Page 16 of Beguiling the Baron

“That would take more effort than I can be bothered to summon,” he drawled. “No, I wanted to make sure we understood one another.”

“My lord, I don’t presume to understand you, and I’m quite certain you don’t understand me.”

“Merely a figure of speech, Miss Wyndham. I have a great deal to say about your attitude toward educating Polly, but to make sure you remember it, I’ll write some points down in a note.”

He waited, but she showed no inclination to leave. “Was there something else you wished to say?” he inquired, with a sigh of resignation.

A flush suffused her cheeks. She could be quite pretty—if she weren’t so annoying. Then he divined her thoughts, and an icy hand closed around his heart. Confound it, was she the same as the rest of them, all the tabbies and gossips, the people who thought he’d done away with Mary? Or maybe she was more charitable in her imaginings and believed he was keeping his wife locked up somewhere in punishment for some misdemeanor, or that she’d run mad and was now incarcerated in the tower.

Disappointment mingled with anger and without thinking, he took hold of her and pulled her close until she had to bend her neck to look up at him. Her face a mask of shock, she tried to pull away, but he refused to release her. His fingers dug into the soft flesh of her arms, making him aware of the delicate bones beneath. He was being a brute, but he couldn’t help himself.

“Now listen to me, Galatea Wyndham,” he growled. “There are no skeletons in any of my closets, however hard you search. My wife is truly dead and lies in the crypt beneath Foxleaze. I’m not using the folly as a laboratory to give animation back to her corpse like Victor Frankenstein.” At her blink, he added wearily, “You look amazed. You never expected me to have any modern literature in my collection, I imagine.”

She has no idea what kind of a man I am. None at all. He shook his head. “I don’t know what ideas your fevered imagination may have conjured up, but none of them comes near the truth.”

Her eyes widened, and she shivered in his grasp. He released her instantly, hating himself for being the cause of her horrified expression, and wondered if there was any way of summoning up a reassuring grin.

He tried it, and she took two steps backward.

“Pray do not grimace at me. I promise I’m not in the least bit ungrateful for all the kindnesses you have bestowed on us, but your manners are deplorable.”

He gasped, but she carried on regardless.

“I know I should not say this to my benefactor—”

“Undoubtedly.”

“Lest you take offense and turn us out. But I thought you needed to know my mama is most upset by your attitude and that you’re making an enemy of Polly with your aloofness and your rigid rules. The girl needs a father, sir, and it is your duty, your duty—but I can see in your face I’m wasting my time. You might as well be deaf and blind, for all the notice you take of anybody.”

Having delivered that volley, she spun on her heel, hastily gathered up her sketchbooks and pencils, and headed back to the house.

Turning away, Hal thrust his hands behind his back and stalked down the grassy slope toward the lake. A coot scudded away as he approached the bank and he gazed down at the rippled water until the surface settled. Seeing his reflection, framed by billowing white clouds and azure sky, Hal leaned down and peered more closely.

The Wyndham chit was right to be afraid, damn her. He looked debauched, with his lank locks and shadowed eyes. No wonder people imagined terrible things about him. But maybe it was for the best, for on the whole it kept them away, and solitude was what he craved more than anything.

He would have to find a way to assert his will over the flighty Miss Wyndham, or his life was going to become a great deal more difficult. The simplest solution would be to get rid of the women. He’d find them somewhere else to live, of course, and make sure they had whatever they needed.

But he’d better set about it soon before they became too attached to their new home—or to Polly. He would have a word with Lynch this afternoon and see what could be done.