Page 28 of Seducing a Frigid Lady
“Who says that I did not already feel that way before today?” Lionel asked, eyeing her closely. Miss Lloyd scoffed openly at his confidence and shook her head.
“You are very full of yourself, are you not, Lord Sinclair?”
There was no malice in her voice, only a sheer certainty that she had gotten the measure of him entirely right. Perhaps if the words had come from someone else, he might have been offended, but coming from her, he found them endearing.
“I have always been quite confident, yes,” Lionel stated with a shrug of his shoulders, adjusting his arm beneath her hand. “But one has to be in a society like ours.”
At that Miss Lloyd looked almost intrigued and for a moment the ice-queen solid, cold expression seemed to melt away from her face. Lionel did not dare to allow himself to believe that he had begun to get to her already, though deep down a part of him was hopeful.
They walked, not taking their eyes off each other for several moments, and Lionel thought that Miss Lloyd might say something else a little more coldly. Then, instead, she turned her gaze away from him to look across the pond.
“At least there is one good thing about our society,” she stated firmly. “I can at least enjoy a walk in the park. I find that the birds and the bees are often far greater company than our fellow members of society.”
“Then you are fond of nature?” Lionel asked.
It was at that very moment that the sound of barking suddenly broke out ahead of them. A poor woman screamed in alarm and in the next moment, something small and grey went flashing by them.
“Oh, please! Somebody catch my dog!” a woman wailed from up ahead. Even as Lionel broke into action, Miss Lloyd was quicker. She released his arm and in a second bent down to scoop up the little spaniel who came rushing up after the grey squirrel that had hammered on past, shooting up the nearest tree.
The squirming little liver and white cavalier spaniel wriggled so intensely in Miss Lloyd’s arms that Lionel was quite impressed with the strength it took her to hold on.
“Oh, thank you, miss!”
The young woman whose dog it had been came hurrying forwards to take the dog from Miss Lloyd’s arms. The viscount’s daughter continued to hold on to the spaniel a moment longer, half-burying her face into its fur and whispering something into its ear before she passed it back to the other woman who was really more of a girl, no more than fifteen perhaps.
“Lottie! Get a handle on that dog of yours!” a gentleman further around the pond yelled even as Miss Lloyd exchanged the dog back into its owner’s arms.
“Forgive me, miss,” the young girl said, curtseying politely before she hurried away.
Lionel could not help but stand and watch, smirking as Miss Lloyd turned back to him. He had just seen enough to know that there was at least one thing that could melt her ice-queen heart, even if it was furry, and walked on four legs.
“What is so amusing, Lord Sinclair?” she demanded, swooping her gloved hands down the front of her day dress, looking more than a little flustered.
Shaking his head, he offered his arm back to her and said, “I was merely amused by how well you handled that little rascal. You showed it far more kindness than you did, Lord Bessington.”
“Yes, well, Lord Bessington is not a dog and he can quite easily take care of himself,” Miss Lloyd pointed out, scowling back at him as though she was not pleased he had seen a softer side to her.
“Besides, what havoc could have occurred if that dog had gotten hold of that poor squirrel or even fallen into the pond? Can you imagine how many young ladies would be traumatised from such an event?”
“It does not bear thinking about,” Lionel responded, biting back the urge to laugh again. It was quite clear she was trying to come up with some way of hiding the fact she had allowed her cold mask to slip even for a moment.
Determined not to make her feel any more uncomfortable, he offered her his arm again and said, “Shall we catch up with the others? It looks as though they have slowed.”
With a glance over her shoulder in the direction of the others, Miss Lloyd slipped her hand back into his arm and allowed him to begin guiding her again.
“Have you ever had a dog yourself?” Lionel asked after several moments, noticing that Miss Lloyd had caught sight of the dog again even though the girl had gone running off after her father who was quite some way ahead, the dog bouncing in her arms.
“When I was very little, yes,” Miss Lloyd responded, and the tone of her voice suggested that perhaps she might actually have a small lump in her throat. “What about you?”
Though she only looked at him out of the corner of her eye, it was enough for him to see that there was less coldness in her blue gaze than before. Could it possibly be that she was actually intrigued to get to know him?
“I have had a few dogs over the years,” Lionel admitted, “Though mainly they were my father’s hunting dogs when I was young.”
Miss Lloyd nodded as though that was entirely understandable.
“From what I know, you do not like to stay in one place for too long,” she said and Lionel’s own intrigue grew stronger. The fact that she had bothered to learn anything about him made him all the more hopeful.
“I have always found it best to keep moving in a society like ours,” Lionel admitted with a shrug. “If one stays in one place for too long people begin to believe that you should put down roots.”
