Chapter Six
ALEXANDER’S HEAD WAS POUNDING, WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN HISchief concern if not for the fact that he also was moving. He didn’t remember getting into a carriage at any point, although he was rather crapulous. Still drunk even, perhaps. He decided to prise an eye open in case that cleared things up.
Bloody hell.
Sitting across from him was a woman. Not just any woman either.Thewoman. The woman with the wrists. From the library. The woman who wanted to marry him. Good Lord, where were they? Where had they gone? When had they gone?Whyhad they gone?
None of those pressing questions, however, escaped his lips. Instead, the first question that formed was: “What are you doing?”
Harriet startled at the sound of his voice. She looked down at the book in her lap and then up at him. She took only a second to collect herself, then pertly replied: “You do know about reading, don’t you?”
Alexander tried to work out whether she was teasing him or if she really thought maybe he didn’t know about reading, but the puzzling required too much effort in his current state. As he closed hiseyes again, he thought he saw her smirk. Yes, closed eyes were much better.
“Why are you reading in my carriage, Lady …” What was her name?
“Harriet. Lady Harriet. Strictly speaking, it’s notyourcarriage. Well, you know, it may be. I don’tactuallyknow if you purchased it for Miss Hightower as a gift, or if she purchased it with her earnings, or if it is more of a loan. I admit I’m unfamiliar with how those sorts of … arrangements … work.”
Despite the continued ache in his head and the ever more desperate desire he had to stop the carriage, Alexander found himself smiling.
“You’ve never kept a mistress? A mister? … Is there a word for that? Well, whatever it is.”
“Not yet.”
That had to be the smallest number of words she’d spoken to him. He peeled one eye open again for a moment only to find her mouth on the verge of continuing, which oddly made him smileagain. Alexander was quite used to smiling at women. Smiling, he’d found, was at least a third of charming a lady. Another third was dancing and the last third mostly involved other things with mouths. But these present smiles were unusual. They were for his own benefit.
“Do you have something to say?” he asked, certain he would regret it.
“You haven’t asked why I’m here, my lord.”
“I try not to question when a woman is in my carriage.” Before she could correct him again—for he knew she was itching to do so—he added, “I did indeed loan this carriage to Miss Hightower. Although should our arrangement ever end, I would not ask for it back, so perhaps your point stands.”
Harriet made a quiethmmand didn’t continue the conversation. Alexander opened both eyes this time, slowly accepting that despite her silence, he was not going to be resting. She was reading quickly, occasionally pausing to scribble something in the book on her lap, with a short stub of a pencil. Just watching her read was making him feel sick. He glanced at the slivers of early-morning light coming in from the curtains, just enough for her to read, he supposed. He peeled one back just a little. Greenery whirred past and despite being in an incredibly well-sprung carriage—one didn’t want their mistress to be jostled when her mouth was on their most valuable parts—the road was quite rough. Alexander assumed they were outside of London, a place he tried to be as little as possible.
“You seem quite undisturbed, so I assume this is your doing.”
Harriet didn’t look up from her book to answer. “I would argue that this entire affair isyourdoing; I had no desire to be compromised in a library. Compromised at all, even.”
“I find that rather difficult to believe.”
Harriet’s gaze finally lifted. “My lord?” she repeated, although this time, the words were dripping with disdain.
“Please stop with this infernal ‘my lord.’ Call me Alexander.”
“As you wish, my lord.” Her gaze dropped back to the book, the casualness of her tone belied by her clenched jaw. Alexander stretched and spread himself across the seat further, taking up as much space as possible. He felt—hoped—doing so would irk her.
“So, you didnotcome to the ball intent on ruin by a very wealthy—and might I add handsome—son of a duke?”
“That was indeed my aim. Unfortunately, I met you instead.” She seemed pleased with herself for this retort.
Alexander chuckled lightly. “Come now, you must find me at least a little enticing.”
“I find you inconvenient, arrogant, and morally bankrupt.” He started to counter that before she cut him off. “I also find you necessary, seeing as Lady Neddlesby is mere hours away from trading her version of last night’s events in for a small dose of the attention ordinarily lavished upon her dear sister. Try to set aside your high opinion of yourself for a moment’s time and understand that I have absolutely no wish to marry you.”
“Sharing a carriage with me seems a poor way to avoid that fate.”
“You mistake intent for desire. I am no happier about it than you are, I assure you. I came to Miss Hightower’s house last night to discuss an elopement with a rational, conscious man. Alas, none was to be found. This seemed the best course of action.”
“Naturally. Kidnapping is rather more convenient than waiting until morning when I might call on your father and clear this whole mess up,” Alexander tossed out, sarcastically. He couldn’t recall amore aggravating female companion in his past. Truly, a wasp’s nest would have been more welcome in the carriage than she.
