“Those weren’t delivered last night.”
“No. But there never seemed to be an opportunity yesterday to bring it up.”
“Because of my cousin?”
“Well, yes. But also because you hardly spoke to me. That made it difficult.”
“Did you want me to speak to you?”
I ran my hand along the spines of books on the desk. I wanted so much more than for him to speak to me. “I think I’ll go see if the post has arrived.”
“It hasn’t come yet, Miss Brinton.”
“Oh.” I picked up the top book, turned it over in my hands, and set it down. I was making a fool of myself. I should just leave. “The rain has stopped.” I waited, but he said nothing. Had I ever been so ridiculous? “Well, goodbye.” I stepped toward the doorway.
Gregory lurched out of his chair, grabbed my hand, and slowly pulled me back toward him. “Why are you really here?”
I could barely think with him being so close. Yet there was mirth in his eyes. “Are you—laughing—at me?”
“It seems you’ve become a little confused, Miss Brinton. I assure you, this is not the sound of laughter.”
“I have not become confused. I have become. . . .” My gaze dropped to his lips and I lost any desire to speak.
“Do you know what I’ve become?” He stepped toward me and I backed against the wall. When he leaned closer, I realized I was trapped. Not that I had any desire to escape.
“What have you become?” I asked, my voice little more than a whisper.
He leaned even closer. How could he get closer and still not touch me? “I have become a man haunted by your smile, by the music of your voice. I’m filled with a need to see you, to be close to you. Even when I should be away seeing to my responsibilities, I find myself unable to be parted from you.”
My hesitation evaporated and all my uncertainties drained away. He wanted me as much as I wanted him.
I lifted my brows in mock innocence, struggling to appear unaffected. “Should you be seeing to responsibilities now? I’m sorry to be keeping you. I’d hate to be blamed for the estate falling apart.”
He straightened. “You’re right. Where is my hat?” He turned away, and this time I grabbed his hand.
“Gregory.” I slid my fingers between his.
He was again instantly before me. “Margaret.” His voice sounded almost pained. He leaned an arm against the wall above me, his face close to mine. “I couldn’t leave you, even in jest.” His gaze swept to my forehead, my lips, and back to my eyes. “You have captured my heart completely. I surrender to you.”
There was no verbal response I could give. I reached up and slid my thumb along his cheek.
He closed his eyes. A small groan escaped his throat. “Are you deliberately torturing me?”
My thumb traced down his cheek to his bottom lip. A lip I desperately wanted to feel against my own. His eyes popped open and his arm flew around my waist, drawing me against him. “I knew I was in trouble the moment Mrs. Hickmore introduced you.”
“Oh, come Williams. Love at first sight?” Mr. Northam’s voice cut through the haze surrounding me. “Even you can do better than that.”
The compromising situation I found myself in made me flinch, and Gregory’s grip around me loosened, his expression changing to one of hopelessness. But I didn’t move out of his arms.
“I don’t think your father would approve of such an embrace, Miss Brinton. Not even I was so scandalous.”
It was indeed scandalous, but there was no question of what would follow a kiss this time; Gregory was no Mr. Northam. We had declared our feelings to each other. All we needed was to make it official.
Gregory, though, dropped his arm from me completely. He stepped back and leaned against the wall, his head against a fist, jaw clenched and eyes closed.
I placed a hand on his arm. Mr. Northam could have no doubt about my decision. “What do you want, Mr. Northam?”
Mr. Northam smiled and leaned casually against the door frame. “I want to tell you a story. The same one I told your father last night. It goes something like this: boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy’s cousin reveals the truth to girl. . . .”
“Get out, Northam,” Gregory growled.
“And miss watching this unfold? I think not.”
It took me a moment to register what Mr. Northam had said. “Boy’s cousin reveals the truth to girl?” My touch on Gregory’s arm became uncertain.
Mr. Northam smiled. “Didn’t you ever wonder why a baron was so interested in an untitled and only moderately wealthy woman?”
Gregory pushed off the wall and faced his cousin. “Shut up, Northam.”
“He’s already told me everything,” I said. But that wasn’t true, and Gregory and I both knew it.
“Did he tell you about the wager?”
A wager? My hand dropped from Gregory’s arm. Mr. Northam’s smile grew.
“Northam, leave. Now.” Gregory’s voice was hard with anger.
I placed my hand back on Gregory’s arm, only this time it was to keep him from interrupting. “What wager?” I asked quietly.
Mr. Northam’s gaze held mine. “When Old Lord Williams was dying, his last wish was that Williams here persuade me to change my dissolute ways. And Williams promised to do whatever it took.”
“I promised my father, yes, but I did not agree to your terms.”
Mr. Northam’s smile held condescension. “You’re too far in to go back now.”
I glanced between them. Gregory’s fists were clenched at his side, his jaw muscle working rapidly. Mr. Northam looked completely at ease. He seemed to be enjoying every second of Gregory’s discomfort.
“You remember I mentioned our disagreement, don’t you, Miss Brinton? Where my lord believes women would choose him over me, title or no? Well, I promised that if he could win a kiss honorably from any woman of our joint choosing before I obtained that kiss through my own means, I would reform. You are the lucky woman he agreed to.”
I stared at Mr. Northam, too shocked to speak.
Mr. Northam pushed off the wall and walked to me. “Don’t take it to heart. It really has nothing to do with you at all. Just your lips.”
“That’s not true,” Gregory said, taking my hand. My mind churned but didn’t seem to be processing what had been said.
“No?” Mr. Northam asked, smirking at him. “Then why did you race to her house and demand an engagement from her father when you realized you were going to lose?”
“A wager?” I asked, unable to believe it. Yet Mr. Northam’s expression exuded truth. Gregory had said himself that he’d chosen me to end Mr. Northam’s games. I focused on Gregory. His expression was earnest, his eyes asking me not to believe it. Yet within them was the confession—what Mr. Northam said was the truth.
There had been all those times when Gregory had first arrived and I’d felt as though I was pure entertainment, that my life had been a game to him.
I’d been correct. He hadn’t been interested in me. He’d been trying to win a kiss.
My stomach knotted.
Pulling my hand from Gregory’s, I staggered a step away from both men.