Page 18 of A Wallflower to Win the Viscount

Do not let this man upset you. Her heart pounded harder in her chest. Remain stoic. You cannot let him think he affects you in any way whatsoever. Remember that he is rude and insulting, and he hates animals.

Clawdia woke from her sleep, stretched and meowed in greeting, and Primrose knew she had to do the same. Well, not the stretching or the meowing, but she should greet him. She could not continue to stare at him in unnerved silence.

‘My lord, what brings you here?’ she said, pleased that her voice sounded surprisingly composed.

‘I’ve come to apologise.’

She stared at him, unsure if she had heard correctly.

‘Apologise?’ she finally said. Men like the viscount did not usually do so. This had to be a trick, and she needed to be on her guard.

‘Yes.’ He breathed in through flared nostrils and exhaled loudly. His demeanour was not that of a man feeling remorse, but rather that of someone who was being forced to do something he did not want to. On the rare occasion when the earl or countess had made Cousin Jasper apologise to Primrose for some cruelty he’d inflicted on her or one of her animals, he had looked much the same.

‘My behaviour when I lost my temper over the animals coming into the garden while I was trying to sell my father’s house’—his jaw tightened—‘was unacceptable.’

He would get no argument from Primrose over that.

‘So you admit it was all your fault?’

His jaw clamped together so tightly this time that she could see small muscles bulging on each side of his face. ‘Yes,’ he said slowly, as if that one simple word was costing him a great deal.

‘You accept that you were the one to leave both of the garden gates open?’

His nostrils flared again. This apology really was vexing him, and it was a wonderful sight to see.

‘Yes.’

‘And you agree it was due to you pulling me down the pathway that I spilled the corn, which led to my other animals, along with those ducks, coming into your garden?’

‘Yes,’ he said through clenched teeth. ‘And I apologise for that ungentlemanly behaviour as well. I should not have dragged you down the path, even though there was some urgency.’

It was an apology, albeit a guarded one, but perhaps he was right. The prospective buyers had been expected imminently, so there was some urgency.

‘I also apologise for the unfair things I said to you in the heat of the moment,’ he added, and this time he did look genuinely remorseful.

Primrose attempted to shrug it off and not focus on how much his words had wounded her. ‘Well, you’re not the first person to tell me I’m not normal. Far from it.’

He winced slightly. ‘I am sincerely sorry. That was unforgivable of me.’

She could add that despite not being the first person to point out she was not normal, he was the first person to apologise for doing so. And as he had done so, perhaps she should be equally gracious and admit to some faults of her own.

‘Well, I suppose I should apologise for not stopping Hamish from entering your garden when you made it so clear he was not wanted. I shall endeavour to do so in the future.’

‘That could be my fault as well. The bird is hardly likely to know that things have changed, so I should have arranged for the gate to be made more…goose-proof.’

He really was being more gallant than she would have expected.

‘I am also sorry for calling you a rude, arrogant animal hater.’

He raised his eyebrows, and Primrose bit the edge of her lip, suddenly unsure whether she had verbally thrown those insults at him or had merely thought them.

‘By way of a peace offering, my cousin, Lord Reginald Caldwell, and his wife, Lady Beatrice, and I are planning to attend a talk at the Ornithological Society, and we thought you might like to accompany us.’

Had she heard that correctly? ‘Birds? You’re inviting me to a talk on birds?’

He rubbed his hand around the back of his neck. ‘Yes. I’ve been told the Earl of Ashcombe is a riveting speaker and plans to talk on the habits of the Norfolk great tit.’ He coughed lightly. ‘Apparently, he’s an expert on the subject.’

She scanned his face to see if he was mocking her. If anything, he just looked awkward. Cousin Jasper never looked awkward when he was about to pull a mean prank.