Page 16 of Discovering Her Earl

While she was no demure girl, she also didn’t want to spend the evening with a group of ribald miscreants. And if she was also pleased to have Lord Melville to herself, it wasn’t worth mentioning.

And when had she started thinking of him as Lord Melville rather than Lord Mel-villain? This was not good at all.

She stood on the battlefield with nothing with which to defend herself, spare the smile that came to her lips when she entered the room. He stood to greet her, his own smile pulling up.

“Miss Bantham, I hoped you would join me for dinner though I didn’t want you to feel obligated.”

He’d hoped? For her? Of course, he hadn’t meant it the way she’d rearranged his words in her mind.

“Sharing a meal is better for digestion is it not?” she said, sensibly.

“I whole-heartedly agree. Would you care for some wine?”

“Yes, please,” she said as he assisted her into her seat across from his as any fine gentleman would.

In her darkest days, she’d envisioned the man as a monster. Seeing him with his elegant manners on display was surprising, though she couldn’t remember a time over the last few weeks when he hadn’t been the very thing of gentlemanly behavior.

The scents of beeswax candles, roasted meat, and whatever fragrance clung to Melville provided additional comfort to the cozy room. The exposed beams and the stone hearth gave it a homey feel.

After he had poured her wine, he raised his own glass.

“A toast to new friends and old treasures.”

She hesitated just a moment before smiling and tapping her glass to his. He’d made it clear he was only interested in friendship, and she hadn’t expected more. She wished she hadn’t thought of more. How had she gone from hating him to wondering what it might feel like to kiss him in the space of one day?

Was she so fickle? So desperate for a man’s attention? So weak?

She didn’t think herself so, but the smile that pulled up on her lips in answer to his was proof she wasn’t as formidable as she’d thought herself to be.

Familiar disappointment and irritation flared as he put her soundly in her place. Friends.

The first bricks of her wall came up. She was in danger of wanting the very man who made it quite clear he would never want her. Another brick and another went up as she ate the meal that now tasted of ash and listened to him weave his web of betrayal. With every laugh and every glimpse of that dimple that only came out when he smiled in earnest, she repaired the wall he’d so easily brought down.

She would have to keep a better watch. He had declared them friends. It would be difficult to extricate herself now.

If nothing else, acting the part of his friend would allow her access to mete out her plan of retaliation, though she had yet to settle on a proper retribution. She shouldn’t have lost sight of what she’d wanted because he’d been kind to her during their travels.

He was still the Villain Melville she’d first encountered many years ago. She was a fool to expect anything else.

*

It seemed as if Julian was starting from the beginning with Miss Bantham. She’d offered a smile for his toast, but he certainly felt a chill coming from her.

He didn’t know what he’d said to offend her again, perhaps she was just of a constitution to sway from one emotion to the next at random.

He’d called them friends to ensure she didn’t think he had entertained any lewd thoughts of her, even if he had more than a few the entire time he’d changed for dinner.

As they’d traveled, he’d worked hard for every laugh and smile and been rewarded more easily as they moved north. He’d shared things with her he hadn’t told another soul and now he wondered why.

Miss Bantham was a sorceress with powers his mortal mind could not grasp.

It was not as he’d thought originally, that his interest in her was simply the mystery she presented by her unjustified anger. Perhaps it had started out that way, but he found he simply liked spending time with her.

“I see you managed to dress without your valet,” she noted as the serving maid left the room after bringing them another bottle of wine.

“It might be the first time since I became the earl. I nearly forgot how it was done,” he joked and earned an indulgent smile from her.

He wanted to get them back to where they’d been in the carriage. Sharing and laughing.