Page 46 of Outrageous

“My father says I’m a contrarian, but I disagree.”

It took him only a few seconds to catch on. His smile was grudging, but he laughed—a deep, rich laugh that curled through her body and concentrated low in her belly.

His amusement made her relent and answer his question. “My sisters and I grew up running with the children from the village that sits on my father’s land. My mother died when I was not quite five, and then my grandmother and aunt raised us. But my grandmother fell ill soon after and my aunt simply couldn’t manage Catherine and me as well as tend to my grandmother and my youngest sister—who is two years younger than I.” She pleated the printed cotton of yet another of the putrid dresses he’d ordered for her—this one a dusty rose—recalling those carefree days with pleasure.

“What about your father?”

She looked up from the creased fabric of her dress. “My father rarely came home. He was—well, he had responsibilities elsewhere.” There was no point in telling the man across from her that her father had learned by then that his dead wife had been barking mad—the insane daughter of a mother who ended her days in an institution—and feared seeing that same madness in his own daughters so much that it had turned him bitter and cold. So the marquess had stayed away, only coming home to manage estate business or for their birthdays and holidays. At least he’d thought to come home for those.

Godric was looking at her as if he wanted to ask something; something she probably wouldn’t want to answer, so she said, “I know about your family, about how they died. Lord Byer told me.” That was a lie; her brother’s best friend had actually told Gabriel, but Eva had overheard.

His eyes frosted over like an alpine lake and his mouth tightened. “I am relieved to hear that, my lady. It means we do not need to speak of the subject ever again.”

“But don’t—”

“This is not a matter up for debate. You will learn just how stodgy I can be if you decide to pursue this topic.”

His profile was harsh and wintry so she let the matter lie. Besides, Eva knew that tone well. She couldn’t help marveling how much Lord Visel sometimes sounded like her father. It was the tone that said a line had been drawn in the dirt and crossing it would be at one’s peril.

It shouldn’t surprise her that he had an aura of command; he’d been in the military almost half his life and was accustomed to giving men orders and having them obeyed. And now she would be just another one of his soldiers.

Eva looked away from him to the other window, a heaviness in her chest. He could bring her physical pleasure, and it appeared, after last night, that he wished to do so—at least when it suited him. But as for any kind of parity? That seemed unlikely. He would become her lord and master and she would be his chattel. Once again, she would belong to a man who believed she was mad; a man who would never know her or like her. And she couldn’t even hate him for it because it was all her fault they were in this situation.

Yes, Eva was the person who’d done this to both of them, and now they would both have to live with it.

* * *

The carriage gave a worrisome shudder and slid to the side before the postilions regained control.

Across from her, Godric stirred from the silent, brooding funk he’d settled into after their aborted conversation and turned his disturbing gaze on the scene outside the window.

The rain, which had begun to sprinkle less than an hour after their departure, was now falling so heavily it was like looking through a gray curtain.

He shook his head, his expression one of disgust. “We should have stayed at the inn,” he said, cutting her a brief glance. “I apologize for dragging you out in such weather.”

The shocks just kept coming: Visel admitting he was wrong? Visel apologizing? To her? Although she did not taunt him out loud, he must have read it on her face.

“Yes,” he said as he sat back against the cracked brown leather squabs. “I do apologize, especially when I’ve done something foolish.”

“That must keep you busy.”

He gave a short bark of laughter at her insult.

What an odd, odd man.

“I, for one, am relieved we left that inn,” she said, squirming under his considering look. “My hair stinks of mold, my clothes are damp, and the food was appalling.”

“I’m afraid we probably won’t encounter anything better on our current path. I’d hoped to make the main road today and spend a night in relative comfort. But it looks as if things might get even worse.”

They both turned to look out the window.

Eva hadn’t been surprised to learn the road north was still blocked this morning; who would want to work in this weather? Godric had told the postilions to keep working northward, even if it meant having to go farther west to do it. As a result, the road they were on was so ragged and narrow that the soaked branches of trees often dragged over the roof of the carriage.

He pulled his gaze away from the window. “Tell me why you fancy yourself a horse breeder,” he ordered in a direct manner that set her teeth on edge.

“Why? So you can insult and belittle me?”

“Perhaps. Does that frighten you?”