She just shrugged and looked out over the dark water. “I liked the Carstairses. Lady Victoria wasn’t at all ordinary. She’s very pretty and very charming. Her husband adores her. He’s very possibly nearly as handsome as you are, not as handsome, mind you, but nearly.”
“She’s also pregnant.”
“Really? She’s quite slender. How do you know that she’s pregnant?”
He frowned at her. “You’re a damned female, couldn’t you tell?”
“Well, no. You’re a damned man, so how did you know?”
His frown cleared and he said with a man’s wonderful arrogance, “There’s a look about her, a sort of radiance, and her husband was very careful when he touched her. It’s really quite obvious.” He looked thoughtful, then said, “I’d say she was about three months along.”
“Goodness, I had no idea you were so observant, North. I needn’t have bothered Dr. Treath at all. You could have simply looked at all my pregnant ladies and told them to do this and to do that. I’m very impressed.”
He looked distinctly harassed. “Very well, you don’t believe me. At least I tried. I heard Rafael tell her that he wouldn’t caress her breasts no matter how much she wanted him to because he knew she was tender and he might hurt her. He told her to be patient, that Dr. Treath had told him that she would become less tender in a month or so. Then he would caress her all she wished. And then she said that she didn’t think he would hurt her because he could be gentle when he wasn’t dancing about the room, holding her with her legs wrapped around his… er, forget that. There, are you pleased now that you’ve pried it out of me?”
“I didn’t realize that a woman’s breasts got tender.”
“Caroline! Dammit, control your mouth. That is highly improper, you shouldn’t even know about—”
“Breasts? Being pregnant?”
“Be quiet. Now, what are you doing here?”
“Thinking.”
“About your aunt?”
She shook her head, looking away from him at the encroaching tide that had just tumbled a huge splaying wave that finally flattened only two feet from the big rock where she sat. “No, I was thinking about you. I was thinking about how one should take charge of one’s life. I was remembering how I was so very lonely for such a long time and how now there’s so much for me to do that I scarce even have time now to remember that other life and that other Caroline.”
He went still as the rock she was sitting on.
“That’s quite a lot, Caroline. However, if you were thinking about me in all that morass, you will stop it now. I don’t want you thinking about me, Caroline.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m simply not interested in you.”
The lie was so blatantly false that she merely stared at him with as much fascination as she would study an aphid sitting atop a rose.
“Very well, you force me to be blunt again. I told you it was all lust. Well, it is. If you weren’t so damned innocent, you’d be able to recognize lust for what it is. No, I take that back. You damned women, you want to wrap up a man in sentimental rot, you want him to ply you with flattery and roses and romance and spiritual intermingling.”
“Then why did you come looking for me? Perhaps you wanted to make love to me? To assuage your lust?”
It was his turn to look toward the waves since one just missed spewing over the toe of his Hessian boot. He took a step back. “Rafael is assisting me with my tin mines. Wheal David is a mess and there are still no answers. I may have to close it down until we figure out what to do. Howe
ver, Wheal Malcolm is doing well, so I will have as many of the men working over there as I can.” He stopped a moment and sighed. “But there is still so much I need to learn.”
“I as well. I sent Owen to begin his lessons with Mr. Peetree, my manager.”
“Ah, good, so Owen will deal with the mines. It’s not a lady’s responsibility to get involved with them.”
“Why ever not, North?”
“It’s a man’s sort of thing and well you know it. The miners are rough and tough and well used to danger since it’s a part of their lives. It would distract them to have a woman prancing about the mine.”
“That sounds like a mare trying to tempt a stallion. Would it interest you if I pranced?”
“You’re so bloody beautiful it wouldn’t matter if you crawled about with your head down.”