“You’re right,” she said, squeezing her friend’s hand. “I will do the lessons, and I will try to make the most of them.”
“Good, now come inside.” Vivian stood up, pulling Leah to her feet as well. “Let’s have breakfast. You aren’t going to get any better at speaking to gentlemen if you’re faint with hunger.”
Dorian had been wondering what, exactly, would make a young lady as beautiful as Lady Leah Grove feel that she had to stoop to entrapment in order to get a gentleman to marry her. After all, in his experience, wealthy, beautiful women in need of a husbandcould usually secure one pretty quickly--as long as they didn’t expect too much from their spouses.
But as he watched her from across the breakfast room where she was speaking to Mr. Jonathan Roland, it was becoming clearer and clearer what the problem was.
While Lady Leah might look the part of the perfect proper young lady, she was barely saying anything at all. Even when Mr. Roland asked her direct questions, she would stare at him blankly for several seconds before seeming to remember that she was supposed to be talking. When she did speak, she seemed closed off and cold, uninterested in hearing his response .
Dorian shook his head.This is a disaster! A young lady who doesn’t even know how to make conversation!
“Are you well, Dorian? You seem distracted.”
Dorian started and looked around at his friend, Anthony Caller, the Duke of Cresswell, with whom he had been trying to have a conversation. Anthony was blinking at him slowly, a concerned look on his face.
“Oh, yes, I am well,” Dorian said.
“Is this about Lady Leah?” Anthony smirked at him. “I heard that you made a deal with the devil in order to keep from having to marry her.”
“Where did you hear that from?” Dorian said, his eyebrows shooting up. Surely the gossip hadn’t spread that fast! It would ruin her.
“Lucien told me,” Anthony said with a shrug. “He doesn’t fully trust you, you know.”
“What do you mean?” Dorian asked quickly. Lucien was his best friend--of course he trusted him. Didn’t he?
“He told me what happened between you and Lady Leah, and according to him, he isn’t fully convinced that his sister was the one who started the kiss.” Anthony smirked. “I must admit, I also have trouble believing this version of events. I have never known you to be the kind of man who doesn’t kiss a lady first.”
“Well, you ought to believe it,” Dorian said, trying to keep some of the annoyance from his voice. “Lady Leah is a woman who knows what she wants. Although she is a strange one. She throws herself at me in order to find a husband, and yet she cannot even open her mouth in order to speak to a gentleman. How is it that a lady can be so bold on the one hand, and so fearful on the other?”
“Perhaps she doesn’t actually want any of these other men,” Anthony said, and his smirk had become a whole smile now. In fact, Dorian thought he looked as if he was trying not to laugh. “Perhaps she just wants you.”
“Oh very funny,” Dorian said, rolling his eyes. Anthony had always had a dry sense of humor. He was detached from things,choosing to laugh at situations instead of ever taking them seriously, but right now, Dorian was not in the mood for jokes. “But no, she does not want me. She wants a man– ”
“Who isn’t a rake?”
Dorian swallowed, irritated at the designation even though he’d done everything to cultivate it. “Yes. She wants someone who will make life pleasant for her. And that’s what she will get, with my help.”
“Well then, good luck to you,” Anthony said, shaking his head. “Whenever I have tried to speak to her, it is like speaking to a brick wall. She is going to need all the help she can get.”
Dorian sighed. “Then I suppose I should get started. Please, will you excuse me?”
He stood up and bowed to his friend, and Anthony raised a glass to him .
“Adorable to see you as a marriage-minded mama,” he said, chuckling.
Dorian rolled his eyes and stalked off. He knew he was being rude. But it was going to take him a little bit of time to integrate back into London manners. He’d been away too long. And he couldn’t bear to watch Lady Leah sabotage herself like this any longer.
Dorian headed straight across the room to Lady Leah and Mr. Roland. When he reached them, he cleared his throat to get their attention and bowed.
“Mr. Roland, may I borrow this lovely lady from you?”
“You may,” Mr. Roland said, looking more relieved than Dorian liked to see. “Lady Leah, it was a pleasure speaking to you.”
Dorian took Lady Leah’s arm and led her away. She remained stiff until they had gone several yards across the room, and then she hissed at him, “What are you doing? That was a gentleman who was actually interested in me! You are supposed to be helping me, not getting in the way of potential matches.”
Dorian didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure it was the best idea to tell her that she was terrible at speaking to gentlemen and that he had just rescued her from boring Mr. Roland to death. That would probably only undermine her confidence—what little she had .
She tutted impatiently. “Well?” She demanded. “Aren’t you going to explain why you did that? Is this all part of your elaborate plan?”
