“I never issued any such order.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“So . . . am I overrun with poachers?”
“Yes, and I’ve tattled about it, so what will you do? Will you have everyone at Stafford arrested? Will you throw the last remaining families out on the road? Then you and your awful brother can have the place all to yourselves.”
She’d hurled so many slurs that he couldn’t figure out where to begin with countering them. He didn’t care about poaching or Mason or any of the rest, and in answer to her accusations, he chose the only topic that interested him.
“My brother isn’t awful.”
“You couldn’t prove it by me.”
“He’s actually quite noble. If you had a chance to become better acquainted, you’d like him more than me.”
“I’m sure that’s true. I’d like any man in the kingdom more than you. I’d like a criminal more than you. I’d like a heretic more than you. I’d like a . . . dog more than you.”
She humored him beyond measure, and he laughed again, but his merriment left her even more aggrieved.
“I hate you,” she seethed.
“I have that effect on women.”
“You’re a cur, an unrepentant, unremorseful cur.”
“That’s the best denigration I’ve heard in ages.”
She halted and spun to face him, an angry finger poking his chest. “This is a game to you, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
“This estate and these people. You’ve strutted in here and tossed around your bags of seed. You’ve demonstrated that you can humiliate me in front of my neighbors. Job well done, Lord Stafford.”
“It wasn’t difficult to humiliate you. Not when you act like such a fool.”
“I assume you’ll be leaving shortly. What will happen then?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re not stupid,” she said. “Why are you behaving like this? Why are you pretending you can’t see the reality?” She studied him, her astute gaze digging deep. “You don’t care about anything, do you?”
Her barb aggravated him. He cared about things: his brother, his regiment, his sudden infusion of cash so he never had to worry about feeding himself.
But he didn’t care about Stafford, and she couldn’t make him feel guilty.
He loomed in, hoping to intimidate her, but she didn’t retreat. They were next to a tree, and he pushed her back against it.
His torso was crushed to hers—breasts, bellies, thighs forged fast. At the contact, his body came alive. There was an energy flowing from him to her, and he was practically dizzy with elation, as if he’d arrived right where he’d always belonged.
She sensed it too, and her consternation was obvious. Dismayed, she shoved at his shoulders, but he wouldn’t move until he was good and ready.
“You don’t know anything about me,” he charged.
“I know enough.”
“You waltz into my home and my life, and you fling allegations as if I’m a monster. I can’t save the world for you. I wouldn’t presume to try.”
“You don’t have to save the whole world. You can just focus on this little corner of it.”
She was so livid, so upset and so lovely. When she stared at him, she seemed to see someone else, the honorable fellow he might have been had circumstances carried him down a different, easier path.
Oddly, he wished he could be the man she envisioned, that he could vanquish her demons and fix what was wrong, but he never would.
He was an untrustworthy scapegrace. Early on, he’d learned that there was no benefit to standing on principle or seeking the high ground. He’d scrapped and fought to eke out a spot where he was safe, where he could survive and protect his brother. In the process, he’d discovered that he was capable of any notorious conduct.
Words bubbled up inside him. He wanted to tell her how it had been when he was small. He wanted to describe the horrid forces that had shaped him into such a despicable lout, but he never talked about those dark days.
Yet he couldn’t pull himself away. The strange power surging between them was like a magnet holding them together. Though he knew he shouldn’t, though it was mad and ridiculous, he couldn’t stop himself from bending down and kissing her.
With his bold advance, he’d shocked her into submission. She inhaled a sharp breath and collapsed against him. He took advantage of her confusion to grasp her waist and draw her even closer. Her silly, floppy hat was in his way, and he pitched it off and slid his tongue into her mouth.
She was soft and yielding, and very quickly, he was in over his head. He recognized that he was, but he couldn’t desist. He craved boons from her that she would never relinquish, that he could never have, and he might have tarried forever, but she was wiser than he, and she wiggled away.
“Are you insane?” she hissed.
She wiped a hand across her lips as if to rid herself of his taste. The rude gesture severed any fond feelings, and his haughty attitude returned with a vengeance.
“You enjoyed it in London, and you enjoyed it now. Don’t deny it.”
“I enjoyed it? You grope and maul me—against my will, I might add—and you think I’m happy about it?”
“Any woman in the kingdom would give her right arm to be kissed by me.”
“Not this woman. You’re obnoxious, and I detest you.”
“Consider yourself lucky that I took the time.”
She scoffed with disgust. “Since I met you, I’ve suffered nothing but trouble. Go to London and leave me be. If I never see you again, it will be too soon!”
She stamped off, and he hollered after her, “I’m sending you a basket of food.”
She hollered back, “We don’t need your charity.”
“I’m sending the basket anyway. Deal with it.”
She continued on in one direction, while he stormed away in the other. His horse was still grazing in the clearing at her cottage, but he’d have somebody from the stables come and fetch it.
She was an ungrateful shrew, and he wouldn’t risk walking
