Page 13 of Discovering Her Earl

“But you are a young lady.” He gestured to the otherwise empty carriage to make his point.

“Not so young,” she muttered, clearly not comprehending the issue.

“We cannot travel alone to the end of the block let alone all the way to Scotland. Your reputation would be ruined.” He couldn’t believe he, of all people, needed to explain such things to a woman of gentle birth.

She laughed, and though it was brittle and cold, it brightened her face and drew his attention to her full lips. She was quite lovely when she wasn’t scowling at him like a wet kitten. He found that he wanted to hear the sound of her laughter without the cynical edge.

“What would someone like you know or care about a woman’s reputation except for how to ruin it?” She shook her head and continued her intense inspection out the opposite window. Did she plan to look out that window the entire time? She’d get a terrible crick in her neck if so.

Not that he cared about her neck or anything else of hers. She was nothing but a bitter harpy and he dreaded being with her almost enough to call off the trip. But he wouldn’t.

As much as he didn’t want to spend another minute with Miss Elaina Bantham, he couldn’t give up his dream of a final adventure. For that reason alone, he would endure.

He frowned back at her, dropping his usual smile others found charming.

“I’ll have you know, I have never so much as shaded the reputation of an innocent. Yes, I might dally with women who are interested in the same, but I do not prey on young misses and seduce them to ruin.”

He’d sounded rather snappish in his defense, but rather than be cowed, she rolled her eyes and made a sound that could only be described as pfft.

“You don’t believe me?”

She waved dismissively in his direction which only irked him more.

“I assure you whatever I believe doesn’t matter. What matters is that I am not intimidated by you. There is nothing you could ever do that would risk my reputation. Mostly because I don’t find you appealing or the least bit charming.”

Lies. He could tell by the way she’d glanced away when she said it. He wouldn’t mention the way she’d gawked at him lasciviously at the tailors. And if the word lascivious was not quite accurate, there was no harm in a bit of embellishment.

His lips crooked up slightly at the memory. She was lovely with a blush on her cheeks. That moment before fiery anger returned to her eyes, he could almost envision how she would look up at her lover with desire in those brown pools of melted chocolate.

He cleared his throat and shook off the thought. It wouldn’t do to be caught up in a fantasy when facing down an opponent as cunning as Miss Bantham.

However alluring she might be in his mind from the tiny snippets he’d seen when her walls were down, he couldn’t be distracted. He knew himself well enough to know it was only the fact he wasn’t able to win her over that made her interesting at all. If she’d smiled and batted her eyelashes at him, he would have been satisfied and could have moved on without another thought.

It was only that she obviously disliked him and he didn’t know why that made her a mystery he couldn’t let rest. But he needed to. Why should he care about her at all?

If she didn’t care about her reputation, then why should he? He allowed the door to be shut and settled in for the duration.

Oddly enough, he didn’t feel confined as he usually did when traveling in a carriage. Travel was usually uncomfortable for someone of his size, but he found he had ample room. His knees were close to hers, but not touching. Clearly the carriage had been made for someone of their stature in mind.

At least he would be comfortable physically if mentally he was trapped.

Trapped…

He lurched forward to look into her startled eyes. Seeing her reaction piqued his anger even more. Did she honestly think he would thrust himself on her? Before they were even out of Town?

“You don’t plan to trap me into marriage, do you? For I tell you that plan will not work. It cannot.” He needed to marry a proper countess. Not the feisty daughter of a vicar who didn’t even have a lady’s maid.

If he’d thought he’d wanted to see her laughing, he’d been granted his wish. The woman practically rolled off her seat for laughing so much. Twice she attempted to speak and couldn’t for getting caught up in another fit of mirth.

He straightened his coat while he waited. The idea wasn’t that ridiculous. Plenty of women would jump at the opportunity to coerce an attachment to an earl. Perhaps not him specifically since it had not happened to date, but still, he had a title and his teeth, and…

Good God, this is what the woman had reduced him to?

By the time she was done, she seemed exhausted, but the smile remained.

“My, I haven’t laughed like that in a very long time.”

“Might I say that despite it being aimed at me, I find your laughter delightful.”