About my money. But she couldn’t say that.
“Your father has given me grounds to hope I have engaged your affections. Hope, as I have never hoped in my life.”
My father is a despicable liar. No, she couldn’t say that, either.
Jenour-Redmond hunched his shoulders and lowered his head in the general vicinity of her face. A gust of sausage and kippers made her jerk back. She bumped her head against the wall.
He didn’t notice, or if he did, he didn’t care. Pinching her chin in his fingers, he brought her face back to his. Afraid to close her eyes for fear he would consider it encouragement, she stared at him. At the large pores on his nose. At the gray hairs poking out of his ears. At the damp, blubbery lips so close to hers. “Lady Jessica, I confess myself swept away by your beauty, coerced into improper behavior by your”—his gaze dropped to her neckline—“character.”
She shook in a brief gust of laughter, then cut a glance toward Mr. Windberry, expecting him to share in her merriment.
He sat with his finger beside his nose, watching Jenour-Redmond with a killing gaze.
Jenour-Redmond continued, oblivious to her amusement and Mr. Windberry’s displeasure. “Your father has already granted me permission, so I apply to you for your hand in marriage.”
At last! Her cue. “My lord, while I regret—”
“But first, I can no longer resist snatching a single kiss from your succulent lips.”
Taken by surprise by his uncharacteristic audacity, right here in front of Mr. Windberry, she forgot Mr. Windberry’s instructions and tried to jam her elbow into Jenour-Redmond’s chest. Alas! Too little, too late. His long arms wrapped around her back. He pulled her against him and pressed such a hearty kiss on her, he crushed her lips against her teeth. She would have made a gagging sound, but that would involve opening her mouth. She wished she could breathe, but she could hold her breath for a long time before she would allow him to touch her with his… Dear heavens, was that his tongue?
She shuddered, a long shiver of repulsion that shook her from head to toe.
And from the chair against the wall, Mr. Windberry drawled, “Darling Jessie, are you trying to make me jealous? Because it’s working, and if Jenour-Redmond doesn’t unhand you right now, I’m going to have to kill him.”
Jenour-Redmond did unhand her, so quickly she was dizzy. He stumbled backward, all the way across the porch. The whites of his eyes showed as his gaze swiveled toward Mr. Windberry. He reached beneath his cravat with one finger and tried to loosen it. “Is she… are you a suitor, too?”
“No suitor would dare take the liberties with a lady that you have been taking.” Mr. Windberry spoke with stinging disdain. “And in front of another gentleman!”
Jenour-Redmond didn’t glance at Jessie, and for the first time Jessie realized that unexpected kiss was more in pursuit of some ancient competition with Mr. Windberry than interest in her.
She wiped her mouth on her sleeve to dislodge the taste of the odious lord.
“Are you calling my breeding into dispute?” Jenour-Redmond demanded of Mr. Windberry.
“Your breeding is impeccable, as we all know,” Mr. Windberry answered. “It’s your manners… and your bravery …that require bettering.”
Jenour-Redmond doubled his fists.
Mr. Windberry observed him, and in a tone that mocked and insulted, he asked, “What are you going to do? Call your servants to thrash me?”
Straightening his skinny shoulders, Jenour-Redmond said, “I should say not! If I wished to thrash you, I’d do it myself. But this chit isn’t worth fighting over.” He flicked his gaze at Jessie’s dishabille, then at Mr. Windberry’s informal dress. “Not if she’s already been in your bed.”
Jessie gasped in dismay. Such rumors would bring her terrible disgrace!
Standing, Mr. Windberry paced toward Jenour-Redmond.
Jenour-Redmond scrunched himself into a corner, his head tilted, his lips open as he gasped like the bony fish he so resembled.
Jenour-Redmond’s stiffly starched cravat made a crunching sound as Mr. Windberry gathered it in his fist. “Lady Jessie has done no more than offer me the kindness of her conversation, and if I hear of you spreading gossip to the contrary, Jenour-Redmond, please remember how long it took you to recover last time I was forced to teach you some manners.”
Jenour-Redmond nodded.
Mr. Windberry shook him. “What did you say?”
Speech poured forth from Jenour-Redmond in a fearful torrent. “I do remember. I won’t say a word about you and Lady Jessica. In fact, if you don’t mind, I won’t tell anyone I was even here.”
“Yes.” Mr. Windberry let him go and dusted his fingers and stepped back. “That will save you the embarrassment of rejection.”