“No, want to sleep.”
“You promised to go riding with Mr. Curran this morning.”
Mr. Curran.The name took a moment to wiggle its way into her exhausted mind. When it did, Gwendolyn didn’t need to open her eyes to bite out, “I made no such promise.” She buried her nose in her pillow.
Molly made a frustrated sound before trying a different tack. “Miss, you adore riding. You planned to ride this morning. And he’s waiting for you.”
Gwendolyn threw herself onto her back, her eyes still closed. “He can wait forever for all I care.”
“But the horses can’t. You hate to see saddled horses just standing around for their riders. You’ve told me that before. You think it is rude when riders don’t consider their mounts.”
This was true. She slitted open her eyes. “Molly, I will not ride with him. Tell him that.” Although she was tempted to ride. A horsehadbeen saddled. She missed riding. She could arrange for one of the stable lads to escort her.
“I’d rather not, miss. He tracked me down in the servants’ quarters. Stood over my bed and ordered me to come fetch you.”
That woke Gwendolyn. She sat up. “Who is he to tell my maid what to do?”
“If you had been out there to meet him at the appointed hour, he would not have had to do that,” Molly muttered.
“Excuse me? Did he claim we were to meet this morning?Thatis not true.”
“He said you would say that. He said I should not believe you.”
Gwendolyn’s temper exploded, fueled by lack of sleep and her very recent resolve to rip Mr. Steele out of her life. “Who does he believe he is?”
“Oh, I can’t say, Miss Gwendolyn. However, I have your habit right here.” She held up the garment.
“He is telling lies.”
“That he might,” Molly agreed before pointing out, “but you look so fetching in your new habit. ’Twould be a shame to not wear it. Please, Miss Gwendolyn, it is only a wee ride. Can’t you do it?”
Gwendolyn wanted to shriek her frustration. She swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Whyare you pushing me to do this?”
“He promised me a gold crown if I could rouse you out of the room to ride with him,” Molly said evenly. “He’s waiting on the front lawn with two horses. Please, miss, I would like that gold crown. I’ve never even seen one.”
“What if I paid you a gold crown to tell him to—” Gwendolyn broke off before she saidsomething she shouldn’t. Besides, Molly knew she didn’t have any money to call her own.
Abruptly Molly’s eyes widened. She grinned as if she’d made a discovery. “I’ve never seen you like this over a gentleman, miss. Youlikehim.”
“I do not.” Purging him from her system had been what last night was all about.
“Now I really think you should ride,” Molly insisted.
“I’m tired.”
“You don’t look like you slept well,” Molly commiserated.
Gwendolyn shot a glance toward the looking glass in the room, and frowned at what she saw. Her hair had come loose from its braid and was every which way. Her eyes looked like tiny, angry slits—
“I can make you look as if you slept like a princess, all fresh and relaxed,” Molly offered seductively.
“You could?”
“He won’t know you gave one thought to him,” Molly answered, revealing that she understood the situation.
Gwendolyn considered a moment. She hated that she hung on his every word, looked for him in every gathering, shared what she was thinking at every opportunity, and he didn’t return one ounce of the same regard.
This trip to help him unlock the mystery of his past had been the single most exciting adventure of her life—because she was helping him. She’d wanted to believe he’d chosen her.
