What A Rogue Wants (14 page)

That foolish part of her that had
always hoped her mother had been wrong and someone might find a
woman who was different refreshing felt flattered that he truly
seemed interested in her and curious as to what exactly had altered
in his life to make him want to change. “I don’t
understand.”

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I
don’t expect you would. Might I ask you to indulge me? Let me prove
to you I only want honorable things from you.”

“
Only honorable things?
You’re sure?” It was hard to believe it was possible, but she
wanted to believe. She wanted her mother to have been
wrong.

He nodded. “I’d also like to kiss you,
but I don’t consider that dishonorable. And I won’t ask
yet.”

“
You won’t?” Her lips
tingled at the thought of his mouth pressed against
hers.

“
No. Not yet.” He ran a
finger down her cheek. She had the overwhelming desire to lean into
his touch, but he pulled away. “Not until I am sure you don’t think
I’m merely still trying to seduce you.”

With her blood roaring in her ears and
her heart pounding, saying she believed him so his lips would find
hers was on the tip of her tongue. But before she could speak, he
took her hand. “Come on. The sun will go down in the next few hours
and finding the ring will become much harder.”

She nodded and followed him silently
down the hill. It wasn’t until they were at the very bottom that
she realized she had not once glanced down to look for the queen’s
ring.

“
Look there.” Lord Grey
pointed to the ground before tugging Madelaine down beside him. “Do
you see that?”

“
I see grass. Is that what
I’m supposed to see?”

“
No. Really look.” He
rested his hand at her nape and cradled it. She tried to study the
blades, but it was hard to concentrate with Lord Grey’s warm
fingers against her skin and his body so close to hers. She
abandoned the ground and focused on listening to the hiss of his
breath. Gads. She had to do better than this. Doubling her efforts,
she focused all her attention on the grass. What was different?
What did he see? She sucked in a surprised breath. “Some of the
blades are mashed.”

“
Bravo!” He lightly
squeezed her neck before his hand fell away. Moving lower, so that
his face almost laid against the ground, he traced an outline
repeatedly. “This is a man’s tracks.”

Madelaine scrambled lower until she
was once again side-by-side with him. “How do you know?”

“
Look at your
slippers.”

She immediately obliged.

“
There are two ways I can
tell. One, women have much smaller feet than men.”

“
Not all women,” Madelaine
said. “My father’s cook hails from German stock, and her feet, like
the rest of her body, are enormous.”

Lord Grey chuckled. “All right. Most
women have feet that are smaller than men. Satisfied?”

“
Yes.” But she was more
than satisfied. She was happy. Being here with him made her feel
carefree. The realization came as a shock. She hadn’t been happy
since the day she came to Court.

“
Lady Madelaine, might I
ask another favor of you?”

The blue of his eyes had darkened as
he spoke. And his voice had become husky. She didn’t think she had
the power to deny him anything in this moment. So, she
nodded.

“
When we are alone, will
you call me Grey?”

A rushing sound filled her ears,
making her blink. She took a calming breath and said, “Yes. And you
may call me Madelaine.”

“
Madelaine
.”

The way her name rolled seductively
off his tongue made gooseflesh raise on her arms. “Lord
Grey―”

“
Grey,” he
corrected.

“
Grey.” A strange tension
was mounting within her. As if something coiled inside her body and
one touch of Grey’s lips to hers would make the coil release. She
had to get them back on track. “What is the other way you can tell
that these footprints are a man’s?”

“
They’re deeper than a
woman’s would be because men are heavier.” He grinned. “Except for
German women, that is.”

An irrepressible smile tugged at her
lips. Grey was not only handsome, but he was funny and smart. No
wonder he’d never had a bit of trouble finding women who wanted his
attention. She could imagine the pleasure a seduction by him would
bring. A dull ache, unlike anything she had ever felt before pulsed
within her.

She curled her fingers into the grass.
Pleasure from a seduction would be temporary. She needed to
remember that fact, and the reality that Grey may say he did not
want to seduce her, but she still needed to be careful. He knew no
other way to woo a woman than to his bed, and she was apparently as
vulnerable as every other hare-brained lady when it came to
him.

She sprang to her feet and
shook the wrinkles out of her dress. He stood in one fluid motion
and reached toward her. Her muscles tensed. Was he going to kiss
her? Pull her against his chest? Wrap his arms around her
and―
good grief
.
She had to get control of her imagination. He plucked something
from her hair, and then held it up between them. “I was just
getting the grass out of your hair.”

“
Yes, of course.” A hot
blush warmed her cheeks.

He chuckled. “You can stop
worrying.”

“
I’m not
worried.”

“
You looked worried. In
fact, with your eyes rounded you looked much like a fox being
hunted. I swear I’m not trying to seduce you.”

“
Perhaps claiming that is
your ploy to reel me in.” Gads. She couldn’t believe she’d just
said that. But he had her confused and unsure. He had her wanting
to believe someone liked her, oddness and all.

He frowned. “What must I do to prove
I’m a man of my word?”

Should she be coy? Lie? No. If they
were to really know each other and have a true chance, she had to
be truthful. She prayed she wasn’t being utterly foolish. Her
mother had always told her she’d need to hide what she liked if she
truly couldn’t change, and here she was still not doing what her
mother had said. “We must be friends before we can be anything
else.”

“
I want that. I vow I
do.”

His words were so earnest that she
believed him. God help her, she did. Nothing would be worse than
falling for Grey only to be humiliated if he proved himself false.
The hell she had previously endured at Court would seem a dream
when compared to the nightmare Grace would undoubtedly put her
through if she ever learned Madelaine had been so foolishly stupid.
She would take the chance though. “All right. I promise to take you
for your word unless you prove that you take me for a
fool.”

He leaned closer, his pupils dilating.
“I take you for many things, Madelaine, but a fool is not one of
them.” His husky voice made her melt inside.

“
You’re doing it again.”
Her voice was trembling.

“
Doing what?” His tone was
like a caress.

“
Sounding seductive,” she
said with a racing heart.

He grinned. “It must be my natural
sound. I’m afraid you’ll just have to live with it.”

She laughed. “I bet you were a handful
as a child.”

“
I was indeed. I’ll tell
you some stories eventually. Come.” He waved his hand toward the
east side of the lake. “You ladies walked this way,
correct?”

“
That’s very impressive.”
She trailed him. “Maybe you’ll get to use your tracking skills when
you’re an equerry to find a rogue horse.”

He turned and gave her the same
strange look he had when they’d spoken earlier on the subject of
his being an equerry. “That’s odd,” he said.

Was he talking about what she’d said?
Her stomach twisted into knots as self-doubt flooded her. Wait a
second. He wasn’t even looking at her. She stared across the great
park and breathed slowly. She needed to try to have more
confidence, but it was so hard. “What’s odd?”

“
There.” He pointed toward
the grotto that lay across the wide expanse of grass and
trees.

For a moment, she saw nothing, and
then a flash of red caught her attention. “That’s the upstairs
chambermaid! What on earth―?”

A man emerged from the grotto. She
didn’t know him. And if she’d ever seen him she would have
remembered. The burn scars that covered the right side of his face
were visible, even from this distance. She shuddered. As if sensing
her stare, he pulled a dark hood down. Grey chuckled before
speaking. “Now I see what the chambermaid is up to. Do you know
that man?”

Madelaine glanced behind her at Grey’s
face. His eyes were narrowed on the couple.

She’d grown up sheltered, but she’d
learned many shocking things since coming to court. Still… Her
curiosity couldn’t be denied. “Grey, do you mean to say she―with
him―there in the cave? She wouldn’t.”

“
I beg to differ. I’m sure
she shares a room with another servant, which means she’s
restricted in where she can accept
companionship
. I’ve met the woman.
She’s got a healthy appetite. And if the man she’s with is also
sharing a room and it is currently occupied…” He
shrugged.

“
You bedded
her
.” Gads. She’d not meant it to come out
so irritated and accusing. She had no right to be angry. It was
none of her business who Grey had slept with.

“
Not me. I
swear.”

His blunt denial and the foolishly
hopeful part of her that wanted to trust him overcame her sensible
side, and she decided to believe him.

“
Do you recognize the
man?” Grey asked.

Madelaine squinted into the distance.
“No, but they’re so far. Did you see the scars on his
face?”

Grey nodded. “He dresses
oddly.”

“
Perhaps he’s from the
village.”

“
Perhaps.” Grey’s brow
furrowed. “I wouldn’t have thought her to be a woman to give
herself to a commoner though. She seemed rather scheming when I met
her.”

Madelaine was dying to know exactly
where Grey had met her, but they stood in silence as the
chambermaid and her companion disappeared toward the castle. Once
they were gone from sight, Grey swaggered ahead. She pressed her
lips together on her curiosity. If he didn’t want to offer
explanations, she had no right to ask. She had to double her steps
to keep up with his long strides, but falling slightly behind had
definite benefits. His breeches hugged his derriere and powerful
thighs and his morning coat displayed his broad shoulders rather
nicely. She was so busy staring at him that she forgot to watch
where she was going and stubbed her toe on a broken tree branch.
She bit down on her lip to avoid crying out, but she must have made
some noise because Grey stopped.

“
What’s the
matter?”

There was no point in lying. Besides,
she was a terrible liar. She tended to stammer when she lied. “I
stubbed my toe.”

“
Weren’t you watching
where you walked?”

“
Oh yes.” Half embarrassed
and half irritated, she smirked. “I was indeed. I saw a rock and
thought to myself ‘I’ll walk right into that to see if it
hurts.’”

“
Beautiful and
sharp-witted. I like that.” He winked and continued with his
swaggering.

The scoundrel! He knew she’d been
staring at him. Grey stooped down at the edge of the lake under the
same tree the queen had stopped to rest under. “You paused
here?”

“
Yes. How did you
know?”

“
The flattened footsteps
lead here in a pattern that shows someone was walking, but here
they become jumbled together and unless you were all walking into
each other, you had to have stopped.” He looked around and stood
before walking to the tree the queen had sat under. “Did Queen
Charlotte rest here?”

“
Yes. We put a stool there
for her. Oh! And she took her gloves off here!” Madelaine rushed
over to where Grey was bent over. He reached down and came up with
the queen’s ring grasped in his fingers. The ruby stone shined in
the sunlight. “You found it!” Overcome with gratitude, she threw
herself into his arms.