Page 36 of A Hint of Scandal

He smiled. Watkins had suggested he should smile a lot to make sure she knew he liked her company. It wasn’t hard, as after all, he did find her company interesting. A little intriguing, even. “Then why are you sipping it yourself?”

It must have been a natural reaction to taste the lemonade as he handed it to her. Her color deepened, and she glanced about herself furtively. “I shall drink this one myself and then fetch her another.”

He smiled. “I would rather you didn’t return to wait upon that rather spoiled young lady, but instead spent a little time with me.”

Let her know you want to spend time with her, Watkins had said. Make sure she knows how much you want to please her.

Serafina flustered was a sight to behold, with flushed cheeks and widened eyes, her breasts rising and falling as though she were finding it hard to breathe. Max had never truly learned to flirt, as his previous associations with women had been with ladies of a different class during his time at Oxford and in the army, none of which had begun in a ballroom. However, Watkins seemed to have a natural instinct for how to engage the feelings of a young lady of class.

“Perhaps you would care to promenade around the ballroom with me, as I cannot ask you to dance?” Max said, as this was another of Watkins’s suggestions. Did the working classes do much the same at whatever dances they might hold?

Serafina shot him a puzzled look, but when he set down his untouched lemonade and held out his good left arm, she slipped her hand into the crook. “That would be most agreeable.” She appeared to have herself back under control. It occurred to him to wonder what might have been going through her mind since that drive in the park and his rather ham-fisted proposal. He wasn’t used to putting himself in the shoes of another, at least, not unless it was another soldier on the battlefield. And especially not seeing inside the head of such an alien creature as a woman.

He steered her slowly around the dance floor, conscious of the curious stares of more than a few of the other guests. Let them stare. What made him more of a spectacle than all the other gentlemen doing exactly the same thing? His arm, of course, and the fact that he was escorting a young lady none of them would recognize.

“I fear I might have offended you yesterday afternoon,” he said, sticking to his plan to grab the proverbial bull by the horns. Not that Serafina remotely resembled a bull.

She looked up at him, her gaze direct. “I was not offended.”

Well, that was something. What next? “Perhaps I was a little too blunt in what I said to you.”

She gave a small shrug of her slender shoulders. “You were honest, and I admire honesty in a person.”

All good so far. “But in matters of… marriage, I fear total honesty is something less than romantic.”

She smiled. “On the contrary, honesty is to be admired and sought after where marriage is concerned. I would not want to enter into any contract where honesty was not at the forefront of the arrangement.”

His vow to approach her in a more romantic fashion, as advised by Watkins, seemed to rapidly be disintegrating. And she was doing the demolition. “You didn’t mind when I told you why I need to marry?”

She shook her head. “Always best to be frank from the very start.”

As this was how he’d felt himself only yesterday, he couldn’t argue with her reasoning. However, he had to inject romance in here somewhere. “But I neglected to tell you why I want to marry.”

Her brow furrowed. “Why, you wish to marry because if you don’t you won’t receive your substantial inheritance. Plain and simple. I believe there is nothing more to say on that subject.”

For a moment Max was lost for words. He’d been planning to tell her that he wanted to marry her rather than anyone else because he admired her, because he liked her, and because he found her good company, but she’d forestalled him there. Probably Watkins would have protested that those were not romantic reasons. Damn Watkins. This was not going the way he’d predicted.

She, however, was not at all lost for words. “Am I being presumptuous in thinking that the reason for your approach this evening is to press your suit?”

He nodded. “It is.” Not much else he could say.

She halted, turning slightly to look up at him, her gray eyes veiled and her expression unreadable. “Then I shall set your mind at rest. You may have my acceptance, Captain Aubrey. I agree to marry you so that you may receive your inheritance and that I might become the chatelaine of your estate. Your conditions of marriage suit me well. I shall escape my brother’s house and endeavor to perform my duties as hostess for you whenever required.” She drew a breath. “It will be, as you said, a marriage of convenience, and we will both continue to live our lives as we see fit.”

Max stared at her, all thoughts of how to smooth the way between them flown. Her demeanor had changed to businesslike, her words were calm and sounded well rehearsed. That she’d been planning how to accept his proposal seemed evident. So why wasn’t he feeling pleased?

Pushing his worries out of his head, he bowed over her hand, then lifted it to his lips. “I shall be honored to have you as my wife… Miss Gilbert.” Their easy intimacy as friends at the museum and in the park had vanished.

She nodded. “And I shall be honored to have you as my husband, Captain.” She paused. “And now, perhaps, we had better go and inform my brother and his wife. I fear my niece will not be happy that I have received and accepted an offer of marriage before her. She may need some mollification.”