Bargaining With a Rake (A Whisper of Scandal Novel) (14 page)

“Precisely.”

She huffed out a breath. “In the
future, just say what you mean and skip the analogies.”

He loved her witty banter. Working
with her would be amusing. “I did just say what I meant. And might I point out
you understood me perfectly.”

“Only because I’ve had practice
getting to the real meaning of my sister’s nonsensical ramblings. So, did you
challenge me on purpose?”

“Of course. I meant to lead you away
from everyone else.”

“Then why didn’t you just whisper
that in my ear?”

“Because I suspected you wouldn’t
have followed me. Was I right?” The wind around them picked up and blew loose
strands of her hair across her face. She pushed them away.

“Probably. Why did we need to leave
the group to make Mr. Sutherland jealous? Wouldn’t it be better if he witnesses
you flirting with me?”

“No.” A drop of rain hit Alex’s hand.
He glanced up at the dark sky and frowned.

“Lord Lionhurst?”

He looked at her and almost laughed.
A raindrop had plopped on the end of her nose. She wiped it away and stared at
him expectantly. “This way is better,” he said. “Sutherland doesn’t know what’s
going on, and when he finds us, the curiosity will drive him nuts. We’ll flirt
a little and make him wonder.”

“I suppose that makes sense.” She
cocked her head and glanced up at the sky, then refocused on him. “And what of
strategizing?”

“That’s simple. I’ll make sure to
reiterate to Sutherland that you do not wish to marry Westonburt, and then I’ll
nudge him in your direction. He asked me about meeting you previously, so it
shouldn’t be that difficult to reignite his interest.”

“He wanted to meet me?” A grin spread
across her face, lighting up her eyes.

Alex was suddenly, unaccountably
annoyed. He was glad things had worked out as they had, so why did he feel
jealous of the lady’s enthusiasm over Sutherland? He pushed the question aside
and forced himself to concentrate on the matter at hand. “So you know your
part?”

She nodded. “Flirt discreetly.”

“Excellent. We better get going. The
rain’s not going to hold.”

Lightning illuminated the sky as she
turned her horse toward the path.

“Damnation,” he cursed under his
breath. “We better take cover. The sky’s about to let loose and if your horse
slips on the embankment and you break your pretty little neck, my plan will be
ruined.”

She turned in her saddle and looked
at him. “Your concern for my neck warms my heart. But I know this trail, and
I’m not worried. As I said before, I’m an excellent horsewoman.”

Just then thunder vibrated the air,
and a streak of lightning came down with a crack. Her horse reared up on his
hind legs and neighed wildly. Alex’s pulse jumped. He was beside her in a flash
and took hold of the horse’s reins. She couldn’t mask the look of surprise on
her face, but she tried. He’d give her that. Before he could suggest again that
they wait, the sky opened up and rain came pouring down.

He jerked her horse around and led
them both back to flat ground. He knew she was protesting by the outraged look
on her face, but the rain muffled her exact words. “We need to dismount,” he
yelled over the thunder.

She shook her head, but as she did
lightning came down again and the horse jerked as if to bolt. Lady Gillian
pushed her wet hair out of her eyes. “I think I’ll dismount now.” He held in
his smile. Amazing how the lady acted as if the idea had just occurred to her.
If he wasn’t trying to help her marry his partner, getting to know her could be
enjoyable.

Lord Lionhurst grasped her around the
waist as she slid off her horse. When she turned, he was so close she could see
the vein pulsing near his right eye. “Should we tether the horses?” she asked,
taking a discreet step backwards

“I’ll do it. Why don’t you see if you
can find us somewhere to take shelter?”

She nodded and started up the path.
About six or seven feet up, the path turned and the rocky cliff jutted down
from above to overhang the trail on the side nearest to the woods. One overhang
came out particularly wide, and if she and Lord Lionhurst scrunched together,
they would probably remain dry, or drier than they were now.

She wrapped her arms around herself.
She was already starting to shiver from being wet. She raced back down the way
she had come and met him halfway. “Shelter’s up there.”

He nodded and gripped her around the
waist to help her back up the slippery trail. She’d never been held so
intimately by a man, and her insides swirled in response. Once under the
protective covering, she dropped to the cold, hard ground and scooted as far
away from Lord Lionhurst as the meager space would allow. She didn’t like the
peculiar way he made her feel.

The wind picked up in intensity, swaying
the branches of the trees until the thinner ones looked as if they might snap.
She had a sudden recollection of the night her mother had died. A storm had
been brewing that night. Shivering, she rubbed her arms with her hands.

Beside her, Lord Lionhurst shifted
closer until his leg pressed against her hip. She was uncomfortably aware of
the hardness of his leg and the strange pulling in her stomach. “Cold?”

She nodded. She was chilled from the
rain and her memories. “What are you doing?” She gasped as he took off his
overcoat.

He flashed a grin but didn’t respond.
Once the longer coat was off, he pulled off a shorter coat. “Lean forward.”

She quickly obliged when she realized
he was offering her his dry jacket. She expected to feel the weight of the dark
blue coat dropped onto her shoulders. The material did fall like a warm blanket
across her shoulders, but then his arm came around her back and his fingers
curled around her waist before drawing her near. She started to protest, but
when she looked at him she stilled and stared in admiration at the picture of
perfect ease he presented.

His eyes were closed and a beatific
smile lit his face. He was beautiful, masculine, and she wanted him to kiss
her. How horrifying and wrong. He was the best friend of the man she intended
to marry.

Lord Lionhurst was not for her; he
would never be for her. He could not take her far enough away from her
problems, to a place her sister could never be harmed by the past. And even if
she didn’t have the pressing need to leave here, she would never allow herself
to fall for a man who clearly put marriage in a category with leprosy.
Avoid
at all costs
.

She should thank him for his coat and
ask him to move his arm. The weight and strength of it pressed into her back.
His eyes snapped open before she could utter a word.

He turned his head toward her. “Did
you want to ask me something?”

“How did you know?”

“People inhale sharply when about to
speak.”

She frowned. Had she drawn a sharp
breath? How could he hear such a thing over the rain? “You’re very observant.”

“Usually.”

She leaned forward and glanced
pointedly behind her at his arm.

He slid it slowly out from behind her
and smiled. “You’ll be less comfortable and colder.”

She ignored his words, especially
since he was right. “I bet your keen observations drive your sisters mad. I can
just see you stalking their suitors at the balls.”

He grimaced, scrubbing a hand over
the black stubble of his jaw. “I don’t have a sister on the market anymore. The
eldest is married, and the youngest—” He stopped talking and dug his hand deep
into the dirt between them. “We buried her last week.” Dirt fell from between
his fingers.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Gillian
whispered. “I had no idea. Was she very ill?”

“No, she wasn’t ill.”

She knew she should drop the subject,
but the glint in his eyes prodded her to continue. “Did she have an accident?”

“Yes. She fell in love with the wrong
kind of man. The worst sort of accident a woman can have, wouldn’t you say?”

His light blue eyes transformed to dark
and gleaming. His grief filled the air between them. Her stomach twisted with
his pain. She was not so sheltered that she didn’t know the implications of
what he meant. His sister had fallen in love with a dishonorable man. Had she
been compromised? Taken her life? “Alex.” She touched a hand to his shoulder.

“So it’s Alex now, is it?”

“Only since we’re partners,” she
lied, moved into letting down her guard by his grief. Grief she understood. She
would have tried to comfort anyone she saw who had as much pain as was
reflected in Alex’s eyes.

“Does this mean I can call you
Gillian?”

She pulled the soft material of his
coat tighter around her. She really should say no, but that didn’t seem right.
“All right. I hope the blackguard who hurt your sister pays with his life.”

His eyebrows shot up, and for a
moment he stared at her, unblinking. “He’ll pay. Don’t worry. Lord Westonburt
will never harm another woman again.”

“
Lord Westonburt
?” The
implications of what Alex said chilled her blood.

He nodded. “My sister is why I want
revenge.”

She scrambled onto her knees and
faced him. “If there’s anything you could tell me I might use to convince my
father to release me from the engagement, I would forever be in your debt.”

He shook his head. “My sister’s good
name would be ruined and that would kill my mother.”

“No one need know the reason for my
broken betrothal.” Things would be so much less nasty between her and Father if
she didn’t break her betrothal and flee to America. Maybe he would forgive one
transgression, but two seemed insurmountable.

“You’re being fanciful,” Alex
replied. “If your father didn’t give a reason, then your reputation would be
compromised.”

“I don’t give a whit for my
reputation,” she said, slapping her hand against the dirt. “I don’t plan on being
here much longer, and Mr. Sutherland hardly seems the type of man to be
influenced by gossip. I wish to ease the tension between myself and my father.”

Alex grasped her arm. “You may not
care about your reputation, but what about your sister’s? Would you ruin her
chances for a good marriage?”

“No,” she replied, brushing his hand
away from her arm. She would never do anything to hurt Whitney. “Whitney’s
going to come with me when I marry Mr. Sutherland and leave.”

“You may think you have it all
planned out, but what if you fail to capture Sutherland’s heart, and you and
your sister are both stuck here? What then?”

“I thought you had faith in me,”
Gillian snapped and scooted away from him.

His gaze moved slowly down the length
of her body, pausing for a moment at the décolletage she had taken great pains
to display this morning. His stare meandered back to her face, a wicked smile
parting his lips. “I’d say it’s probable you will make Sutherland fall in lust
with you and that will do for your purposes.” He sounded angry, but she had no
idea why. She pressed her lips together.
Let him be angry
. As long as he
helped her, he could act unaccountably grouchy.

She stared out at the rain, the
slanting sheet of white wetness reminding her, as it always did, of the night
her mother died.

Alex shifted beside her, his leg
brushing hers, and then moved quickly away. “Does the river rise quickly here?”

“Why?” She tilted her head to look at
him. She’d been thinking of how the river had risen so quickly the night her
mother died, but there was no way he could know her thoughts. Still…

“It seems like it would, based on
what I’ve seen of the property so far.”

“It can rise very rapidly. And become
very cold.” Her mother had been tinged blue when pulled from the river.

“Swim here much? I mean, when the
weather’s warm.”

“Never.”

“Too ladylike to swim, are you?”

“No.” She glared at him. “The river
holds bad memories.”

The smug smile slid from his face.
Small satisfaction for her stupid mistake. It wasn’t her habit to remind people
of the rumors circling her family name.

His eyes met hers. “I don’t believe
the rumors, you know.”

“I hardly think if you did, you’d
agree to help me capture the attention of your friend.”

“You’re wrong.” He reached out and
tucked a drying strand of her hair behind her ear. The intimate gesture made
her stomach clench. She barely knew Alex, yet this was the most personal
conversation she’d ever had regarding the rumors.

“Even if I believed your father
killed your mother, I wouldn’t treat you differently. Murder is hardly
catching.”

She swallowed the thick emotion
making her throat constrict. “You hold a minority opinion.”

“I may, but most of the
ton
is
filled with nitwits and popinjays.”

She laughed until tears came to her
eyes. “I’ve never laughed
or
talked to anyone about this.” She took his
hand and squeezed it. “Thank you.”

“Are the rumors why you want to
leave?”

“Yes.” She told the partial lie
without guilt. She refused to feel guilty about protecting Whitney.

“You know your lower lip quivers when
you lie.”

She snatched her hand away. “I am not
lying. I just don’t care to go into detail about all the sad reasons I want to
leave.”

“That’s fine. Disliking personal
conversations is nothing to glare about.”

“You’re one to talk.”

“Me? Ask me anything you want. I’m
honest to my detriment.”

“I doubt that,” she said with a
snort.

“Try me.”

“All right. Why are you afraid of
marriage?”

“I am not afraid of marriage. Is that
what they say about me in the
ton
?”

“No. I drew my own conclusions. They
call you ‘the heartbreaker.’”

“That’s bloody unoriginal. Like I
said, nitwits and popinjays. If I’ve broken anyone’s heart, it was her own
fault. I tell any woman I become involved with exactly what they can expect
from me, and marriage is never a choice.”

“Because you’re afraid,” she said
triumphantly. What was it about Alex that made her want to needle him? She’d
never felt this way before.

“No, Gillian. Because I don’t repeat
the same mistake twice.”

“You’ve been married before?” She
couldn’t seem to keep the surprise out of her voice.

“No, never married. But I was close
until the woman told me she’d rather marry my brother.”

“Oh, Alex. I am sorry.” She took his
hand again and squeezed it. How cruel and simple-minded she’d been. Just like
all the people in the
ton
had been to her. She’d not even allowed for
the possibility that a woman had broken his heart. “She loved your brother?”

His bitter laugh made her heart twist
in response to his pain. “No.” He pulled his hand away from hers. “That would
have been bearable. She wished to marry my brother because he was in line to be
the next duke. It had nothing to do with love.”

“But you can’t avoid marriage all
your life because of one horrid woman. Not all women are like that.”

“Aren’t they? Do you want to marry
for love?”

Heat scorched her cheeks. She
couldn’t say yes, and he knew it. She hated him for making her feel ashamed of
something she had to do. She looked away toward the rain, surprised to find it
had stopped. “We can go now,” she said coldly.