"Well then, Adrian," she said, testing the name and finding it suited him, as it sounded solid and aristocratic, with just enough edge to suggest hidden depths. "Since we appear to be trapped together by the vagaries of London weather, perhaps you might recommend something from your extensive reading? I confess myself curious about what captures the attention of such a discerning gentleman."
His smile was slow and distinctly predatory, transforming his face in ways that made her stomach flutter with something that was definitely not ladylike interest. "How dangerous a question. What if my recommendations prove entirely unsuitable for a lady of refined sensibilities?"
"Then I shall have to trust in my corruption to see me through," Eveline replied sweetly. "As I mentioned, I am quite beyond redemption."
"In that case..." He moved past her, his sleeve brushing against hers again in that maddening way, and selected a volume from a higher shelf. When he turned back to her, she saw it was a collection of Byron's poetry. Not the man's latest work, which had been banned from most respectable drawing rooms, but still far more provocative than most ladies were expected to appreciate.
"Byron?" she asked, accepting the book with raised eyebrows. "How shocking of you to recommend such scandalous material to a respectable lady."
"I thought we had established that you were nothing of the sort," Adrian said, that hint of amusement back in his voice. "Besides, if you truly have opinions on the Corn Laws, I suspect you can handle a bit of romantic poetry without suffering permanent damage to your moral character."
Eveline opened the volume at random and found herself looking at"She Walks in Beauty."The irony was not lost on her—here she stood, windswept and damp, being handed poetry about feminine grace by a man whose own dark beauty would have made Byron himself weep with envy.
"'She walks in beauty, like the night,'" she read aloud, then glanced up to find Adrian watching her with an intensity that made her breath catch. "'Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright, Meet in her aspect and her eyes.'"
The words seemed to hang between them, charged with meaning neither had intended but both felt. Heat rose in her cheeks as she realized what she'd done. Standing there in a bookshop, reading love poetry aloud to a stranger as though she were some Gothic heroine rather than a sensible woman of three-and-twenty.
"Beautiful words," she managed, closing the book with perhaps more force than necessary.
"Indeed." His voice was rougher than it had been, and when she looked up,she found his gaze fixed on her face with an expression she couldn't quite decipher. "Though I suspect Byron himself would have been inspired by the sight of a lady defending her right to read Tacitus in a bookshop on a rainy afternoon."
Now she was definitely blushing. "You flatter me, sir."
"I merely observe." He took a half-step closer, and she caught that intriguing scent again of bergamot and sandalwood and something uniquely him. "And I find myself wondering what other unconventional opinions you might hold, Miss Eveline. Do you perhaps believe women should be allowed to attend university? Vote in parliamentary elections? Inherit property in their own right?"
Each question was more radical than the last, and she should have been shocked by his assumption that she might hold such dangerous views. Instead, she found herself warming to the subject with the sort of enthusiasm that usually cleared drawing rooms and sent her mother reaching for her smelling salts.
"All of the above," she said without hesitation. "And I believe they should be allowed to pursue careers in medicine, law, and scholarship without being dismissed as monsters of nature or accused of neglecting their feminine duties."
"Good Heavens." But he was smiling as he said it, a real smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes and made him look years younger. "You truly are dangerous."
"Utterly so," Eveline agreed cheerfully. "My mother lives in constant terror that I'll corrupt some innocent young lady with my radical notions and bring scandal down upon the family name."
"And have you? Corrupted anyone, that is?"
She pretended to consider the question seriously. "Not yet, but I remain optimistic. I've been working on my friend Harriet, but she's proving remarkably resistant to enlightenment. She still believes women were put on earth primarily to provide agreeable companionship and produce heirs."
"How disappointing of her."
"Terribly so. Though I haven't given up hope. I plan to lend her a copy of Mary Wollstonecraft's work and see if that doesn't shake her faith in feminine submission."
Adrian's eyebrows rose. "You have a copy of'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'?"
"Naturally. Don't you?"
"I..." He paused, looking genuinely taken aback. "I confess I do not."
Eveline looked at him disapprovingly. "How can you call yourself well-read if you haven't studied Wollstonecraft? Her arguments regarding female education are particularly compelling. She posits that women appear inferior to men only because they've been denied the same educational opportunities, not due to any inherent mental deficiency."
"A revolutionary concept," Adrian said dryly.
"Hardly revolutionary. Merely logical. Though I suppose logic and feminine nature are generally considered mutually exclusive by most gentlemen." She gave him a pointed look. "Present company excepted, I hope?"
"I begin to think," he said slowly, "that present company might be the exception to a great many rules."
The rain chose that moment to lessen, the sound of it against the windows fading to a gentle patter that suggested the worst of the storm had passed. Eveline felt a stab of disappointment that was entirely unreasonable because she should be pleased to have an excuse to escape this increasingly dangerous conversation with a man who looked at her as though she were something fascinating rather than merely tolerable.
"I should take my leave," she said reluctantly, clutching both books to her chest like armor. "The weather appears to be clearing, and I have... obligations."
