said, while threading her fingers in the fabric of her skirts. “I met Fairclough the way most people of our class meet, at a private ball.”
“And then?” he asked.
“You asked how we met,” she protested. “That is all. He came up with the master of ceremonies, gained an introduction, and asked for a dance.”
“Your turn,” he said.
“Why aren’t you married already?” she asked. “You are dash-fire handsome and extremely kind and obviously well-off.”
“I am so flawless I should marry myself,” he quipped. His words had the desired effect. Alice started to laugh, and he joined in.
Eventually, he took her chin between his fingers and captured her gaze.
“The answer is obvious, I believe. I simply had not met the right woman.”
She shrugged and tried to look away, but he stopped her.
“Adam,” she warned.
The way she said it sent a sizzle of desire to his loins.
“Yes, Lady Alice?”
She sighed. “You need a nice, innocent young lady. I have told you that before.”
“I don’t want a nice, innocent young lady. I want you.”
Her eyes narrowed at the perceived insult, which made him laugh again.
“You are far more interesting than any other lady I have ever met. I tried not to love you, but I fell hard, anyway. And now I can embrace my feelings for you.”
She stiffened. “Why now? I am no different now than I was in Bath. Lady or governess, what difference?”
“None,” he agreed. “I was willing to go to my family and tell them of my choice for a wife, the fabulous Mrs. Malcolm. It will be easier now.”
“Will it? Are they all of similar opinion that you must marry within your class?”
He stayed silent, thinking. “Honestly, I am not sure. I’ve simply always been surrounded by my peers.”
“You are a snout-nose!”
“What? Don’t be ridiculous.” Then he paused. “Well, aren’t you, too? Aren’t we all to some degree? Did you befriend your housemaids and play cards with your butler when you were Lady Alice or Lady Fairclough?”
“No.” She paused. “I remained with my own class for socializing as people do, no matter what class they belong to. I suppose that is why, as a governess, I made no friends. I was used to being with ladies and had no idea how to make new middle-class acquaintances.”
She bit her lower lip.
“What of your parents? What if they are horrified at my having been a wage-earner?”
“They will think you utter perfection.”
She sighed. “You intended to make me your mistress.”
Ah, that was stuck in her craw, was it?
Any way that he arranged the words, she wouldn’t like his explanation. Most men of his situation knew one thing — widows were for having fun. One escorted them around town with the idea there was a possibility for a sexual encounter at the evening’s end. Moreover, widows from a different class werenotfor marriage, not when one was the heir to an earldom. Why, he didn’t precisely know.
What he did know was that his friends would have teased him mercilessly had he shown up back home with a widowed governess as his wife. His parents, he hoped, would haveaccepted whomsoever made him happy, but there might have been the slightest shadow of concern.
