After countless heartbeats, she nodded. “All right; let’s say that I believe you.” She drew in a deep breath. “And let’s assume that I am content to let you keep your secrets as to why you do not wish to be seen.”
He smirked. He had her hooked, and he knew it. This young lady might have the world fooled into thinking she was so very prim and proper, but he knew the heart of an adventuress when he saw one.
“Let us assume that,” he agreed.
Her lips twitched with what he hoped was amusement. “What do you want me to do?”
Aha. Now they were getting somewhere. “First, I need your insights.”
“My insights?” She appeared so taken aback, he thought for a moment that perhaps he’d misspoken.
“Yes, your insights. On the people of this town, the officers who are under your father’s command.”
“You don’t wish to know my father’s insights?” she asked.
“Not particularly.” He did not wish to offend her, but he’d known more than a few men like her father. Good men, to be certain, but they tended to see the world in black and white, and they assumed that those around them did as well.
In short, men like Captain Jones tended to be worldly, wise...and the victims of subterfuge.
When she still looked at him with suspicion, he said, “From speaking to your father, it was clear that not only does he resent my being here on his territory, but he would be more apt to find defenses for his men then to analyze this matter critically and objectively.”
She looked torn between defending her father and acknowledging the truth. “I see what you mean,” she finally said.
He rewarded her honesty with some truth of his own. “Aside from that, I think the less your father knows about tomorrow night’s plan, the better. And I would prefer that he not be privy to the fact that I wish to remain anonymous.”
She was silent for a long moment. “But you trust me with this information?”
“I do.” He met her gaze evenly but tried his best not to show just how much that shocked him.
He did trust her. Heaven knew why, but he did.
Now he just needed her to trust him. Based on nothing more than this connection between them and her judge of character.
“What would you have me do?” she asked.
He summed it up concisely. The lie she’d have to tell, the way she’d be expected to keep watch on who was rattled by the lie, or who acted suspiciously.
She interrupted, her voice filled with shock. “You want me to tell everyone that I've persuaded my father to leave these treasures unguarded so that all the officers might dance with my sisters and I?”
“And so that no one should miss the visiting gentry’s pretty speeches,” he reminded her, only half teasing.
She blinked those wide eyes rapidly. “No one would think me so foolish.”
He grinned. Indeed, she didn’t seem foolish in the least, and everyone likely knew it. But when it came to what men knew to be true and what they wanted to believe, the former rarely won out.
He took a step closer and lowered his voice. “You'd be amazed what lies men will accept from a beautiful face.”
To his surprise she jerked back, frowning at him. “You're teasing again.”
“I am not,” he shot back.
Her stricken expression, the anger in her eyes made it clear. She did not believe him. Something in his chest fell with a thud at the realization that she did not know it, she did not see. He took a step closer and lifted her chin with a finger, pleased beyond belief when she did not pull away. “You are beautiful.” He’d meant it to sound charming. Flirtatious, perhaps, but not seductive. He’d meant to make her smile.
Instead, it came out like a growl. The very opposite of charming.
She swatted his hand away. “Of course I’m not.”
“Of course you are.”
“I’m not. No one thinks so.” Her brows were drawn down in irritation.
He clamped his jaw shut but it was no use. “I am telling you that you are.”
And now they were bickering like children.
She blinked, her lips parting. “Are you...scolding me?”
He lifted a shoulder. Yes. He supposed he was. “If that is what it takes to make you see clearly then yes.” He crossed his arms, belatedly seeking some air of ease. “It’s irritating when women underestimate their own charms.”
“But I’m not...” She sputtered and then stopped. “No one says that I’m beautiful. Abigail, yes, and Rebecca, undoubtedly. Hattie is obviously considered—”
“You are beautiful, Min, and you’ll have to take my word for it.”
She looked as though she might argue.
Never in his life had he expected to argue with a woman over her beauty, but there he had it. This woman was like no one he’d ever met before, and her stubbornness somehow made her all the more enchanting.
He was also bizarrely enraged that she was so blithely unaware of her own appeal. Certainly she was not the same as her pretty sister, but had she really not considered that not all men wanted the same woman? Had it never occurred to her that there might be some men out there who found her decidedly, utterly, perfectly...perfect? He sniffed. “Perhaps no gentleman has said so because they fear your father.”
She scoffed.
“Or perhaps they fear you.”
Her brows shot up. “Pardon me?”
“You are an intimidating woman. I like that, personally, but a weaker man would likely be scared off.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “You like that I am...intimidating?”
He grinned. He more than liked it. “You don’t intimidate me. That is my point. But you are strong and passionate, and very clearly well able to take care of yourself and, my bet is...you would give any man a run for his money.”
She sighed and some of his good humor faded when he realized that whatever he’d said had disappointed her. “That
