He saw that the study door was closed and assumed she had taken refuge there. He tried the door and found it locked. “Caroline, open the door, please.”
No sound or movement came from within.
“Miss Dunham, we need to talk. You cannot say such a thing and walk away.”
Still no sound.Damnation.
“See here, if I can break out of a locked chamber, I can break into one. Either that or I will wait until you retire and see you then and there.”
“You wouldn’t dare.” Her voice sounded muffled but close, as if she was right on the other side of the door.
“Wait and see what I would dare. I’ll not let you sleep until you have answered my questions. I deserve that much.”
“You deserve nothing except a horsewhipping. Would that my father were alive. He would have called you out. I wish I could in his stead.”
“Open the door, damn it.”
Nothing. He eyed the door, to see how firmly its hinges were embedded.
“Wait for me in the library,” she said. “We will talk there.”
He strode off to the library and cooled his heels half an hour before she arrived.
“Forgive me,” she said. “There was a letter I had to finish.”
The hell there was.She had made him wait just to prove she did not have to come at all.
She sat on a small wooden chair. “You have questions?” she asked primly.
“Many. First of them is what makes you believe I seduced your sister?”
“She told me you did.”
“She named me?”
“When the evidence of her condition could not be ignored, she admitted to me that she had succumbed to the blandishments of the infamous rake Lord Thornhill. It was devastating news, but I don’t blame her. I blame you. She was an innocent and inexperienced. She would not know that your words were lies and your intentions nefarious.”
“I am not nefarious and I don’t seduce innocents.”
“Are you so sure? After an afternoon of drinking and whatever, have you never broken what remains of the few rules you claim to follow? Can you swear this?”
It was a hell of a question and raised once more the problem of remembering that which cannot be remembered. “It has never happened before. Not those rules.”
“Oh, notthose rules. Because you are a gentleman, you mean. Even foxed, you would restrain yourself ifthose rulesraised their flags. Of course you did not really know her, however. You could have convinced yourself she was not forbidden to you, especially if your judgment was impaired by drink.”
She was proving adept at cornering him. “I am very sure that a mistake has been made. Perhaps another used my name.”
“Do you expect me to believe something so unlikely? That another scoundrel and rake was there and chose to behave abominably using your name? I am not stupid, sir.”
“Where was this seduction supposed to have taken place? When?”
“At last year’s fete, as if you don’t know.”
“Since I was not involved, I don’t know.”
She stood abruptly. “Lord Thornhill, my sister is not a liar. Given a choice of her memory and yours, I think it safe to say hers is more reliable. She has been seduced but once, and would remember the man. You have seduced so often that I doubt you can name even half of your conquests.”
“Other than youthful adventures at brothels, I can name every woman I have ever—um, all of my conquests, as you put it, although in truth in some cases I was the one conquered.” This was an odd conversation to have with a woman, but he saw no way to avoid it if she kept accusing him like she did.
