‘Better than being trapped here with a beast like you!’
He gritted his teeth. Was that how she thought of him, then, as a beast? Admittedly he wasn’t behaving much like a gentleman, but if that were the case then he’d show her just how much of a beast he could be!
‘Then let’s say I’m protecting you from yourself.’
He hauled her towards the furthermost door at the end of the corridor and took a rusty iron key from a hook on the wall, pushing it into the lock and twisting it around with a loud scraping sound. He doubted that the door had been opened more than a handful of times in the past ten years. The octagonal tower had been his mother’s sitting room, though after her death his father had covered the furniture in dust sheets and never set foot inside again. No one had found any use for it since, but for some reason it seemed particularly suited to Miss Harper. Hadn’t he once thought she belonged in a fairy-tale tower?
The lock clicked at last and he turned the handle, ramming one shoulder up against the door as an icy draught whistled past them.
‘Make yourself at home.’ He released her hand finally and gestured inside. ‘I’m sure you’d like a rest after your busy morning.’
‘In here?’ She sounded shocked and he felt a moment of misgiving. In truth, the place looked even more cold and cheerless than he’d expected.
‘In here.’ He hardened his heart mercilessly. ‘I think you’ll still find it preferable to the mines at Rosedale.’
‘But...’ She took a tentative step forward and then twisted her head sharply, sniffing the air as she did so.
‘You’re drunk!’
He caught a flash of sapphire from beneath her hood and let his temper get the better of him, lifting a hand and wrenching it back to reveal a pair of enormous blue eyes in a small, outraged-looking face. He stiffened in surprise. It was the same face, even the same expression she’d been wearing when they’d argued five years ago, as if time had stopped and she hadn’t aged a day. He’d thought of her first as a kitten, then as an ice maiden, and yet he seemed to have remembered every detail of her face perfectly, as if they’d been imprinted on his memory. There’d been enough women, too many women, in his life before and since, and yet hers was the face he remembered... How was it possible for her to have changed so little, while he felt as though he’d aged decades?
‘I’ve been drinking,’ he corrected her. ‘That doesn’t make me drunk.’
‘Really?’ She gave him a look that would have made Mrs Gargrave proud.
‘I take it that your father never drank in the daytime?’
‘He never drank at all.’
‘Of course.’ He adopted what he hoped was a suitably scathing expression. ‘I forgot what a paragon of virtue he was, but I’m afraid you’ll need to lower your standards here. I drink every day. Sometimes for breakfast.’
Her chin jutted upwards. ‘It’s not something to boast about.’
‘I’m simply stating a fact. You’ll need to get used to it when we’re married.’
‘I won’t marry you! It doesn’t matter how long you keep me here, I won’t change my mind. I don’t want to marry anyone, especially not a man like you!’
‘And what kind of man would that be exactly?’ He advanced a step towards her, expecting her to retreat, but she only lifted her chin higher.
‘You have to ask?’
‘Indulge me, Miss Harper. Educate me, if you will.’ He lowered his face down to hers, so close that they were almost touching, daring her to answer. ‘Tell me just what it is that you find so very repellent?’
‘Everything! You’re a drunk and a gambler and...’ her cheeks flushed slightly ‘...a libertine!’
He drew back in surprise, a retort fading on his lips. That hadn’t been what he’d expected, not at all.
‘Are you saying that it’s my character you object to?’
‘Of course!’ She blinked. ‘What else would it be?’
He glanced pointedly down at his leg. What else indeed? He’d been so wrapped up in his resentment of her character that he’d never stopped to wonder what she thought of his. He’d simply assumed that she found his injury distasteful. In which case...
‘Then I’m curious to know why you have such a low opinion of me. Because of what happened at the ball? I believe that both of our fathers called me a reprobate.’
‘Partly.’ Her eyelashes fluttered perceptibly when he mentioned the ball. ‘And I’ve heard rumours.’
‘Gossip, Miss Harper? I wouldn’t have thought you one to indulge in that particular vice.’
‘I don’t, but I’ve still heard stories. Or are you saying they aren’t true?’
‘On the contrary, I’m sure they’re all true and worse besides. I doubt the whole truth would bear repeating in polite circles, especially to young ladies.’
‘Are you proud of your reputation, then?’
‘No, but I have so few other distinctions.’
Her eyes widened with a look of consternation. ‘I’ll never marry you!’
‘Then I admire your resolve, but you might think differently when you’ve had a little time to reconsider.’ He moved away from her, pulling the door shut behind him. ‘I trust you’ll be comfortable here.’
‘Wait!’ She caught at the edge of the door before it closed. ‘I have a friend. I need to send word that I’m all right or she’ll be worried.’
‘An accomplice?’ He half opened the door again, still blocking the way out with his body. ‘Was that why you were going to Helmsley, to meet her?’
‘No. That is...not her.’
He narrowed his gaze suspiciously. Did she have two accomplices, then? Her evasiveness suggested that one of them was a man—a lover? That was the most likely answer, though the idea of her having another suitor hadn’t crossed his mind until now. He didn’t like it.
‘If I could just send a message...please?’
He gave an unsympathetic snort. If she’d been going to meet a lover, then he had absolutely no intention of setting the man’s mind at rest so easily. If whoever it was wanted to marry her, then he ought to have come and confronted him man to man, not plotted an elopement behind his back.
‘No.’
‘But...’
‘No!’ His voice sounded even fiercer than he’d intended. ‘If you think that I’m going to send anyone out in this weather, then you’re even more of a little fool than I thought!’
She drew in a sharp breath at the insult, though she still didn’t flinch, staring back at him instead with an expression of intense loathing.
‘Then I’ll wait here until the storm clears. After that, you’ve no right to keep me.’
‘You’re absolutely right, I don’t. Though I doubt the storm will clear by tonight and unless you want to leave in the dark then I’m afraid you’re stuck here with me, a renowned libertine, and without, as my housekeeper so delicately pointed out, a chaperon. Whatever your plans for the future, I hope they don’t depend on your keeping a good reputation.’
Her defiant expression crumpled into one of horror. ‘But that’s monstrous! No one would ever employ me if they knew. You wouldn’t be so cruel!’
‘Didn’t you pay any attention to all that gossip? If you had, then you’d know very well that I would.’ He smiled mirthlessly.