Page 2 of How To Tempt A Bodyguard

"No."

"On the roof then!"

"No."

She stood frozen for a moment, her hands balling into fists at her sides, clearly unused to being denied anything. Her chest rose and fell rapidly beneath her travelling pelisse.

Then, with great dignity, her spine so straight it could serve as a plumb line, she allowed Mr Bennett to help her into the carriage. She arranged herself on the opposite seat, yanking her silk skirts away from his muddy boots with theatrical disgust, her face scrunching as though she'd caught wind of a sewer.

Damn her. Matthew shook his head and gazed out the window.

"This is intolerable," she muttered, crossing her arms and pressing herself into the corner as far from him as the space allowed.

Matthew pulled out his book, a well-thumbed copy of The Gentleman's Art of Defence: A Bartitsu Chronicle of 1850s London, and began reading.

They rode in blessed silence for all of ten minutes.

"You can read?" Her voice dripped with condescension.

He turned a page slowly. The woman had underestimated him if she thought she could get under his skin with insults. He’d escorted hundreds of women to safety, not to mention his four sisters, scattered now across three continents and at least two criminal enterprises.

"I'm speaking to you."

"Mm."

"That's not a response."

"Seemed like a statement, not a question."

She huffed, her nostrils flaring. "You're deliberately being difficult."

He kept reading.

Another five minutes passed. She shifted in her seat. Smoothed her skirts. Shifted again. Drummed her fingers against her reticule. Sighed once, twice, a third time with increasing volume.

"I'm bored."

He turned another page.

Silence.

"Entertain me."

That made him look up. "What?"

"You're my escort." She waved a hand imperiously, as though summoning a servant. "Entertain me."

"Not a performing monkey."

"You're certainly as mannered as one."

He let the corner of his mouth twitch. Not quite a smile but close. "And you're as spoiled as a week-old fish, but you don't see me throwing you back."

Her mouth fell open. For a moment she simply stared, her violet eyes going wide with shock.

"How dare you!"

"Already used that one." He returned his gaze to the page. "Try something new."