Chapter Eight #3
The horses seemed quite happy to take a rest. Flies buzzed around their heads and their ears twitched at them. Tails swished, and one of them stamped a back foot.
He was staring at her in open astonishment as though he couldn’t understand what he’d said to offend her.
The oaf. “What on earth do you want to walk back to Town for? It must be all of eight miles to your aunt’s house.
You can’t walk that far. Not in those shoes.
” He waved a disparaging hand at her dainty footwear, which her aunt had bought her along with the new gown and bonnet she had on.
Verity looked down at her feet. Damn it. He was right. This made her even more angry. “Do not concern yourself. I shall beg a ride on some passing wagon. I am well used to looking after myself.”
How dare he imply she’d given herself to someone before in order to pay off Papa’s debts.
In fact, the implication was that he thought she’d done so many times.
How bloody dare he. More anger bubbled up in her, almost impossible to control.
She would have liked to have slapped his cheek, had she not so precipitately descended from his curricle.
Or dealt him a proper facer, something she’d had to do to that lustful prince.
Lord Dunster’s handsome face took on an air of even more intense bewilderment. Had he no idea how much he’d just insulted her? Was he more of an idiot than she’d at first assumed? “Whatever do you want to walk back for?”
She glared at him. “You-you have no idea, do you? You sit up there in your expensive curricle behind your expensive horses that you’ll drive back to your enormous house and leave your servants to look after while you go inside and sit down and drink a bottle of-of port or brandy until you’re in your cups and then go out and gamble as much money as you like because you have oodles of it to spare.
And you judge me?” She had to stop to take a breath.
No sign of comprehension dawned on his face.
He continued to regard her in deep confusion.
This was a man who had no understanding of how others less well off than he lived.
He’d lived a life of luxury and indulgence.
He’d never had to worry about what he would eat the next day, or where he would lay his head.
What an absolute idiot. An overindulged, spoiled idiot.
“I cannot believe you don’t realize how much you have insulted me,” she snapped, and forced herself to take another steadying breath.
“You have had the temerity, the utter temerity, to suggest that this is not the first time I have been prepared to surrender myself to some…some man in order to pay my father’s debts.
” She would not say gentleman because she didn’t think he was one.
“Well, let me tell you that is absolutely not true. Not true at all. This was the first time my father had ever done this. The first time I was ever asked to offer myself in payment.” She would have stamped her foot in rage but caution prevented her.
“And had you been a gentleman, you would have found me employ in your house as a maid. But you are not a gentleman. And your implication that I am not a lady cuts to the quick. I am horrified by your suggestion. Horrified. Mortified. Disgusted that you might think such a thing of me.” She had to pause for breath.
“I am untouched, I can assure you, and I fully intend to remain that way.”
Realization dawned on his face. “Oh.”
The Tiger was trying hard not to smirk.
“Yes. Oh. Now you understand, do you? Is that why you brought me out here, all alone, instead of taking me for a quiet ride in the park as my aunt specified?” She disregarded how happy she’d been at the outset to be going for a proper drive at speed.
That didn’t count. “Did you think that because I wasn’t a lady, which I repeat that I am, it would not matter?
You could perhaps importune me when no one was about to see? ”
Those black eyes flashed between his winged brows, giving him more than a passing look of Satan himself.
Again. She could quite see why his nickname was the Black Earl and why the rumors about him had circulated.
“I can assure you, Miss Farrington, that I had no other intention than to exercise my horses and give you the pleasure of a drive in the countryside. We are, as you are well aware, about to be married, so there would be no incentive for me to forestall the ceremony by seducing you in my curricle. Which you will note, I am driving and which needs both my hands on the reins for safety’s sake.
How you imagine I would importune you, I have no idea.
Plus, we have Samson riding behind us.” He shot a glance at the Tiger who ducked his head to hide his mirth.
Clearly it did not go unnoticed. “And you can wipe that expression off your face or you’ll find yourself walking back with Miss Farrington and looking for another appointment.” The Tiger sobered in a moment.
Verity glared back at Lord Dunster, barely mollified, but all too aware of the disadvantage at which she’d put herself due to now being so low down.
He towered above her on the curricle’s seat.
She gathered her slightly scattered wits.
“Your intention today is irrelevant. It is the insult you have cast at me that makes it impossible for me to return with you. I cannot in all honesty sit beside a man who thinks so badly of me.”
He sighed but the frown didn’t lessen. “Then I apologize for that insult if that will get you back up here so I can return you safely to your aunt. I fear her considerable wrath if I don’t do so.”
Not having expected to receive such a ready apology, Verity could only glare at him.
The thought that she’d acted far too impulsively reared its ugly head.
Eight miles was too far for her to walk, even if she’d had her boots on, and especially as she didn’t know the way.
And probably it was dangerous too. If England was anything like Europe, any of the people she’d observed on their outward journey could be waiting to attack and rob her once she was alone.
Common sense won as her anger began to subside.
She was going to have to accept his apology.
He must have sensed her capitulation, unwilling though it was. Bending towards her, he held out his hand.
After a moment of tumbling emotion, she took it and he half pulled her back into her seat.
Without another word, he shortened up the reins and clicked his tongue at the horses who broke into a trot.
Perhaps he didn’t want to give her a chance to change her mind.
After all, it would be difficult for him to explain to her aunt where she’d got to if he abandoned her.
Settling beside him, but as far away as possible, Verity fumed in silence. Never for a moment had she imagined that she might develop such a dislike for the man she was to marry. Gone was her admission of his charm. In fact, he no longer seemed the least bit charming to her.
This was an insult she was not going to let him forget.