Page 4 of Bound By her Earl

“No, no, I heard what you said.” Her eyes were wide. She surely looked like some gaping country bumpkin, but she simply could not help herself. Therudenessof the man! “I am merely shocked at what I heard.”

Now it was his turn to act surprised. “I beg your pardon?”

In the back of her mind, Emily recognized that this was likely the moment when she ought to retreat. She should play the demure young lady, as she always did. She could blame her initial words on the shock, could salvage this moment.

But the rest of her, the parts that had already been bubbling over with emotion, felt that if she had to bite her tongue one more time, she was going toscream.

“It’s just that the traditional response, after colliding with someone in a ballroom, ismy apologies.”

The man frowned fearsomely down at her, but Emily found, oddly enough, that she was not afraid. He would likely be handsome, she imagined, if not for that scowl. He had thick, dark hair that waved pleasantly over his brow and intense eyes that were so rich a brown they were nearly indistinguishable from the black centers. But his eyebrows were a bit heavier than classical good looks dictated, and his determination to use them to make himself intimidating did not help.

“You didn’t apologize either,” he pointed out, the tiniest note of sulkiness in his tone.

“But neither did I offer you…let’s call itadviceabout watching myself,” she pointed out reasonably.

This was, she decided, the moment whenheshould retreat. But perhaps this giant of a man was consumed by the same temporary madness as she, for he did not do so any more than she had.

“It was,” he said archly, “good advice.”

“Advice that you might likewise follow,” she countered.

“Iwas scarcely moving,” he returned. “Whereas you were surging ahead like this was a racetrack, not a ballroom.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Are you comparing me to a horse, sir? I feel if we are tallying poor behavior, that ranks higher than a misstep.” Strangely, she did not feel insulted, however. She felt rather…invigorated.

“You are being purposefully difficult, miss,” he retorted with a scowl. “I was doing no such thing, and you know it perfectly well. You are merely, for a reason I cannot divine, looking for some way to extend this peculiar encounter.”

“Could youdivine,perhaps,” she asked, a hint of mockery in her tone, “that I am trapped in this encounter as your hands are still upon my person?”

His hands were, in fact, upon her shoulders. He looked at them for a long moment like they belonged to a stranger before snatching them down to his sides.

“I—my apologies,” he said stiffly.

“So youcanapologize!” she exclaimed.

She was being ungracious, she knew, wretchedly so. Buthehad been ungracious, too, and highly irksome. And wasn’t it quite enough that gentlemen got to go around, doing whatever they pleased with their lives, without also refusing basic politeness to young women they nearly knocked to the ground? Was that really too much to ask?

And, argued a tiny voice inside her—and frankly, Emily had a bone to pick with that tiny voice, too, come to mention it—she was enjoying this conversation just thetiniestbit.

“I can apologize,” the man said crossly, “when I have reason to do so. But no matter what you women seem to think, I am not on this Earth merely to make good on your conversational whims. I have things to do, miss, things that do not include being lectured on deportment. If you do not have better ways to spend your time, might I recommend watercolors? I have heard that ladies find that enormously diverting.”

Emily’s mouth was open again. Of all therudeandcondescendingandself-importantthings…

Except then the full significance of his statement hit her. Goodness. Shedidhave better ways to spend her time. Hadn’t she been rushing for a reason? She needed to find the twins before one or both of them (why was she pretending; it wasalwaysboth) did something indefensible, like setting fire to the building.

It wouldn’t be onpurpose, of course. The twins weren’tmalicious.

They just had a seemingly inexorable penchant for chaos.

So instead of continuing to quibble with the gentleman (even though she really, truly,deeplywished to do so) she raised her nose pertly in the air. This tended to have more effect on gentlemen who weren’t quite as massive as this man, but was, she felt, still worth doing.

“You are quite right, sir,” she said in a prim tone that suggested she didnotthink he was right, but rather that she thought he was awful yet merely not worth the time of telling him so. “I shall be on my way at once.”

She sidestepped him neatly, feeling a rare rush of gratitude for her long legs, and swept past him, not even looking over her shoulder for a last glance.

He, she decided, was certainly looking over his shoulder afterher. And as long as she did not check, she could continue to enjoy this fantasy.

Her ire, though intense, faded quickly as she caught a glimpse of the pastel purple of Rose’s skirts. She was huddled in close to Amanda in a manner that always promised trouble.

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