Rogue in Red Velvet Read Free

blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
    “I want the privilege of calling you Connie. In return, you must call me Alex, especially in private. You do me a great favor, helping me to avoid the ladies, particularly Miss Stobart. She’s done everything she can to compromise me.”
    “What about me? Won’t I be compromised?”
    “You’re a respectable widow, soon to be formally betrothed. You told me so yourself.”
    He had her there. “And in any case, I’m of an age where I cannot be expected to be on the hunt. Isn’t that right?”
    “I wouldn’t say that.” He raked her with his eyes, once, twice, from head to toes.
    Every part of her body tingled. How could she bear this? “I’m eight and twenty, sir. I’m far too old to consider husband hunting seriously, even if my arrangement with Jasper didn’t exist.” He might as well hear the truth. “If it weren’t that my godparents had chosen me, I’d be well on the shelf.”
    “They might consider you decrepit. I certainly don’t. But you have my word, Connie, I’ll behave. Just don’t leave me to their mercies.” When he moved back, she caught the scent of citrus and masculinity. He was too real, with her in this room, a man rather than a symbol of power and influence.
    “Why don’t you just leave?”
    He shook his head. “I promised my father I wouldn’t. He’s an old curmudgeon, but he’s the only father I have. In a week, I will be kicking the dust of this admittedly charming house off my heels. I just need help until then.”
    So he could help the old widow woman sort out the dusty books. The situation appealed to her underused sense of humor. If she could bear his presence, and since he’d dropped his society mask she found him much more agreeable, then she could watch the play unfold and smile. As a widow she was allowed more leeway than others, and even if rumors came her way, she was safe. Jasper would arrive any day now and then her quietude would be at an end. She would be an engaged woman. “Very well, but not for long. Until you leave.”
    “Thank you, Connie. You do me a great service and I won’t forget it.”
    She might as well make use of him. “Be warned, Lord Ripley, I intend to work you hard collecting volumes from the dustiest rooms in the house.”
    “Alex.”
    He must look at all women that way and the gullible thought he did it just for them. More fools they. Connie wouldn’t join them.
    * * * *
    Alex left the library smiling. If Connie Rattigan thought her plain gowns and quiet demeanor had prevented him looking at her with more than usual interest, she was much mistaken.
    Her determination to avoid the house party had intrigued him at first. Then he wondered how she could think of becoming betrothed to anyone belonging to the Dankworth family. Of course he was biased, since his mother’s family were constantly at odds with the Dankworths, but Jasper, in his opinion, was a typical example of the breed. He didn’t deserve her. Glad to find her betrothed absent from the party, he’d looked at Connie and liked what he saw. The more he looked, the more he liked.
    Discovering her lair had become an obsession that had lightened the otherwise dull visit. He’d traversed several corridors more plainly decorated and much narrower than the more gracious ones in the main part of the house. But he’d failed in his quest.
    So it was ironic that he’d found her by accident. He had been escaping the wiles of Miss Stobart. Running away. He’d wandered into the older part of the house, to explore a little. Like many country houses, this one had been added to over the years. Lower ceilings and narrower corridors than in the modern part of the house attested to its age. He’d ducked into an old library, lined with shelves of books that looked read instead of just for show.
    When he turned a corner and discovered the lady facing him full-square, his smile vanished. If he wanted to get past her, he’d either have to retreat or beg her