Page 36 of So Wild A Heart

“Freeing?” He looked puzzled.

“Yes. You see, I have been plagued by fortune hunters, both here and at home. I never know whether a man truly likes me or just wants to get his hands on my money. With an arranged marriage, there is no uncertainty. I know you do not care for me—indeed, I think we have established that you find me odd and off-putting. That makes it much easier than hearing honeysweet words and wondering constantly if they are false. I much prefer plain dealing.”

“You prefer to be without love?”

“I prefer to know where I stand. I despise lies. I hate people trying to fool me, deceive me. An honest emotion is always better than deception, I think, even if the emotion itself is not the most pleasant. At least one knows how to deal with it, how to act. And one doesn’t feel a fool afterward when one learns the truth. Besides, I have no intention of being without love. It is simply that in such circumstances, love, if one finds it, comes outside of marriage.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I said that love is separate from marriage when the marriage is an arranged one, and that is really much easier, don’t you think? Once I thought about it, I saw that the European way is much more practical. You and I marry for our own practical reasons, and then, in our daily lives, we simply go our separate ways. You will do what you want, live as you want, and so shall I. Then you have none of the jealousy and petty feelings that can infect a marriage made for love. You will have your lovers, I will have mine. You will—”

“What!” Devin bounded up from his easy, relaxed pose, his face drawn into a scowl. “What do you mean, you will have lovers?”

“Why, simply what I said. Is something the matter? I was talking about the business sort of marriage that we are entering into. Isn’t that what you had planned? That you would marry me for money but keep a mistress for pleasure? Or love?”

“Well, yes, I would,” he retorted, then stopped short, realizing how his statement sounded.

Miranda raised one eyebrow. “You expect different behavior from me than from yourself?”

“Well, yes,” he admitted, looking a little uncomfortable. “It’s one thing for a man, but for a woman—”

“Yes?”

“Well, women just don’t go around having affairs outside of their marriages.”

“They do not? But I had heard that Lady Vesey was married.”

“Leona? Leona has nothing to do with this.”

“But I understood that she was your mistress.”

“What?” He looked stunned. “How do you—Where did you hear that?”

“From Lady Westhampton.”

“Rachel?” He gaped at her. “My sister? What possessed her to tell you—”

“Oh, she didn’t volunteer the information. I asked. When I saw you together with Lady Vesey, I suspected that was the case, so I asked your sister. She could scarcely deny it.”

“I don’t see why not!” Devin retorted. “Rachel should know how to act in polite circles.”

Miranda’s brows rose again. “Meaning that I do not?”

“No, not if you go about asking people such questions. Particularly of a chap’s own sister. My Lord, you shouldn’t be talking about such things with me, let alone Rachel.”

“Why not?”

“It simply isn’t done.”

“Oh, pooh.” Miranda waved away his objection. “What nonsense. I thought we were to be open and honest with each other. Partners in a business, so to speak. Surely we are above pretending that what everyone knows to be true is not.”

“That is not the point,” Devin growled.

“Then what is the point?” Miranda asked calmly.

“You cannot go about having affairs! I will not have the Aincourt name besmirched,” Devin snapped. “Lady Ravenscar does not engage in affairs. My wife’s name will not be bandied about by every gossip in London.”

“I meant that I would be discreet, of course,” Miranda assured him. “I would not do anything that might hurt the Aincourt name, which you have guarded so carefully these many years.”