‘It is better forgotten, by everyone, my lord, the entire evening.’ She spoke stiffly, and lowered her eyes.
‘Lady Sophy, what have I done?’
Seduced too many credulous females before me? She could not say that.
‘Nothing, my lord. I … I am, as you well know, struggling to keep my cousin under control and … short of locking her in the house, I wonder how that is to be achieved.’
‘I did suggest a whip and a chair, ma’am, but, as you have consigned that evening to oblivion you may not recall it.’
‘I … have not forgotten, Lord Rothley.’
‘I wish you would trust me.’ It was such a simple statement.
‘No doubt you do, my lord.’ There was sharpness, which he did not comprehend, and she half turned away. If she trusted him, he would have her in the palm of his hand, and in such a place she would be crushed, and yet his hands had held hers, sustained her, aided her without any attempt at wicked seduction. ‘I trust that you have no intentions towards my cousin, at least, since you now know her faults so well.’
‘You say “at least” with relief.’ There was that regret again.
She stole a look at him and found him regarding her as if he might read her mind.
‘I am at your service, ma’am, in all things. Command me, and I will endeavour to do it.’ He sounded so sincere it would be easy to treat it as the truth.
‘And if I commanded you to leave us, keep from our problems, our affairs?’
‘Ah, that is the one thing I would not be able to do.’ His voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Is it what you wish, truly?’
She ought to say yes. She could not say yes, for it was so great a lie.
‘I wish you might help me keep my cousin from the dangerous clutches of Lord Pinkney, without resort to calling him out, of course.’
‘Now that is another way in which you show yourself so very different from Miss Tyneham, ma’am. She was rather keen that Fawley call me out so that she might say men had fought over her. Or possibly she wanted me in a bloodied, lifeless heap at the time.’
Sophy was shocked from her self-absorption.
‘She did not, surely?’ She paled at the mental image.
‘Oh, she did. Ask Fawley if you … do not trust me.’
‘No need, my lord. I know my cousin and have to admit she would say just that, and mean it too.’
‘She also suggested I should retire to Derbyshire.’
‘Derbyshire, my lord? Have you estates there?’ She blinked.
‘Oh no, she just thought it far enough away from her person.’
Sophy gave a low laugh at that, despite herself.
‘Then it is a good job that you have no intentions towards her, for she, for one, is resistant to your charms.’
‘You say that as if I possessed a multitude of them.’ He frowned, but had noted the ‘for one’.
Was he going to deny them, and play the innocent gentleman? That was a step too far.
‘Far too many for one of simple tastes like myself, my lord.’ It was the response of an instant, and she gasped at her own temerity.
‘Then I ought to remove them to a safe distance for you, ma’am. I hope Derbyshire is too far since from there I can be of no assistance with Lord Pinkney.’ There was an edge to his voice.
He bowed, and withdrew, leaving Sophy Hadlow prey to myriad emotions.
