„I beg your pardon, ma’am. That was most indelicate of me.“

She did not answer for a moment, then turned back to him, her smile in place, though this time it looked less natural. Her caution increased his unease. Rather like the way he felt in the field when all the birds grew silent and the animals stilled.

She moved around the room again, more slowly, not looking at him as she began.

„George, in his boredom, has told me all about you. Your family is from Kent. You’ve had an estate there since the time of Henry VIII. You were the second son. Your father bought you a commission. Your family, all of them and most of the servants, died of smallpox while you were in Spain.“

She stopped moving about and faced him. „I am so sorry for your loss, Major. To face death every day to save our way of life and to have your own family taken from you is the cruelest irony.“

„Yes, my lady.“

She came back to her original spot by the fire screen, took her glass but did not drink. She stared into the liquid as she continued.

„Then the land steward you hired to manage the estate brought it to ruin. You had to sell it to pay off the debt and were left with nothing but your commission, which you wish to sell so you can begin a new life.“

She paused, put her glass down carefully and looked him in the eye. „But selling a major’s commission in peacetime is slow work.“

She waited for him to speak, but Lindsay kept silent and held her gaze, caught between a slowly simmering anger and curiosity. Was mis sort of gossip Cardovan’s idea of friendship?

„I should imagine that, um, positions are scarce for men whose truest skill are enduring the Spanish winter and staying alive in France.“

„Yes, my lady.“ He tamped down anger he could ill afford. If she knew of employment he must listen.

„Really, Major.“ She spoke with a burst of irritation. „You do know how to converse, I saw that at dinner. This will not work if you cannot manage more than one-word sentences when we are alone.“

„My apologies. I am doing my best to remain civil when I would prefer to walk out of the room. To use your cousin as a spy is offensive to both him and me. My years in the army taught me how to hold my tongue and my temper, but this is too much.“ He had expected her to be above such behavior. Like some callow boy, he had been mesmerized by her smile, her aura of sweetness.

Looking shocked and more than a little taken aback, she spoke in hurried apology. „I am sorry, Major. It is only that George thinks so highly of you and loves to talk of all things military. It was more than vulgar curiosity, I assure you. I truly did have a reason for asking.“

He gave her a curt nod, already regretting his outburst. Did she know about Poppy and Billy? If her source was Cardovan then she would probably know nothing of his present state of affairs. He could only imagine what society would make of his newfound family. He could at least be grateful he had been spared that.

She took a very small sip of the port. „I meant no offense, Major.“ She angled her head slightly, and her eyes held more curiosity than regret. „Did you not use your own resources, or ‘spies’ as you say, to find out what you could about me?“

He had to concede that he had, but turned away from her rather than say it aloud. „If the invitation to your party and to dinner was a test of Cardovan’s understanding of me, then you are taking the long road to your ‘reason for asking,’ madam.“

„Yes. Yes I am.“ She grimaced. „But it is a little unusual. I wonder how someone as, um, staid as you will receive it.“

„You think I am staid? After that burst of temper?“

„It was a justified outburst, Major.“

She bowed her head and spoke with such humility that he came close to forgiving her. „But you are right, sir, staid is the wrong word. Calm? No, perhaps not calm, either. Sober? Settled?“ She tried each word and shook her head. „Not frivolous. Definitely not.“

„And you are nervous,“ he said with some surprise. The realization erased the last of his anger, for it put him in charge.

„Nervous? Why, yes, I am a little.“

„I find ‘tis better to act than to merely think about acting.“

„I suppose what you really mean is that fighting a battle is easier than thinking about one.“

„Precisely, but I find the same applies in peacetime.“

„Yes.“ She could agree with him on this. „In fact, I think the Season is merely a different kind of battle. Not that I mean to belittle your experience in any way.“

„It has been years, my lady, but the nervousness before my first ball is unforgettable.“

„I made my bow fifteen years ago, and worried that no one would notice that the embroidery on my gown matched the color of my eyes.“

She looked up then, and he could see that there was more pain than pleasure in the memory. He took a step closer, then stopped himself.

„But that was a long time ago, Major. This time I am going into the battle certain of the outcome.“

„Major, are you interested in employment? I would like to offer you a position.“ She took a step closer. „A position for which I am willing to pay twenty-five pounds a week through the entire Season.“

„Twenty-five pounds? A week?“

She watched him. It was hard to tell what he was thinking. Was that the army training?

„What sort of position is it, my lady?“

„To continue the military analogy, Major: I want to hire you to be my ally. Would you consider work as my escort?“

„Your escort?“

She nodded, doing her best not to duck her head, to look him straight in the eye, to be businesslike. How did men do this? She should have asked someone. But who?

„What kind of escort?“

„More than an escort, actually. Could you be my companion? I would like to hire you to come with me to dinner parties, to take me to plays and the opera.“

Lindsay winced at the word „opera.“

„You do not like the opera?“ She spoke as though she had already known that too. „You see, that is one of the reasons I am willing to pay you. So that there will be some reward for doing what is less than your favorite.“

„But surely you would have no trouble finding an escort.“

„Thank you, for I assume that is a compliment. But you see, I am not looking for a husband. In fact, I want to do all I can to discourage suitors. I do not want to marry again. Not ever. You are on my arm to make that perfectly clear.“

„If we are seen together all the time people will assume…“

He did not finish the sentence, and Grace was charmed that he was so straitlaced. „People will assume that we are lovers?“

„Yes, my lady.“

„But that would be no one’s business but ours.“

Lindsay stiffened, hesitated and then asked, „Are you hiring me to sleep with you?“

„No indeed, Major. We hardly know each other. And I am woman enough to prefer some degree of acquaintance before moving to the bedroom.“

„Then it is not a condition of the employment, but a possibility?“ He did not wait for her to answer. „No, madam. This carries your eccentric inclinations too far. I am not so desperate that I must sell my body like some whore on the corner.“

Did he find her so unattractive then? It was so impossible to consider her as a lover? Was this attraction she felt one-sided? Drat and blast. „Hardly a prostitute, Major, more like a well-paid courtesan.“

He closed his eyes, and Grace could see him struggling to keep his temper in the face of the insult. This was entirely wrong. She should not even have made the offer tonight, but given him time to recover from the perceived insult of her learning all she could about him.

Now she’d deliberately baited him. Why? Because she wanted him to be at least as embarrassed as she was?

„I am sorry, Major. I did not mean to offend.“ Grace walked closer, her words earnest and intense. „I wished only to offer a solution to both of our problems. I have no intention of doing any more than dancing with you. Could this not be purely a business arrangement? I know you were not married when you left Belgium, and if you will assure me that you have no wife or fiancee, then that is all I wish to know about your personal life.“