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But either way his words had hurt, and she knew she would find it difficult to shut them out of her mind.
Of course he would not stop her from seeing Max! Not in his home, perhaps, but elsewhere. Max was a grown man with a mind of his own, and as far as Marietta was concerned their arrangement was unchanged.
“You’re looking tired, Max.”
Harold frowned down at him, and Max laughed. “What are you now, cousin? My nursemaid? As you see, I am an invalid out of bed today, an improvement on being an invalid in bed, I think.”
“Yes, and I am wondering why you are out of bed when the doctor said you were to stay there for the present.”
Max gave him a look.
“I’m not impressed,” Harold said. “You don’t intimidate me, Max, I know you too well.”
“Unfortunately. I can see you’re dying to say something to me, why don’t you say it?”
“I saw Miss Greentree leaving.” Harold fiddled with the chain of his pocketwatch, suddenly uncomfortable.
“Yes, she was visiting me,” Max replied smoothly, but Harold noticed the faint flush in his cousin’s lean cheeks.
There, he was right to warn her off! he told himself. It was clear that the woman was weaving her web around his cousin, drawing him in while he was in a vulnerable state. Harold had made some more inquiries into the Greentree family and the daughters of Aphrodite, and although they were respectable enough on the outside, beneath the surface there were dark rumors of unsavory happenings. Max would be much better off without those kinds of complications when he had so many troubles of his own. But if Max wanted to do something, then Harold admitted that he would have the devil of a job stopping him.
“I hope you’re not thinking of behaving foolishly, Max.”
Max frowned. “And why would I be? I am not hanging out for a wife, if that’s what worries you, cousin. I have far too many problems to want to bring a helpless woman into my life.”
Helpless? “I…good. Because Marietta Greentree would not do as your wife, even in your present…eh, circumstances.”
“You are a snob, cousin.”
“Maybe, but I know what society will tolerate and what it will not, and Marietta Greentree has too many scandals attache
d to her. Even the Vallands could not lift her from the mire, Max; she would sink us.”
Max gave a bitter laugh. “So what do you suggest? A temporary affair, perhaps?”
Harold pretended to think about it. “I don’t see the harm in that, if it’s what you want. But don’t grow too fond of her, Max. She’s not for you.”
Max closed his eyes, but whether because he was tired or he just didn’t want to discuss the matter any further, Harold didn’t know. Still, he felt as if he had said his piece and he was content with that. No need to tell Max that he had barred Marietta Greentree from the house, he thought. His cousin might wonder where she was for a time, but he would soon forget her. Better for the family if he did. Temporary affair indeed!
“Harold, do you think I am accident prone?”
Harold blinked, startled by the change in subject. “Accident prone?”
“Yes, do you think I have had an excessive number of accidents?”
“Well, I’ve had plenty of my own, if you remember, especially when we were boys. We were always getting into scrapes.” Harold laughed, but knew it sounded less than genuine. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
Max opened his mouth to answer, and then shook his head decisively. “It doesn’t matter. I was rambling. How is Susannah?”
Harold smiled and proceeded to tell him, but he had the sense that Max wasn’t really listening. And that worried him. Marietta Greentree, the interfering minx, had placed these doubts in Max’s mind.
And Harold told himself that would never do.
Chapter 10
The following morning the streets of London were busy, as always, but Marietta, traveling them in Oliver’s carriage, hardly noticed. Already she had grown used to the different pace of life here, and although sometimes she caught herself dreaming of the vast stretches of open moorland around Greentree Manor, she did not feel particularly homesick. She missed Mama and Francesca more than she did Yorkshire.
Marietta smiled, remembering the sight of Lil, as she was awaiting the carriage in the entrance hall. The maid had tripped down the stairs wearing a new poplin dress with a single flounce about the hem, and sleeves puffed at the elbows. Lil, with puffed sleeves! And furthermore, her fair hair was dressed in an almost frivolous style, with bunches of beribboned curls above each of her little pink ears.
