Page 14 of Vanquishing the Viscount

“Pah!” he spat out, glowering at her. “If you were a lady, I might be expected to behave in a more gallant fashion, but as you are not, we’ll dispense with the niceties. What, pray, are you doing here? And pretending to be a countess?”

Her hackles rose. “By what right do you ask that question? My affairs are no concern of yours.”

“You don’t deny it, then?” His eyes narrowed. “I see. This will be some madcap scheme of Philippa’s or Charles’s, I assume? For, I know you’re just a governess in the Keanes’ employ, a Miss…Hibbard, I believe? It amuses you, does it, to make fools of the ladies and gentlemen who have so generously delved into their pockets in order to be here tonight? No doubt, you’ve made no charitable contribution, since a mere governess’s wages couldn’t possibly hope to meet the expense of a ticket.”

“Hibbert,” she corrected with a lift of her chin. “And I can assure you that my ticket has been paid for. But I still don’t see what this matter has to do with you, my lord.”

“Do you expect me to believe you don’t know this is my ball, organized to raise funds for my charity? That you don’t know this is my home? I’m entirely within my rights to have you thrown out into the cold as an impostor.”

At his words, Emma’s confidence dissolved into consternation. “Y…your home?”

“Well, my father’s, to be exact. The Earl of Rossbury. Neither he nor I approve of servants masquerading as guests.”

The unfairness of this remark cut her to the quick. How she longed to correct him. She wasn’t truly a servant. She came from a great, ancient family! She wished for nothing more at this moment than to be back in their loving embrace.

A tear sprang to her eye in the face of Tidworth’s disdain. “You don’t understand,” was all she managed to say.

“Then help me to do so. Explain yourself.”

Could she explain the situation without implicating Mr. Charles and Miss Keane? If Tidworth valued Charles’s friendship, he might be persuaded not to make a scene.

“We meant no harm, my lord,” she replied. “It was meant to be a joke, but I realize under the circumstances how it could be taken amiss.”

Why hadn’t Charles or Philippa told her it was a charity ball? Tidworth’s ball? Perhaps she should have asked for more information, but she’d been starved of fun for so long, she’d allowed herself to be talked into the harebrained plan far too readily.

“I shall ask Mr. Charles to take me home directly,” she said contritely, eager for escape. She was feeling guilty and foolish.

Tidworth’s eyes glinted. “I knew Charles was behind it. Did he coerce you? He can be very persuasive.”

Yes, he could. And how should she have responded? Made an enemy of her employer’s son by refusing?

“It would have been wise,” Tidworth went on, “if he’d informed me of this idiotic prank.”

“It wouldn’t have been a prank if he’d told you,” she said, perhaps a trifle mulishly.

“Noble of you to stick up for him, but he won’t thank you for it. Charles’s loyalties are somewhat…changeable.”

She regarded Tidworth. “Those are not the words of a friend. I’m surprised Mr. Charles considers you such.”

Did the man not realize he sounded like a pompous ass? It must be his usual state. He’d been just as unpleasant to her after he fell from his horse.

Her guilt started to evaporate.

“Now you’re sounding childish,” he said between his teeth. “What manner of governess is no better than her pupils? The Keanes should turn you out.”

“How dare you!” she said with a gasp of affront. “You’re quite the most ungracious and ungrateful person I’ve ever met!”

“And you are the most stubborn, illogical…impossible female I have ever had the misfortune to come across. If you only knew what your thoughtless actions have done to me. But no, I don’t wish to speak of it.”

She unclenched her fists and made a supreme effort to control her temper. She was better than this.

“What is my crime?” she demanded quietly. “Beyond having masqueraded at a masquerade? And even though I’m not a countess, I’m not as lowborn as you seem to think me.”

He lowered his voice and moved closer, dipping his head so he could meet her gaze directly. “If you were born into a good family,” he said, “I can only think they’ve disinherited you due to some scandal, which is why you’ve had to go into service.”

The urge to slap him was so strong it almost took her breath away. She had to leave. Before she did—or said—something she might really regret. Tears brimmed in her eyes but she couldn’t let the odious man see what he’d done to her.

She bent and swept up her mask from the floor.