Her brow creased. “I don’t believe I’ve read it.”
“There’s no reason you should, and I wish I had never heard of it,” he complained.
“How did such a book influence you?”
“For the worse, as you well know. Rath, Griffin, and I would enjoy reading a page or two of it and then have a good laugh at the useless and sometimes absurd things theman wrote, includingNever send a young lady a secret admirer letter.”
“Oh.”
“Yes,” he answered dryly. “We were of an age and mind-set that, if we were told not to do something, that was the very first thing we wanted to do. And since we’d come to the bottom of a brandy bottle that particular evening, sending notes under the signature ofA Secret Admirerseemed the suitable thing to do.”
“How did you decide who should receive a letter?”
“That was easy. There were twelve young ladies making their debut that year. We decided those were the ones to receive our missive. We each took four different names and sent the letters asking them to meet us. At different locations, of course. We didn’t know if any of them would come but agreed whoever had the most ladies show at the end of the evening would win the wager.”
“But all three of you had all four of the ladies come for the secret meeting?”
“Yes.”
“And you were found out one evening after you were overheard gloating about it.”
He laughed at her rapid retort as he refilled his wineglass and added a splash to her glass as well. “Not gloating, Miss Quick, merely discussing it. But there were other reasons we made such an error. We were young, foolish, and had a great desire to win whatever bet we made.” Hawk picked up his wine and leaned back in his chair. “Not a one of us laid a hand on any of the young ladies.”
“But all of them were touched by the scandal of trying to meet an unknown man in secret.”
“Yes.” He lifted his glass to her in a toast. “I have already conceded it was improper for us to send the letters, to wager on them, and for the young ladies to respond tothem. But it’s egregious to me that Society would attempt to ruin a young lady’s reputation over a secret admirer that never existed.”
“Aside from the embarrassment it must have caused them, I can see where some fathers might think that if their daughter was willing to meet a secret admirer, she could be tempted to meet any gentleman in secret. A few could have even wondered if she’d actually done it before. It could have caused others to second-guess the young lady’s virtue. I could go on with possibilities if you like?”
“No,” he said dryly. “You mentioned enough. And all you said is probably true, but there seemed to be no lasting effects on any of them. When this rumor of possible revenge against us started last year, we checked on all the young ladies and from what we were able to find out, they are living quite happily now, despite their near ruination because of the letter.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“It was for us, too,” he said and enjoyed a sip of the wine. “Since we are on the subject of rumors and our past, is it true that you took a vow to never marry?”
She put her glass down. “Yes.”
“Because you didn’t want to marry Viscount Denningcourt.”
It was slow in coming but she finally said, “Yes.”
“But you didn’t go into a convent. It seems I remember hearing you had.”
Suddenly her eyes glowed with a genuine humor that he found so attractive, his lower body responded to the pull. Once again, he wanted to reach over and kiss her.
“That would have probably been fitting, Your Grace, but I wouldn’t make a good nun and my uncle knew that. I am stubborn, not righteous. Even if I’d wanted to go to anunnery and my uncle had agreed, I have no doubt the sisters would have sent me back to Switchingham before the end of the first day. I don’t have the temperament to be submissive, and I believe that is a requirement for entering.”
Hawk would agree to that. And that strength was one of the things that held his attention on her. He would much rather talk to a young lady with her honest approach to a conversation than the young ladies who were afraid to open their mouths and speak around him for fear they would say something to make him bored or, worse, angry.
Hawk studied her again as she picked up her glass and sipped her wine while staring at him. “So you made a vow to never marry. But did you make a vow of chastity as well?”
Though her gazed stayed intensely on his, he knew his question surprised her.
“Are they not one and the same, Your Grace?”
“I don’t know, Miss Quick. It was your vow. You tell me.”
Her hand remained steady and her eyes clear, yet he felt her tension increase. Her silence lengthened and he felt sure he knew why. She had not settled in her mind the answer to his question.
