For the first time she looked a little uncertain. ‘He said—or he hinted—that you used bribery to get your way with your building plans.’
Right. Dan’s sympathy vanished. ‘It’s obviously time, Miss Summerby, for me to give you a few facts about your hero Melling. Firstly, he’s a property developer and your aunt owed him money, lots of it, for some minor repairs to her house. He charged her an exorbitant amount and also lent her the money to pay it, at a criminally high interest rate. He offered to cancel the debt if she would give him some of her land. But desperate though she was, she refused.’
She was shaking her head. ‘I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t she accept his offer, when you tell me she was happy to accept yours?’
‘Because his plan was to build a huge hotel there. A vast building with music, outdoor entertainments, dancing and theatricals that would go on past midnight.’
‘Your parties go on till well past midnight,’ he heard her mutter.
Dan shifted in his chair, aware that this woman was making him more uncomfortable by the minute. ‘At least,’ he said, ‘my guests are limited in number. A hundred or more would have been Melling’s aim—and he’s the one who bribes the town councillors, not me, so he would have got his way!’
She looked anguished. ‘Why didn’t you tell me this when you came to show me those documents?’
‘Would you have believed me? Do you even believe me now?’
She was silent. Was that a raindrop glistening on her cheek, or was it a tear? Something was pulling at him, and he didn’t know if it was sympathy, pity, or the undeniable fact that she looked ridiculously gorgeous, even in those damp clothes with her wet hair hanging in tendrils.
‘My lord?’ she said quietly.
Damn it, he’d lost his concentration for a minute. ‘Yes?’
‘My lord, about my aunt’s debt. It doesn’t still exist, does it?’
‘No,’ Dan replied. ‘The money I gave her for the land enabled her to pay the man off.’
She bowed her head briefly then looked up at him and said, ‘Why did you go to the trouble of building a new house, when you could easily have bought an existing one in Brighton?’
It was because of Cecily, of course. Fool that he was, he’d been swayed by her demand for something special. Something unique. His old cynicism surged back. ‘At the time, I thought that it would suit my needs.’
‘And now?’
He shrugged. ‘Times change. People change.’
She was watching him with a slight frown on her face. And once more—maybe it was the glow of the firelight in here—he found himself thinking,this woman has something more than prettiness. She could, in fact, be quite beautiful.
If she allowed herself to smile. But that, he decided, was highly unlikely.
‘Whatever you say,’ she said steadily, ‘whatever my aunt wanted, I still believe that your house and the parties you allow there are a desecration.’
A desecration? Now he was angry again. Maybe she would have preferred him not to haul her out of the affray on the Parade. He examined his pocket watch. ‘I guess that Joseph will be waiting for you somewhere.’
‘No, because I drove the gig myself and I left it at the Old Ship. I can, of course, make my own way there.’ She was already on her feet. ‘Good day to you, my lord, and thank you for your assistance today.’
She spoke stiffly, and he gave her a cool nod before escorting her outside and noting that the rain had stopped—though he guessed she would still have made her escape if there had been a deluge akin to Noah’s flood. As he watched her walk away, trying her hardest to conceal her limp, he could have punched that rogue Melling for enticing her into his group of protestors and putting her in danger, but Miss Summerby wouldn’t have thanked him for it. In fact, she’d hardly shown any gratitude at all, and she was just about the most stubborn, awkward woman he had ever met—but she was starting to pierce his ironclad defences in ways that fired up his blood and roused his most basic male instincts. All in all, she was a problem—and that pretty face of hers was starting to keep him awake at night, damn it.
‘Why,’ Harriet cried when Kate got home, ‘did you stay out in all that rain? Let me help you take off your wet clothes, or you’ll be running a fever before you know it!’
‘There’s no need to make a fuss,’ Kate said a little tiredly. ‘I’m fine, really I am. But as you’ll probably hear, there was a slight disturbance in the town, and the Earl came to my assistance.’
‘TheEarl?’ Harriet looked delighted. ‘Really?’
‘It’s nothing to be pleased about. In fact, it was very awkward.’
‘But if he saved you today… Kate, don’t you think it possible that you might have caught his attention?’
‘If I have, it’s because I’m probably the first woman he’s met who doesn’t gasp with adoration if he so much as looks at her.’
‘But you really can look quite pretty, especially when you are fierce. And—’
