Page 23 of Loving a Beast of a Marquess
Emily’s frown deepened, and for a moment, the wind was the only sound between them. “He wishes to marryme? How can you know this?”
“He told me under no uncertain terms that he intends to marry you and unify our families.”
“But he doesn’t even like me,” Emily said. “I—I mean, not in that way. Yesterday was the first time we spoke, and he was polite—kind, even—but there was nothing of a lover in him.”
“And you may be sure there will be nothing of a lover in him if you marry.”
Emily appeared to consider, tilting her head to one side. The wind teased tendrils of hair from under her bonnet and trailed them across her face. “Perhaps it would solve the issue of what is to become of us,” she said slowly. “If he marries me, then I can have a say over who you marry, Angie, and you could have only the best.”
Evangeline took her sister’s hands in hers. “You are everything that is good and true,” she said, her voice choking, “but I would rather take that burden on myself than give it to you.”
“But you don’t believe him to have good in him,” Emily said, biting her lip. “You would be much more miserable than I.”
Before Evangeline could stop herself, she remembered the flash that had occasionally passed between them as though a rope connected their two bodies and tugged them together.
She knew what it was to be kissed, now. The stranger in the garden had taught her that much, and something told her that Zachary also knew. There was something about the tight pin of his mouth—the way she had seen it occasionally soften—that made her think he could awaken her body in the same way that stranger did.
If only he got over his frightful temper.
“I do not think he is all bad,” she said, finality in her tone, “but he would not be right for you, sister dear.”
“Why?” Emily teased, turning back for their house and linking her arm through Evangeline’s. “Would he be better suited to you after all?”
“I could handle him, at least.”
“Then I should not dream of getting in your way.”
ChapterTen
Of all people Zachary had expected to encounter in the library, it was not Evangeline. She had shown no signs that she was an avid reader; when in the drawing room, she had read with the same languid grace as did her aunt.
Still, here she was, tucked into the corner and so intensely invested in whatever she was reading that she failed to notice him approach. For a moment, he considered backing away before she realized he was there, but before he had any opportunity to put such a plan in action, she glanced up.
“You,” she said.
“Me.”
“Why is it you are everywhere I wish to be?”
“I might say the same about you,” he said. “The library in my father’s house was one of my favorite places to sit and think.”
“Then you ought not to have sold it,” she snapped. The rumors were commonplace, and it was hardly surprising that she had believed them so utterly, but her words still lashed at that unhealing part of his heart.
“My apologies for disturbing you,” he said stiffly, bowing and turning for the door. If the library was also to be denied him, he would merely have to find solace in his bedchamber. Strange how a house so large could have no places in which he could hide.
“Wait,” Evangeline called from behind him. She took hold of his arm, only to release it moments later with a look of confusion. “I should not have spoken as I did. I—I’m sorry.”
He raised his eyebrows. “An apology from Lady Evangeline? Are you quite well?”
A rather more familiar scowl settled on her face. “Don’t get used to it. I only apologize when I am in the wrong, and that happens but rarely.”
“You never apologized for placing that toad in my room,” he said. He didn’t approach her, but with the memory of that encounter, the space between them seemed to diminish. “Do you not believe you were in the wrong there?”
She lifted her chin as she so often did when she faced him, but although the gesture was meant as defiance, it merely served to emphasize the delicate line of her chin and the fullness of her lips.
He could have kissed her. No—hewantedto kiss her. The realization came as a shock of cold water on his system, and he stepped back.
“No doubt you are not sorry for trying to chase me away,” he said distractedly, trying to purge all thoughts of how her body might fit against his from his head, “but you shall not succeed. I am not to be removed so easily.”
