Chapter 2 #2
This time she did not look away, but remained glaring at him. James felt a thrill of delight rush through his body mingled with irritation at her tone. What, was this chit to deny him?
“I am unaccustomed to not getting my own way,” he said lightly, but with a little force behind his words. “And this is my carriage that we are sitting in, is it not? I think I have the right to enquire.”
“And I would say not,” Miss Kirkland said, with an eyebrow raised. “Who are you to demand such answers from me? You are neither brother, nor father, nor…nor husband. You can keep your questions, sir, for I will answer none of them.”
James smiled at her, slowly. The hesitation around the word ‘husband’ was enough to tell him where her concern lay, at any rate. So, what was it – running away from her husband, was she?
“We have a long journey ahead of us.” His voice sounded far more calm than he felt, as the irritation of being refused grew.
But Miss Kirkland seemed unimpressed by his words. “We do indeed,” she smiled, “and so I would recommend that you do not make it intolerable for me.”
Without another word, she turned back to the window.
James’ jaw dropped. Was such insolence to be borne with? He was the Viscount Paendly, and no one had ever spoken to him in this way in his life!
But then, he reminded himself, Miss Kirkland did not know that – and the impulsive decision that he made to keep that fact from her worked at his imagination. How would she have behaved, he wondered, if she knew that she was speaking to one of the richest men in all England?
He watched her for a moment, and saw the increased breathing, watched her breasts shudder as she tried to control it, saw the twitch in her hands as she tried to stay calm, stay still.
Something dark and hungry rose up in James, and he found himself staring at those breasts a little longer than was strictly appropriate. By God, but she was beautiful.
“Is there something that you would like to say?”
James started as his eyes moved upwards by a foot, and he saw a flushed yet furious look on Miss Kirkland’s face. So, he had been caught – but he was not ready to be overridden by this woman just yet.
He smiled. It was time to have a little fun with Miss Kirkland, and call her bluff.
Without breaking eye contact with her, he raised a hand and knocked on the roof of the carriage. With an abrupt judder, the coach began to slow down, and eventually stop. Now that they were not moving, the patter of the rain on the roof was louder, more insistent.
Miss Kirkland looked away from him, staring outside the window to see where they had stopped – and James saw her eyes widen as she realised that they had come to rest at nowhere at all.
He risked a quick look outside his own window, and his smile broadened. It truly was an empty part of the road, with no buildings in sight whatsoever.
“Why have we stopped?” Miss Kirkland’s voice had lost that steel which had riled him so, and James was pleased to hear that there was a hint of nervousness now.
James smiled at her. “Why, Miss Kirkland, it is quite evident to me that you are not enjoying the ride. In fact, nothing could be more clear.”
She glared at him, without speaking, and so he continued.
“I have no wish to impose my company on you, as it is clearly so repugnant,” he said smoothly, and reached across her – being careful not to touch her legs, much as he may wish to – opening the carriage door with his left hand. “Out you get.”
Miss Kirkland stared at him, then the open door, and then her gaze flew back to him. “You cannot be serious.”
“I am setting you down here,” said James grinning, raising his voice slightly so that it could be heard over the noise of the hammering rain.
The glare that Miss Kirkland shot him at the moment was terrible to behold, but it shot a thrill through James’ body that had nothing to do with the coldness in her eyes, and was more connected to the heat rising from his stomach.
Astonished by the power of her eyes as he was, James kept silent and watched her struggle with herself silently.
“You cannot be so stupid as to think that I wish to get out!” She eventually burst out.
James laughed, and it seemed to infuriate her even further.
“My God, you are happy to abandon me in the middle of nowhere, on my own, with darkness approaching?”
James shrugged. “Miss Kirkland, it is not in my nature to keep young women prisoner in my own carriage when they must certainly have no wish to be here with me. I think it only right to give you the chance to disembark.”
Her dark brown eyes flashed with anger, and she stared outside and back at him several times in quick succession, but said nothing.
“You see,” he said quietly, and her eyes came to rest on him as he spoke, “unless you are talking, and enjoying our conversation, then really there is no point in you being here.”
For a moment, James though that he had gone too far. Was this cruel, this pretence, for of course, there was absolutely no chance that he would genuinely abandon a lady like this.
But she was not to know that. Miss Kirkland had no idea that she was travelling with the Viscount Paendly, and that gave him the upper hand…for now.
She was hesitating, clearly torn. James tried not to hold his breath, desperately hoping that she would not call his bluff. Was he really capable of such a thing?
But as he watched, he saw control reasserted across her face, and Miss Kirkland smiled scathingly at him. Without saying a word, she reached out and pulled the door too, and then knocked on the top of the carriage roof.
As Smith drove the horses forward and the carriage started to move once more, Miss Kirkland smiled mockingly and leaned back into the cushions, saying, “And what would you like our first topic of conversation to be, Mr Paendly?”
Astonished, shocked almost to silence, James stared at her. Her prettiness was transformed to beauty as she smiled at him with irritation just visible beneath it. There was something incredible within her, some depth of steely grit – and James just had to discover it.