Two men waited in the reception salon when she and Emilia emerged from the back chambers. Theo’s lead coachman sat there, chatting with the duke.
“How kind of the duke to help you pass the time, Simmons,” Clara said while both men shot to their feet. “But then the two of you have met before and had other conversation, haven’t you?”
Simmons, a stocky man with a fringe of graying hair around a bald crown, shrank back at her tone. She gave him a severe look to let him know she did not appreciate that he had traded her whereabouts for this duke’s coin.
The coachman became all business, gathering up Emilia and escorting her down the stairs. Clara and the duke followed and watched Emilia roll away.
They had stayed at the dressmaker long enough that dusk was gathering. Clara gazed at the duke’s carriage. Her better sense urged some caution.
“I think I will hire a hackney after all. You really should not have stayed, especially since it was all for naught.”
“Are you afraid of my company because of that kiss, Lady Clara?”
“Perhaps a little.”
“That is probably wise, although I do not think you frighten easily. I certainly do not think you allow fear to govern your choices and actions. Nor do I believe it ismethat you fear, even a little.”
Oh, the look he gave her. So aware. So knowing. He might as well have saidYou fear yourself with me, which is different.
What a conceited, impossible man. How had she forgotten that? Right now, standing beside the street, it seemed incomprehensible to her that she had allowed those kisses in her library earlier today. Her sympathy regarding his father had probably turned her judgment, and now he used it against her. His reasons might still be obscure, but not the intentions.
Afraid of herself? Hardly. Afraid of him? Not at all. She was not some awestruck child, too inexperienced to see what this man was about. She had fought off her share of seductions in her day, and they had been more artful than his lack of subtlety. She had enjoyed her share of kisses without turning into a fool too.
She strode to his carriage. “Directly to my home, please. No detours and no delays, if you do not mind.”
* * *
Lady Clara could not be enjoying this carriage ride much. She sat so stiffly that she swayed hard from left to right with the jostling of the equipage on the uneven pavement. She had not moved in any way since settling into the cushion across from him.
He half expected her to pull out that hatpin and hold it at the ready. He did not doubt that she would use it.
Picturing that led to other images. “Your brother said your father taught you to ride and shoot,” he said. “It sounds like you were very close to him. Were you his favorite?”
Her stern expression softened at once, so much that he almost regretted the question.
“I suspect I was. No, that isn’t fair. I know I was. He loved all of us, however, even if Theo may think—I came from one part of my father’s life, and Theo and Emilia from a later part, that is all. At least I think it is.”
“Did he indulge you all the more after that first part ended?”
“He did not indulge me. What a word to use. We enjoyed each other’s company. We fit each other like favorite garments.”
Indulgewas exactly the right word, from everything he had seen and heard. The late earl treated this daughter like a son. He had allowed her to remain unmarried and had provided the means for her to be independent.
He had probably confided in her.
“Women in your situation sometimes think it unfair that they cannot inherit,” he said.
“I did not think that, although once he told me that he did. I think he really meant that he regretted I had not been a son. He frankly told me as much, and it did not hurt me. Men such as he marry to sire heirs, not daughters. He felt that obligation deeply, as all peers do.”
“And so he remarried?”
“I suppose that was one reason for it.”
The main reason, most likely. Adam pictured the late earl. He could see him with very young Lady Clara, explaining to a child why he was taking another wife, telling her that she would not be displaced and be at the mercy of a stranger in their home. He did not like the earl and had good reasons to be both suspicious and angry about the man, but the ways he had cared for this daughter suggested he had not been all bad.
“Did you know that this idea that our families make peace was his?”
That amused her. “I am very sure it was not.”
