“Let us go around this way,” he said.
She arched a knowing brow. “Trying to avoid my aunt?”
He laughed. “Something like that.”
The truth was, he wanted just a few more moments alone with her like this. Moments when she was relaxed and defenseless, when her guard was down and her spirits were up.
Moments when she was herself. Not trying to be some perfect version of herself and live up to anyone else’s expectations. All at once he had a surge of gratitude toward his parents and his uncle. He might have known grief, and he understood better than most how it felt to be on the outside looking in, but in his home he had always been treated with love, despite his imperfections.
He’d been seen for who he was, not who he was expected to be.
“It is a shame you won’t be able to continue with your music tutoring.” Prudence’s words brought him back to the moment.
“What do you mean?”
She arched a brow. “It is exceptional as it is that your uncle allows you to pursue this hobby of yours,” she said. “But when you become the Marquess of—”
“Who says that I will?” He’d meant it to sound light and teasing, but it fell flat. Instead, he merely sounded defensive. “Who says that I wish to be?”
She stared at him in surprise as they rounded the far side of the house toward the glass doors of the music room. “I know you’ve hinted at it before, but I thought you were teasing. You can’t mean that…” She stopped and stared. “You truly do not wish to become the next Marquess of Ainsley?”
He opened his mouth, ready to give one of the pat answers he was used to throwing out there when the topic of his status came up. But one look at her genuine curiosity and the quip died in his throat. “No,” he said simply.
“No?” Her eyes grew so wide it looked painful. “But...everyone wants power, wealth, and status.”
“Yes, but you see, what everyone else wants has no bearing on my own wishes for my future. And I have no wish to be Marquess.”
“But why not?” she asked, still gaping adorably.
He grinned at the rare sight of her not knowing everything about everything. “Why would I want that? I already told you that I was born an outsider, raised an outsider. The peerage and the gentry never had a use for me before my father died, why should I wish to join their ranks now?”
She opened her mouth and then shut it as they continued walking. Finally, she huffed as they neared the doors, pausing to face him. “That seems like an odd sort of logic. Don’t you wish to throw their disdain in their faces by becoming a powerful member of society?”
He frowned as he thought it over. “Not particularly.”
This seemed to vex her, which amused him. “But why not?”
“Because what would that change? What they think of me will likely never alter. And I don’t particularly care what they think of me anyway.” He tossed his hands in the air. “My parents taught me well that what other people say and do doesn’t matter as much as our own compass.”
“A compass?” she echoed.
“Yes. Doing what we feel is right. Following our intuition, our instincts…” He hesitated for a moment. “Our hearts.”
“Well, that…” She bit her lip, her gaze darting left and right as she seemed to chase her thoughts. “That’s very romantic.”
He laughed. Was it? He didn’t think so. But even so… “How do you manage to make romantic sound like a curse word?”
Her lips twitched up as she shrugged. “Just as I know about your family scandal, I’m certain you know of mine.”
He nodded slowly.
“So you see, romance for me is not something I particularly admire.” She sniffed and the priggish girl he knew was back in full force, and the sight of her made him want to laugh and tease until she was either giggling or smacking him.
Instead, he imitated her with a haughty sniff. “It’s not something I particularly admire. Really, Pru, you sound like your aunt.”
She choked on a laugh. “I don’t! I merely think romance and love and all that is just an excuse for being selfish.”
He nodded, his gaze searching hers for more. For something he couldn’t name. “I see. But I, on the other hand, see talk of duty and obligation as just an excuse to avoid being brave.”
She gasped and jerked back as if he struck her. “That’s a horrible thing to say.”
He thought that over. “Is it?”
“It is.” She sounded so vehement he thought it best not to argue the point further. While he’d discovered that he truly loved bickering with Pru—possibly more than was sane—he had no wish to mar this day which had started so terribly and ended… Well, perfectly.
He wondered if she was thinking something similar when she glanced wistfully toward the house. “Are we done with today’s lesson then or...or is there more?”
He was done. It should be done. But he found he didn’t want this to end.
Reaching for her hand, he tugged her away from the door and toward the gardens. “My dear, we have only just begun.”
9
Her heart was thumping wildly as she let him lead her away from her home, from her aunt...from her chaperone.
Prudence never broke the rules. She lived by rules, led her life by the compass of propriety, and prided herself on being everything that her parents were not.
Dutiful. Obedient. Proper.
So why on earth was she letting him lead her astray? Why could she not bring herself to dig in her heels or say something biting?
And why on earth was her heart on a mission to leap out of her chest? With her free hand she clutched her chest just as he finally
