Redeeming the Reclusive Earl - Virginia Heath Page 0,33
great deal about you, although heaven only knows why.’
His bark of laughter was sudden and unexpected. ‘You are fearless, Miss Nithercott. I have to give you credit for that. Most people tiptoe around me nowadays. Even Eleanor bites her acid tongue and she has always been a relentlessly bossy older sister.’
‘Then I would say your quest to push people away has been a resounding success.’
His dark brows furrowed until he eventually sighed. ‘Yet I am not pleased by it.’
She did not want to let him off the hook, but compassion and curiosity was already dampening her temper. ‘Perhaps you no longer want to be left alone, Lord Rivenhall? Have you considered that?’
Chapter Nine
One conundrum of a woman...
Max was not the least bit ready to talk about that—or anything so intensely personal—but later he should probably think upon it because he felt she probably had a point. ‘A more interesting question is why you are all alone? Every time I see you, at dinner tonight, with your head stuck in a hole, even in the dead of night, it is never with anybody else.’ They started to walked onwards again. More slowly this time and less than a foot apart. Bizarrely, it felt..sy. ‘Where is your chaperon?’
‘I am long past the age when I need one of those.’
‘Still—ladies do not usually take to the streets on their own. They always take a relative. Don’t you have any aunts or uncles or cousins, Miss Noxious?’
She glanced away and shrugged, yet the shrug tugged at his heartstrings. ‘No. None. The Nithercotts are a dying breed.’
‘Then there is nobody? Who checks you are home safe or if you have arrived at your destination?’
‘I have servants—Mr and Mrs Farley—and they always know exactly where to find me. If I am not at home I am at the Abbey.’ Her eyes sought his again boldly. ‘With my head stuck in a hole.’
‘Do you like being alone?’
Her mouth opened, then closed and she shrugged again instead. ‘I am used to it.’
‘That doesn’t answer my question.’
‘Not many would choose to be alone, my lord, but it is what it is and I make the best of it.’
‘By burying yourself in your work.’
‘Better that than moping around and feeling sorry for myself.’
‘Touché, Miss Nithercott.’ Max found himself smiling again. The second time she had amused him with her forthrightness in as many minutes, when little amused him any more.
‘I apologise. It wasn’t meant as a dig. More a reflection on myself. I have, on occasion, allowed myself to dwell on all life’s negatives and indulge in self-pity.’
The dead mother. The dead father. And then the dead fiancé.
That could not have been easy. A timely and poignant reminder that not only his life had been flipped on its head by a cruel twist of fate. ‘Losing someone you love is always hard.’ Whether that be by death or blatant disgust. ‘But as my sister is prone to say, time eventually heals all wounds.’ Something Max wanted to believe, but didn’t. Some wounds were too extreme to heal fully.
‘Rupert was a lovely man. Patient, good natured and could tolerate my company.’
‘Tolerate?’ What an odd choice of word. ‘If you will pardon me for saying, that doesn’t sound particularly...’ He stopped himself from finishing the sentence.
‘Romantic?’ She did not seem offended and smiled wistfully. ‘It wasn’t a love match Lord Rivenhall. I have never been misguided enough to expect that. More a meeting of minds. Rupert was a great friend of your uncle’s and, like he, found my passion for history and antiquity interesting. Over time, we formed a friendship and because he was older and wanted companionship and I was sat on the shelf gathering dust, a marriage when he retired from the army seemed a sensible solution for both of us. The campaign to Spain was supposed to be his last. And it was. Except he never came home.’
Every bit of that story depressed him. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘So am I.’ She shrugged again and gathered her flimsy shawl tightly at her neck. ‘I