You don't look like a Rupert."
Startled,he raised a black brow at her. "Dare I ask what I look like to you?"
"A hungry wolf."
He didn't laugh at the description, but he did abruptly release her. "Wolf, perhaps," he said drily. "Hungry? Not at the moment."
She had enough sense to guess she'd just been insulted. Had she touched a nerve perhaps? Good,because he was certainly touching too many of hers.
Regaining her balance after stumbling back from him,she went to straighten her skirt in an indignant manner,but forgot she wasn't wearing one.How could she appear to be offended while she was wearing britches? She settled for grabbing the hat off the floor and shoving it back down on her head.
The very idea! Not hungry at the moment? As if she didn't know he was implying she wasn't to his taste.
She thought I should woo you into removing the mask I told her you were wearing."
She'd managed to surprise him yet again, to go by his expression and the lambent look that entered his eyes. "That sounds entirely too interesting. You have my rapt attention. Woo away."
"I wouldn't know how," she admitted, lowering her head and suddenly feeling embarrassed.
"Move a little closer,m'dear. I promise I'll get the message."
Her head shot back up. "You're entirely too bold,Rupert St. John."
"I know.It's wonderful,isn't it?"
She rolled her eyes. She supposed this Rupert was much preferable to the dangerous one she'd briefly met in Nigel's room.But which was the real St. John?
Aware that the dance was going to end at any moment,she said, "Now it's my turn.Are you really a spy?"
"Good God,do you really think I'd say so if I was?" he replied,aghast, which was obviously feigned.
"I thought we were being honest."
"No,you are being honest. I'm merely being delighted by it."
Rebecca gritted her teeth. He'd finally managed to provoke her ire with his evasiveness. She stopped dancing, pulled away from his hands,and walked away.
But she heard him call softly after her, "Wait! You haven't heard my dire warnings!"
"Keep them," she shot back. "I wouldn't believe them anyway."
DId he have to laugh at that?
You have exciting eyes,Becca. Too dark to read, which cloaks you in mystery. Pink would offset that, don't you think?"
How was she supposed to think a'tall?! Her pulse was racing out of control. She could even feel him pushing himself against her hips!
"If we really were alone right now, I think I'd have to lift your skirt."
Whispered in his low,masculine voice near her ear, the outrageous remark made her draw in her breath so sharply she almost choked. It completely saved her and brought her to her sense.He'd stepped back as she coughed. She swung around, glaring at him, and was met with a cheeky grin.
"Will you throw yarn at me if I kiss you again?" he asked with a twinkle in his pale blue eyes.
In response to his question, she warned, "There will not be any more kissing. You were an excellent teacher. I graduated from your class."
He laughed,though he was quick to rejoin, "How disappointing. You were supposed to claim ineptitude and ask for further guidance.
What do you do for Nigel Jennings?"
There was no pause at all. "I'm his tailer," he answered immediately.
"You're nothing of the sort."
Rupert gave her a cheeky grin. "Meant to say, he's my tailor."
She cast him a thoughtful look. "Interesting that you would lie about it."
"You call joking lying?"
"Evasion is a form of deceit."
"Interesting that you would see it that way." He gave her back her own words. She almost laughed.
While he hadn't answered her question any more truthfully than she had answered his, he surprised her by not pursuing his inquiry about why she had been on Wigmore Street. Fingering a white silk yarn within his reach, he said, "I'll take a vest in this if you run out of ideas to ply your needle toward."
She couldn't help but grin. "Will you indeed? But that implies a gift-"
He cut in, "Consider it an early Christmas present," and actually sounded serious.
"I don't make presents for mere aquaintances."
"We're more'n that."
"We aren't."
"Of course we are,or do you make a habit of kissing mere aquaintances?"
She huffed. "You did the kissing, not I."
He was grinning again. "You fully participated,Becca. Don't even try to deny it.
I never learned to swim."
"Wonderful.That had to be the one skill you don't possess,didn't it?"
How could he be so sarcastic when her panic was soaring again? "When do we reach port?"
"If the weather holds, probably sometime tomorrow."
She glared furiously at him. "You couldn't say that instead of 'next week'? Do you like seeing women faint?" she added scathingly.
He raised a curious brow. "You've figured out how to fake that,too, without hurting yourself?"
"Go to the devil!"
"This room has already become hell, so I'd say I'm close enough."
"For once we agree."
She wasn't going to say another word to the odious man.
When will you be returning?"
"Not as soon as I'd like to. I'm going to have to waste a couple days finding an....acceptable...wife."
Her eyes widened. "You're going to France to get married?"
He didn't answer immediately; he was in fact giving her such a thoughtful look that it began to make her distinctly uncomfortable.
But he finally answered, "Not a'tall. While that might delight my mother, I think even she would prefer an English daughter-in-law. Fortunately, I'm in no hurry to delight her. It's not a real wife I need, just a woman to play the role for a few days."
"A fake wife?"
He smiled enigmatically.
"Exactly."
"Whatever for?"
"If you're offering to play the part, we can discuss it further. Otherwise, it's none of your business."
She snorted and had to wrestle with her curiosity a bit before she could tell him, "Real or fake, I find marriage to you so detestable that my answer isn't just no,it's a resounding no.
Rupert yanked Rebecca off her seat to the floor! If that weren't bad enough, he dropped down on top of her, not with his full weight,, but enough to make it uncomfortable.
Rebecca had,of course, heard the gunfire that had prompted Rupert's actions. She wasn't deaf. Still, annoyed, she asked, "Do you really think a shot is going to get through the back panel of a coach this sturdily built? And fired from a moving vehicle? Anyone aiming isn't likely to hit us a'tall."
"They're on horseback," was all he said.
"Even worse.Have you ever hit what you aimed at while racing along on a horse?"
"Yes."
She snorted,but believing him at all.
You've already slept the entire day. Why not take over for Matthew now?"
"You really think I could sleep with your eyes devouring me all day?"
Her face turned red with rage and mortification. That faker! She had been staring at him at various times throughout the day. She probably had his face so memorized that she could sketch it without his being present. But he couldn't keep his knowledge of that to himself? He had to make sure she was embarrassed right down to her toes?
But he didn't rub it in further. At least,she thought he was done with the subject when he lay down on his seat and turned his back to her. "Get some sleep yourself," he ordered. "You'll need to be at your best tomorrow, too."
She was just lying down when he added, "And keep your eyes off my arse."
Waves of heat crept up to her cheeks. That pretty much guarenteed that she wasn't going to get any sleep until he was out of the coach.
The servant wasn't amused. He still looked stern and suspicious, but Rupert had given his improvised explanation while walking toward the man and was within reach by the last word. He tried a punch first, grabbing the servant's shirtfront as he did so the man wouldn't land out in the hall. If that didn't work,he wasn't sure what would. He certainly didn't want to seriously harm the fellow,just knock him out and dump him out the window for the time being.
Half of that plan worked. The man did drop immediately and Rupert's hold on him kept him from falling loudly to the floor. He even got him to the window with ease, but the plan ended there. Priceless. The window frame was nailed shut for the cold months to minimize drafts. Bloody hell,it wasn't that cold yet. There were no large pieces of furniture to stick the man behind either. As a last resort, he dragged him back to the hall wall and just laid him down alongside it, so he'd be less noticeable to anyone passing by the room
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