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“Which is why you must dine here tonight. I will inform the Gringhams you were tired from the trip and took a tray in your room.”
“You obviously do not know Lady Gringham all that well. If I do not attend supper, that will only make matters worse. Lady Gringham will believe we are trying to hide something from her.”
“We are.”
A long sigh emanated from the tub. “And if you sequester me away, she will believe the worst.”
He wasn’t sure it could get much worse than one of London’s biggest gossips at his home while Louisa soaked in tub down the hall from them. Harry rubbed his temples. “Do you realize what you have done?”
Chapter 2
WHAT SHE HAD DONE!
She was bloody well tired of taking the blame for what others had done in the name of family, reputation, and love. “I have done nothing, Your Grace.”
“You arrived in the middle of a blizzard alone,” he said in a harsh tone so unlike the Harry she’d known for years.
“Of course, I’m alone. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
Hearing a bark of laughter from him, she yanked the towel from the chair and then rose from the tub, water dripping down her body. Gooseflesh covered her as she wrapped the large linen cloth around her. She strode from behind the screen. “So what else have I done, Harry? Nothing that happened between our families was my doing.”
“Christ, Louisa! You are only draped in a towel.”
“You are the one who interrupted my bath.” Louisa sighed. She, of course, knew better than to walk around all but naked. Heat crossed her cheeks as she stepped back behind the screen where she pulled on a shift and then her dressing gown before returning to confront him. “Better?”
“No.” His steely gray eyes stared at her until she felt a flush of embarrassment across her entire body.
Her dressing gown covered her from neck to ankles. How could this be inappropriate? “Why are you here...in my bedchamber, Harry? And what have I purportedly done this time?”
“I told you.” His exasperated voice hardened even more as he added, “And what you did was arrive at the home of an unmarried man alone. Even you should have better sense than that.”
It could not have been prevented. She was done waiting to fall in love. It was time for action. “And yet you could not wait for me to finish my bath to order me about.”
His cheeks flushed with the reminder of his transgression.
“And if the Gringhams cannot leave tomorrow? Am I a prisoner in this bedchamber all day and night until the storm passes?”
He let out a heavy sigh as if grasping the complexity of this situation. Rubbing his temples, he said, “I suppose not. But you must act as if you have a chaperone with you.”
“As you wish, Your Grace.” Louisa knew that there would be no satisfying Lady Gringham. But Louisa could pretend to have a companion with her, which might ease the older lady’s suspicious mind.
“Please stop calling me that,” he said, irritation lining his voice.
Louisa wondered why it felt good to get under his skin just a little. They were supposed to be friends, not adversaries. While they had teased each other over the years, it had always been in amusement. Not at all like this odd desire to madden him. But she couldn’t stop herself.
“Do you not think they will consider it more suspicious if I don’t dine with them?” Her lips twitched. “In fact, they might even believe I am your mistress, Your Grace.”
His eyes looked like clouds just before a storm. “Why did you come here, Louisa?”
“This is not something we can discuss quickly, and you have guests to entertain.”
Glancing over at the clock, he gave nodded. “Very well, tomorrow in my study at nine.”
“Are you always so commanding now? You were never so severe.”
“I wasn’t a duke then.” He rose and gave her a stiff bow before leaving the room.
Louisa dropped into a chair as he left. A lot had happened to them both in the past few years, but he couldn’t have changed that drastically. He’d been her friend. Her confidante. They had even written each other several times while he was in India. In secret, of course. At least they had until a year after he arrived when her letters went unanswered.
