“Then why are you?” He frowned. “I thought you were eager to bring some country gentleman up to scratch.”
“Not out of any particular desire for a leg-shackle,” she admitted. “The new earl has more than enough unwed daughters to find beaux for; he has no need to add a spinster to his list of responsibilities.”
“Two-and-twenty is hardly a spinster,” Daniel said gruffly.
She smiled wryly. “Isn’t it?”
He glanced away. “Let’s skip the tour. The fewer dark corridors we traipse down, the better—and besides, it’s not an activity you’ll be doing with other men. If we’re to practice flirtation, it should be somewhere you might actually need to employ a bit of coquetry.”
She nodded. “That makes sense. Are you thinking out in the gardens, perhaps? Or serving a spot of tea in the front parlor?”
“I was thinking London ballrooms, I suppose. Or the next best thing. We could go to the music room. I could play a little and teach you to dance.” His words trailed off as he finally registered the closed expression on her face.
“Amusing.” She glared back at him, her teeth clamped tight. He’d had more than enough opportunities to grant her a dance. She wouldn’t let him humiliate her again. “There’ll be no touching. And I already know how to dance.”
He had the grace to look abashed, at least. “Of course you do. I shouldn’t have offered.”
“You shouldn’t have offeredtoday,” she muttered.
“Iknewyou remembered.” He reached for her hands. “Can we—”
She folded her arms beneath her breasts. “No.”
He sighed and shoved his hands behind his back. “Regardless of what you think, Iamsorry I treated you so shabbily. I realize that an apology years after the fact is woefully incapable of undoing the past—nor do I deserve to have the slate erased. But Iamsincere. I should have danced with you, Rebecca. I have regretted it ever since.”
Her traitorous heart wanted to believe him. His words were everything she’d always wished to hear. Unfortunately, they weren’t true.
“You regretted the missed opportunitysomuchthat when I came to London for my come-out, you snubbed me all over again?” She let skepticism drip from her tone.
He ran a hand through his hair. “Believe it or not… yes.”
“You’re right. I don’t believe you.” In fact, her fingers were trembling from the idea that he thought her foolish enough not to see through his lies.
Pretty words and empty promises might work on London debutantes. They might even have worked on Rebecca herself back when she was that age. But now she wanted something more. Somethingreal. Something to last forever.
And they both knew that something wasn’t Daniel.
“The front garden, then,” she said briskly, as if their argument had not happened.
There was no point in quarreling about a relationship they were never going to have. The most she could do was focus on securing her future. And the best place for that was the highly visible front garden. It would be a long time before she had any desire to be alone with Daniel. Even for tea.
He offered her his arm.
She ignored it.
Rebecca realized he no doubt thought of her as petty and rude, but the truth was theNo Touchingrule was for her own safety. If she touched him… if she allowed herself to wonder what his embrace might be like… if she let herself wish once again for him to hold her and actually mean it this time… Then how would she ever be satisfied with anything less?
She accepted a pelisse from the butler and walked side-by-side with Daniel down the front steps to the garden. They picked a walking path at random and began to crisscross their way between triangles of perfectly trimmed grass and diamonds of brightly colored flowers.
After several moments of strained silence, he glanced up at the boundless blue sky. “It isn’t raining.”
“Fascinating,” she said drolly. “Who needs an almanac when a city gentleman is around?”
“Now, now, don’t be pernickety,” he reminded her with a shake of his finger. “We’re supposed to be flirting.”
“And you’re supposed to be good at this.” She raised a brow to hide her smile. “I shall be shocked to discover ‘It isn’t raining’ is all it takes to bring the London girls to their knees.”
“I can’t play the game for some reason.” He stopped walking to face her. “With you it’s different. I could tell you the perfume of fresh roses pales next to the scent of your hair, or that the gray of your eyes haunts me because they’re the same color as an ocean storm, and with you it would actually be true. But whenever I’m in your presence, my brain loses its ability to be clever or romantic.”
