‘And let’s not forget glaring, seething, grunting and disapproving.’
‘How could I?’ Of its own accord her finger jabbed him in the arm. It was as solid as granite and did not yield an inch. ‘Are we all supposed to suffer simply because you are angry at the world? You should be heartily ashamed of yourself!’
She was expecting retaliation. Instead, he stared down at his feet. Awkwardly.
‘Would it make you feel better to know that I am?’ Then he sighed and raked a hand through his long hair. ‘You caught me at a bad time this evening. I was not...in any state to receive visitors.’
‘Are you ever?’ Not really her business and not at all what she should have said at his lacklustre almost-apology.
‘No. Never.’ He sighed again and stared up at the moon. ‘And it’s been so long I’ve forgotten how to do it.’
‘You haven’t forgotten. You choose to behave like that to push people away.’ Again, thanks to the liberating effects of the alcohol, her mouth seemed to be on a mission to bait him.
More silence but she watched myriad emotions play on his face before he nodded.
‘You’re very perceptive for a genius, Miss Nithercott.’
‘And what is that supposed to mean?’
‘That all of the excessively learned people I have ever encountered usually know a great deal about things most of us mere mortals cannot comprehend, but have little understanding of things beyond books. Like people and what makes them human.’ He slanted her a glance that wasn’t the least bit angry for once. ‘I meant that as a compliment by the way—before you tear me off another strip.’
‘You deserved tearing off a strip. And when you go home you need to apologise to your sister. It is obvious she cares a great deal about you, although heaven only knows why.’
His bark of laughter was sudden and unexpected. ‘You are fearless, Miss Nithercott. I have to give you credit for that. Most people tiptoe around me nowadays. Even Eleanor bites her acid tongue and she has always been a relentlessly bossy older sister.’
‘Then I would say your quest to push people away has been a resounding success.’
His dark brows furrowed until he eventually sighed. ‘Yet I am not pleased by it.’
She did not want to let him off the hook, but compassion and curiosity was already dampening her temper. ‘Perhaps you no longer want to be left alone, Lord Rivenhall? Have you considered that?’
Chapter Nine
One conundrum of a woman...
Max was not the least bit ready to talk about that—or anything so intensely personal—but later he should probably think upon it because he felt she probably had a point. ‘A more interesting question is whyyouare all alone? Every time I see you, at dinner tonight, with your head stuck in a hole, even in the dead of night, it is never with anybody else.’ They started to walked onwards again. More slowly this time and less than a foot apart. Bizarrely, it felt...cosy. ‘Where is your chaperon?’
‘I am long past the age when I need one of those.’
‘Still—ladies do not usually take to the streets on their own. They always take a relative. Don’t you have any aunts or uncles or cousins, Miss Noxious?’
She glanced away and shrugged, yet the shrug tugged at his heartstrings. ‘No. None. The Nithercotts are a dying breed.’
‘Then there is nobody? Who checks you are home safe or if you have arrived at your destination?’
‘I have servants—Mr and Mrs Farley—and they always know exactly where to find me. If I am not at home I am at the Abbey.’ Her eyes sought his again boldly. ‘With my head stuck in a hole.’
‘Do you like being alone?’
Her mouth opened, then closed and she shrugged again instead. ‘I am used to it.’
‘That doesn’t answer my question.’
‘Not many would choose to be alone, my lord, but it is what it is and I make the best of it.’
‘By burying yourself in your work.’
‘Better that than moping around and feeling sorry for myself.’
