“I am glad ye approve and I do hope ye enjoy it.”
She was speechless. She sat down and he dropped down across from her.
“How are ye feeling the husband hunt is unfolding?”
Rolling her eyes, she sighed in exasperation and scrunched up her face. “’Tis exhausting. As we have previously discussed I have naught interest. But since I must I have yet to convince Gil to stop this farce.” She bit her lip, thinking she may have insulted him. “I mean no offense, my lord.”
“None taken.” He looked around them. “No one is within hearing distance. I would prefer ye to call me Finlay, if ye dinna mind.”
Did she? This was a big step forward. It seemed small, but was it really? Would she call any of the other men dawdling around in the parlor by their first names?
Nay, she would most definitely not.
“If it feels uncomfortable to ye, ne’er mind. But I must confess, I may have nefarious reasons for setting up this picnic and once again getting ye alone from everyone else.”
“Oh?” She was intrigued now.
“Aye.” A wicked glint brightened his eyes.
“Well, ye now have me interested in your intentions, sir.”
“Tea?” At her nod, he poured them each a cup from the bone china teapot.
She added two cubes of sugar and sipped it to test the taste. Pleased with it, she nodded at him to continue.
He cleared his throat, tugging at his cravat as he cocked his head to the side. If she knew him better, she might think he was nervous about whatever he was about to propose.
“Much as ye find yourself being forced to take a husband, I, myself, am in the same predicament. I feel like we may be of benefit to each other.”
Her brows shot up at his revelation. “How so?”
He took a sip of tea before continuing. She could not stop herself from watching his throat bob up and down with the action.
“We both need to wed, but neither of us want to. What if we married one another?”
The tea she was sipping burst from her mouth in the most unladylike manner. She snatched a napkin and dabbed at her mouth, embarrassed for making herself look like a fool, but she could not believe what had just come out of Lord Primrose’s mouth. How did marrying solve their need to not get married? “I apologize. That took me unawares. Pardon?”
He chuckled. “I ken it may seem a daft idea, but it would solve problems for both of us. It would take ye off the marriage market. Your cousin would no longer make ye meet callers, nor would they visit ye day after day. And I would make my father a verra happy man—if he were alive to see it.”
She shook her head. “I dinna ken what ye are saying. Though I do agree about the daft part. I believe ye have forgotten the part where I stated I dinna want to marry.”
“Right, right. Wewouldbe married, but no’ in the conventional sense. And to be clear, ye dinnawantto marry, but yeneedto marry.”
She began to stand. “I am sorry, Lord Primrose. I dinna know what kind of woman ye think I am, but I refuse to be some, some pretense of a wife that ye push on to the world whilst ye parade a steady stream of mistresses under my nose.”
“Pardon? What? Nay,” he grabbed her hand and pulled her down to sit near him again. “That is no’ at all what I am proposing.” His brows drew together. “I would ne’er disrespectye in such a manner. E’er. Hell, I dinna want any woman, and I have no mistresses.”
“Or men,” she stated bluntly.
“Excuse me?” He snapped, pushing his hands through his hair, causing the ends to stick up in all directions. He looked positively flustered.
And positively handsome.
“I have no interest in men, I can assure ye.”
*
Lady Willamina Watsonwas ridiculously frustrating. And if this conversation were not going the opposite way of how he intended, he would find it most comical. But she was taking everything he said the wrong way. He’d managed to insult her when that was not his intention at all.
