He didn’t look frightened: more the opposite. He looked like an enraged beast, roused from a peaceful den by an impudent intruder. Fiona loved it. Her heart sped up, which was utterly perverse.
“Your sister is a menace,” he spat. “Do you have any idea what she did to me? Any idea?”
“No,” Fiona said, tipping back her head in order to see his expression. “I’ve been right here all along. Something lacking sense, no doubt.”
He bared his teeth at her. “I am a calm man.”
“Oh, I can see that,” she said with some enjoyment.
“And I can see that you merely pretend to be a quiet, bookish young lady.”
“Well, I did tell you that I had a bad reputation,” she said, grinning at him the way she smiled only at her closest friends because . . . well . . . this was just so much fun. “But since we both seem to have a hidden dark side, may I say that yours is more interesting? I judged you a chilly aristocrat to the bone, but now you more resemble a barbarian.” She frowned. “Perhaps a barbarian chased by a rhinoceros. Really, what’s the worst Marilla can do to you? There’s no chaperone here to force the two of you to wed simply because of a rash kiss.”
“You think I’m boring and predictable. The sort who would prefer respect to love in matters of marriage.”
Her mouth fell open.
“Don’t you?” He braced his arms on the back of the sofa and leaned over her. The flush of anger in his face was fading, but his eyes were still hawklike. Fiona frowned at him, not sure what she was seeing. Hawklike and wounded?
“Yet even the most liberal gentleman would think it reasonable to avoid a woman who, when her bodice slips to her waist, merely giggles. And what happened thereafter—” He broke off, obviously remembering he was speaking to Marilla’s sister.
“Given our constrained circumstances, we cannot be criticized for wearing ill-fitting garments,” Fiona said, coming to Marilla’s rescue. “Lady Cecily’s clothing is hanging from her like drapes from a narrow window.”
“At least Lady Cecily manages to remain decently covered,” Byron retorted.
“Yet more surprising information about the male sex,” Fiona said. “ Iwas always under the impression that men quite liked a risqué glimpse of an ankle and the like.”
“You mock me.”
Fiona couldn’t help it: laughter bubbled out of her, and when he scowled, she found herself practically rolling on the sofa, gasping with laughter until he gave a reluctant smile.
“I’m sorry,” she said, giggling. “I really am. I’ve been indoors too long, obviously. No fresh air.”
“I wish to ask you a question,” Byron said, interrupting. He moved around the sofa to stand in front of the fire, the better to glower at her.
“What happened to the icy earl?” she asked, a last giggle escaping. “I feel as if the fairies stole you and returned with a hot-tempered . . .” She eyed him.
“Hot-tempered what?”
Backlit by the fire, his muscled legs showed to remarkable advantage. Suddenly, he didn’t look like an aristocrat, like an English aristocrat. It was as if he shifted before her eyes, replaced by a big, muscled man emanating a sort of primal heat. And . . .
She wrenched her eyes away. Wonderful. Now she was ogling him with as much fervor as her sister probably had done.
“Hot-tempered giant,” she said quickly, sobered by that thought. “What was it you wanted to ask me, Lord Oakley?” Her book had slipped to the floor; she picked it up and smoothed the pages. She had a third of it left. She should bury herself in the plot, and stop thinking about Byron altogether. He was too male, too beautiful . . . too volatile. And he was obviously in the grip of some fierce, barely contained emotion.
It couldn’t be that Marilla had roused all that passion.
Or perhaps she had.
He glanced down at the book in her hand. “I see you are still reading. What is the title again?”
“Persuasion, by Miss Jane Austen.”
“And are you enjoying it?”
She looked at him and hardened her heart. Men as beautiful as he were surely accustomed to fighting off the advances of young ladies. “Yes,” she said shortly. “I am. But surely, Lord Oakley, that is not the question you wished to ask me.”
“It’s not a question, precisely. I was hoping that you could inform your sister that I am an unlikely focus for her attentions.”
“Everyone knows that you are looking for a bride,” Fiona said, feeling her way into a further defense of Marilla. “News of your broken betrothal traveled before you. I’m afraid that I cannot alter the tide of public opinion. Every unmarried young lady considers you a suitable focus for her attentions. Morethan suitable.”
His brows drew together. “Perhaps you might tell her that I have determined not to marry.”
Fiona rolled her eyes. “Please. Marilla will no more believe that than I would. You still need a wife; you merely need to find a woman who isn’t interested in kissing other men. Marilla, for one, would never kiss a footman. As I told you, she’s mad about titles.”
“My fiancée was not kissing a footman,” he said, giving the distinct impression that his teeth were clenched together. “It was her dancing master.” To her shock, he strode over to the sofa, pushed her legs aside, and sat down.
Then he folded his arms and looked at her challengingly. “It’s not a matter of my being overly punctilious, either. Do you see what I just did? WhereI am? I pushed you aside and sat down without being asked. I’m sitting in this room with a young lady who has identified herself as having a less-than-perfect reputation.”
Another giggle broke from Fiona’s lips before she could suppress it. Was she supposed to congratulate him on his bravery? Or his finesse?
He gave her a narrow-eyed glance. “I may be a dunce, but I’m not a self-righteous turnip.”
“I would never think of you in terms of a garden vegetable,” she said encouragingly.
“At any rate, a dancing master is not precisely a servant.” He paused. “Although lately I begin to think that she set up the entire event so that I would break off the engagement.”
Fiona reached over and patted his knee. The stuffy earl was obviously having some sort of stuffy person’s crisis, and she was thoroughly enjoying watching it, even though such pleasure cast a dubious light on her own claims to being a kindly soul. “Oh, don’t underestimate the allure of a dancing master. Somuch more understandable than a footman. Was he French?”
“If you are warming up to casting aspersions on my ability to dance, as has my cousin, I would prefer that you refrain.”
Fiona had been planning to do just that, so she started over. “Marilla hasn’t the faintest interest in kissing anyone—except, of course, her husband, once she has one. And she would neverkiss a commoner; she has very high standards. Therefore, she will be a perfect match for you.”
“Your sister has already kissed me,” he stated. “I played only a passive role in the incident. I am well aware that my uncle’s foolishness has thrown us all together without a chaperone, but—”
“Exactly!” Fiona said, grasping thankfully on to that excuse. “Marilla is overcome by a heady sense of freedom.”
“Then youshould act as her chaperone.”
“Unfortunately, my sister pays me no mind,” Fiona said, more honestly than was perhaps advisable.
“I had given her hardly any encouragement,” the earl said, a heavy frown indicating something that she had long suspected. Men liked to seduce, rather than be seduced.
“You’re very attractive,” Fiona said, silently cursing Marilla’s propensity to overplay her hand. “She was overcome by your . . . your . . .” To her horror, her mind went blank; the only thing she could think of was his thighs and that ferocious maleness about him. “Your charm,” she cried. “Overcome by your charm, she has temporarily forsaken her maidenly modesty.”