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Leonora looked at his face, and her frustration instantly returned in full force.

His words were perfectly proper, but the expression on his face was anything but. He was not giving her a polite, grateful smile. He was smirking. It was a wicked, deeply arrogant smirk that curved the corner of his mouth upward. There was also a teasing glint in his eyes that plainly stated he knew exactly how flustered he had just made her, and he was thoroughly enjoying every single second of it.

He was not grateful. He was triumphant.

Leonora’s eyes narrowed. The soft, vulnerable moment they had just shared vanished, replaced by a desire to throw a very heavy ledger directly at his perfect head.

“Do not thank me yet, Your Grace,” Leonora said sharply, lifting her chin. “You still have to survive three months of my company. We will see exactly how grateful you are by the end of it.”

Without waiting for his reply, Leonora twisted the doorknob, pulled the door open, and marched out into the hallway. She did not look back as she pulled the door shut behind her, but she could clearly hear the sound of his laughter echoing in the study long after the lock clicked into place.

She stood in the corridor for a long moment, pressing her back against the wall. She looked down at the white linen handkerchief tied securely around her wrist. She was furious. She was prideful. She was absolutely determined not to let Anthony Sterling win this ridiculous game.

But as she touched the soft fabric over her racing pulse, she wondered if surviving the next three months was going to be far more dangerous than sneaking into any underground gambling den in London.

Could she handle this conniving man?

CHAPTER SIX

“Iam entirely convinced the woman is going to set my library on fire before the month is out,” Anthony said, swirling the liquid in his glass before tossing it back. “She was very upset. I need to know what she is capable of.”

William Carlton, Duke of Norwyn, and practically Anthony’s only friend lounged comfortably in an armchair across from the hearth in their usual corner of the club. He let out a scoff, hearing Anthony’s statement and shook his head.

“You brought her into your home as a fiancée under entirely fraudulent pretense, Anthony,” William replied. “If she burns the library down, you have nobody to blame but yourself.”

“I know that. I’m just asking you for some information,” he countered. “Tell me something.”

“Though I must confess, I find it deeply amusing that you are suddenly so intensely curious about her background. Since when do you take such a profound interest in a companion’s pedigree?”

Anthony stared into his glass and let out a loud groan. “It is not her pedigree that interests me. It is the unpredictability of her mind. She is a remarkably odd woman, William, I tell you. Fearless to a fault, endlessly eccentric, and stubbornly unmanaged by conventional society.”

William raised an eyebrow, leaning forward to pour himself another finger of whiskey from the silver tray resting on the table between them. “I don’t find that surprising at all. Her sister is almost exactly like that. I think it’s how the Byron sisters are. They are different. Charming too. At least my wife is very charming when she rants about the ills of society.”

William had married Seraphina, Leonora’s oldest sister, nearly a year prior, and the two of them remained blissfully happy, with Seraphina having somehow managed to turn the formerly rigid William into a deeply devoted husband who spent half his time gushing about his wife to anyone who would listen. If Anthony were being completely honest with himself, that family connection was the exact reason Leonora’s face had felt vaguely familiar when he first crossed paths with her, because he had briefly seen her standing beside the bride at the church during William’s wedding. To Anthony, it had felt like an extraordinary coincidence to bump into his best friend’s sister-in-law in such a dark, illicit place, which only made the whole situation even more entertaining.

“This particular sister reminds me of my grandmother. When I first encountered her, I knew instantly why she felt so familiar. My grandmother in her youth would have done the exact same thing. She would have donned men’s trousers, slipped past bouncers, and braved a den of thieves just to reclaim a family heirloom. The moment I watched Leonora bid in that room, I knew they would either become fast friends or tear my ancestral home down to its foundations. I gambled that they would understand each other, and I am quite glad to find my intuition was correct.”

“She has a temper, there is no denying that,” Anthony continued, a warmth colouring his tone. He rested his elbows on his knees, staring into the flickering embers of the fire. “She is quite beautiful, you know. Even when she wears those severe, high-necked waistcoats and glares at me as though I were a particularly offensive stain on her carpet, she is striking. But she is spirited. Dangerously so.”

“You are speaking about my sister-in-law, Anthony,” William said in disbelief.

“Technically, the sisters aren’t really all related to each other?”

“It doesn’t matter, they are the Byron sisters. They were raised by a Lady Byron, so it’s only fitting.”

“Yes, I am aware.” Anthony nodded. He paused, letting out a breath as his thoughts drifted back to the study earlier that day, when he had tied his linen handkerchief around her bleeding wrist and felt the frantic, racing beat of her pulse.

“We will never truly get along, of course,” Anthony continued, shaking his head slightly. “Leonora and I. We are far too much alike in our stubbornness. Every single conversation we share feels like a skirmish between two opposing armies refusing to yield an inch of ground. Yet, I must confess, I like talking to her. She is infinitely more interesting than half the debutantes paraded through Mayfair this season.”

William arched his eyebrow. “Careful, Anthony.”

“Oh, do not worry. You know me better than anyone,” Anthony said defensively, “The best we can ever be is friends. I have no interest in pursuing your precious sister-in-law.”

“Oh, that is not my concern. I know you are a fine man,” William said. “Underneath all the playfulness and the endless jokes, you are a good man, Anthony. My reservations are not about your character. But Leonora has a very specific mission of her own, and you would do well not to distract her from it, or you might find yourself on the receiving end of her temper.”

“Oh, I’ve been there. It’s not a pretty place,” he teased. “I am just surprised that she did not recognise me.”

“What do you mean?”