He nearly choked. “You could say that,” he finally said. “I suppose I make sure the books balance at the end of the day.”
She gave him a patronizing nod of the head. “All that ruthlessness, and only the books to balance. Poor Mr. Marshall.” She smiled at him. “I consider myself a good judge of character. And you, sir, are safe.”
Safe.
It had been so long since someone hadn’t taken him seriously that he’d forgotten what it was like. But here she was, dismissing him.
He sat gingerly on the edge of her bench.
“Maybe I am safe,” he said. “I don’t swear. I don’t drink spirits, either.” He took a deep breath. “You’re sitting here for a reason, though, Miss Barton, and I doubt it’s for your health. Is it so wrong of me to want to help?”
All the latent humor bled from her face. “Help,” she repeated blankly. “You want to help.”
“This is no triviality before you. A lady does not risk the wrath of a duke without reason. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
“Why not?” she asked. “If you’re so ruthless.”
He smiled in spite of himself. “Ruthless doesn’t mean that I survey the available options and gleefully choose the cruelest one. It means that I solve problems, whatever the cost. I’m good at that.”
“And so out of the goodness of your heart, you’re offering—”
“No,” he said, leaning in. “You misunderstand. There’s no goodness in my heart—that’s what I keep trying to explain to you. You are a problem. It distracts me from my work to think of you here. To wonder…”
She sucked in her breath and pulled away from him slightly. Her eyes seemed round and very gray. She scarcely moved. The air around them seemed suddenly charged. He couldn’t look away from her, and he could almost hear his words echoed back at him.
It distracts me to think of you.
It was almost nothing, that faint sense of attraction he felt. It was no more than the scarcely-heard hum of an insect. Insignificant enough that he waved it away. But she had just noticed, and that small hint of interest, mild though it had been, had washed the smile from her face.
“Go away,” she said, her voice flat.
No, she wasn’t here because of an employment dispute. Clermont had a great deal to answer for.
Hugo reached down and plucked a spare twig from the ground and set it on the bench between them. “This,” he said, “is a wall, and I will not cross it.”
Her eyes fixed on that piece of wood, a few scant inches in length.
“I don’t believe in hurting women,” he said.
She did not respond.
“I do a great many things, and I’m not proud of many of them. But I don’t swear. I don’t drink. And I don’t hurt women. I don’t do any of those things because my father did every one.” He held her eyes as he spoke. “Now I’ve told you something that nobody else in London knows. Surely you can return the favor. What is it you want?”
She shook her head slowly. “No, Mr. Marshall. I will not be browbeaten, however nicely you do it. I am done with things happening to me. From here on out, I am going to happen to things.”
She raised her head as she spoke. And that annoying hum—that gnat-like buzz of attraction that he had so easily brushed away—seemed to swell around him like a growing murmur of wind.
Her features seemed so crisp, outlined against the cool air. She had not a hair out of place. Still, she made him think of a bear, strong and certain, claiming her territory at the top of a mountain.
Here, he thought, finally, was a match for him.
There was no point being fanciful. What use had he with a bear? Still… Surely he could appreciate one when he saw it.
“Brave words,” he said softly. “That’s what it means to be ruthless. After all, I happen to other people on a regular basis.”
Want more? Click here to order The Governess Affair.
The Brothers Sinister
The Governess Affair
The Duchess War (September 2012)
The Heiress Effect (late 2012)
The Countess Conspiracy (2013)
“A Scandal at Sunset,”
in Midnight Scandals (August 2012)
The Turner Series
Unveiled
Unlocked
Unclaimed
Unraveled
The Carhart Series
“This Wicked Gift,”
in The Heart of Christmas
Proof by Seduction
Trial by Desire
First Do No Evil
Blood Secrets Book 1
Available June 26, 2012
from Samhain Publishing
One killer is in her blood. The other is in her house.
There’s a killer lurking in Dr. Skylar Novak’s family tree: the gene for breast cancer. That’s why her brilliant brother invented the Bella vaccine. But even if the miracle drug protects her from the cancer that took her mother’s life, it can’t save Sky from the flesh and bone evil stalking her in secret.