I am wicked enough to have asked my brother to bequeath me his beautiful mistress?’
‘As you say,’ she said carefully, keen to foster the fragile harmony, ‘neither of us wants to be shackled to a stranger.’ Had she not been made of sterner stuff, she might have melted beneath the sultry sapphire gaze that had accompanied his compliment on her looks. But her memory was not so short. She had but recently been the butt of his scorn and insults.
‘Perhaps it was Edward’s intention that we no longer be strangers.’
‘I would sooner he had introduced you in the normal way whilst he was alive,’ Sarah commented pithily.
‘Edward was always careful to keep out of sight anything of his I might have wanted.’
More subtle praise. She could not deny he was a skilful flirt. Again heat bled in to her cheeks. His rough-velvet voice allied with those steady predatory gazes combined to create quite a heady attack on the senses. Their conversation seemed no longer focused on material considerations, but had become quite intimate.
She felt suffocated, unable to rise to the challenge of playing his sophisticated game. She stepped away. ‘Your reminiscence about your brother is not helping solve our predicament, sir,’ she said briskly.
‘But I think it is,’ Gavin quietly begged to differ. ‘We need to ascertain what reasons he might have had for wanting to entwine our lives upon his demise.’ Gavin strolled to the window and looked out into woodland. ‘He must have realised that this would come as a shock to us both. He had little fondness for me, I know, and if it is some sort of bad joke, I allow him his laugh. But you?’ He turned and slanted Sarah a look. ‘Were you at odds over something that might have prompted him to secretly seek revenge?’
‘No,’ Sarah hotly denied. ‘Nothing like that passed between us. I believed we were friends till the end.’
‘Friends?’ Gavin echoed drily.
‘Yes, friends,’ Sarah repeated with some emphasis. ‘It is possible for a man and a woman to share a friendship as well as a bed.’
Gavin bowed his head in mock humility. ‘Thank you for that insight, Miss Marchant,’ he drawled. ‘Hard-hearted rakes do not know such things.’
‘Neither do they know when to accept a very good deal.’ She came closer to him to make her point. ‘You will be better off having Elm Lodge occupied than empty. You are foolish not to immediately accept my suggestion to housekeep for you. A fortune is almost yours for a tenancy and a paltry annual sum.’
Gavin’s smile deepened to a lazy chuckle. ‘I’m almost persuaded,’ he murmured infuriatingly.
Sarah flung herself around in a temper and stalked off two paces. ‘I am done with trying to be reasonable.’ She retraced those angry steps to glare up at him with sparking topaz eyes. ‘I do not give a fig what becomes of you or your brother’s inheritance. You may return to London empty-handed and end in the Fleet.’ She sucked in a breath to add, ‘Oh, I know you are a spendthrift, too. I know all about you.’
‘And are you going to return the compliment and tell me all about you?’
Sarah blanched, shrinking back a pace. She had not expected that unwanted question. She parted her soft lips to demand he take his leave, but was silenced by the sight of Maude entering with the tea tray. If the servant noticed her mistress’s flushed cheeks and fiery eyes, or the tension vibrating her neat figure, she gave no sign. ‘Shall I pour, miss?’ she asked placidly.
‘No…thank you,’ Sarah added with a hint of apology for her brusqueness.
The brief interlude whilst Maude settled the tray on the table allowed her wits to curb her temper. She must secure essentials for her and her family. Once Maude had departed she enquired coolly, ‘What has brought you here today, sir?’ A rustle of dimity skirts was the only sound as she paced to and fro, waiting for his response. Suddenly she halted and frowned at his silence. ‘If the answer is nothing in particular, then I must ask you to leave.’
‘I think you know why I’m here,’ Gavin returned mildly. ‘I want my inheritance and I am prepared to comply with the spirit of Edward’s will to get it. In short, Miss Marchant, I have no objection to protecting you in the way my brother intended I should.’
‘You might have no objection, sir, but I do,’ Sarah hissed once she had drawn sufficient breath to do so.
Chapter Five
‘Perhaps if I tell you I am willing to improve on Edward’s terms, that might help you overcome your objections.’
‘You do not know what he gave me!’ Sarah cried in muted anger. ‘Besides, it is of no consequence for I want no more. What I had was adequate…I was satisfied.’
‘Were you?’
The insinuation was subtly sensual and made Sarah’s heart pound. But she managed to boldly hold his narrowed gaze as she murmured, ‘I had no complaints.’
‘I’ll not disappoint you, either.’
His dulcet reassurance dried Sarah’s throat.
In the interminable moment that followed she noticed how vivid blue were his eyes, and how earth-dark his hair. With her vision heightened by her awareness of his virility, she saw that the dissipation in his face was not so pronounced. In fact, he appeared more tired than debauched.
‘There was obviously more to Edward than I knew.’
Her tongue tip wet her lips. ‘Perhaps you didn’t know your brother, sir, but he knew you very well, indeed.’
The bitterness in her voice caused Gavin to ironically smile. ‘And how perceptive are you, Miss Marchant? Did you know Edward?’
Sarah’s teeth closed on her ready retort. Gavin had a knack of touching on a very raw nerve. How well had she known Edward? It was a question that constantly tormented her.
Simply to occupy her fidgety hands, she busied herself with clattering cups on to saucers, forgetful of how inappropriate it was to offer one’s tormentor hospitality. In a daze she set about pouring the tea.
Was her trepidation born of anger? Fear? Modesty? Was it a calculated sham? How genuine an ingénue was she? Gavin watched her ruthlessly. His eyes roved the curvaceous lines of her buttoned-up back whilst he pondered the mystery of Sarah’s relationship with Edward.
His brother had obviously not seduced her with fake promises of marriage. Janet Stone’s name had been mentioned several times during the will reading and Sarah had not displayed any surprise at the existence of her late lover’s wife. So what had propelled such an exquisite beauty into Edward’s bed? He’d had wealth, but from what Gavin saw around him, had not lavished it on his delectable young mistress. Sarah’s home and her clothes looked serviceable rather than stylish, and if all her jewellery was contained within the box on the sofa she owned just a few modest pieces of gold and silver. Gavin was not surprised by his brother’s parsimony. Edward had advocated constraint and his character, like his physical attributes, were at best described as pleasant. All that remained was the possibility that Sarah had been in love with his brother. That conclusion should have brought solace…but it didn’t.
In a swirl of skirts Sarah
