The Forbidden Lord Read Free Page B

prefer indecent women to so-called decent women any day.”
    She straightened to fix him with a frosty gaze. “You may find this hard to believe, Lord Blackmore, but there are women other than the onesyou’ve described, women who don’t need to advance their position or fortune by tricking some hapless man into marriage. I’m one of them. I’m quite happy with my own life, thank you very much, and don’t need to ‘run’ yours to find satisfaction. And I most certainly did not set out to trap you. I merely made a mistake, one that appears more grievous for every moment I spend in your disgusting presence!”
    The vehemence in her voice took him by surprise. She did look the very picture of affronted womanhood. But then, she’d have to be a bit of an actress to pull this off, wouldn’t she?
    “So you claim not to have known I was listening to your conversation?”
    “I do not have such appalling bad manners as to allow my friend to gossip about a man within his hearing!”
    “All right,” he said in clipped tones. “Let’s say you’re telling the truth. If you were oblivious to my presence on the balcony, why on earth did you defend me to Lady Sophie when you had no idea who I was or whether the gossip was true?”
    She met his gaze coldly. “I knew of your work in Parliament. That seemed to show you to be honest and good.”
    He winced inwardly at her emphasis on “seemed.” Had he been too hasty in his judgment of her?
    The coach lurched, throwing her to the side long enough to expose one trim and decidedly pretty ankle before she righted herself. “Besides, it’s not right for people to malign a man when he’s not there to defend himself. If one doesn’t know the truth, one should keep silent. My father, the rector of Willow Crossing, raised me not to listen to such idle gossip.”
    “Your father is a rector?” His uneasiness deepened. A rector’s daughter? Setting a trap for him? That seemed too unlikely. He groaned. He’d made a nasty mistake in letting his anger get the better of him. Despite her mask, he could see her eyes snap.
    “Yes,” she said, barely pausing to acknowledge his question. “You could learn a lot from him. He doesn’t judge people without knowing anything about them. He’s always quoting Matthew 7:1, ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged.’”
    For God’s sake, the woman was reciting the Bible, chapter and verse.
    “I live by those words,” she went on, now fully provoked. “No one but God has the right to judge a person’s behavior, not even you. And furthermore—”
    “Enough, madam.”
    She went on as if she hadn’t heard him. “There’s the scripture that says—”
    “Madam, leave off! I believe you.”
    Her expression was priceless, almost disappointed, like that of a preacher denied a pulpit. “You what?”
    “I believe you.” Even he, with his cynical view of the world, couldn’t believe that a woman could quote scripture and plot against him at the same time. Glancing away, he grumbled, “Clearly, you’re not…the sort of woman I took you for.”
    “I should think not,” she said loftily.
    Gritting his teeth, he added, “I’m sorry to have offended you.”
    There was a long, chilly silence from the other end of the carriage. Good God, he’d made a horrible mistake. He would have recognized it earlier, but he’d been so furious at being caught in this devilish position that he hadn’t been thinking. Obviously, if she’d been trying to trap him, she wouldn’t have told him so soon of her error. She would have tried enticing him to compromise her.
    But she’d done none of that. What’s more, he’d just insulted her beyond countenance. He shot her a glance, wondering what she was thinking.
    She watched him with all the wariness of a cornered deer. “So you admit that I was not trying to trick you?”
    “Yes.”
    “You acknowledge that you were completely in the wrong?”
    “Yes, yes, deuce take it!”
    She sniffed and drew herself