“What could you possibly wish to tell me,” she demanded, her voice low.
“There are four gentlemen of your acquaintance… they have a goal.”
She stilled, her face transforming as her mask slipped again. “And what is that?”
“To ruin you,” he stated evenly.
An indescribable emotion danced over her face before she blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“Yes, Lady Elizabeth,” he affirmed, hating to be the bearer of such news, but unwilling to soften the truth of it. “They have made a wager, you see, that one of them can ruin you. They will all try.”
She sucked in a breath, her hand lowering slowly. Her eyes darted over his face, searching for falsehood. “Why would you tell me this?”
He hesitated, determined to find the right words… honesty. With her, he was certain that the blunt truth was the best course. “Because I cannot bear the idea of seeing anyone the victim of such vicious men. I would have engaged with them myself that night but I was called away to deal with something rather important.”
“More important than a lady being ruined?” She breathed.
He nodded. “Yes, it was actually life and death.”
Her breasts rose and fell, pressing against the line of her bodice as she took in his words. But then she stiffened and said flatly, “My goodness,” she said, “what dramas you do tell. You seem to live a life of varied experience.”
“Oh, very varied,” he agreed, praying she would take him seriously. That his words would breach the fortress of perfection she had clearly built stone by stone. “But I will tell you this. My status? It allows me to know and hear things that you never could.”
“So you admit you are not proper company,” she asked, deliberately avoiding his last statement, but he could feel the shift in her.
The grave concern that washed over her, and her eyes… the wall seemed to slip and she gazed up at him, suddenly daring to trust him.
“Oh freely,” he told her, sensing that his distance to the ton would actually raise him up in her eyes. It was a strange instinct, but he trusted it. “I have never been particularly fond of the company in the room you’re about to return to.”
She stilled. “Nor I. That gives us something in common then.”
“You do not like the company in that room?” he queried grateful he had trusted his instincts.
She shuddered. “How could I?” she blurted. “They do not know who I am. They have nodesireto know who I am. They simply wish to entertain the daughter of an earl who has a fortune and whose duty it is to find a young man who also has a fortune and preferably a superior title to her own.”
The words tumbled out of her as if she had been holding them at bay for years, in search of someone who might understand and not condemn her for them. Somehow, she knew he was such a person. She drew in a slow breath, pain filling her eyes. “How could Ilikea company that has no desire to know who I am?”
He studied her anew in the shadow, lit only by the silvery light spilling in through the long windows. “To be truly known? Is that not a lofty wish? A wish that most young ladies do not even entertain?” he asked softly, finding himself admiring the woman before him.
“No,” she agreed, “though it pains me.” Her face twisted with dismay. “We are not allowed to have such thoughts, let alone speak them… and I do not know why I’ve done so now. But you seem…”
“What?” he asked softly.
“I cannot explain it,” she exclaimed, before immediately softening her voice. “You have made me speak out of turn,” She pressed her lips together, studying him before she whispered, “And that is far from perfect indeed.”
“You are human then,” he surmised, realizing it was what she wished to be seen as.
She swallowed, passion seeming to welling up in her. “I am most certainly human. I am not made of stone.”
“I can see that. You are no marble statue, my lady, but a creature of blood and bone and dreams and fears. Your cheeks burn with feeling as does your gaze.”
She gasped at his words, and though it was clear she wished to be seen thus? She was unaccustomed to it. So she quickly defended, “You have said something most alarming, sir, and I do not know what I am to do with the information that you have given me. Is it even true?”
“You know it is,” he growled softly. “You trust me. You sense that unlike all the liars in that ballroom, I willnotlie.” He locked gazes with her, determined to impart the serious danger she was in. “These gentlemen are not kind. They will stomp you beneath their feet and crush you if they can.”
“Then surely they shall be easy to spot,” she said softly.
“I do not think so,” he said. “Such gentlemen will use whatever ruse possible.”