Page 90 of A Stolen Heart

“Then I would say you are pinning your hopes on shaky ground. I have no intention of marrying you.”

“You’ll see the advantages of it eventually,” Sebastian replied imperturbably. “Anyway, there’s no reason for scandal. We will be in a house with your aunt, your mother and Miss Everhart. We couldn’t be more well chaperoned. The Countess approved of the idea, and she knows all the ins and outs of Society.”

“I don’t give a damn about Society,” Alexandra snapped. “I just don’t want you here!”

“Careful, my dear, you may wound my feelings.”

“You have none,” Alexandra replied scornfully, “or you wouldn’t be doing this to me.”

“Doing what?”

“I know what your scheme is. Don’t think I’m not on to you.”

“My only scheme is to keep you safe.”

“You think that if you are around constantly, you can wear me down, convince me to marry you. Well, I won’t.”

“Then you need not worry about my being here.” He met her gaze blandly.

“Oh! You are the most infuriating man I ever met!”

“Sit down, my dear, and eat your breakfast. It will improve your temper.”

“Nothing will improve my temper except your leaving.”

“I am sorry to hear that. I suppose we will have to endure your bad mood for a while, then.”

Alexandra scowled at him and plopped down in her chair. She had thought that things could not be worse this morning when she woke up, but she was quickly learning that they could. How was she to endure having Sebastian around all the time? Even now, annoyed as she was by him, she kept thinking about how much she would like to run her fingers through his thick, dark hair. She had the awful feeling that she would soon make a fool of herself.

She was contemplating these dark thoughts and pushing food around on her plate with her fork when the butler walked into the room.

“Miss?”

Alexandra looked up inquiringly. Their usually calm, dignified butler looked distinctly uncomfortable. “Yes?”

“There is, ah, a person who wishes to speak with you, miss.” Every line of the butler’s face showed his opinion of this person.

Alexandra’s curiosity was aroused. “All right. Show him in.”

“It is a female person, miss, and I—well, I think you would rather not see her here.”

“I wouldn’t?”

“She is, er, a trifle, well, dirty, miss. I would not normally bother you. No doubt she is begging. I tried to turn her out, but she was extremely insistent that you would wish to hear what she had to say. She said that she had information. About the attack on you the other day.”

“What the devil!” Sebastian jumped to his feet, and so did Alexandra.

“Take me to her,” she said calmly.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

SEBASTIAN AND ALEXANDRA FOLLOWED THE butler to the kitchen, where they found several of the servants standing on one side of the room watching a woman who stood on the opposite side. She was returning their gaze equally warily.

She was short and quite thin, dressed in an odd assortment of layers of clothing, none of them particularly clean. On her feet were an outsize pair of men’s brogans, caked with dried mud and muck. Her hair was tied in a scarf, and it looked as if it had been some time since her face had seen a washrag. She was completely out of place in the tidy, sparkling kitchen, but she faced the situation boldly, her chin thrust out and her eyes snapping, as if to dare any of the servants to complain about her presence.

“Hello,” Alexandra said, forcing herself to speak calmly and pleasantly. “I am Miss Ward.”

The woman turned to look at her, then her gaze slid beyond Alexandra to Sebastian.