“It is quite possible to be alone even when surrounded by others. You are very effective in keeping people at a firm distance.”
He felt her stiffen at his perceptive accusation. “That is absurd.”
“I do not think so, my dear. You harbor too many secrets to allow anyone close, so you play the perfect hostess while keeping anyone from thrusting their way into your life.”
That stubborn expression he was beginning to recognize all too well settled on her countenance.
“Except for you.”
“Because I refuse to be pushed away.”
Her eyes narrowed. “So I had noticed.”
With a smile he raised his hand to lightly tap the end of her nose. “And perhaps someday if you are very fortunate I will even allow you to seduce me.”
Her eyes blazed, but thankfully she merely clenched her hands in her lap. Gideon’s smile widened, inwardly quite thankful that she hadn’t actually toppled him from the carriage.
It was only with a great deal of reluctance that Simone forced herself to enter the grand, but older town house located close to St. James.
It was a beautiful home that had been refurbished by Robert Adam in a Palladian style, but while Simone fully appreciated the split marble staircase with its intricate wrought-iron banister and even the paneled ceiling that graced the upper gallery, she was not at all enamored of the shrill aria that was piercing the air with painful determination.
As a rule she avoided such musicale evenings like the plague. Why would anyone with a particle of sense desire to put themself through such torture?
But the note she had received from Mary had been quite urgent, and putting aside her dislike for mangled arias and disapproving dragons she had attired herself in a rather modest gown in dark emerald and made her way to the house of Lady Falstone.
“At last.” Hurrying from a shadowed corner Mary attached herself to Simone before she could reach the open doors to the salon. “I thought you would never arrive.”
Simone grimaced as another shriek echoed through the corridor.
“I very nearly did not. There are few things I detest more than listening to the screeching of endless debutantes without a hairsbreath of talent between the lot of them.”
Mary waved a dismissive hand toward the salon. “I did not request you meet me here for the dubious entertainments. I have something I wish you to see.”
Simone blinked in surprise. “Here?”
“Well, not precisely here. It is upstairs.”
“Mary, you are making no sense.”
The widow tugged her away from the guests still entering the salon. “Lady Falstone was a distant relative of my dearly departed husband and once a month I am duty bound to attend her for tea. Yesterday I arrived and she insisted that I join her in her bedchamber since she was suffering from her gout.”
Simone frowned. “You wish me to see her bedchamber?”
“Actually I wish you to see a private gallery that is at the back of the house.” The dark eyes twinkled with a mischievous light. “I slipped into it on my way to Lady Falstone’s rooms to take a glance at the Van Dyck that has been promised to me.”
Simone was not at all shocked by Mary’s behavior. She made no pretense of her love for the finer things in life.
“Ah, keeping an eye on your inheritance.”
Mary glanced toward the salon with a grimace. “I have never been allowed to so much as peek at the portrait, and to be honest I wished to assure myself that the hours I spend pandering to the nasty old bird is worth the sacrifice.”
“Quite understandable,” Simone murmured, in no position to judge the woman. “Did you find it?”
“Yes, and something else I think you will find interesting. Come along.”
With a frown Simone followed the eager woman down the corridor and up another flight of stairs. She could not image anything of interest that Lady Falstone might possess, but the quicker she allowed herself to view the mysterious object the sooner she could return to her home.
She did not allow herself to consider her desire to hurry back to the empty town house. Certainly it could have nothing to do with the notion that Gideon might make one of his surprise visits.