Page 38 of Appointment in Bath

“I suppose n-not, but—”

“Besides, I wouldn’t say I require his help. Merely his endorsement. So long as the other residents of Maidenbridge know he doesn’t oppose a railway, they’ll be willing to support the scheme.” A rogue doubt struck Ivo. He frowned. “I say, he wouldn’t oppose it, would he?”

Meg bit her lip.

Her very pink and very kissable lip.

Ivo’s attention fell to her mouth. He forced it back to her eyes, ignoring the startling clench of longing in his belly. “Would he?” he repeated when she didn’t answer.

“I d-don’t think so,” she said. “He’s quite progressive with his m-methods on the estate.”

“Yes. That was my thinking. The rancor he feels toward my family has never driven him to do anything that would hurt the land.” Ivo uttered a wry huff. “Though it’s certainly compelled him to do other things.”

A nameless emotion crossed Meg’s face. She moistened her lips.

This time he couldn’t keep himself from staring. From thinking about what those lips would feel like. Taste like. Her mouth was appallingly sinful for a girl of eighteen, just out of the schoolroom.

“I asked him about what you said,” she told him.

His gaze returned to hers as though he was waking from a fleeting dream. How long had he been staring at her lips and envisioning kissing her? He seemed to have lost the thread of the conversation.

“You were right,” she said. “He didn’t name m-me out of love.”

Ivo suddenly understood. His attention sharpened to a knife’s edge. Good lord. She truly had asked her father why he’d named her Margaret. Ivo could only imagine how that conversation had gone.

“Indeed,” she went on, “his m-motives were quite the opposite. I suspect he d-did it out of…out of…”

“Spite,” Ivo supplied grimly.

“Yes.”

“I thought as much.”

Her mouth trembled. “Did you?”

“It’s what my brothers and I have always believed. It’s no reflection on you.”

“Yes, it is. Had he loved me, he wouldn’t have used m-me so. But he doesn’t. He’d rather have no d-daughter at all than be c-cursed with the likes of a disappointing c-creature like me.”

Ivo’s temper erupted with a scorching fury. “He said this to you?”

“He d-didn’t have to say it.”

He took an instinctive step toward her, only stopping when the skirts of her riding habit brushed his legs. “Any man would be proud to have you as a daughter,” he said fiercely. “You’re…You’re…”

She waited, lips parted on a suspended breath. “What am I?”

“Sweet. Gentle. Kind. Everything I’ve said you are and more.” He flung a hand toward the bridge, reminding her of how they’d first met. “You didn’t give me the cut direct for starters.”

She appeared offended by the suggestion. “I could never have c-cut you. Not after you c-came to my rescue so splendidly.”

“Well. I made the mistake of taking you for a damsel in distress. More fool me.” He turned back to her. “You’re stronger than you appear, aren’t you? I look forward to the day you realize it for yourself.”

* * *

Meg had never been accused of being strong before. She found she rather liked it. Particularly because Ivo hadn’t referenced her strength with contempt. He’d sounded as though he respected her. As though he was eager to see her come into her own.

She stood a little taller on the river bank, arms loosening from across her chest. She’d been holding them so tightly a cramp had started in her elbows. “I hope I am strong. I shall need be when m-my father finds out we’ve dined together.”