The Wicked Lord Montague by Carole Mortimer

Author:Carole Mortimer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Mills & Boon
Published: 2014-05-20T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

‘They do not appear to have left a candle burning in anticipation of your return,’ Giles observed gruffly as he lowered Lily to the ground at the front door of the vicarage several minutes later.

She finished smoothing and straightening her cloak over her pale gown, and righting the bonnet upon her curls, before looking up at him. ‘It is an unnecessary expense in a household where every penny must be accounted for,’ she dismissed without complaint.

Giles had lived all of his life at Castonbury Park, the only hardships he had ever suffered being his years spent abroad fighting the French, and even then his comfort had still been far greater than that of the enlisted men. That the situation might soon change at Castonbury Park, if the family finances did not improve in some way, did not seem so important when Giles considered that Lily had lived all of her young life with a lack of the comforts he had always taken for granted as his right.

A fact that perhaps went some way to explaining—to excusing—her wish to marry well?

It certainly rendered Lily’s behaviour in regard to an advantageous marriage as no more ambitious and designing than that of the dozens of young debutantes who appeared in London each Season, having been tutored and polished for the sole purpose of finding themselves a rich or titled husband, preferably both.

‘My lord…?’ Lily prompted at his continued silence.

Giles gave himself a mental shake. ‘I seem to remember you called me “Giles” earlier.’

‘Amongst other things, yes.’ Her lips twitched as she repressed a smile.

‘Amongst other things,’ he conceded drily. ‘Such as “insufferable” and “crude.” Names, which I am sure you feel no regret at having used in regard to me?’ He frowned darkly.

Lily knew that at the time he had most certainly deserved them, that Giles was more inclined to judge her on what he believed to be her nature rather than attempting to see her as she truly was. ‘No, I do not regret them in the least. Indeed, your manner towards me since your return to Castonbury has, for the most part, been inexcusable and offensive.’ Her cheeks felt warm as she thought of that single occasion upon which his behaviour—and her own!—had been something else entirely! ‘But— You said something to me…when last we met.’ Lily’s gaze dropped from his at the mention of their time together in the woods. ‘Something which has…troubled me ever since.’

‘I said many things to you that day which, as with the things I said to you earlier this evening, may perhaps have been better left unsaid,’ he acknowledged harshly.

She frowned. ‘But this— It is not the first time that you have said something in a similar vein.’ She looked up at Giles searchingly in the darkness, but the moon was not shining brightly enough this evening for her to be able to discern his features properly. Which was perhaps part of the reason why she felt able to talk with him so frankly…? ‘You implied—seem to be under the misapprehension—that I meant to marry Edward.

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