Wasn’t she pretty enough? Smart enough? She was no Gaynor Robeson, but, by God, she had enough to offer a man! Patrick just needed to open his eyes and see it. And if he wasn’t willing to do so on his own, Linley would just have to make him realize how much he wanted her.
She pushed off from the windowsill and stalked around her bedroom. After a few turns, Linley sunk down to the floor and dug through her leather pack. She pulled out her traveling papers—the ones that held her secret photograph of Patrick. She pulled out her hairbrush and comb. Her toothbrush and toothpowder. The bar of strong soap wrapped in wax paper. Linley laid it all out on the floor.
Stripping out of her clothes, she sat in the middle of her room in her white cotton camisole and drawers. Her long, brown hair, lightened by weeks in the sun, hung down her shoulders. Using the pitcher and basin in her room, Linley gave it a good washing. Clean hair trumped greasy any day. She didn’t have to be Gaynor Robeson to know that. Pulling her camisole over her head, she scrubbed her top half until her skin grew red. Then she moved to her lower sections, doing the same.
It was not often that Linley sat around stark naked. She took a moment to get a good look at herself. She wasn’t exactly the most beautiful creature walking the earth, but at least everything seemed to be in the right places. But she was awfully thin. And awfully flat-chested. It appeared the good Lord chose not to bless her with a bosom—the great disappointment of her life. At least they would never hang down to her navel the way so many tribal women’s breasts did.
Yet, never would she look like one of those classical Grecian beauties on display at the British Museum.
Linley sighed. Life was a series of injustices.
She redressed, brushed her hair, and tried to make herself as alluring as possible. Though Patrick rejected her innocent advances, his words had given her hope. He was a strong, stubborn man…but he was just a man. He could not hold out forever.
***
“What are you doing in here?” he asked, shocked to find Linley hiding half-dressed in the corner of his bedroom.
“I want to talk to you. Privately.”
Patrick shook his head. “Oh, no you don’t! I am no fool, Linley.”
“What? Are you afraid I’ve come to seduce you?”
Patrick stuck his head through the curtain to see if anyone was in the corridor. “I would like you to leave now. Please go before anyone sees you.”
“Hold me,” Linley said, reaching for him. “That’s all I want.”
“No, you want a great deal more than that.”
She took a few slow steps across the room. “But you want it, too.”
“No.”
“You do, but you don’t dare admit it. You’re too much the proper gentleman. Well, I’m through being polite. I’m through trying to reason with you.” She inched closer. “I tried first with words, but you pushed me away. Now I’m going to show you.” She pressed herself up against him, her breath hot against his neck. “This is what you want…or have you forgotten?” Linley reached down and grabbed the crotch of his trousers. “Since the moment I laid eyes on you, you have dominated my thoughts. And I can’t help but feel it’s all been leading up to this one thing.” Holding him firmly in her hand, Linley felt Patrick grow hard.
“Stop it!” He jerked her hand away and stepped back, putting distance between them. “You’re talking like a Cheapside whore on rent day.”
“What do you know about whores?” she asked, a hint of laughter playing on her voice. Mocking him. Of course he didn’t know anything about whores.
Linley’s eyes wandered down his body, settling on the uncomfortable bulge in his trousers.
“Admiring your handiwork?” Patrick asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.
She smiled. “I do rather like looking at it. You see, no matter what your mouth tells me, your body says something quite different.”
“However you interpret my body language,” he said. “That does not mean I am any closer to giving in to you, no matter how seductive you can be.”
“Am I seductive, Patrick?”
“Very.”
Linley was not sure how much more pushing it would take, but she was no less determined. “What are you really afraid of?”
“I’m not afraid of anything,” he said. “I merely make it a point not to defile virgins, and I have every intention of keeping that promise. There are always certain expectations from virgin women—”
“Oh! If you are worried about that, I can assure you I have no expectations whatsoever,” Linley explained. “I don’t know the first thing about going to bed with a man.”
Patrick couldn’t help but laugh. “No, not those kinds of expectations,” he said. “I meant that innocent young women only agree to sleep with a man for one reason, and one reason alone—marriage.”
“I do not want to marry you!”
“You say that now…”
Linley threw up her hands in frustration. “Please understand, Patrick, that I am going to do this whether it is with you or someone else. I’m certain somewhere down the road, a willing man will come along—”