Page 44 of Lady of Charade
David had never met an icier woman, and he wondered how Sarah spent any manner of time in her company.
“Yes, well,” he said, clearing his throat, attempting another tactic. “It is kind of you to chaperone Miss Jones.”
She finally turned her head to look at him, and he nearly recoiled at just how icy her eyes were; how she caused a chill to creep down his spine as though melted snow was running down it.
“How did you happen to meet?”
“It seems to me that you have come to know Miss Jones well enough to ask her that yourself, have you not?”
David raised an eyebrow at the woman, who was certainly attempting to match wits against him. What he had done to garner her ire, he had no idea, but it only served to interest him all the more about Lady Alexander’s connection with Sarah. She cared enough to note the young woman’s attachment to him, yet not enough to offer her a home while she was in England?
“She mentioned that she met you shortly before coming to London, though did not provide details as to where exactly that was.”
“Then perhaps she would not like you to know.”
“Perhaps,” he said, now losing all facade of charm.
“Did you know of Miss Jones prior to meeting her?”
“I did not.”
“I can see why you would want to help her, however,” David continued. “She has quite the caring soul.”
“That she does.”
David had run out of questions to ask her. The woman had won this round, he decided.
“Well, Lady Alexander, it has been a pleasure.”
She simply looked up at him with one eyebrow raised as he stood, telling him that it was not a pleasure — for either of them — but she had enough good English breeding within her to keep her from doing so.
“Good evening, Mr. Redmond. And do take care with my charge’s reputation.”
“Of course, Lady Alexander,” he said with a true smile now. If there was one thing he could agree to, it was that. “Good evening.”
CHAPTER19
Sarah finished brushing out her hair and stared at her reflection in the mirror. It had been some time since she could remember her skin being so pale, her freckles so pronounced. She knew that the color of her skin, normally much darker with the sun, was not fashionable with the English, particularly the set who she was finding herself amongst. Yet if anyone had asked her, she would say that she felt rather sallow, sickly looking almost, when she was so wan.
Ah well, she thought with a shrug. Soon it would no longer matter. She was moving toward the bed when a soft knock came at the door, and she padded over to see who would be here at such an hour. Her heart began to beat in a slightly irregular pattern as she had a feeling of who it might be. She should turn him away, tell him that he couldn’t be here, that she needed time alone. She cracked open the door.
“Yes?”
Her voice came out in just over a whisper, and she couldn’t help the smile that crossed her face. Only one thought entered her mind — she was losing her heart to this man.
David smiled at her in return, then slipped in through the crack in the door when she opened it a bit wider.
“I apologize,” he said immediately as she shut the door behind him. “I did not mean to force myself into your room, but nor did I wish to loiter in the hallway outside the door, in case someone should get the wrong — well, I suppose, the right — idea about us.”
She laughed then, pulling her wrapper tighter around her as she moved closer to the fire once more.
“Come sit,” she beckoned, interested in his company if nothing else.
“I’ll leave if you are tired,” he offered, but she shook her head, and they each claimed one of the matching chairs in front of the fire. As she looked over at him, Sarah’s every instinct was to sit in his lap and allow his arms to surround her and hold her close, but that, she knew, would be a mistake.
“I’m not sure that I should ever become accustomed to someone tending to my every need,” she said, nodding toward the grate, in which a servant had come in to prepare the fire for her.
“And I would have difficulty living without a valet,” he said with a bit of a rueful laugh, which then caused a moment of silence between them as they were both reminded of just what different worlds they were from.
