Lord Westbridge, mistaking her silence for continued resistance, continued. “I realize it is unconventional to ask this of you.”
“That,” Aurelia said faintly, “is one word for it.”
He ignored the remark. “But it is practical.”
Practical.
Yes. That was what he meant it to be. Not romantic, not flattering, not reckless in the manner of novels and foolish girls’ dreams. It was a plan, cleanly constructed and coolly offered.
And yet her heart would not taken the same calm view.
She thought of the strange ease she had begun to feel in Lord Westbridge’s company, and of how disappointing it would be to lose it now. For one wild, ridiculous instant, she thought that perhaps he might be the hero she had been waiting for.
The next instant she rejected the thought with firmness. Heroes did not exist. Men were merely men, and this one was offering convenience, not salvation.
Still, her pulse had not quite steadied.
She turned to look ahead at Clara, then back at him. His expression had changed. There was impatience in it now, yes, but beneath that she thought she saw something more uncertain, as if, having proposed the thing, he now waited to discover whether he had overstepped beyond repair.
“You truly believe this would work?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“You are very sure of yourself.”
“I am sure of the principle,” he told her. “The execution may require effort.”
That, more than anything, felt like him.
Aurelia lowered her gaze for a moment, then raised it again.
If she refused, what then? Distance, caution, the slow retreat into silence? An abandoned investigation, Charlotte Langley free to spread whatever version of events pleased her, Clara left exposed to rumor all the same? Refusal would not spare them half so much as it pretended.
And if she agreed, then she would be taking hold of the matter for once rather than merely flinching from it. However, there was one other matter he hadn’t voiced. So, she knew that she had to.
“You do know that your reputation would suffer by courting me,” she pointed out, almost afraid that it might make him change his mind.
To her surprise, he shrugged. “So be it. I like to consider myself a follower of the truth, no matter what the consequences might be.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes,” he nodded.
It took her only a moment of hesitation, before she relinquished her fears.
“Very well,” she said quietly.
He blinked. “Very well?”
“Yes.”
She could see surprise first, then unmistakable satisfaction.
“You agree?”
“I agree,” she said, a little more firmly this time, though her stomach gave an alarming flutter as she heard herself say it. “On the understanding that this is an arrangement of convenience and nothing more.”
“Of course,” he agreed at once.
