“I’m not lying. You’re not pretty,” he replied suddenly.
She blinked, then her eyes widened. “Steady on. Don’t lie to me, but you also don’t have to be so blunt.”
He shook his head, stunned by how easily he lost his ability to charm in her presence. “No,” he countered. “That’s not what I mean. You are striking, and that is far better than being pretty, Jacqueline. And if you but realize it, you will be able to bring thetonto its knees.”
As soon as he said the words, they echoed through his entire body, and he was horrified by the truthfulness of them. Because if he did help her unleash that side of herself, London would fall at her feet, and she would not need him.
Men would line up in a queue to take her hand.
“It is you who is captivating,” she insisted. “I want you to teach me. Teach me to be as you say I am. As you are.”
He swallowed.
Bloody hell, what path had he suddenly chosen to go down? But as he stared into her eyes, those eyes full of longing and hope, he could not deny her.
“Yes,” he replied. “I can teach you those things. But I cannot lie to you. I shall have to be careful.”
“Whyever should you have to be careful?” she demanded. “You don’t wish to marry me, after all.”
“No,” he said. “We won’t suit. But that doesn’t mean that I don’twantyou.”
Her lips curved, and she shook her head, which caused her beautiful dark hair to dance against her cheek. “I beg your pardon?”
“Do you understand what I’m saying?” he asked softly.
“Not exactly,” she confessed. “I have read books. Yet, I’m not entirely certain that I can formulate the real-life ramifications of a man telling me that he wants me.”
He gazed at her, studying the planes of her face, seeing her anew. “What it means is that I will have to be careful when I am alone with you, Jacqueline, because I have a great deal more experience than you, and it might be easy for me to persuade you to do something that you should not.”
Her lips parted ever so slightly, shocked by his confession. “Then you shall have to keep control of yourself, or are you telling me that you’re not capable?”
“Of course I’m capable,” he whispered. “I’m a rational, grown man.”
“Then we need not worry,” she said. “I’m sure with your tutelage, I will come up to snuff.”
Come up to snuff? He took a step toward her, his boots skimming the hem of her gown.
“Jacqueline, I don’t want you to think some man is marrying you because he must or out of convenience. I want you to understand that you can make the ground shake beneath a man’s feet. But I promise you this, I will not find a man for you who is shaken by passion. I will find a man for you that will stand by your side and do right by you every single day, and never be overcome with emotion.”
She gaped up at him. “Someone who will never be overcome by emotion?”
“I promise you, you do not wish it,” he said. “For that way lies misery.”
“I suppose you know better than I,” she replied.
“I do,” he said softly, the memories of his childhood still echoing through him. Memories of his father slipping away, further and further away from control, until emotion ruled his every moment. “I promise you, I do.”
For a long moment, it looked as if she was going to embrace him, but then she took a step back. “Where shall we have our lessons?”
His breath hitched in his throat as he was caught off guard by her sudden businesslike manner. But then he felt relief. Surely, that was what it was. Relief. She understood that nothing could ever be between them.
She beamed up at him, an idea clearly dawning on her. “I shall just have to climb the tree and go into your room in the evenings. No one shall notice me that way. When shall it be? It must be soon.”
He nodded. “Soon,” he agreed, wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into. The seemingly simple task of matchmaking was slipping away into something far more complicated. “I shall send you a note. When we might meet best in secret.”
Satisfied, she gave him a quick curtsy.
It was the strangest thing, and then she winked. But then she hesitated and said, “Sometimes, Your Grace, one cannot control fate or the circumstances that one is thrust into.”