step closer, the very air between them would be altered.
His stunning golden eyes entrapped her attention. “So, you’ve been teaching your lady maid to read.”
“I…” She blew out a sharp breath, rattled by the quick change in conversation. “Yes.”
“Not many people care about their servants enough to use their time to educate them.”
She returned his regard, and when he arched a brow, Maryann pertly said, “Was there a question?”
“I am merely curious…about you.”
This he said with a frown, as if he was baffled by his own admission.
Maryann found it most difficult to break the potent hold of his very direct regard. He stared at her as if unraveling a mystery. A tight, hungry feeling was trapped somewhere inside her, and being secreted in her chamber with the marquess made her yearn to just be.
“Susie always sees me reading, and she was very curious as to how I found such enjoyment in the written word,” Maryann said softly. “She is very uncomplaining with my determined efforts to see her reading a book on her own by the end of the year.”
Maryann did not say that she had moved from having one student to now having four, the youngest being a sweet girl of twelve who served as a scullery maid.
“And I am also very different from these other ladies you seem so intimately acquainted with.”
“That I can tell.”
Her mouth curved a bit, but she bit inside her lips to stop the smile. Perhaps he did not mean it as a compliment.
“What is your most rousing read?” He turned over a small volume in his hand. “I dearly hope it is not this.”
She laughed. “Whenever I am curious about something, I find if there is a book with the subject and read.”
“So, you are interested in the mating habits of sheep?”
Maryann turned the lock with a soft snick, and mocking yet sensual delight suffused his features. The man was extravagantly handsome.
“I only closed it because I would hate for anyone to discover you here,” she snapped. “If society knew how easy it was for a libertine to break into their daughters’ chambers, every mother would have found a way to build iron bars over the windows by now.”
Maryann sauntered over to the sofa and sank gracefully into its softness.
“I am certain you did not break into my room once again to question my reading tastes,” she said pertly. “And nothing strange happened to me. I daresay if you should tell me what I am supposed to look out for, I could inform you better?”
“There is no reason for you to be involved more than necessary. The entire scheme might eventually reveal that I am merely overcautious,” he said, a sardonic look in his eyes.
“Do recall that my parents are diligently crushing those rumors I started. It is very unlikely anyone might believe we have a tendre.”
He said nothing to this.
“How did you get inside?” she whispered.
He spread the fingers of one lean, elegant hand. “I picked the locks.”
She had thought a servant let him in, the very one he learned her routine from. “Of course that skill is a part of your repertoire. How…how did you learn it?” For she was considerably curious about the enigmatic man before her.
“From one of the greatest thieves to roam the streets of Paris.”
“Paris?”
“Hmm, we did not stay there long once we found each other.”
“And how exactly did you find each other?”
“I rescued him from the night’s watch. Seems he had broken into a home occupied by soldiers and stolen some bread. He was only thirteen years old.”
Her heart squeezed violently. “How did you rescue him?”
The marquess canted his head, and a faraway look entered his eyes. There was such strength of purpose etched into his face. “A clash of steel that thankfully did not last long. Then the good lad and I fled to the countryside, Rodez in Aveyron where I have a modest home.”
He leaned over and plucked another book from the pile she had left on her windowsill, her favorite spot to repose and read. “Ah, my sisters are always asking me to buy these for them.”
Her cheeks warmed, for it was a gothic romance. “You have sisters?”
“Hmm, two delightful hellions,” he said rather fondly. “Is it safe for me to purchase a copy and send to them?”
Maryann cleared her throat delicately. “There is an extremely passionate kiss somewhere in there. Are they old enough to read about that?”
His lips twitched briefly. “They would cry and whine and tell me they are, but