Hyacinth’s eyes went wide. She hadn’t expected an apology from Lachlan Ramsey, but then, was it really an apology? It sounded more like a scold disguised as an apology. “I, ah…well, thank you.”
I think.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me—”
“No.” He shifted slightly, so she’d have to brush against him if she wished to exit the carriage. “Not yet.” His voice had dropped to a murmur, as if were sharing a secret with her, or coaxing her to share one with him. “You’re not delicate, Miss Somerset. Shy, yes, and timid on occasion, but you’re stronger than your family thinks you are. Stay in London, and finish your season. Your health isn’t at risk. You don’t need to be shuffled off to Brighton, and you know it, don’t you?”
Hyacinth stared into his burning eyes, and a nameless fear clutched at her throat. “Do you pretend to know more about me than my own family? We’ve only just met. You don’t...you d-don’t know anything a-about me.”
She jerked her gaze from his, and reached for the door latch. She was getting out of this carriage, even if she had to crawl over his lap to do it—
“You lied to Lady Bagshot.” He caught her wrist, and this time, he didn’t let go. “You told her you made a mistake about the man you saw that night at the inn, but we both know you didn’t. You took all the blame onto yourself, instead of telling her the truth about my fight with Ciaran.”
He wasn’t holding her tightly. On the contrary, his huge hands were careful, his thick fingers gentle, but the warmth of his skin against hers was so distracting, she wished he’d squeeze her hard, and remind her who he was. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“That fight would do you no credit with theton, Mr. Ramsey.” She risked a glance at his face, but her gaze skittered away the moment she met his eyes. “And because I deserve the blame. This whole mess is my fault.”
“Not just yours. Don’t…don’teversacrifice yourself for me again, Hyacinth.”
His words were harsh, but there was a pleading look on his face she’d never seen before. The way he uttered her name—in that low, hoarse voice—sent another unexpected rush of heat through her.
And with it, a question she hadn’t allowed herself to ask.
Did I do it for him?
That lie she’d told Lady Bagshot—had she told it forhim?
“I didn’t. I—I wouldn’t.” She swallowed. “I did it for Isla.”
He didn’t reply, but his gaze dropped to her hand. His eyelids went heavy over his dark eyes, and as if he were in a trance, he leaned forward and brushed his fingertips across the pale skin of her wrist, then lower, stroking over the sensitive flesh of her palm.
The heat that had been gathering in her belly forked into a streak of lightning, and struck straight at her core. Hyacinth gasped, and snatched her hand away. She fumbled for the door latch, and this time he let her go.
But as she scrambled out of the carriage and ran for the house, her hand closed into a fist, to keep the memory of his touch tight against her palm.
Chapter Seven
Lachlan had made two discoveries this afternoon.
The first was that Hyacinth Somerset had the softest skin he’d ever touched. He didn’t know why this surprised him. He had only to look at her hands; at that fine tracing of blue veins and those long, delicate fingers to know her skin would be nothing less than perfection.
He turned over his hand and studied his own fingers, but they were the same blunt, rough, coarse things they’d always been. He’d half-expected to find she’d left some mark on him—some imprint or evidence to prove that glide of warm satin under his fingertips had been real, and not just his imagination.
There was nothing, but shehadleft something else behind.
Questions.
He’d seen a hint of her temper in the stables the other day when she’d called him an ass, but he’d thought it was a thing of the moment only, a brief flare of courage that would vanish as quickly as it appeared.
He’d been wrong.
Underneath that delicate skin, that angel’s face and those downcast eyes, she was hiding another lady—one of great cleverness and conviction, with a thread of steel in her spine, and a devil of a sharp tongue.
He liked it. He likedher.
That was his second discovery this afternoon.
