He dropped his hands to his side and glanced at the door, his jaw tightening. “Would your way include a union with that man?”
I shuddered. “No.”
His eyes darted to mine, then slid to the window. “Because it seemed as though you were considering it.”
I shook my head hard, even though at the moment, David wasn’t looking at me. I placed a hand on his arm. “I faltered. Mama has been so distraught. But that won’t happen again. Even if Mama ran after him, he wouldn’t have me now, not after that scene.” At least any self-respecting man shouldn’t.
His eyes narrowed. “He would have you.” His voice was gravelly, as if he’d spent the past eight years swallowing rocks instead of kicking them along the roadside. “He would have you no matter what it took.”
My face heated, and my hand on his arm went from feeling like a friendly gesture to something I should be careful of. I loosened mygrip until I couldn’t feel the planes of his arm under his jacket anymore. David spoke about me in a way that made me feel valuable and desirable and anyone would be an imbecile not to think the same way. No one had ever treated or looked at me that way. Not even Mr. Green.
Since Papa had died, I’d obviously been lacking in good company.
“Even so ...” Why wasn’t my voice stronger? I sounded like I’d only just awoken and my throat was not used to the idea of talking yet. I forced more air into my next words. “I cannot hold you to what you said in the drawing room.”
“You actually could.”
“But I wouldn’t.”
He smiled. “You aren’t even considering it?”
“Why would I consider it? You saw that I needed help, and you gave it, but now that Mr. Green is gone, we can stop pretending.”
“Can’t you let me be the hero for a change and remain engaged to me? We would keep it temporary, of course, only until you received your inheritance or found a suitable place to live.”
I dropped my hand from his arm. I wouldn’t receive my inheritance for a year and a half. “David, we aren’t getting engaged. There is no reason for it.”
“You don’t have a place to live; there is every reason for it.”
I gritted my teeth. There were quite a few options better than this preposterous plan of his. It wasn’t even a plan. Neither of us had thought anything through. He’d simply jumped in to save me, and I would have latched on to anything in order to get Mr. Green to leave. “How would being engaged to you help me find a home?”
“My friend James is a doctor in town. He would happily put me up while you stayed with Julia in my home. Julia could use the company so you would actually be helping me. It is a brilliant plan.”
“I’m not going to send you out of your home.”
“If my mother were alive, perhaps we could all live together, but with just my sister and me ...” He paused. “It could damage your reputation.”
I scoffed. Did he think there were people worried about my reputation? At my age? No one would think anything of us staying with him. “I’m hardly someone people would be concerned about staying with you. I’m probably your older sister’s age, and my mother is with me.”
David rubbed his jaw and grimaced. “That might have been true this morning, but I just told a roomful of people I proposed to you.”
I put both of my hands on my hips and raised my eyebrows at him. The two of us seemed to have a talent for making a mess of things. “That can be remedied quickly with one conversation. You owe us nothing.”
He dropped his hand from his face. “If you truly believe that, you are mistaken.”
His eyes caught mine, his gaze intense. I swallowed. I should have spent more time around handsome young men and less time around Mr. Green. I should be able to look David in the eyes without feeling like something noteworthy was happening. He hadn’t offered an actual engagement, only a false one to provide me with protection.
“Julia could use a friend,” he said softly. “She’s been isolated. She had two Seasons in London but didn’t do well, and I don’t think she will return.”
David or his family must have done very well in the past few years if they were able to afford two Seasons in London for Miss Tate. “She is a beautiful woman. I’m surprised she was not in demand.”
David grimaced. “Does my sister look like someone who would want to be in demand?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“It will be good for her to have someone besides me and our tutor, Mr. Allen, for company. If you could be a friend to her, like you were to me ...” He paused. “She hasn’t yet learned how to live.”
I blinked, trying to follow exactly what David wanted from me. Did he truly think me capable of helping his sister? I didn’t even understand exactly what their situation was. Why did David and his sister have a tutor at their ages? Did it have something to do with his sudden ascension to wealth?
