be tiring you out.”
“You are hiding something, Lord Huntingdon, and I intend to find out what it is.”
“I was not aware visiting with a friend was some illicit deed.”
A pale brow arched. “It can be if that friend is a certain sort.”
A laugh escaped him. He’d never even had that sort of a friend. Amelia had been the closest to that happening and she’d near sprinted from him when she had seen the size of him. Not that it had shocked him, but he’d rather hoped seeing as they loved each other, they might be able to figure something out. Of course, he could have waited until they were wed, and she had no choice but to do the deed, but he had more respect for the both of them than to do that.
She peered at him. “The duchess is an attractive woman. I do not see how that’s amusing.”
“The duchess has no more interest in me than I do her.”
“What of Lady Steele? She was beautiful and accomplished. You could have been having an affair with her.”
“It takes more than mere beauty and accomplishment to capture my attention.”
“Oh? Like what?”
“Like...” He frowned, trying to recall exactly why he had fallen for Amelia in the first place. She’d been funny and rather vivacious, he supposed. Almost the opposite of him in some ways. Though he still resented their broken engagement and the humiliation that had come with her behavior, he struggled to picture how they would have functioned together these days. “Like courage, and tenacity. A sense of hard work.”
She opened her mouth then closed it. Damn it. He’d just described her, had he not? And she likely well knew it.
“And dark hair,” he added. “Lots of curves. Voluptuous.”
Her gaze narrowed to slits. “Of course.”
“Anyway, I am not having an affair so you can keep that out of your column, Miss Haversham, unless you take pleasure in ruining lives.”
“I do not take pleasure in ruining lives,” Miss Haversham protested. “But it was the only job open to a woman.”
“Why not find another job if you do not enjoy doing it?”
“Spoken like a true noble. Of course you would not understand having to work without pleasure to survive.”
“I understand full well working without pleasure. Most of my duties seldom bring me pleasure, but if I did not do them, my estates would not survive and the people who rely on me to keep them running would flounder.”
She blinked a few times. “Oh. Well, I...” She lifted her chin, bright spots of color on her cheeks. “Well, you will never go hungry.”
“That is true,” he conceded. “And that is where we are different, I suppose.”
DIFFERENT. YES. ENTIRELY different. So why was Freya struggling to remember that? He had wealth, privilege, education.
Good looks.
She had none of those. Everything she had was fought for and it still wasn’t enough. But if this story broke…
No, when this story broke and she found out what had happened to those women, she would finally be recognized as a reporter of note. The newspaper couldn’t turn down any of her future articles after that, surely?
“Perhaps it might be best if you turn your attention to another story,” Lord Huntingdon suggested. “Surely there is something else you can write about that does not involve you hiding in trees and following me about?”
“Well, you would like that, would you not? Especially if you were guilty.”
His brows lifted. “You think me involved in their disappearance?”
“Well...” She pressed her lips together. Wonderful, now she had put herself in thoroughly hot water, practically assuming a peer of the realm of kidnap.
That wasn’t exactly what she was saying but he had to be hiding something. “Why else would you be so insistent I drop the story?”
“Perhaps because I’m getting a little tired of having my every move watched, not to mention you are so exhausted you haven’t noticed that half of your hair has spilled free and that your coat buttons are done up wrong.”
“Oh.” She put a hand to her hair and felt a long spiral of it trailing down the back of her coat. Then she glanced at her buttons and grimaced. If her plan today had been to make an utter fool of herself, she was doing a fine job of it.
“If it’s any consolation, your hair is quite lovely.”
Freya rose sharply from the bench. “I do not need your patronizing compliments, my lord.” Especially about the one thing she actually took pride in.
He held up both hands. “I promise there