Page 110 of A Very Bellamy Christmas

“He even took my father’s personal possessions—his books, his few pieces of jewelry, not just the Clayton signet.”

“Was there no provision for you?”

“My father’s will was old, made when he reached his majority and he never thought to change it. There is a little money that was part of my mother’s settlement, but it is not enough.”

“I cannot believe he threw you out. What a scoundrel. I beg your pardon for my blunt words, but there is no excuse for that.”

“He was…angry.”

“That is no reason to toss a woman out on the street. What about your aunt—you mentioned your mother’s sister?”

“Er, she was angry, too.”

“What, pray, happened to make them both so angry that they would abandon a—how old were you?”

“I had just turned one-and-twenty.”

“What happened to make them abandon a young woman barely of legal age?”

“I think I have already shared enough, my lord.”

“You are going to be my wife, Miss Martin—” he broke off with an irritated huff. “What is your Christian name?”

“We do not yet know that will be necessary, my lord. It is poss—”

He gave an unamused laugh. “You are lying in a bed with me, alone, in the middle of the night. There is no getting out of this, ma’am. My name is Andrew, so you might as well—Eustacia! That is it!” He felt foolish, not to mention disturbed. How had he almost forgotten her name when he had so recently learned it?

“Ugh. Nobody calls me that, my lord.”

Andrew shook off his unease. “Tell me what you prefer or I will call you Eustacia.”

“Stacia.”

“Stacia.” He liked the sound of that a great deal more than Eustacia, which called to mind a strict governess, the sort of woman who’d rap your knuckles at the slightest infraction. Of course there was a certain appeal to that, as well…

“I do not wish to share all the details of my life. At least not without some reciprocation,” she added.

“Good Lord! I told you about Sarah—was that not reciprocation enough?”

“It was a start,” she said primly, shifting and sending another tantalizing whiff of something floral to tease his nostrils.

Roses. She smelled like roses.

“I propose we exchange information the tried-and-true way,” she said.

“Which is?”

“Question or Command.”

Andrew gave a startled laugh. What in the world had come over the prim and proper Miss Martin?

***

What in the world had come over her?

Stacia was stunned at the words that had come out of her mouth. Who would have guessed that something as simple as darkness could make her so bold?

“I accept,” Lord Shelton said before Stacia could retract her words. “I will go first—”