Lady Guinevere and the Rogue with a Brogue - Julie Johnstone Page 0,33

useless to deny the obvious. “Aye.”

“Why offer it to me, though?”

“Ye mean because we don’t know each other?” he asked with a low laugh.

“Well, yes and no. Of course, in our set, marriages between virtual strangers are quite common when it benefits both parties.”

“Of course,” he agreed.

“And yet—” she paused, studying him “—unless you were somehow limited in whom you could offer for, I cannot see why you would not offer for Lady Guinevere.”

He ground his teeth. “I told ye—”

“Yes, yes.” She waved a dismissive hand. “There is nothing between you and Lady Guinevere. But I believe I also told you that your face last night revealed the truth.”

Good God, what had his face shown? Lust?

“Are you in a position that you could offer for the lady?” Lady Constantine asked.

“Aye and nay.”

The half smirk she gave him told him she’d heard whispers of his past with Guinevere. She cocked her head. “My mother would say you are being purposely contrary.”

“Yer mother would be incorrect. I am being truthful.” He couldn’t say why he was having such a blunt conversation with this woman, except that he felt certain she would keep his confidence given her own secrets were revealed. But he was at a loss as to what to do now.

“So Lady Guinevere is an acceptable candidate?”

“To the person who has laid the rules before me,” he relented.

“Ah, I see. Why not to you? Given what I saw, I would think—”

“Ye misinterpreted what ye think ye saw, Lady Constantine. Lady Guinevere is, it would seem, in much the same situation as ye.” She had said she was Guin to Kilgore, after all.

“Oh?” She arched her eyebrows. “I think not. You are aware of how gossip works in the ton, are you not?”

“I’m aware,” he replied. He knew it had been whispered that he threw her over for Elizabeth, but he also knew the truth. She had not wanted him in the first place.

“And you still say she is in the same situation as I am?”

“She is,” he assured the woman. “Her affections are reserved for another.”

“Hmm… I think you are incorrect, but—”

“My ears and eyes do not lie,” he ground out, his patience expired.

“Sometimes,” she rejoined slowly, “what you think you hear is not what someone is saying.”

“Well this someone told me bluntly that another called her by a very intimate pet name.”

“Then I would say this someone is attempting to lead you to jealousy.”

Asher paused. Could it be? He shook his head. No, it could not. The past was proof enough. Wasn’t it? “Ye are incorrect. I also saw that this someone did indeed have affections engaged elsewhere.” Just as before.

Lady Constantine grinned at him. “Sometimes what you think you see is also not what it seems.”

“Exactly,” he said, looking meaningfully at her. “You look rather frail and meek, and I suspect that is purposeful.”

“True,” she replied with a smile. “You know, if it were possible, I should very much like to be your friend. I don’t have many. I don’t rub along well with women usually, and it’s not acceptable for men and women to be friends when the woman is unwed. Oh! Could we be secret friends?”

That sounded like trouble, but he’d known what it was like in his life to have no one to talk to, so he nodded.

“Excellent!” She clapped her hands together. “As friends, I shall be very honest with you and give you some advice.”

“Do I need it?” he said on a chuckle.

She nodded. “You have a passion for Lady Guinevere, and she has one for you.” She held up a staying hand. “Please do not continue to be tedious and deny it. You may not like it, but it is so. It was on your faces and fairly crackled in the air. Now—” she took a deep breath “—even if the lady’s affections are engaged elsewhere, she is not, as you said, like me. I know this to be true. Servants talk a great deal, you know.”

“I can imagine,” he said, thinking of his conversation with Cushman. “How is the lady unlike ye, then?” he inquired, deciding to go along with her fantasy for the moment.

“Well, she has sisters who must wed, and they cannot do so until she weds, so she surely feels the need to wed very urgently now. She also has no fortune of her own, so that is an additional consideration. You say her affections belong to another, but I cannot agree given what I saw. Still, to go