“If you regret it, why not decline?”
“I can’t explain why. However, I want it to be a very brief meeting. A few minutes at most.”
Katherine laughed so hard that her red curls bounced. “No man requires a private meeting if he intends it to last five minutes. And no man can be discouraged by a dress. Most of them will be more interested in what is underneath it.”
“Are you going to help me or not?”
“Of course I am.” She walked over to the bed and peered at the two dresses. “Use this blue one. It is cut higher, and its fuller bodice will hide most of your shape. Not that it will matter.” She returned to the table and picked up a chicken leg. “Are you in some trouble?”
“Why would you ask that?”
“No other explanation, seems to me.”
Amanda poked some herbed potato pieces. “There is some cake after this. We may as well eat it all. I doubt it will keep long.”
“You are in trouble, aren’t you?”
“It was a small misunderstanding that unfortunately allowed this man to come to know me. Now I must see him—do not ask why, please.”
“You think he has dishonorable intentions, I gather. Well, they all do, so that did not take a big leap to figure out. You wear the blue dress, but make sure he doesn’t get it off you, not that a man needs to in order to have his way.” She bit into her chicken. “You are green still, aren’t you?”
“A bit.”
“Has there been anyone since that scoundrel who lied to you?”
Amanda ate some potatoes and looked at Katherine while she chewed.
“Do you like this man? Do you find him handsome or fun? If you don’t, you should be fine, but if you do,welllllll. . .” Katherine shrugged.
“I do like what I know of him. I also think him handsome. None of that matters because I cannot become entangled. It would ruin what life I have. My employer would let me go in a snap if she learned of it, I am sure. Any employer would.”
“So your objections are practical ones. Not, shall we say, physical ones.”
Amanda knew her face reddened. No, not physical ones if she was honest with herself. She thought Langford extremely attractive, with that cocky smile and those dark curls and sapphire eyes. She found his conceit more amusing than annoying.
She’d also enjoyed his kisses more than she should. She had not thought of a man that way since the heartbreak over Steven, but now she did with a man she dared not dally with even for conversation, let alone more.
And yet, for all of her mental warnings and distress, an excitement simmered inside her about this meeting.
She was being a fool. He had been a means to an end, nothing more, and she was merely a passing dalliance for him. She needed to remember that and not dwell on phantom sensations of how she felt when he kissed her. She would get back that shawl and make sure he never saw her again.
Katherine put down her food and leaned in. “You say he is a gentleman. If he truly is, and if you like him and find him attractive, you have only one hope that I can think of because the urges people have are almost impossible to resist.”
“What one hope?”
“You must make him swear as a gentleman that he will not have his way with you. A real gentleman will never break his word, even when only you would know that he did. At least that is what is said. I wouldn’t know myself.”
“What if he isn’t a real gentleman, but only one in name?”
Katherine grinned. “Then I hope he knows what he is about so you enjoy yourself.”
Chapter Seven
The same conditions, the notice had said. Amanda tried the garden door to see if it was unlocked. It gave way.
She had not worn the blue dress after all, or any dress. After further thought, she had realized that if she arrived in a dress tonight, it would not be the same as last time. He might not mean “the same” down to the garments she wore, but she did not want any reason for him to keep that shawl or demand yet another meeting.
She had also created an elaborate story for why she’d worn men’s garments last time. If she showed in a dress tonight, he might find it suspicious that those reasons suddenly no longer mattered. She did not want this duke wondering about that or anything else, and he was smart enough to notice the inconsistency.
