“Mr. Dawes,” she cried out much louder than she needed to.
He startled and searched for her. “Fanny! What the devil are you doing here?”
“Looking for you.” Fanny rushed to him. “What are you doing sitting there like that on the old tree stump? You had me so worried.”
She sounded to her own ears like a mother scolding a child, and Fanny was definitely not that to Jeremy Dawes. She made an effort to calm herself.
“I didn’t mean to worry you,” he swore. He glanced around the wood and sighed. “I was just sitting here thinking that I’ve never been anywhere that I could be so entirely alone in my whole life.”
She blinked. “I beg your pardon.”
He stood up on the stump. “When I was a child, there were other orphans like me where I lived. We shared a straw corner, a cup for water, food. Punishments too. We were all walking along in a line today, as I had to do as a child sometimes at the orphanage, and I just stopped dead in my tracks. I didn’t even care that I’d be left behind. I was happy to be alone. When I was young, that would have terrified me.”
“Well, I would care if you’d been lost.”
He smiled gently. Dismissively. “It’s kind of you to say so.”
She drew closer and thrust out her hand. “Come home with me now.”
He looked around again. “I think I should like to live somewhere like this.”
“In the woods?”
He nodded slowly. “I like the peace and the quiet very much. I never thought I would care for it. The country. It’s so different from anything I’ve ever known.”
Fanny stretched her hand out a little more. “I think you will not care for it when your belly is empty and your fire will not catch alight because the wood was so damp. And what of your ambition to become a leading actor on London’s greatest stage? There’s no audience to flatter your performance here. Come down from there now and attend me.”
He jumped down from the tree stump. “Every career has its challenges. But wouldn’t this make the most wonderful stage to perform upon? Can you picture it? An elevated stage set among the trees over there and bench seats dotted between the old oaks over here. Footmen with trays handing out champagne and canapes to the audience.”
“Father would never allow so many to trample through his woods.” Fanny caught his hand and tugged hard. “You and I have something important to talk about, sir. About Lord Wilks.”
His gaze fell upon her face, and a frown replaced his contented expression. “What was in that contract that everyone but me feels is scandalous?”
“I…” Fanny faltered, her cheeks heating.
He raised one brow. “Tell me?”
She shrugged. “I like to be prepared for all eventualities.”
“And by all eventualities, you mean…”
Fanny wanted the earth to open up and swallow her whole. She was certain he’d read that part of the contract, but apparently in his enthusiasm to accommodate her request to be his patron, he had not read it properly. “I considered that there might be a possibility that our continued association might lead to sharing a bed. I wrote conditions and compensations into the contract.”
He stared at her with a frown, no doubt puzzling through what she’d said. “We have shared a bed. I’ve slept with you twice now.”
“Slept. The contract goes into greater detail.” She gulped. “If we became intimate for any length of time, I imposed a limit to that relationship. I was certain you had read that passage,” she whispered when it seemed clear he really hadn’t understood at all.
“No. I did not.” He folded his arms over his chest. “So, you actually imagined that the natural course of your patronage was that I would make love to you.”
“I did consider that it could happen if we found we liked each other enough.”
“Huh,” he said. He raked his hand over his short hair, frown set in place even more firmly now. “Well. That does explain most of what Wilks said to me.”
“My brother Samuel knows, too.”
“So Thwaite stole it, Wilks tried to take advantage and bribe me with it, and your younger brother has read it too, but the duke hasn’t ordered my murder yet.” His eyes widened and he shook his head. “At least no one can prove we’ve been intimate.”
“My sister suspects I haven’t been alone in my room the last few nights. But it doesn’t matter. She won’t say a word. Thwaite has read the contract and could use it against me. I’m not sure what Wilks wants.”