She put her gloved hand on his forearm.Her touch, which pinged through him with horrible intensity, nevertheless gave the impression that she was doing her utmost to keep her distance.They took their place in the train, right ahead of Severn and Miss Tilly Perkins, as Mrs.Salisbury had instructed him.
Her words still lacerated him.
If we must.
She must have seen him instantly for what he was.
A bumbling country ogre unworthy of a lady such as her.A beautiful, refined woman such as Miss Scarlett Perkins might not have even known before coming to Parkhorne Hall that such beasts as him existed.Or, if she knew, given what London was and all she must see living there, she certainly had never expected that she would be handed into dinner by such a man.
Nevertheless, he must try to engage her in conversation.Mrs.Salisbury had made clear that it was expected of him.
“How do you find Parkhorne, Miss Perkins?”
Even though her touch on his arm was so tentative as to almost not be there, he could still tell that she stiffened at his question.
“It is a pretty piece of country,” she finally said.“Although not the finest I have seen.”
“The estate is certainly not large,” he said, without thinking, feeling defensive of the land to which he had given the better part of his life and labor.
“No.It is not.”
That was, evidently, all that she was going to say on the topic.
Indignation in his heart, he resolved to try once more.“How was your journey from London?”
“Ghastly,” she said, still not looking at him.“But that is to be expected when coming to such an out-of-the-way place.”
“Yes,” he said.“It certainly is not close to town.”
“Your brother’s future wife will need to be very fond of the country,” she observed, her tone as cold and unforgiving as one of the scythes he and his men used to cut the summer hay.
He was taken aback by this proclamation.He understood that all present understood what this house party really was, but he had believed that society women would not acknowledge such a thing so baldly.
They had begun to move towards the dining room.
“She will,” Malcolm observed.“My brother has little plan to live elsewhere.”
“And do you always reside at Parkhorne, too, Mr.Brown?”
“Yes,” he said, feeling every inch of her implication.“I have never lived anywhere else.”
“Surely you have traveled?”she sniped up at him.
They had arrived in the dining room.He pulled out her chair for her, just barely staving off the urge to do so abruptly.
Shewantedto embarrass him.That was evident now.
“No.Never.”
“Never?”
“That is correct.”
She gave him a startled, frowning look.
And then sat herself in the chair that he had pulled out for her.
He had no choice but to follow, seating himself beside her.
