Page 76 of Never Dare a Duke
She met his gaze, looking speculative, as if she wondered at his mood. At last, she gave a shy smile. “No. But I did not think it would be so difficult to find my way back. These paths wind about together, don’t they?”
“So you came out here alone and lost your way?”
She hesitated. “Yes.”
And though it was a lie, it was the kind of lie that was an attempt not to bring trouble down on two misguided young women. “Funny, my mother claims she saw you leaving with the Ladies May and Theodosia.”
Her eyes widened, and with all seriousness, she said, “Your mother must have been lying.”
He almost wanted to laugh. “My mother doesn’t do that. Does yours?”
He approached her, and she turned and walked at his side.
“No, my mother is the soul of honesty. My father, too. I imagine they would be quite appalled if they knew what I was doing here.”
There were so many ways to interpret that statement. He wanted to understand her, and how she’d come to a decision to manipulate him.
“Do your parents know you write?”
“Yes, because of course every young lady writes. I was very fond of writing in my journal.”
“I was fond of writing, too,” he found himself saying, then regretted it when she glanced at him with surprised interest. He didn’t want to reveal more about himself to a woman who was trying to uncover his secrets. But he wanted to know about her.
“You write.”
Her voice was so full of obvious doubt that he could have been offended. “Every gentleman is trained to do so.”
“Not only gentlemen,” she said dryly. “You may be surprised to hear it, but we of the lower classes can also be well educated.”
“You sound very defensive. Have I ever spoken of different classes of society with any arrogance?”
“No. But when one has grown up reading the newspaper, seeing how peers can treat those they consider their inferiors—”
“And so you grouped me with others of theton,and that’s what made it easy to come here to deceive me.”
She walked slowly, hands clasped behind her back, her gaze straight down the path. “It was never easy,” she said in a low voice. “I was simply desperate.”
“Make me understand why. Because I can’t fathom your behavior.”
She left the path and headed for the soft embankment of a stream. Water tumbled over small rocks, and the sound seemed to soothe her, for the sadness in her expression faded to determination.
“From childhood, I saw that theMorning Journalchanged lives, even helped all of society. When gossip and scandal seemed to become more important than news, my father did not follow the trend. Consequently, the paper’s circulation began to slip. While I was writing reviews, the managing editor finally told me that the paper was foundering.”
Money, he thought, and protecting her father. Those at least were better reasons for what she’d done.
“I knew what was selling,” she continued, “and I decided to write about a family that seemed to draw London’s interest like no other.”
“The Cabots.”
She glanced at him and shrugged. “You were the only one with not a hint of scandal.”
“And you didn’t believe it?”
She spread her hands wide. “I didn’t want to. I needed there to be a great mystery about you. I thought that then my father would be forced to use the article, even though I was the one who’d written it.”
“You did not want to trust your father to solve his own problems?”
“I would have, but part of his solution was forcing me into marriage, with a gentleman, of course, so that I could better our family connections. And a large dowry is necessary for that,” she added cynically. “I guess he was worried about losing the dowry. I know he thought he was doing what was best for me, but forcing me into something I don’t want is appalling. He did the same thing to my mother, although it took me many years to see it. She was the daughter of a simple tailor, and he insisted that she make new friends among his business acquaintances and leave her old friends behind. And she did it. I do not plan to be so accommodating, not when my writing is so important to me. What gentleman husband would allow me to work for a living?” she added with bitterness.
