“Thank you for making time for me. I’ll let you get back to your guests. Don’t worry about seeing me out. I’ll find Mrs. Princeton and be on my way.”
Head held high, she walked past him, assuming all had been said, but when she reached the door she heard, “Your Grace?”
She stopped. Her heart hammered in her chest. Her stomach quaked. Maybe he would look at her papers after all. She exhaled slowly and turned back to him.
“Yes, my lord?”
He gave her a knowing smile. “It was a pleasure meeting you.”
Her body went rigid. That’s all?
It was a pleasure meeting her?
He knew she expected more from him than that when he called her name and stopped her. Was he amusing himself with her again?
“Likewise,” she said.
His brownish-green eyes twinkled as he said, “You know, you never told me whether you were a leopard or a nun. Should I feel safe knowing you are now living in my neighborhood, or should I feel threatened?”
Susannah held her breath for a moment and weighed her answer carefully before saying, “Perhaps I am both, my lord, and perhaps you should feel both.”
The marquis gave her an easy, generous smile. It was so engaging, it took her breath away. Oh, goodness, she didn’t want to be smitten by him. Fate couldn’t be that cruel to her again to let her fall for another handsome scoundrel.
“Good day, my lord,” Susannah said and walked out to find Mrs. Princeton.
* * *
Race watched the duchess walk out of the music room in a swish of green skirts. He laughed under his breath and then whispered to himself, “What a lady.”
She had enough courage to back any man, including himself, into a corner and make him happy she’d put him there. When had he ever been so intrigued, so fascinated by a woman? How long had it been since he’d been instantly attracted to a woman, as he was to the duchess? He wanted to know more about her. He wanted to see her again, and she knew it. Was that why she was being so evasive? She wasn’t going to tell him everything about herself at one time. She wanted him to dig a little, as she had about him, and find out about her on his own. But why? Was it as simple as wanting him to be drawn to the mystery surrounding her? If so, it had worked.
Surely she knew it challenged him, but maybe she didn’t know that he had never met a challenge he didn’t accept and win.
He was still pondering her pronouncement that his grandmother’s pearls belonged to her family. But what surprised him more than that was the intensity with which she appealed to him. He hadn’t been that instantly attracted to a woman in years. He had seriously considered kissing her when their faces were so close he felt her minty breath on his cheek.
Why hadn’t he kissed her? It wasn’t as if she was an innocent miss who’d never been kissed. She’d been married. Had she had lovers in these past eleven years? Did she have one now? His gut tightened, and he pushed that kind of thought from his mind. Even if she did have a lover, he was aching to get her beneath him on a soft bed.
What kind of bewitching hold did she have on him?
“Race, I saw Her Grace pass by the drawing room on her way to the front door,” Morgan said, sauntering into the music room. “She wasn’t with you very long. What did she want?”
Race had to shake his head to clear his mind of his wayward imagination. “She wants the Talbot pearls.”
“Grandmother’s necklace? Just like the men who have been to see you recently?”
Race nodded.
“How much did she offer you for the pearls? I’d guess a lot more than Mr. Winston or Mr. Smith wanted to pay. The pirate offered you the most, right?”
“She made no offer,” Race answered, still deep in thought over the fascinating woman.
Morgan flashed Race a bewildering glance. “Nothing? That doesn’t make sense.”
“She says the necklace was stolen from her family more than twenty-five years ago, and she wants me to give it back.”
Morgan’s eyes widened. “What bloody nerve,” he exclaimed. “I hope you told her where she could go, and that place is a damned lot hotter than her fancy carriage in the heat of summer.”
“Not exactly.”
