“No, not a wife. Nor am I a dependent. That was your word, not mine.”
“What are you instead?”
She laughed because the truth marched to her tongue, caught just in time.A spinster, a secretary, a thief.“You make it sound as if there is only one answer. For you, there most likely is. I am Langford, you can say. Of all your privileges that is the greatest—knowing what you are from the day you are born to the day you die.”
“Everyone knows what he is. It is not a privilege of the peerage.”
“Women do not know from one year to the next. A girl marries and becomes a wife and mother. Her husband dies and she becomes a widow. Imagine staring into the looking glass one day and seeing someone who is not what she was the day before, and all the expectations have changed too.”
“When you look today, what do you see?”
“Can’t you guess? A man who claims such abilities with women should be able to tell.”
He pondered that with an elaborate frown. “Widow? I think not.”
She shook her head.
“Betrothed?”
“No.”
“Thank goodness. It is the one something that might get me called out. That or daughter. Men are full of new possessiveness with the first and full of duty about the second. If a fiancé or father knew you met me, it might get dangerous for someone.”
“Just on hearing I met you? You must have a terrible reputation.”
“I will admit to it being a tad notorious.”
“I suppose that is inevitable for a man who has devoted his life to bestowing his great gifts on womankind. It is a wonder you are still alive.”
“Someday, if we enjoy each other’s company, I may explain how I survived.”
“I will only learn your secret if I agree to allow you to lure me to my fall first? That is unfair.”
“I have done very little luring, shepherdess. You did not have to come here tonight. So there is no father who might do something stupid?”
“Daughter is not in the looking glass now. Obviously it was in the past.”
“Mistress?”
“That is a good guess. I might be the mistress of a man who has a taste for lovers in pantaloons.”
“Hence your seeking out another man. I am running out of ideas. Revolutionary? Radical? Reformer?”
“None of the Rs.”
“I am grateful it was not the last. I have had enough of that for the time being.”
“Someone is trying to reform you? How interesting. It sounds as if you are more than just a tad notorious, if that campaign is afoot.”
“Not interesting at all. An annoying nuisance.”
“Is that why I am here? So you can prove you are not reformed?”
He looked astonished, but recovered quickly. “You are here to drink champagne, to be kissed with greatnuance, and to try to resist my grand seduction to no avail.”
“Ah, yes, that one kiss,” she said. “Do you want it now?”
His lazy smile could have charmed a bear. “If that suits you.”
