Leonie would have dearly loved to slap him again, except her wrist still hurt from the last one. “I don’t find you amusing.”
He shrugged, the picture of reasonableness. “You are the one who brought up the subject of man things.”
She felt her jaw tighten. “I wasn’t talking about what I think you are talking about.”
“Then what were you talking about?”
Leonie could have screamed. Now she remembered why she had favored Arthur Paccard over Roman. Arthur had been courtly and light. Roman had been serious and had on occasion let her know he believed her immature. His verdict had angered her. Even at seventeen she had known her own mind... and she didn’t like being told she didn’t.
Then again, Leonie had never been so happy to see someone as she had Roman when he’d come upon her and Arthur. He’d been a savior.
She changed the subject. “Do you wish that dance or not?”
“Will you accept my marriage offer?”
“You are astounding. I’ve done my best to be as kind as possible, my lord. However, you leave me no choice other than to be blunt—”
“I’ve always appreciated your bluntness more than your kindness, Miss Charnock,” he interjected, matching her formality.
She could have boxed his ears. He was deliberately making this difficult. She decided to move on with it. “Thank you for your offer but I will not marry you.”
He appeared far from disheartened. Instead of saying the usual proper words to gracefully accept a rejection, he said, “Oh, you will marry me. You owe me, Leonie. I lied for you once. It cost me my military career. It turns out they don’t take kindly to officers shooting each other, even in affairs of honor. The time has come to pay up. I need your dowry.”
The stab of disappointment confused her. She knew her dowry was all any of them, including Camberly, wanted. However, against all logic, she had expected at least a bit of earnest pretense from Roman. Instead, he behaved as if this was a business transaction—which marriage was, except she was rather offended by this attitude of his.
“I see,” she said airily. “I am nothing more than a bag of money to you.”
“Well, there are your ‘garden pebbles.’ I do have a man thing, you know.”
“Then you best be careful because it may fall off from neglect,” Leonie returned, matching his mock seriousness.
Roman grinned, the expression changing his face. He appeared younger and more relaxed. Ah, yes, when Roman let down his guard, no one could be more charming—
The door to the room was thrown open by a laughing young woman pursued by an amorous lord, his arms around her waist. Light flooded in from the hallway as the couple came to a halt upon discovering the marquis’s study occupied.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” the gentleman said. The woman giggled her thoughts.
Leonie seized the interruption to leave. “It is of no matter,” she hastened to say, crossing the room and slipping around the couple. “We were just discussing something but I must return to the ballroom.” She started walking swiftly in that direction. There were other couples in the hall. The marquis’s punch was having a potent effect. They were huddled together in that way of lovers. Leonie tried not to look at them as she hurried along.
She had reached the ballroom door when she sensed rather than heard Roman’s presence behind her. His hand touched her elbow. “I will claim that dance now.”
Leonie could refuse, or she could give a bit of her time as a peace offering.
“Very well,” she decided, and took his offered arm. She did not look at him but she wasveryaware of him.Tooaware.
“You should smile,” he whispered as they were taking their places for the next musical set.
She did as bid, plastering a false sweetness across her face. He rolled his eyes to let her know he was not impressed.
Truly, the man was like vinegar in her life. To keep a bit of her own, she observed in a whisper, “Most men would not wish a dance after their marriage offer, however calculating, was turned down.”
“Calculating? You wound me, Miss Charnock.”
“You appear anything but wounded, my lord.”
His eyes met hers. They were gray, the silver gray of coins or a bolt of lightning... she remembered thinking when they first met that they were the most unusual eyes she had ever seen. Eyes that could reveal everything or nothing.
Right now, they gave no indication of anything other than a mildly amused gentleman waiting with his lady for a dance.
