Page 49 of To Pleasure a Prince

He hadn’t told Louisa of his bargain with Regina, but his sister was no fool. She had to know that his association with Regina would necessarily affect hers with Foxmoor. “What makes you thinkIdid anything? She’s the one with the lofty standards and the condescension and—”

“She’s perfectly lovely, and you know it.” Louisa settled back against the squabs with an exasperated sigh. “But you just had to go and ruin things with her.”

“I refuse to court a woman who’s always trying to make me into something I’m not.”

“You mean a gentleman?”

Not Louisa, too. Was he ever to escape this female snobbery? “I’m already a gentleman, damn it.”

“You don’t act like one. It’s just as I told Simon—”

“Simon?” Had things already progressed so far that they were on a first-name basis?

She colored. “Yes. He and I have known each other for over a month now.”

He rolled his eyes. “Haven’t you ever wondered why a wealthy duke of such great connections would court the daughter of our rumor-laden mother?”

“As a matter of fact, I have. So I asked him about it. And he told me he’d met our mother as a boy and thought she was a good person.”

“Compared to whom? Jezebel?”

She frowned. “I know Mama treated you harshly sometimes, but she could be kind—”

“How would you know? She was never around. She didn’t care enough about either of us to stay home.”

Louisa flinched, then turned her gaze out the window. Damn. He hadn’t meant to dredge that up and wound her feelings.

But when she returned her gaze to him, her eyes were sharp as a pair of hat pins. “This is not about Mama. I’m in love with Simon—that’s all that matters.”

This night got worse by the moment. “But is he in love with you?”

She set her shoulders. “I believe so, yes.”

“Has he said so?”

“Not yet. But we’ve only begun to court. And now you mean to end it before I can even find out how he feels.”

“He’s not good enough for you, and as your guardian, I must act according to my conscience.”

“You thought he was good enough for me when you were courting Regina.”

He opted for honesty. “Actually, I didn’t even then. But I believed that you would see the truth if I gave him the chance to court you.”

“Which gaveyouthe chance to court Regina.” She sniffed. “So now you expect Simon and me to part, simply because you stupidly hurt her feelings.”

“Are you mad? Hurt her feelings, indeed. You saw how coldly she treated me this evening.”

“Because you behaved like an ill-mannered lout. I don’t blame her. If you ever treated me like that, I’d never speak to you again.” She leaned forward to clasp his hand with that earnest expression that always boded trouble. “When you want to, you can be perfectly charming, like when you talk to Lady Iversley. So I don’t understand why now that you have a woman who is interested in you—”

“Lady Regina isn’t interested in me.” He jerked his hand from her grasp. Louisa was supposed to condemn that confounded female, not take her side. “She considers me beneath her touch. If you can’t see that, you’re blind.”

“You’re the one who’s blind. Haven’t you seen her watching you?”

He stared at her. “What do you mean?”

“Regina watches you with those furtive glances a lady uses only for a gentleman she wants.”

Ruthlessly, he ignored the sudden leap in his pulse.IfRegina wanted him, it was only to satisfy her virginal curiosity with a dangerous male. “She watches me to mark my many lapses in gentlemanly behavior.”