Lady Guinevere and the Rogue with a Brogue - Julie Johnstone Page 0,38
work stopping rogues, and that is one of my fondest wishes.”
“Oh, Guinnie,” Lilias said, “this makes me terribly sad for you. Are you certain that you should not investigate further what might be between you and Carrington?”
“I’m certain,” Guinevere replied, “that there is nothing that will lead to a future.” Desire on her part did not count. Many a woman had found their lives utterly ruined because of desire. “Even if he had ever seriously entertained the idea, which we all know he did not, there is no way to explain away how he wed one of my once dearest friends. He never offered any sort of explanation then, nor did he last night, which tells me there is none to offer.”
“Yes, but the way he looked at you at the ball—” Lilias began, but Guinevere shook her head.
“As a cat who has found a mouse to toy with,” Guinevere finished. “Do not imagine that which is not there. Now promise me, both of you, no more talk of him in regard to any sort of future with me.”
Lilias and Vivian looked at each other for a long moment. “So you are set upon Kilgore?” Lilias finally asked, breaking the silence.
Guinevere nodded. “I suppose I am, if he is truly wishing to court me. I imagine I’ll not know that for certain until I return to Town.”
Guinevere willed her heart to skip a beat at the news, but the thing just thumped along at its normal pace. This would be her life though, so she might as well embrace it. She forced a smile to her lips that felt as if it would split her face. “Excellent.”
Lilias snorted. “You need to work on your feigned enthusiasm, darling, if you want Kilgore to truly believe you desire him.”
“My experience with desire is that men want you when they think you do not want them,” she replied mulishly, thinking now on Asher once more.
“If that’s so,” Lilias said, stretching and yawning, “then you should flirt with Carrington to bring Kilgore to heel. If—” she quirked an eyebrow “—that’s what you truly want.”
“Did I not say it was,” Guinevere said, feeling vexed with Lilias for doubting her.
“I suppose you did,” Lilias replied, not sounding as if she believed Guinevere at all.
“I’m beginning to think,” Vivian muttered, “that we—” she motioned between herself and Lilias “—need to focus our collective attention on you, Sister. Between Kilgore and Carrington, if you were anyone but, well, you, we would have you at the top of our list for women who need our aid at our next SLAR meeting.”
Guinevere ignored her sister’s ridiculous statement, though she did note that Lilias and Vivian exchanged a conspiratorial look, as if they might actually do what Vivian had suggested. Guinevere’s thoughts, though, were on Asher. It would be a nice boon to her pride if Asher saw that Kilgore was indeed pursuing her, but she vowed she would not be so conniving as to play such games. Now, if Kilgore wanted to flirt with her in front of Asher… She found she rather anticipated the thought of being able to show the pompous man that he had been incorrect to think Kilgore would not pursue her. She knew she ought not care, but honestly, after all she had endured because of him, it would be nice to make him see that other men found her impossibly desirable, even if it were not true.
Chapter Nine
Being trapped between two mothers who were clearly hunting for a husband for their daughters made Asher question why he had accepted the invitation to this house party. He’d never heard anyone talk as rapidly as his hostess, the Countess of Barrowe, did when she listed all of Lady Lilias’s accomplishments. That was, until the Countess of Longford spoke. She told him no less than four times that he should call on Lady Constantine again, and in between each time, she listed a virtue of her daughter’s. And she did all of this without taking a breath, as far as he could tell.
Neither of these women knew a damn thing about him beyond the fact that he was a duke. It irritated him. Had they met him years earlier, before he had discovered that he was not a bastard, that his father was alive and a duke, these women would not have wanted him as a husband for their daughters. They would be appalled to learn how