She snorted. Again. “Your estimation is very low in my opinion. I am only here because I have no other choice.”
That was new for him, to only be a last resort. It was a most curious sensation.
“Oh, Jack,” he said, his voice a long drawl, “whatever am I going to do with you?”
She cocked a brow and folded her arms under her breasts, which plumped them up nice and pert. “We’re going to find me a husband. We’re going to get my family out of financial ruin. And then I’ll never have to darken your door again, which will make us both very happy indeed.”
He wondered at that.
He suddenly found that his door was not dark at all with her standing in his room. He found himself quite light, in fact. He mirrored her action, tilting his head down, closing the distance between their faces.
“You know,” he said, “this could be a most dangerous situation for you.”
She snorted.Again.
He laughed. “Cease!”
“What?”
“Snorting!” Another laugh rumbled from him. He couldn’t stop himself. He loved that she did not take him seriously. That she wasn’t intimidated by him as others were.
“Stop trying to act like a rake with me,” she castigated. “You’d never see me as a conquest, in any case.”
“Oh, Jack,” he said. “You know so little about me. You only know the exterior.”
“Are you going to prove to be difficult,” she queried, her eyes narrowing, “and make me regret my decision to come into this room?”
“Yes,” he said, “I think that I shall.”
“And how will you do that?” she demanded.
“I could show you what a rogue and rake really does to young ladies when they invade their chambers.”
“No, you shan’t,” she said with a dramatic sigh. “You’re not some two-dimensional villain in a play, Stone.”
Again, he laughed a deep laugh, feeling more himself with her than he had in years. She wouldn’t let him get away with any of his usual tactics. “No, Jack, I’m not. What the blazes have you been doing with yourself all these years?”
She shifted on her feet. “Well, if you must know, I spent a great deal of time playing my pianoforte in Vienna. And I cannot give it up…as other ladies have done.”
“You trulydolike music,” he breathed, astounded.
“Ilovemusic,” she corrected. A melancholic look crossed her face. “My father loved it, too. We would sit and play duets together for hours. We were…so happy, and he encouraged me to devote myself to it. He never suggested that I’d have to abandon my serious study of music as many young ladies have had to. And I adored him for it. In my music, I feel him with me still. Yes, my love for it has only grown. When I sit at the piano? I am myself.”
And the way she said it? His own heart soared as if he could feel the love that she felt within his very soul.
“I don’t understand you, Jack.”
“That’s all right,” she replied with a shrug and a small smile. “Most people don’t. Some days I don’t even understand myself. Is that strange?”
“No,” he replied, his entire world spinning. “Not at all. I think that is enough for one evening. I shall begin to consider immediately,” he said.
“But we have an accord,” she clarified.
“I promise,” he said softly.
“I suppose I have gotten what I came for,” she replied. “Until our next meeting, then, Your Grace.”
“When next we meet, I shall have a list,” he said.