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“Did you not hear me?” he barked, jolting her back to the present.
She hadn’t. But she wasn’t about to let him know it. “You will release me at once,” she said in her sternest manner, the one she reserved for very naughty children.
A corner of his mouth lifted as he removed his hands from the wall beside her and straightened. “The years have not mellowed you one whit, have they?”
“Nor have they made you any more of a gentleman,” she retorted before thinking better of it.
“So speaks a lady dressed as a drudge.”
She raised her chin. “The clothes do not make the person, Your Grace. I could be wearing a grocer’s sack and still remain a lady, whereas no matter how much finery you don, you will remain an uncouth pig.”
The look in his honey-brown eyes made her uneasy as he swayed and again leaned toward her. “I’m quite convinced you would remain every inch a ‘lady’ even without the grocer’s sack.” His gaze dropped to her mouth. “Or am I wrong, I wonder?”
His implication set fire to her already heated cheeks. Without thinking, she licked her suddenly dry lips. As she did so, something lit in the depths of his leonine eyes, something that caused her pulse to whoosh in her ears, her head to become light, and her body to become leaden. Instinct screamed at her to bolt, but she remained rooted to the floor, mesmerized as he drew closer still.
Stopping mere inch
es from her, his lips parted in another mocking smile. “I’ve often wondered what William saw in you.” He cocked his head to one side. “Now I begin to understand, I think. Unlike me, my brother always did as he was told. Whereas I favored defiance, he actually seemed to enjoy submission. He lacked the courage to challenge authority. You, however, appear to have an overabundance of spine. I’ve often heard it said that opposites attract. You must have drawn him like a lodestone.”
His drawling tone set her teeth on edge and made her palms itch. She stood her ground, refusing to show the brute any weakness. The breath she drew was shaky at best. “You, sir, are incapable of even the barest modicum of decency. And you understand nothing. Now, you will remove yourself at once and wait for me below,” she commanded, raising her arm to point the way back for him since, given the strong scent of brandy rising from his person, he probably didn’t know which way was up.
He did not move. “William might have bowed to your every whim, madam, but I certainly shall not. You will take me to see Mr. Dun. Now.”
The urge to slap him drained away along with all the blood in her head. “I will do no such thing. Because he is not here,” she added quickly. “He has already gone home.”
“Then you will provide me with his address so that I may call upon him at his residence,” he said with a slow, cheerless smile.
She squirmed. “I do not know his address.”
“Then take me to someone who does.”
“I—I don’t think—”
“My lady!” a frantic voice called from the other end of the hall. It was Nurse Hayes. “Oh,” said Hayes, taking in the scene. A flush colored her cheeks. “I didn’t realize you were with...”
Harriett watched as Manchester fixed the intruder with hard eyes. “Lady Harriett was just going to escort me to Mr. Dun’s office.”
“Mr. Dun?” repeated Hayes, blinking. “But downstairs you said you wished to see the Assistant Administrator, did you not?”
He looked at the woman as though she was an idiot. “So I did. I wish to see Mr. Dun. Now.”
“But, Your Grace, there is no Mr. Dun,” stressed Hayes. “I’ve already told you there is no one here by that name.”
With a sinking heart, Harriett watched as Hayes—who’d remained oblivious to her small, frantic signals—pointed a trembling finger at her and spoke the dreaded words.
“Lady Harriett is the Assistant Administrator.”
Five
Damn. Harriett’s heart went right down into her shoes as Manchester froze. Why, oh why couldn’t Nurse Hayes have simply turned around and left them to argue in private?
Her enemy remained stock still for several long seconds, save for a single muscle that leaped in his jaw. His voice was quiet, dangerously quiet, when he again spoke to Hayes. “Are you telling me that this woman” —he jabbed a finger at her— “has been running this facility?”
“Why, yes, Your Grace,” said Hayes, beaming in apparent relief over the fact that he at last understood. “And a right fine job she does of it, too.”
“I didn’t ask for a review of her performance,” he snapped. Harriett held her breath as he started to turn back toward her, but then he stopped and addressed the nurse once more. “How long?”
Hayes blinked. “Begging your pardon, my lord?”
