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“I’d like to say that I didn’t hear what you just told me, but I did.”
The look in his eyes would have made her shiver if it were directed at her. Bea decided it was a good time to change the subject. “If you don’t mind my asking, why did you route the carriage around Whitechapel? Isn’t that east of my father’s house?”
“It is.” He took her hand and began to pluck off her gloves. “I wanted time to talk to you.”
She squinted at him. “Not to seduce me?”
“In a carriage?” He looked astonished, as only a duke can do. Presumably, His Grace did not often encounter surprises. Then, with a deep chuckle: “In the presence of our chaperone?”
The slight whistle of a truly exhausted sleeper was emerging from under Elsie’s cloak.
“I always wanted a lusty wife,” he added, a wicked glint in his eyes.
Bea’s insides tightened with a mixture of desire and embarrassment. “Jonah! I am a very proper young lady!”
His hands curled around hers, his eyes holding her gaze. “I have bad news on that front.”
Her stomach tightened with embarrassment. Had he realized that every time she looked at him, she wanted him to kiss her? That even a glance at his thighs made her feel hot and muddled? He was ravishing her with every glance.
“I’m afraid that everyone already believes I’ve seduced you in the library.”
It took a moment for his words to sink in. Bea’s heart sank. “That’s impossible! Lady Paget would never share unpleasant gossip.”
“Regina was in a rage, and she took her revenge. Lady Paget just informed me that every guest who isn’t too busy vomiting into a chamber pot believes that I had my way with you.”
“Regina compromised me?”
“My sister is claiming that our marriage was entirely at her behest, right down to the ‘accidental spillage’ of a glass of water on your gown that immured you in the library, vulnerable to my conquest.”
“But Regina doesn’t want you to marry me! And isn’t she impugning her own brother’s reputation by claiming you seduced me?”
“My sister is forthright, if vulgar. I’ve seen similar behavior from the Prince Regent,” Jonah said. “She declares the world to be as she views it, and astonishingly often, people agree with her depiction.”
“I do see what you mean,” Bea said slowly. After all, on encountering Regina’s conviction that she, Bea, was disgusting, she had agreed with that characterization herself; she’d accepted a version of reality that she didn’t believe, and certainly didn’t like.
“On the other hand, she’s known me her entire life, so she understands that I’ve made up my mind and her opinion will never change it,” Jonah continued. “She seems to think that I’m at your feet, Bea. You must have given her the impression that you intend to accept my proposal.”
Bea bit her lip, remembering that conversation. She cleared her throat. “I did.”
“She snatched that triumph from my hand by making it her decision rather than mine.”
Her heart sank. “Do you mind terribly?”
His mouth slowly tipped into a smile. “I don’t give a damn what she says or thinks. Nor anyone else either. I did not seduce you in that library.” His eyes brimmed with desire and mischief, a combination she never thought she’d see in the haughty duke. “We haven’t had extramarital congress. Yet if you would allow me, Bea, I’d love to amend that oversight.”
“Jonah!” Her eyes rounded.
“Not at this exact moment.” He glanced at Elsie.
“I am not interested in dalliance,” Bea said, turning up her nose.
“Neither am I, at least, not for its own sake. When I was in France, during the war, I didn’t lie on my pallet thinking about fornication, to be blunt. I imagined finding a woman like you. A woman who would laugh and love and make a family and a home. You’re incredibly beautiful, but you are also funny and kind and brilliant, and that matters so much more.”
“Well, you’re gorgeous too,” she managed. “A hard worker. Oh, and a duke and all.”
A dark chuckle. “You don’t care about that.”
“True, it’s a liability in the balance sheet. And your sister—” Bea stopped there.
