LITMIR.BIZ

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had obviously been lying on the sofa and what he was doing there was all too obvious from his open shirt, missing neckcloth and tousled hair. Gregory?

      There was a muffled shriek and Marguerite sat up beside him, clutching the bodice of her gown to her half-exposed bosom. Behind Sara Lucian said, ‘What is wrong?’ She could feel him pressing close as he tried to see past her as she blocked the way.

      Sara was about to close the door on them and at least allow them to get themselves decent before Lucian got his hands around Gregory’s throat when there was the sound of footsteps.

      ‘I am sure Eldonstone has a good globe or an atlas in the library. I can show you exactly where my nephew Alfred is posted in India, Marjorie dear.’

      Lady Thale. Sara whirled around, pulled the door to and leaned back against it, giving the panels a painful warning thump with her elbow while she was about it. If those two inside had not managed to escape through the window by now they would have to take their chances.

      ‘Kiss me.’

      ‘What? Here? Now?’

      ‘Kiss me. This is an emergency.’ She could not wait for any further protests—or to worry about what happened next—the two ladies would come around the corner at any moment. Sara threw her arms around Lucian’s neck, pulled his head down and kissed him with fierce determination.

      From behind them as they stood embracing there was a shriek, then, ‘Lady Sara! Lord Cannock?’

      Sara untangled herself from Lucian as slowly as possible, ‘Lady Thale, Mrs Montrum—oh, my!’ She managed a flustered, fluttering gesture that was only partly play-acting. What had she done? ‘Oh, you must be shocked, but believe me, you are the first to know our secret.’ She beamed at them and kicked Lucian on the ankle as she clutched his arm. ‘Lucian... Lord Cannock, I should say, is just on his way to speak to Papa.’ Under her hand she felt his muscles tense like iron.

      ‘A betrothal!’ Mrs Montrum advanced on them, hands outstretched. ‘What a marvellous union, so suitable in every way. Now, you are a very naughty fellow, Lord Cannock, but one cannot be too critical of a young man in love, can one? Not when he has such honourable intentions.’

      ‘You may rely on us to look suitably surprised and delighted when the news is announced,’ Lady Thale added, nodding approval. ‘Come along, Marjorie, we will go and consult the atlas while we recover from the excitement. It would not do to return to the drawing room and betray this little secret, now would it?’

      ‘So kind,’ Lucian murmured, opening the door for them.

      Sara held her breath, but there was no shriek of horror, so Gregory and Marguerite must have made their escape and managed not to leave any incriminating items of clothing behind them in the process.

      ‘What was that about?’ Lucian demanded, towing her none too gently back along the corridor and into the empty dining room. ‘Why did you kiss me—and kick me? And why the sudden change of mind about marriage? Not that I am not delighted that you have come to see it as I do—’

      ‘I have not changed my mind, but it was the only thing I could think of on the spur of the moment.’ Could I have done something different? Fainted? Have I only created an even worse problem? ‘Gregory and Marguerite were in the library.’

      She apparently did not need to draw him a diagram. ‘How bad was it?’ Lucian demanded.

      ‘Bad enough. They still had some clothes on.’

      ‘I will kill him, I swear it.’ His fists were clenched and Sara could well believe it. ‘We go to all this trouble, impose on your parents, gatecrash a party and the blo—confounded fool can’t keep his breeches buttoned for a week.’

      ‘Killing him is not going to help and you know it.’ Sara kept her back to the door, even so. ‘I strongly suspect Marguerite is leading him about by the...er...nose, as it were, and he is almost as young, and, I suspect, as inexperienced, as she is. I am sorry about telling Mrs Montrum and Lady Thale that we were betrothed, but I do draw the line at ruining my own reputation with two of the biggest gossips of the ton. We can always decide we do not suit after a week or so.’

      ‘Why should we do that?’ Lucian enquired. He rested one hip against the sideboard and folded his arms. At least, she thought, he was not bent on murder any longer. ‘If we had got inside the library just now, I fully intended asking you to marry me again and doing it properly this time.’

      ‘And I fully intended asking you why you would ever think of such a thing,’ Sara retorted. ‘One minute you are more than happy for us to be lovers, the next you are proposing to marry me.’

      ‘It occurred to me that I would be driven to drink by some sweet little innocent no older than my sister and with probably even less sense. You, on the other hand, have a great deal of sense and would make a very suitable wife.’

      How very flattening. It was wonderful to find a man who valued sense, flattering that he attributed some to her, but even so, the most practical young lady wanted something rather less prosaic and more passionate in a proposal. Sara did not point that out: she did not need him spouting romantic nonsense he did not believe.

      ‘We would drive each other mad within days. I need my freedom, Lucian, and that includes the freedom to do things that you will not find suitable for your wife. I know what a good marriage is like and I do not want to settle for second best.’ That was probably not the most tactful way to put it and Sara realised it as soon as the words were out of her mouth. ‘I mean, the marriage would be second-best, not that you would be.’

      ‘So I am good enough to sleep with, but not to marry?’ Lucian enquired coldly.

       Chapter Seventeen

      ‘It is not a question of good enough, you exasperating man! Being lovers and being husband and wife are two very different things.’

      ‘A married couple cannot be lovers? I suspect that you are thinking with your emotions, Sara, not working this through and considering the benefits.’

      ‘Of all the patronising things to say, Lucian Avery.’ She pushed away from the door and took one furious step towards him before caution stopped her where she was. Too close and they might well end up kissing again and that simply turned her brain to pottage. He had made it very clear that he wanted marriage for three reasons—one, he desired her, two, she was suitable and, finally, by needing no courtship she would save him a great deal of trouble and effort. ‘Marriage should involve emotions. I do not want some coldly calculated suitable match, I want a marriage of friends, of lovers, of shared interests and passions. Of equals.’

      ‘Men and women can never be equal, we are different.’ He straightened up, too, and came to stand in front of her, reached for her and drew her, stiff but unresisting, into his arms. ‘Delightfully different.’

      ‘I had noticed.’

      Sara resisted the temptation to rest her forehead on his chest. Just because marriage to Lucian would be a disaster it did not stop her wanting him, stop her wishing it could work.

      She tried to explain. ‘Men are usually larger and stronger, women have different anatomies with all the consequences of that, but everything else is simply differences we allow to exist or which society imposes. Gentlemen normally get a better education, so of course you are often better informed and have a firmer grasp of many subjects. Men are allowed freedoms that women are not, so you can become fitter, more adventurous, can travel more widely, have a say in political affairs. But...’ She paused to draw breath. At least he hadn’t begun arguing yet.

      ‘I have a good education, thanks to my parents’ enlightened views, and I have built on that. I know that as a woman there are limits on what I can do in public, I know I have no vote and no power. But I do have a brain and I do have opinions and I must and will decide how I live my life. If I married you we would constantly be at odds. You would want

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