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“Or I’ll...”
“You’ll what?” She rested her hand on his chest. “You’ll kiss me into acquiescence?”
Now why had she said that?
He narrowed his eyes. “No more kisses. That was a mistake.”
“Obviously.”
“I was going to say that I’d burst into his opera box and drag him out by his collar and give him a drubbing.”
“I’m disappointed in you, Ford. Do you honestly think I would be featherbrained enough to marry someone like Mayhew?”
“I don’t know, Beatrice. I saw you flirting with him, laughing up at him.” His hands curled into fists by his sides. “I saw him staring down your bodice.”
“I’ll have you know that this is the latest fashion.” She wriggled her bare shoulders.
His jaw muscles twitched. His gaze made her feel shivery and powerful. She liked being able to make his jaw clench.
“You’re jealous.” She poked a finger into his chest. “Ford Wright, notorious rogue, is jealous.”
“Damnation, Beatrice. I’m not jealous. I don’t want to see you shackled to a heartless abuser. I’m furious with your mother for considering him as a worthy suitor for you.”
“He’s an earl.”
“That doesn’t make any difference. He preys on innocents. He ruins and discards barmaids for sport.”
“I didn’t know about that. It’s unconscionable.”
“You’re sheltered from the knowledge of such things.”
“It’s wrong to keep women in ignorance.”
“I’m telling you now—he’s a base-minded rotter who isn’t worthy to even breathe the same air as you.”
“I truly had no intention of accepting his proposal. I’m not going to accept any proposals. I’d have no talent for marriage, none whatsoever. I don’t want anyone telling me what I can and can’t do. I’m going to be a confirmed spinster by next summer, and I’ll spend the rest of my life at Thornhill House.”
“A spinster? You don’t strike me as a candidate for spinsterhood.”
“All I want to do is return to Thornhill. My brother told me I could live there as long as I liked.”
“Find a gentleman who values your intellect and wants to see you succeed at your dictionary.”
“Don’t make me laugh. Marriages in my set are usually matches of convenience, designed to enrich fortunes and better social standings. My mother and father were certainly not a love match.”
“But you want a love match. Those novels you read all have happy endings.”
“I used to be a romantic until I realized that all the titled gentlemen of London want is my dowry.”
“You’re going to fall for some verse-spewing fop and settle in London to produce a large family of bespectacled literary geniuses.”
“Never.” She gave a little nod. “I’ll never marry.”
“Even so, why not stay in London? You have friends here, and family, and now you have a property of your own. Give lectures, fill the library with more books from your brother’s estate.”
“I can’t stay in London. My life is all planned out.”
“Deviate, take a different road, try a new path.”
