Redeeming the Reclusive Earl - Virginia Heath Page 0,35

see glimpses of affability which make me inclined to allow myself to like you.’

‘Affability? Like?’ A prospect which bizarrely made him ridiculously happy. ‘That is worrying. Clearly I need to try harder at pushing people away if that is the case. I can’t have you liking me. Society might crumble.’

‘And visitors might call.’

‘There is that. I should probably start being obnoxious again to keep them all at bay.’

‘Probably best—if you are truly committed to being a proper recluse.’

‘Oh, I am. Entirely committed.’ Although he wasn’t quite so committed concerning her if the digging and dinner were anything to go by. Or the escorting her home. A proper recluse wouldn’t do that either.

They reached a low wall and he found himself helping her over it and much sooner than he would have liked reached her front door.

‘Thank you for seeing me home, Lord Rivenhall.’

‘You are welcome, Miss Nithercott.’

She opened the door and passed him back his coat, leaning on the frame as he put it back on. As he threaded his arms into the sleeves, he could smell the scent of lilacs and roses on the fabric, feel the warmth of her body in the lining.

‘Goodnight, Lord Beastly.’

‘Goodnight, Miss Know-it-all.’

‘You do realise that insult doesn’t begin with an N, like all your others.’

‘The K is silent so it doesn’t count. As a genius, you, of all people, should know that.’

She grinned and slowly closed the door, leaving him smiling on her doorstep all alone with the sultry roses and lilacs. They kept her with him all the way home.

* * *

‘What the blazes are you doing?’

Max had fought the inexplicable need to seek her out for three days and had assumed to find her with her head stuck in a hole—not wielding a pickaxe.

‘I have been looking for the wall to the dwelling and ironically hit one. Except this one is more modern than the one I am seeking so it has to come out as it’s in the way.’ She leaned the handle of the tool against the deep wall of the trench and bent to dislodge the stones she had loosened, tossing them out on to an ever-growing pile near his feet. ‘Did you apologise to your sister?’

‘I did.’ She had a nerve reminding him—but he admired it. ‘She wants me to invite you to dinner again as penance.’

‘If that was an invitation, my lord, it was a poor one.’ Another rock clattered on the pile. ‘And obviously, for both our sakes, I shall decline it.’

‘That’s very decent of you.’

‘Indeed it is. Besides, not that I care overmuch for etiquette, but it would hardly be proper for me to have dinner with a man unchaperoned.’

‘Not that I want you to reconsider my poor invitation, but it would be entirely chaperoned. Eleanor would be there.’

‘I thought she was staying only till Saturday.’

‘My sister is a law unto herself and has been annoyingly non-committal regarding her departure date. Obviously, as a dedicated and proper recluse, I am counting the minutes till I see the back of her. However, I anticipate I am to be burdened with her presence for at least a few more days unless I can think of a better plan to evict her than boring her to death, which is all I have at the moment.’

‘If you purchased some dogs, you could set them on her.’

‘And you, too. I cannot deny I’ve given it some serious thought.’

She grinned and grabbed her pickaxe again. ‘They say a dog is man’s best friend.’

‘Which is exactly why I haven’t gone ahead with the purchase. A proper recluse eschews all friends—four-legged or otherwise.’ He watched, fascinated, as she swung the pickaxe into the compacted earth and then felt guilty that she was swinging it, cursing himself for the gentlemanly good manners his mother had instilled in him. ‘Would you like some help?’

‘I can manage.’

‘I was never in any doubt of that, Miss Nithercott—but I have the sudden compunction to be neighbourly. You