Chapter Fourteen

A lice’s mouth dropped open slightly, and Adam wanted to kiss it at once. This was his third time asking rather spontaneously, but in this instance, he had no regret, nor wish to reclaim the words.

His proposal was a reasonable solution, and he liked the idea tremendously.

Yet when she spoke, she surprised him.

“If I weren’t a lady by birth, would we be having this conversation?”

He failed to see what that had to do with anything.

“That’s not fair. I asked you twice before.”

Her mouth twisted. “You did it with great reluctance.”

Adam shrugged and dragged his spoon around in the smoothly cooked oats. “I was attracted to you from the moment I saw you on the street and retrieved your fallen package.”

“Because you thought I was a lady.”

He laughed. “You are a lady who was playing the part of a governess. Regardless, at the time, you simply carried yourself in a way that was appealing, so yes, I thought you were a lady.”

“If you’d known I was a governess, you wouldn’t have spoken with me,” she insisted.

“You weren’t really a governess.”

“I was! I did the work and was paid for it. And may I point out that you didn’t speak to the housemaid with whom I was walking.”

“The blasted maid didn’t have honey-colored hair that caught my attention, nor a wiggle to her arse that made my blood boil.”

His statement was met with silence.

“If you want to say I am superficial,” Adam continued, unable to believe he had to defend his intentions, “then I say, yes, it was your appearance that caught me first. And then your violin playing, and after that, dancing with you and talking with you. Then, of course, kissing you and making you so angry I thought your head would shoot off your body like a cannonball from a cannon. And at every step, I expected there to be something that turned me away, something that dissuaded me from wanting you apart from the impossibility of my marrying a governess. Instead, everything about you drew me further in.”

She took a deep breath, and then she faced him.

“How about rashly giving away my innocence and marrying a man who was a scoundrel? Are those reasons for your admiration? I am a destitute earl’s daughter and disgraced, too. If recognized, I would bring only shame and embarrassment to any man associated with me, including you.”

He reached for her, but she bolted from the step, spilling her tea while scrambling out of his reach.

“As Mrs. Malcolm, wherever I go, I can live peacefully and respectably.”

“You’re living a lie,” he snapped, rising to his feet, “ if you call it living.”

She drew herself up, shoulders back. “Now you are the one who is not being fair. I had no choice, and I made the best of it.”

He had pricked her pride, which was stupid of him.

“I apologize. You have done remarkably well in dire circumstances, fending for yourself, finding a place to live and a way to make money. All of those are things most pampered ladies would not be able to do, nor even conceive of, and if they did think of such a plan, they wouldn’t do it, believing such employment beneath them.”

Alice lifted her chin. “I doubt I shall ever look at anyone making a wage in the same manner as I did before.”

They had strayed far from the original topic.

“Please, my lady, resume your seat.”

After a moment, she did, and so did he. Adam, as his sisters would tell her, was a persistent chap. Thus, after another silent moment, he tried again.

“Lady Alice, will you marry me?”

She said nothing, only staring at him as if he’d grown a second nose. While she considered his proposal, he ate the porridge and set the bowl beside him so he could drink the now-cold tea.

Finally, knowing she was still looking at his profile, he said, “I doubt a man has ever waited so patiently.”

“I doubt a woman was more caught off guard than I,” she said.

“Then you haven’t been paying close attention,” he told her. What were the correct words to make her understand?

“When I still thought you were a governess, I confessed my ardent admiration and asked for your hand. You gave me platitudes about your station and mine, all the while knowing our stations in life were the same. And after yesterday, we know we fit perfectly.”

He stopped looking at the tree line in the distance and turned to see her blushing. A widow who blushed when a man referred to tupping. He liked that about her. He liked everything about her.

The question was, Did she feel the same?

After another long silence, she muttered, “We hardly know one another.”

Relief trickled through him. It wasn’t a definite answer, neither accepting his offer, nor closing the door entirely upon a union. Instead, it was a sensible statement, albeit inaccurate.

“That is not true,” he disagreed. “We have spent many hours together in Bath. But if you want to know more, then ask me a question, and I shall ask you one in return.”

For a moment, he thought she might not play the game, but she nodded.

“How is it your sisters all have such strange names, and you escaped that fate?”

Unexpected, but a fair question.

“I did not escape. My full name is Adamas, which in Latin means —”

“Diamond,” she filled in. “Thus, you are Lord Diamond Diamond. Your parents are an amusing pair.”

“Aren’t they, though? At least I escaped my mother’s second choice, Adamare. Do you also know what that means?”

By the way her cheeks reddened again, he would guess she did. Leaning closer, he kissed her, loving the way she turned to him and kissed him back. They were already a couple as far as he was concerned.

“It’s my turn,” he said when he finally drew back.

“For what?” she asked breathlessly, starting to lean against him.

“To ask you a question.”

Straightening immediately, she had the look of a skittish doe. “If you must.”

“How did you really meet your husband?”

“Completely irrelevant,” she snapped.

“I am merely trying to learn more about you. It wasn’t a public, middle-class dance in London.”

Alice twisted her lips, making him want to kiss her again. But then she relented.

“Very well,” she said, while threading her fingers in the fabric of her skirts. “I met Fairclough the way most people of our class meet, at a private ball.”

“And then?” he asked.

“You asked how we met,” she protested. “That is all. He came up with the master of ceremonies, gained an introduction, and asked for a dance.”

“Your turn,” he said.

“Why aren’t you married already?” she asked. “You are dash-fire handsome and extremely kind and obviously well-off.”

“I am so flawless I should marry myself,” he quipped. His words had the desired effect. Alice started to laugh, and he joined in.

Eventually, he took her chin between his fingers and captured her gaze.

“The answer is obvious, I believe. I simply had not met the right woman.”

She shrugged and tried to look away, but he stopped her.

“Adam,” she warned.

The way she said it sent a sizzle of desire to his loins.

“Yes, Lady Alice?”

She sighed. “You need a nice, innocent young lady. I have told you that before.”

“I don’t want a nice, innocent young lady. I want you.”

Her eyes narrowed at the perceived insult, which made him laugh again.

“You are far more interesting than any other lady I have ever met. I tried not to love you, but I fell hard, anyway. And now I can embrace my feelings for you.”

She stiffened. “Why now? I am no different now than I was in Bath. Lady or governess, what difference?”

“None,” he agreed. “I was willing to go to my family and tell them of my choice for a wife, the fabulous Mrs. Malcolm. It will be easier now.”

“Will it? Are they all of similar opinion that you must marry within your class?”

He stayed silent, thinking. “Honestly, I am not sure. I’ve simply always been surrounded by my peers.”

“You are a snout-nose!”

“What? Don’t be ridiculous.” Then he paused. “Well, aren’t you, too? Aren’t we all to some degree? Did you befriend your housemaids and play cards with your butler when you were Lady Alice or Lady Fairclough?”

“No.” She paused. “I remained with my own class for socializing as people do, no matter what class they belong to. I suppose that is why, as a governess, I made no friends. I was used to being with ladies and had no idea how to make new middle-class acquaintances.”

She bit her lower lip.

“What of your parents? What if they are horrified at my having been a wage-earner?”

“They will think you utter perfection.”

She sighed. “You intended to make me your mistress.”

Ah, that was stuck in her craw, was it?

Any way that he arranged the words, she wouldn’t like his explanation. Most men of his situation knew one thing — widows were for having fun. One escorted them around town with the idea there was a possibility for a sexual encounter at the evening’s end. Moreover, widows from a different class were not for marriage, not when one was the heir to an earldom. Why, he didn’t precisely know.

What he did know was that his friends would have teased him mercilessly had he shown up back home with a widowed governess as his wife. His parents, he hoped, would have accepted whomsoever made him happy, but there might have been the slightest shadow of concern.

Yet he had dismissed all of that and had asked her anyway, both when he thought her a governess and now. As far as he was concerned, he had redeemed his more dishonorable notions.

“At least say you won’t dismiss my suit out of hand. Let me stay here a while, and we can learn more about one another.”

Suddenly, her gorgeous smile appeared, and his heart beat faster.

“It is one of the benefits of being not only a widow but, for all intents, an orphan as well. I can do as I like.”

“And you like me.” Adam put his arm around her slender shoulders and pulled her against him. “Do you not, my lady?”

“Indeed, I do.”