Chapter 3 #2
“I’ll tell them you’re painfully shy, which won’t be hard for them to believe, since you don’t spend time with them. Indeed, they find you aloof. But now I understand why you take your meals in your room or in the study.”
She didn’t like being thought of as aloof, but it was for the best in this situation. “Telling them I’m shy is a good excuse.”
“Are you shy?” he asked.
“Not really,” she replied.
His gaze softened. “Are you lonely, then?”
This question stabbed into her chest like a well-aimed arrow.
She was lonely. More specifically, she missed Min and the household that had become her home for more than fifteen years.
But that emotion had not eclipsed the hurt and anger of discovering the duchess was her mother.
Perhaps when that happened, Ellis would be ready to face Min and Sheff.
Though she didn’t answer, he seemed to understand. “Then we shall dine together sometimes. I insist.”
Ellis continued to be astonished by his acceptance and, more importantly, his kindness. “Why are you being so understanding?”
“I told you—you’re excellent at your job.” He shrugged as if her disguising herself as a man and lying to him were of little consequence. “Indeed, you’ve already become invaluable to me, and I cannot imagine you leaving. It’s purely selfish on my part.”
“I appreciate you allowing me to stay.” And everything else he’d agreed to and offered. Ellis could hardly believe her fortune, but perhaps she was due after all that had happened. She was glad to feel that she was wanted somewhere.
“I can’t promise you won’t be found out,” he said. “If that happens, you’ll have to leave, and I’ll pretend I didn’t know either. Otherwise, it might reflect poorly on you.”
“If I’m discovered, it most definitely will,” she said without hesitation.” But I don’t want it to reflect poorly on you. If at any time you change your mind and want me to leave, you must say so. I do not want to put you at risk.”
“How would I be at risk?” he asked. “My reputation won’t be harmed. It will be yours.”
“My reputation doesn’t matter.” She was no longer companion to the daughter of a duke. “As I said, I’m no one.”
“That’s not true,” he said softly. “You are someone. You are worthy, and you are needed here. Now, let’s get back to work.”
Ellis’s throat felt tight. “Thank you, my lord.”
Keele stepped aside and gestured for her to precede him from the library. She opened the door and exhaled, realizing she’d been holding her breath.
When she reached the top of the stairs, she wasn’t sure if Keele was following her. She turned her head and saw that he stood outside the doorway to the library, his gaze fixed on her. Specifically, on her backside.
Ellis knew what it looked like when a man was attracted to a woman. She’d felt that attraction on a few occasions. And she knew without question that Keele found her desirable.
She whipped her head around and hastened down the stairs. Was that why he’d invited her to stay? Did he hope to take advantage?
Though she didn’t know him well, she couldn’t see him doing that.
Everything she’d observed over the past four days had indicated he was a man of integrity and honor—at least in business.
She didn’t know much about his personal reputation, whether he’d been a rogue before he was married, or even during his marriage.
She thought of the Rogue Rules that she and her friends had drafted two years ago after one of them, Pandora Barclay, had been ruined when she’d been caught in the arms of the Earl of Banemore. Rather than marry her, Bane had fled to marry someone else, leaving Pandora’s reputation in tatters.
Thinking of the rules they’d come up with, Ellis realized Pandora had broken almost every one of them with Bane, not that they’d existed before she’d met him.
Ellis didn’t blame Pandora, for Bane had led her to believe he cared for her and that he wanted to marry her.
Yes, Pandora had been na?ve, but she hadn’t deserved to have her life destroyed.
Thus, the rules were born and the rest of them strove to follow them.
Except Ellis. She didn’t need to preserve her reputation for marriage, not like the rest of them did.
As a companion, Ellis wasn’t particularly marriageable, especially since, at twenty-six, she was firmly on the shelf.
But as the illegitimate daughter of a duchess and her lover, Ellis was completely unmarriageable.
Not that she cared. Because of her station, she’d never entertained fantasies of marriage and motherhood, and certainly not of love.
Which wasn’t to say she hadn’t wanted to experience physical satisfaction.
She had, and she’d done that years ago—twice.
Once with a boy when they’d both been seventeen and a few years later with a young gentleman who had no doubt been a rogue.
Clearly, she had no problem with rakish males. Indeed, she didn’t particularly care if Keele possessed a roguish reputation. But if he was keeping her in his employ so that he could entice her to his bed, she wanted to know.
She’d have to come up with a way to determine what sort of man he was. If he were a rogue, she’d have to decide whether she should stay.
Shockingly, she thought she just might.
The following afternoon, Roman’s coachman drove them to the Lacey and Company offices in Paternoster Row.
It was strange to be riding alone in a coach with a young lady, though for all Roman knew, Ellis was married or even widowed.
But he didn’t think so. He estimated her to be in her middle twenties.
It was more likely that she was either nearing or had entered spinster territory.
He was very curious about why she was hiding. Perhaps she was married and was avoiding a violent husband. Whatever the reason, Roman was glad to provide her shelter.
As they stopped in front of the offices, he looked across the coach at Ellis. She clutched her notebook, and Roman knew she’d stashed a pencil in her pocket.
“Are you nervous?” he asked.
“A bit,” she replied, glancing in his direction. “I just need to remember that you will leave the coach before I do.” A faint smile lifted one side of her mouth.
When they’d departed his house, she’d moved toward the coach as if she would step inside first, and she should have, since she was a lady. But in her disguise as the secretary Daniel Ellis, she would not enter the coach until after her employer, the Marquess of Keele.
“I will endeavor to keep you from slipping up,” Roman said.
“Thank you.”
As the coachman opened the door, Roman stepped out first and stood on the pavement as he waited for Ellis to climb down. Church bells tolled nearby, adding to the bustle of the busy, narrow street.
“Are those the bells of St. Paul’s?” she asked.
“Indeed they are.” Roman turned and gestured across the street over the tops of the buildings. “You can see the spire there. The cathedral is very close.”
Ellis had pivoted with him. “I see it.”
He heard the excitement in her voice. “Have you been there?”
She nodded. “Many times. It’s beautiful.”
“You can see more of the cathedral from the first floor,” Roman said. “Come, I’ll show you.” He resisted the urge to put his hand behind her back as if he were guiding a woman into the building.
A plaque with gold lettering that read “Lacey and Company, Publishers and Booksellers” was affixed to the front of the four-storey brick-faced building. The main entrance led directly into the bookshop.
They moved inside, and Roman took a deep breath. He loved the smell of paper, print, and leather bindings. Shelves lined the left wall and displayed many works, mostly three-deckers, such as The Captain’s Daughter.
Ellis immediately gravitated toward the shelves. Roman let her browse for a moment.
“Afternoon, my lord,” the clerk said from behind the counter on the right side of the shop. The young man, Samuel Briggs, had been in the position for over a year now. He was friendly and efficient, with bright light-blue eyes and blond hair. “The Laceys are already upstairs.”
“Thank you,” Roman said. “Has the author arrived?”
Briggs shook his head. “Not yet.”
Moving to where Ellis stood perusing the latest three-deckers, Roman followed her gaze. “See anything you want to read?”
“Nothing you don’t already have in your library and that I’ve already taken.” She gave him a sheepish look.
“That’s what I thought, but I wanted to ask anyway, in case you missed something in my library. But I should know better—you don’t miss a thing.”
“It’s wonderful to see so many books fresh and new.” She turned toward him. “What a strange thing for a marquess to be involved with. What do people think of that?”
“Mostly, they find it odd or downright awful,” he said with a smirk. “I’m in trade, you know. Utterly scandalous.”
She suppressed a smile, and he wished she wouldn’t. It was hard to see how a smile would change her face because of the fake hair she had covering it, but he imagined she was quite pretty.
“Have you always been scandalous?” she asked.
In fact, he’d been somewhat of a scoundrel before his father had died, but Roman hadn’t known about the devastation his father had wrought on their family fortune.
He’d learned the extent of his father’s financial mismanagement after his death, and that had changed the course of Roman’s life forever.
Desperate to avoid bankruptcy, he’d immediately set about finding an heiress as quickly as possible.
He’d been unable to secure a wife from the peerage due to the reputation he’d built, so he’d settled for marrying Clarissa Lacey.
He didn’t regret it, for he enjoyed his work with Lacey and Company, and he loved her family. However, if he had it to do over again, he would have chosen differently.
That wasn’t the same as regret, was it?
“I desperately want to read A Season in Shadow after the discussion yesterday,” Ellis said. “Will I be able to now that you’re finished?”