Page 36 of The Trouble with True Love

He grinned. “I’m sure. But look at it this way. You want me to take on the role of Lady Truelove, which is to give people advice. Why would you do that if you can’t even accept the advice I give you?”

“Somehow, it seems easier to unleash you on the rest of the world than upon myself,” she confessed. “If you’re wrong, you know, I spend the next two months with no male company but yours.”

“A fate worse than death,” he said gravely.

“You have no idea,” she muttered. “But even if you’re right, what you’re asking me to do is to deliberately mislead the members of your family.”

“No, I’m simply asking you to not spurn me outright if I pay you my attentions. Dance with me at balls, accept invitations to dinner where I will also be invited, play an occasional duet with me at the piano, talk with me for more than two minutes at a party and seem pleased to see me—” He broke off, flashing her a smile. “Really, Clara, you needn’t look as if I’ve just suggested you eat raw lemons.”

“Well,” she began, but he forestalled her before she could applaud the aptness of that comparison.

“You’ve already made your opinion of me clear as glass. No need to hammer my masculine pride into the ground, is there?”

“You could do with a bit more hammering of that sort, in my opinion. Just how long,” she hastened on before he could reply, “would you require this charade to go on?” Even as she asked the question, she couldn’t believe she was even considering his mad idea.

Mad ideas, her pesky little voice reminded,have become your special gift.

“The two months I am in your employ should suffice. By then, my father will undoubtedly have reinstated my allowance.”

“And then?”

“I propose marriage, you refuse me. Devastated, unable to even think about courting anyone else—at least until next year—I depart London for a cottage in the country, where I shall spend my time working to mend my broken heart. You, meanwhile, will enjoy the rest of your season surrounded by men who adore you madly and are heartily glad I’m now out of the running.”

“You seem to have given this plan a great deal of thought. What if during this supposed courtship your aunt asks me about my feelings for you? What then? Am I supposed to lie?”

“I’ve seen firsthand your ability to dissemble when the occasion calls for it,” he countered dryly. “But, no, you needn’t worry, for Auntie would never dream of inquiring into your feelings for me. That would be an unspeakable invasion of your privacy. She will merely observe my interest in you and cross her fingers in the hope that her matchmaking efforts on my behalf might be paying off at long last.”

“You can twist this any way you like, but you are still attempting to deceive her, and your father, too.”

“During the next two months, I shall fervently deny any romantic interest in you at every possible opportunity.”

“An action which will only serve to reinforce the opposite notion in their minds!”

He shrugged. “I can’t help it if people don’t believe what I say.”

She laughed, shaking her head, amazed anew at how skillfully he could paint a picture for people that was completely different from reality without actually lying. “You really are a scoundrel.”

“I know it seems that way.”

“I don’t see how any other interpretation is possible.”

He studied her thoughtfully for a moment before he replied. “It must be lovely to have the luxury of such strong, unshakable ideals,” he murmured. “To be able to distinguish so clearly what is right and what is wrong.”

She stirred, those words making her feel oddly defensive. “Some rights and wrongs are plain enough.”

“Are they? Honesty, most would say, is a virtue. Yet honesty has done little to help me, for I have always been scrupulously honest about my determination never to wed, yet certain members of my family refuse to accept it. Absolute honesty, Miss Deverill, has gotten me nowhere.”

“They don’t believe your resolve sincere?”

“They don’t want to believe it. My father’s motivation stems from the need to preserve the earldom with a secure succession. My aunt’s reasons stem from her deep love and affection for me, and she has conveniently convinced herself that marriage would be a good thing for me, that it would settle me down and make me a responsible chap.”

“And it wouldn’t?”

His lips twisted in a crooked, sideways smile. “You seem to understand me enough to judge. What do you think?”

Clara thought of Elsie Clark tripping over herself to please him, and she appreciated that only a woman with a heart of stone or one with no sense of self-preservation would ever agree to marry him. “Let’s just say that I long ago stopped confusing wishes with realities.”

He laughed. “As I said, you have a very clear-cut view of the world. My relations, alas, are not inclined to share such a view, at least not when it comes to me.”

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