Page 47 of The Earl’s Hoyden

However, the more he tried to get away, the more they seemed to chase him down, almost desperate in their need for his undivided attention. When at last he pushed onto the terrace, Hannah was standing in front of the door, her hand reaching for the latch to open it and return inside.

She backed up, slightly startled. “I didn’t think you were going to come.”

“Forgive me,” he replied. “I was detained.”

Her arms were crossed over her chest and the breath fogged from her in frozen puffs. Lucien immediately took his jacket off and placed it around her shoulders, guiding her toward a corner with a wall that would buffet the wind from them.

“Too many adoring women?” she asked through chattering teeth.

“You’re freezing. We ought to return inside.”

“No.” She gazed up at him, her mouth hard with a stubbornness that made him want to kiss them soft again. “I want this resolved.”

Lucien sighed, noting the welcome scent of her perfume on his inhale. “Have you spoken to your father?”

She frowned. “My father? What does he have to do with this?”

Unease clenched low in Lucien’s belly. Lord Westwich had not divulged the details of their conversation with Hannah. However, if Lucien had to choose between Westwich and Hannah’s loyalty, he would choose Hannah. Without thought, prevarication or hesitation. Always.

“My constant presence at your side is preventing suitors from pursuing you,” Lucien explained.

Hannah stared at him for a long moment as his words settled over her.

“Are you serious?” she asked.

“Of course, I am.”

Her gaze narrowed. “My father told you this, didn’t he?”

Lucien didn’t reply.

“Was this my father’s doing?” Her eyes flashed with a deep anger Lucien had never seen before.

“I don’t want to keep you from being approached by suitors, Hannah. I won’t let you sacrifice your future for mine.”

She continued to stare up at him, her expression one of bewilderment. “What suitors?”

“Precisely,” he replied. “Haven’t you noticed that no other men have even so much as asked you to dance in the time you’ve been helping me?”

“None of that matters.” Her chin tilted with indignation. “I told you I have no plans to marry.”

“I’m aware of this,” he replied. “Though I’m not sure your father knows this, nor that he would support your decision.”

“Of course, he wouldn’t support it.” Hannah turned away from him. Her shoulders squared with rage beneath the outline of his jacket. “He and my mother both think I deserve the sort of love they discovered with one another.”

Lucien approached cautiously and set his hands on Hannah’s shoulders. He wanted to grasp them and turn her back around toward him, to kiss her beneath the wide, open face of the moon until they were both breathless.

Now, he realized. He needed to tell her what she meant to him now.

“You do deserve that,” Lucien said gently.

“No one believes that except my parents.” She shook her head. “Least of all me.”

“You might meet someone…a man who makes you come alive, who makes you feel like you are perfect exactly as you are,” he said, speaking of himself and how he felt about her.

“Do you know why I want to be a spinster?”

“No, though I can’t imagine a woman of your radiance ever being a spinster,” he confessed. His heart pounded in anticipation for sharing with her exactly how beautiful he thought her to be. Not only her vibrance, but her wit, her appearance, her kindness and how desperately he wished she might consider being courted by him.