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“And because, if it was you,” she continued firmly, “then you have made me feel no better than a whore whose body you are paying to pleasure and give pleasure to!”
“No!” Gabriel’s mask of haughty indifference had been stripped away when he stepped into her space and placed his hands about her waist to keep her in front of him. “No, Lily,” he pleaded. “Please believe I thought only of you, of your comfort and well-being, when I arranged for your father to receive an inheritance from a distant, if bogus, relative.”
“Did you truly believe that I would see the benefit of even one penny of that money?” she scorned.
He frowned. “I had hoped so, yes.”
Lily gave a pitying shake of her head. “My mother is already ordering new gowns and urging my father to buy a third carriage. Oh, but how could I forget the best part?” she bit out scathingly. “My mother also suggested putting several thousand pounds of that money aside as a dowry for me. As an incentive to convincing a ‘suitable gentleman’ into offering marriage to me!”
“Over my dead body!” he rasped harshly, his hands tightening painfully about her waist.
Lily grimaced. “Gabriel, I am sorry to say—dead body or otherwise—I do not think you will have any say in when or whom my parents bribe into offering me marriage when the timecomes. Or how my parents might choose to otherwise fritter away the inheritance you have given them.”
His eyes darkened. “I want to be the one to give you everything. To shower you with diamonds and pearls. A dozen new gowns. A carriage of your own—”
She interrupted him. “I believe those are the gifts given to a mistress, not a lover.”
They were, Gabriel realized.
Or to a much-loved wife.
Except Lily was not and never would be his wife.
Because he was too old for her?
Or because she was a friend of his daughter’s?
Neither of those things. Lily would not be Gabriel’s wife because, as she and the other young ladies in the Spinsters’ Alliance had clearly stated, they would not marry at all if they did not love the man they were to marry.
Lily did not love him.
He knew she desired him, that her body responded to him spectacularly, but she did not love him.
Gabriel drew in several deep and calming breaths before releasing her to step back. “It would seem that I have made an error in judgment that I cannot reverse. I apologize if that error has in any way made you feel less than appreciated as the beautiful and passionate young woman that you are.”
“Your actions did not have anything to do with your knowledge of the scandal of my sister’s elopement?”
He was puzzled by the question. “Why would they?”
“Because it might lead you to think that my own morals are less than they should be.”
“That possibility never entered my thoughts for a moment.”
Lily gave a tight smile. “Then your apology is accepted.”
He shook his head. “I have already assured you that none of the actions of any member of your family affects my opinion of or desire for you. Did you not believe me when I said as much?”
She sighed. “I am trying to do so.”
“Then you must try harder.”
“I…I did not ask the last time we spoke but…but when your man investigated me and my family, did he…did he tell you if my sister…if Hazel—”
“Your sister is now married. She is the Contessa de Villere and living in Inverness in Scotland. The Scots are more kindly disposed toward the French than we are,” he added ruefully.
Lily’s eyes widened in obvious alarm. “But— What of Michel Jaques, the gentleman who was my father’s secretary, and whom Hazel eloped?”
“Michel Jaques Fornieristhe Comte de Villere. When he escaped to England, he preferred to earn his way in life rather than just be another French aristocrat who had escaped his homeland after being robbed of his estates and fortune. Since settling in Scotland, he and your sister have purchased a smallcroft, and they now live there happily together with their three-month-old son.”