One Night with a Regency Lord: Reprobate Lord, Runaway Lady / The Return of Lord Conistone. Isabelle Goddard

or at least it would have been if I’d not been unlucky enough to meet you.’

      ‘Not that unlucky, as I recall. You might still be dangling on the end of a rope if it were not for me. Or were you hoping your friend Glyde would happen by and execute a magnificent rescue? Was it a stunt to reel in a reluctant suitor?’

      ‘How can you be so stupid! I was escaping from Rufus Glyde.’

      ‘Another fantasy? I’ve just seen with my own eyes on what familiar terms you stand with the man.’

      ‘Then your eyes tell you false. Sir Rufus has designs of his own. He wishes to ingratiate himself with my grandmother.’

      ‘For what purpose?’ he asked impatiently, pushing back the dark hair that had fallen across his brow.

      ‘I don’t see that it’s any business of yours.’

      ‘Really? You don’t consider your constant lies give me any reason to demand the truth from you?’

      She bowed her head slightly and said in a voice he could hardly hear, ‘He wishes to marry me.’

      ‘And.?’

      ‘He hopes my grandmother will persuade me to agree.’

      ‘How much persuasion will that take, I wonder?’

      ‘I detest him,’ she burst out. ‘He’s a vicious and depraved man. He’s followed me here when I thought I was safe and is plotting against me still.’

      ‘He’s certainly vicious,’ Gareth said measuringly, ‘but why are you running from him? You’ve only to tell your father that he’s plaguing you and you’ll be free of his demands.’

      ‘I wish that were true, but my father has decided that Sir Rufus is the suitor he wishes me to accept.’

      ‘The last time I looked we were living in the nineteenth century. Forced marriages no longer happen. You must have given your consent or at least appeared to do so.’

      ‘I did not. I tell you I hate the man, but my father is adamant. I cannot speak of my family’s difficulties, but Glyde wields considerable power over us.’

      Gareth considered this for a moment, his athletic figure reclining lazily against a carved pillar.

      ‘So you were the mistress who was being forced to marry for money? And your maid’s defiant independence a mere charade, I imagine.’

      Amelie flushed, but said nothing.

      ‘And why go to so much trouble to deceive me? Why couldn’t you have told me the truth and asked for help? Didn’t you trust me?’

      She swallowed uncomfortably. ‘I was worried you might react unthinkingly. You might have chased after him and caused an even greater scandal than there was already.’

      ‘Chased after him? With an injured ankle? You can do better than that.’ His tone hardened. ‘Wasn’t it rather that you thought I might use the situation to my own benefit?’

      She blushed. That was precisely what she had thought, imagining if only in fancy that he might be capable of blackmail or kidnap.