Drat.
“A cat stole your tongue, Miss Fairbanks? No witty repartee or glib protestation of innocence?”
She lifted a shoulder in an unconcerned shrug. “I hardly think you are here to do away with me. We are family, after all.”
A choked sound came from him. “Family?”
“Of course. As I said a few days ago, wearelike brothers and sisters,” she murmured, being deliberately provoking.
What rubbish. Especially when her palm tingled with the need to touch him, to ruffle his perfectly slicked-back hair and stir the calm inside his eyes to a storm. A need she might never understand as long as she lived. Was this how her sisters felt as they tumbled into lust and love?
Ester smiled, and the knave narrowed his eyes in piercing contemplation. “Why do I get the sense you are not afraid that I am here in your bedchamber?”
She peeked up at him from beneath her lashes. “Should I be?”
“Yes.”
Her heart began to hammer wildly, and her cheeks grew flushed. “How ominous.”
Ester lifted her shoulder in another unconcerned shrug, though her heart continued to pound fiercely. “Nothing exciting happens to me. I was beginning to think Penporth was more exhilarating than town. A rather frightening prospect. Then here you came to relieve my boredom. It is ratherexcitingthat you are here.”
There went that smile again. “Where are they?”
“Am I to know what you search for, Edmond?”
“TheIOUs,Miss Fairbanks, hand them over.”
Ester did not bother to lie or pretend it was not her who had stolen them. The dratted man had haunted her footsteps for the last three days, his direct regard a taunt. “I burned them.”
His lips curved even more as if he found her response ridiculous. “Hand over the IOUs, Ester, and I shall be on my way. I will also expect you to never again act in this willful manner.”
Something wild and defiant stirred inside her at that ridiculous order. “I really do not jest. I fed them to the flames.”
He stilled. “Youburnedthem?”
Perhaps he could provoke her to nervousness after all. The flat, icy way he spoke just now had her retreating a few paces. “Yes. I burned them the very night I took them from the club.”
Without awaiting his reply, Ester dashed away from him, opened her door, and ran from the room and the man she knew was dangerous to be alone with. She hastened down the hallway and outside into the back gardens, a small breathless laugh escaping her.
“I hardly think you would laugh with me chasing you, Miss Fairbanks.”
How silently he’d moved. She whirled around and provocatively fluttered her lashes up at him. “Have you considered I like being chased?”
He stopped as if he had slammed into a wall. “You are not like your sister, are you?”
“I am altogether a different kind of naughtiness,” Ester said promptly.
He stared at her with renewed curiosity. She liked it.
“So, you like being chased.”
“It is a novel experience when I am pursued by the correct gentleman.”
His gaze hooded. “Have you considered the consequences of being caught?”
She fluttered her lashes at him with faux innocence, and the dratted man grinned. How it transformed his features into a man of charm and astonishing handsomeness. “Iwasleading you out here into the gardens.”
He glanced around at the secluded spot. When his regard returned to her, his gaze was cool and watchful. “Why did you take the IOUs?”