Two Lady Scoundrels and a Duke - Tessa Candle Page 0,39

might construe our being out here alone? For the sake of your reputation, you should wed."

"You are conveniently fastidious about my reputation, when—if it is indeed threatened, which I by no means concede—you have been the one to threaten it."

His face darkened and he drew closer. "Could anyone blame me? When such a temptation stands before me?"

Just then a workman rounded the corner behind Eleanor and spoke up, "I wish you a good morning, m'lord, m'lady."

Eleanor darted away from Lord Auchdun and approached the man. "Good morning to you. Are you headed toward the manor house? I desire an attendant."

It was only after she spoke that she looked at the man's visage. It was coarsely tanned and dirty, and the ivory smile that beamed out at her was too sharp-toothed to be entirely safe. Plus it had a saucily familiar curl of the lip, yet somehow Eleanor trusted this face, though she was at a loss to explain why. She realized she had spoken to him like he was her servant, and added, "If you would be so kind."

"I should like nothing better, my lady."

Auchdun looked furious. "Do you mean to say you would prefer to amble about with this, this…" He glared at the workman for a moment. "Labourer?" His face screwed up as though the word left a dose of quinine upon his tongue. He paused, struggling with the unsavouriness of the situation before finding the strength to continue. “You should allow me to escort you home so that we may attend the morning service together. Would you truly rather walk with this man of questionable moral character than with a pious person of your own station?"

The morning service. Church was not her favourite pastime, but Auchdun’s fanatical attendance had given her an excellent excuse for avoiding services. In fact, he was probably making himself late for church by pursuing her here. What a predictable piece of hypocrisy that the man who was criminally intruding upon the Marquess’ land was so terribly concerned about the state of her soul. It was just added sauce for the pudding that he presumed to put on airs while illicitly addressing himself to a duke’s daughter.

"You are mistaken, Lord Auchdun. You are not of my station. No trespasser can share my station in life."

The vein in Auchdun’s left temple throbbed and his lips became a pale line above his protruding jaw.

He was about to say it. She wished he would. Everyone was thinking it, but no one had the courage to speak of it to her face. Say it, you coward.

But he restrained himself at the last minute and instead hissed at the labourer, "You may consider yourself fortunate that you are so far beneath my rank, else I should call you out for your insolence in interrupting the affairs of your betters."

The man bowed his head. "I beg your lordship's pardon. I had not realized I was interrupting an affair. Thought it was a stone cold refusal. But, then, we folk from lower walks of life often do not understand the finer points of etiquette. Down here in the gutters, when a woman says no, that is that. Ignoring a lady's refusal is a bit of elegance that a simple labourer like me could never hope to master.”

Auchdun took a step toward the man with murder in his eye. “Spying little toad! Have you the audacity to comment upon a private conversation that you had no business listening to?”

Eleanor put herself between Auchdun and his intended victim and raised her hand. She no longer believed the man’s masquerade. He was no workman, but though he might not be who he seemed, she would not let him be assaulted. "You have been dismissed, Lord Auchdun, and, as you have noted, this man is beneath your touch."

Auchdun looked at her, and she could see the calculations turning around in his head. Had he not been on the property illegally, he might have pushed the matter further. But in the end he decided to live and fight another day. "If you prefer to keep company with underlings, I have nothing to say. But it only persuades me that I am correct in my belief that you need a husband to keep you on a Godly path and to protect your reputation—which is menaced from every quarter imaginable, including yourself." He tipped his head to her in the faintest gesture of a bow and strode back down the path without another word.

Eleanor released the breath