Хелен Диксон – The Property of a Gentleman (страница 2)

‘Let me take you over to meet Mr Fitzalan, Eve. I find it difficult to believe you have never been properly introduced, considering he and your father were such good friends and partners in several business concerns,’ said her grandmother.

Panic gripped Eve as her grandmother began steering her in Mr Fitzalan’s direction. ‘I would really rather not, Grandmother. Besides—see—he is engaged in conversation with Mr and Mrs Lister. I would not wish to interrupt.’

Unfortunately, her grandmother was not to be put off. ‘Nonsense, Eve. Come along. Mr Fitzalan will not eat you, you know.’

Marcus turned as they approached, Mr and Mrs Lister moving on to speak to someone else. With Eve’s veil turned back over her bonnet, Marcus was able to look down into her white face, framed by hair of sable blackness, and their eyes met, frozen by time and memory. He thought how young she looked, more beautiful than he remembered, and he noticed how her soft lips trembled as she tilted her head back a little to look up at him.

With a warmth flooding and throbbing through his veins he remembered how it had felt to hold her, how soft and yielding her lips had been when she had kissed him with such tender passion, and how her body had moulded itself innocently into his own. He was seized by the same uncontrollable compulsion to repeat the pleasurable incident that had left a deep and lasting impression on him three years ago when she had sought him out at Atwood Fair.

A poignant memory came back to him of that time, of a bewitchingly beautiful young girl who had brazenly approached him and foolishly made an immature and improper attempt to seduce him—he later discovered for some mischievous prank concocted by her and her friends for their own amusement. But it was unfortunate that the man she had hoped to marry had found out about her indiscretion and spurned her because of it.

At the time he had regarded the incident with amusement, remembering how surprised she had been when he had turned the tables on her with an expert subtlety and started to play her at her own game. Because of her inexperience and ignorance of the rules of nature he had soon had her at his mercy. In no time at all she had been unable to prevent herself from becoming his victim—and he retained a poignant memory of how willingly she had melted in his arms.

But the incident had not turned out as either of them had intended, for he had continued to think of her. For a long time afterwards he had been unable to get her out of his mind. She had done something to him, aroused feelings he had not experienced before.

‘Mr Fitzalan, I would like to introduce you to my granddaughter, Eve Somerville—although I have just been saying to her how odd it is that the two of you have not been formaly introduced before, considering your close friendship with Sir John.’

Bowing his dark head slightly, Marcus looked at Eve with a gaze that seemed to look straight into her heart, seeing that her lovely eyes were shuttered, giving no insight as to what her feelings might be. With the exception of a muscle that tightened at the corner of his mouth his expression was impassive, his voice coolly polite when he spoke.

‘On the contrary, Lady Pemberton, we have met briefly, several years ago—although we were not properly introduced at the time,’ he said, without any hint of implications, for he was gravely conscious of the solemnity of the occasion and had no wish to embarrass Eve or cause any constraint between them. But Eve knew exactly to what he was referring. It was a meeting she would prefer to forget and she was angry that he had the audacity to allude to it now.

‘It’s a pleasure to meet you again, Miss Somerville,’ he continued. ‘However, had it not been for your father’s untimely death, I believe he was about to bring you over to Brooklands shortly,’ he told her, referring to his home. Taking her hand, he felt it tremble slightly. ‘May I offer you my condolences. What happened to your father was a tragedy. He will be sadly missed.’

With cool disdain she lifted her chin and smiled politely, trying to ignore the tightness at the base of her throat. ‘Thank you.’

‘Your grandmother has only recently returned from London, I believe,’ he said by way of conversation, as the aforesaid lady turned to speak to an acquaintance.

‘Yes,’ she replied stiffly, wishing he would go away and speak to someone else—anyone, just so long as she did not have to suffer his odious presence. ‘She has been visiting my Aunt Shona—my mother’s sister who lives in Bloomsbury with her family. She is travelling back to her home in Cumbria and thought she would break her journey to spend some time with me and my father here at Burntwood Hall. Sadly, it has not turned out as she expected. I am only thankful she arrived to see my father before the terrible accident happened.’

‘I am surprised you did not travel with her to London to visit your aunt.’

‘Had my father been in better health I might have—but as it was I did not wish to be away from home in—in case…’

‘I understand,’ he said quietly when she faltered, her tight façade of dignity slipping slightly, and for a brief moment she looked like a forlorn child. ‘Your father spoke of you often. Indeed, he told me so much about you that I feel I have known you all my life.’

‘Really!’ she retorted crisply, the shutters up once more. ‘You surprise me, Mr Fitzalan. So much of my father’s time was spent away from home, despite his illness, that I am flattered to learn he could find the time even to think of me, let alone to discuss me with a total stranger.’

‘Your father and I were hardly strangers, Miss Somerville. And,’ he said with a gentle lift to his eyebrows, holding her gaze steadily, ‘neither are we, come to think of it.’

‘Despite what took place between us on our previous encounter you are to me,’ Eve replied directly, her voice cool, finding it difficult to conceal her dislike. ‘However, when he was at home it may interest you to know that he always spoke of you a great deal, too, Mr Fitzalan,’ she said pointedly. ‘In fact, there was never a day went by when he did not sing your praises.’ Her voice held a faint trace of sarcasm and was cold, which she knew was reflected in her eyes.

‘I myself would hardly deem our meeting a pleasure,’ she continued, the impressionable, ignorant girl she had been when he had last seen her having fled away, although the remembrance of their encounter and the resulting chaos knifed through her as it had then.

Marcus frowned. ‘What happened between us was a long time ago. Surely now—especially at this time with your father so recently laid to rest—we can at least be friends.’

‘I doubt we can be friends now or in the future, Mr Fitzalan. After today it is most unlikely that our paths will cross again.’

His eyes became probing, penetrating hers like dagger thrusts, his face a hard, expressionless mask. ‘Don’t be too sure about that, Miss Somerville,’ he said quietly. ‘Atwood and Netherley are not so far apart—and your father and I were business partners as well as friends. I would say it is inevitable that we meet at some social event or other.’

‘We do not mix in the same society, Mr Fitzalan, but if we do chance to meet you will forgive me if I seem to avoid you.’

‘Come now, you were not so ill disposed towards me the last time we met,’ he said, his tone silky, easy, his eyes regarding her with fascinated amusement. ‘In fact, you were rather amiable, as I remember.’

‘You remember too much,’ Eve snapped, two sparks of anger showing briefly beneath her lowered lids. ‘It was an incident which I have had cause to reproach myself for many times.’

Undeterred by her show of anger Marcus chuckled softly, a glint of white teeth showing from between his parted lips. ‘I recall how you went off in an extremely disagreeable mood.’

‘I am still disagreeable and will remain so while ever I am in your company, Mr Fitzalan. Now you must excuse me. There are several people I must speak to before they depart.’

Before Marcus could reply and uncaring that her words might have given offence, Eve turned from him, seeing her friend Emma Parkinson moving towards her. Quickly she moved on, leaving her grandmother to carry on the conversation, determined not to give Mr Fitzalan another thought.

But it was not possible for her to dismiss a man of Marcus Fitzalan’s calibre from her mind—in fact, she thought with bitter irony, she doubted that anyone would be able to. Once met, he was not the kind of man who could be forgotten. When he had taken her hand he had kept it far too long in his hard grasp for her liking, and the fact that she had to look up at him had annoyed her, causing fresh resentment to flare up inside her, but she had been unable to take her eyes off his handsome features, which had caused him to arch his clearly defined eyebrows and a half-smile to curve his infuriatingly arrogant lips.

When he spoke, his voice was of a depth and timbre that was like a caress, causing a faint stroke of colour to sweep over her creamy skin, bringing a smile to his lips, for he knew exactly the effect he was having on her.