flourish, and Benedick took it, keeping his gaze averted from Melisande’s.
“Clearly I owe you a debt of gratitude, Harry,” he said. “I should have known I could count on you to keep my property safe.”
“I beg your pardon?” Melisande began in a dangerous voice, but one look from his blazing eyes and she subsided, though he suspected that wouldn’t be the last of it.
“Always, old fellow. Might I bring you and the lady something to drink? It looks as if you headed straight for us once you arrived.”
“Of course I did. And all Lady Melisande and I need at the moment is a little privacy. We have, after all, been parted for hours.”
Merton smiled. “Ah, the flush of young love!” And he sauntered off.
By then the other suitors had faded away, like young cubs bowing before an alpha wolf, he thought, remembering another class on animal nature. It was just as well. He felt like tearing out the throat of anyone who got close to her.
Melisande spoke first, though not to him. “Miss Mackenzie, you can leave now that the viscount has arrived. He’ll look after me.”
He followed her gaze to the tall, thin, disapproving woman in the shadows.
“Harrumph,” the woman said, or something like it, expressing strong disapproval of her, of himself, of everyone there and life in general.
“Don’t tell me she was a courtesan, I beg you,” he said. “I won’t believe you.”
“She was my governess,” she said, smiling up at him, and for a moment he was dazzled. And then he remembered he was furious.
His laugh was mirthless. “It’s no wonder you have a twisted view of life!”
“Don’t pick a fight with me, Lord Rohan,” she said sweetly. “You should have known I wasn’t going to stay immured in my bedroom. Indeed, I’ve already made a great deal of progress.”
“With Harry Merton. He was almost drooling down the front of that indecent dress.”
“Hardly indecent when compared to some of the others,” she pointed out. “And when did you become such a prude?”
He pulled himself together. “Hardly a prude, Lady Carstairs. And if you wish to distract yourself with Harry, then you have my blessing. He’s a useless fribble but essentially harmless.”
“I have your blessing, do I?” she purred. “I didn’t realize that I needed it.”
He knew enough of women to realize he was on dangerous ground. Still, there wasn’t much she could do in public. “I beg pardon, madam,” he said immediately. “Of course you may sleep with whomever you like.” He could see Lord Elsmere approaching him, probably wanting a game of cards, and from a distance he could spy Dorothea Pennington’s dissolute older brother. “I asked you to leave this to me,” he added in a lowered voice.
“And I told you I wouldn’t. Besides, I’ve come to a decision and it seemed only proper that I share it with you.”
Elsmere was trying to get his attention, and he was only half paying attention to her. “What?” he said absently.
“I’ve decided to become your mistress.”
23
Benedick froze in sheer astonishment, staring at her as if she’d suddenly grown two heads. She was looking entirely rational, smiling up at him from her divan like a queen receiving visitors, and for a moment he couldn’t move.
“You’re out of your mind,” he said finally. “You’re the last woman in the world I’d take as a mistress.”
There was a flicker in her dark blue eyes, one he couldn’t read, but her calm was unimpaired. “That’s hardly flattering.”
“I wasn’t intending to flatter you. Merely to tell you the truth. I have no interest in having any mistress, least of all you.”
“I’m hardly an innocent, Lord Rohan. I know men’s bodies, and I recognize desire. You can hardly convince me that you don’t want me.” There was only the slightest note of strain in her voice, and he suddenly realized what that flicker was. Beneath her self-assurance was a very real doubt, and he knew that, strong as she was, he could crush her. Ensure that she never dared offer herself to any man ever again.
It should have been tempting. He’d come to the unhappy conclusion that he didn’t want her bedding anyone else, and he knew better than to sleep with her himself. But he couldn’t be that cruel.
“I do not want a mistress,” he said again in a steadier voice. “And if I did, I would be a very bad choice for you. I’m not particularly kind or thoughtful, and we annoy each other, even if you try to pretend we