He hadn’t really answered my question. “No, I don’t care. However, I do not want to be somewhere I’m not accepted. I have no desire to make things awkward for me, or for your acquaintances.”
We moved down the steps, toward the carriage. The sun had set, yet the street glowed warmly from the lanterns. Drifts of snow were piled along the footpath. It looked like a painting. Everything was perfect. Almost too perfect. It made me uneasy for some reason.
A door opened next door, and a finely dressed man and woman stepped outside. Their attention went immediately to us. I moved closer to Gabe and lowered my gaze.
“They’ll accept you. They will have to, or they will offend me.”
I gave him a wavering smile, hoping to see the warmth in his eyes that I’d witnessed last night. “And no one wants to offend you?”
“No, they don’t.”
He said it without the least bit of humor. His arrogance was back in full force. He’d become the man I’d met in the Landcaster library over a month ago. It stunned me, made me uneasy. Had something happened? Had I done something not to his liking? I’d barely been out of my room; how could I have offended him already?
He helped me into the carriage. I sank onto the plush leather seats, my heart thumping madly. A shiver of unease trembled through me. Everything was happening too fast. His brother had given me an indecent offer, and I was going to a dinner where I would be judged and labeled unfit, as if I’d already become his mistress. He settled across from me and the carriage jolted forward.
“Are you sore from last night?”
I blushed. “Only a little.”
He handed me a folded blanket. “I would like to discuss our arrangement,” he said.
This was it…the moment I’d been waiting for. I smoothed the blanket over my legs, noting the way my hands trembled, but trying to ignore the telling reaction. The entire world felt as if it had been knocked off its axis. “Arrangement?”
He settled back in the shadows, so I could barely see his features. “Your agreement to be my mistress.”
Frantically, I shook my head. “I never agreed.”
“There are a few things I need to make clear,” he continued, as if he hadn’t heard my protests. “First of all, I expect you to be faithful.”
My chest felt tight. I found it suddenly hard to breathe. We’d never seriously discussed his proposition before. Here, now, he acted as if it were a forgone conclusion. “And will you?”
He hesitated, as if startled. “This isn’t about me.”
I smoothed my gloved hands down my satin skirts, taking in a deep breath. My fingers were trembling. I couldn’t make them stop. He seemed so different. I didn’t know this man. “I disagree.”
He watched me quietly. Outside, the thump of horse hooves upon snow mirrored the thunder of my heart. Just when I’d assumed I’d made him angry, a slow smile spread across his lips, those brilliant white teeth flashing in the dark. That smile did odd things to me. I was absolutely lost when he was near, when he looked at me that way.
“Very well. What are your stipulations?”
Finally, this was the teasing, amused Gabe I’d expected. The Gabe I enjoyed. “If I agree, our relationship will end when you marry. Your brother said you might marry soon, and your wife would not take kindly to a mistress.”
He scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Many married men have mistresses, and their wives not only accept, but encourage it.”
I waited for him to smile, because surely, he was jesting. Apparently, he wasn’t. “I will not do that to another woman.”
“Morals?” He looked out the window, but not before I notice the flash of annoyance in his gaze. “I had to find the one mistress with morals.”
“I’m not a mistress.”
He gave me a hard look. “Yet.”
I ignored him, ignored the shiver of unease that raced down my spine. Ignored the hammering of my heart, and the warning bells clamoring in my head. “I will not live with you. You will buy me a small apartment in a respectable area immediately.”
I could hear myself speaking, knew I was agreeing. It didn’t sound like me, yet the words came from my lips.
He quirked a brow and leaned back. “Will I?”
“I won’t be judged by your staff day after day. You can visit me at my place.”
He drummed his fingers against his hard thigh. A thigh I’d