“Presumptuous, I’ll admit to. Why would you think it preposterous I’d want to marry you?” he asked with soft intensity to his tone and his expression.
With wary amusement and a determination to remainunruffled by his admissions, she offered sensibly, “Let’s start with the fact that you don’t know me.”
“I know all I need to about you,” he said without reservation. “You helped a stranger when he was in desperate circumstances and expected nothing in return. That speaks well of you, Mrs. Feld. So do my uncles. You are loyal, principled, and you’re even more beautiful without your mask.”
She felt uneasy about his praise and tactfully refrained from making a comment about it. “But what of you? Making a wager at a gentleman’s club is not the proper way to propose to a lady and let her know you want to marry her.”
“Which goes to my point,” he offered. “I need you by my side to help me become respectable. I need to know how to say and do all the proper things expected of an earl. You could do me the honor of accepting my proposal of marriage right now. If you will, the bet would then have no relevance, and I’d be well on my way to reassuring my family that I’m capable of doing something to please them and that all was not lost when I became the earl.”
This wasn’t a foolhardy trick he was playing on her. He was serious. Because of that, she had to be serious too. “I have no intentions of marrying anyone,” she said willfully. “Now, nor ever. When your uncle told you my name, he should have also told you that. It’s not a secret.”
He nodded slowly. “Though it’s been a few years, I remembered your story. I know how you became a widow, about the school behind this house, and the friends who helped you start it.”
“Yes. Perhaps what you don’t know is that I am quite content in my unwed state. I don’t know why you would do something so wild and reckless as to make a wager such as this. It’s most extraordinary. Why not be prudentand simply pick from any number of young ladies who entered the marriage mart last week and would be more than willing to marry you?”
“I’m not a sensible person, Mrs. Feld.” He paused and took a step closer to her. “But I never make a bet I don’t intend to win.”
Not sensible? How many people would admit to such a thing? But it must be true. Look what he’d done. Brina stared all the more keenly at him, refusing to give in and indulge the gentle way her abdomen rolled and tightened in response to his nearness.
“You have all the qualities of a good person that I don’t have,” he continued in the same calm tone. “We are a perfect match.”
Anger began mixing with disbelief and shock. Her courage strengthened. “What?” Brina bristled and stood her ground. “How can you say such a false statement so innocently? We are not a perfect anything.”
“I believe we are.”
“No,” she argued forcibly, as her arms stiffened at her sides. “We’re complete opposites.”
“Which will make for a very stimulating life between us. I am the blackguard of the ton, and you are an impeccable, saintly widow who’s loved by all.”
“Saintly,” she whispered as if the word were vile.
It pierced her like a dull dagger. She felt the familiar weight of heaviness in her chest whenever she was reminded of her past. It pained her that anyone thought her such a good person. She wasn’t. Grief, she’d found, could lessen, but guilt was a much heavier burden to lighten. It was a weight that never truly went away. She looked up at the earl, knowing he had no idea the haunting memories his words sent rushing back to her. Memories she decided long ago would never leave her.
“Some may think that,” she said softly. “But let meassure you, I am not flawless. Others may not know it, but I do.”
His brows drew together in concern. “My words troubled you. I didn’t mean for them to.”
His perceptiveness unnerved her, and she lowered her head so he couldn’t see more of her pain. She was beginning a new, stronger, and better life that was free of her past, her hurts, and her faults. She wasn’t going to let this rogue and his shenanigans done for his own purposes upset her plans to move forward.
“You trouble me. I need you to leave, my lord,” she said, shaking off the bewildering feeling of his sudden appearance and his revelation of what he wanted. “You have no right to come into my life and disrupt it in such a fashion. I want nothing to do with any of your nonsense or wagers. Nothing to do with you. I have my friends, the girls at the school, the women at the abbey, and other responsibilities that need my attention.”
“I need your help too, Mrs. Feld.”
“What? No. Furthermore, I don’t need you.”
He remained calm but seemed to study on her words for a moment before he shrugged so effortlessly she almost missed it. “Whether or not you will agree to marry me at the end of the Season doesn’t need to be settled now. The fact that you will allow me to court you so you can help me with all the proper things an earl should do will help appease my family’s disposition.”
“Oh, so that is it,” she whispered, suddenly more irritated than troubled and not afraid to let it show. Her head tilted up. “What a beast you are! Once again, you expect me to come to your aid and free you from a problem you’ve gotten yourself into. Well, I can’t help you with this one.”
His steady gaze didn’t waver. “You are the only one who can.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said, folding her arms across her chest defiantly. “If you want to become a better person and act like an earl, hire someone to teach you. You don’t need to court or marry anyone to learn how to put aside your bad behavior and say and do the right things by people, or to be a proper gentleman. You are the reason you misbehave, and no one can fix it butyou.”
“I am not doing this simply because you will be a mere convenience for me.” He shifted his stance and lowered his voice. “There’s more to why I chose you and you know it.”
A shiver of something she didn’t quite understand and didn’t know if she wanted to chilled her. “What do you mean?” she whispered cautiously, unsure what he might say.
“There is the matter of attraction between us.”
