Moonflower Madness by Margaret Pemberton

Author:Margaret Pemberton [Pemberton, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

Chapter Seven

‘How do you feel about being my wife for an evening?’

It was barely thirty minutes later, and Zachary’s abrupt entrance woke her with a start.

Gianetta stared at him, blinking rapidly, trying to clear her head. She had obviously been dreaming, and she had an uncomfortable suspicion that she had been dreaming about him.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, pushing herself up into a sitting position on the kang. ‘I must have fallen asleep. What did you say?’

He stood with his feet apart, his hands pushed deep into his breeches pockets, a lock of night-black hair tumbling low over his forehead.

‘I asked if you would care to be my wife for an evening?’

Her heart began to race erratically. Was he suggesting that he share her room with her? He couldn’t be. Not in such an offhand, indifferent manner. And yet what else could he mean? Heat suffused her. There could be no question of her acquiescing to such an insulting suggestion. It had been made without the slightest overture of tenderness. An offer to a woman of the streets would have surely been made with more finesse. And yet … and yet …

‘The Viceroy is at his family home, and word of my arrival having reached him, he would like to meet with me,’ he said, a gleam of amusement in his gold-flecked eyes. ‘It isn’t customary for Viceroys to give audiences to women, but no doubt an exception would be made if I were to present you as my wife.’

She could feel the heat stinging her cheeks. Was he amused because he had guessed the assumption she had so presumptuously and erroneously come to? Even worse, had he guessed her unspoken response? Fury and humiliation fought for supremacy. Holding his eyes with difficulty, Gianetta said stiffly,

‘If I cannot be presented to the Viceroy as Miss Gianetta Hollis, then I prefer not to be presented at all.’

He gave a slight shrug of his broad shoulders. ‘Just as you please, although I think it is a decision you may well come to regret. Viceroys may be pretty thick on the ground in China, but audiences with them are not so easily come by, especially for women. You may not get such a chance again.’

It was true. And if she didn’t go with him, she would have to remain in the inn alone. As the desire to accompany him struggled with her indignation at the terms he was stipulating, there came a small scuffling noise from behind one of the interior walls.

‘A rat,’ Zachary said off-handedly as she looked towards where the noise was coming from. ‘They’re not vicious unless you try and corner them.’

She breathed in deeply. She had no intention of trying to corner one, nor had she now any intention of remaining alone in her room while he visited the Viceroy.

‘I hadn’t thought of the visit from an educational point of view,’ she said with admirable dignity. ‘Perhaps I ought to accompany you. It would be really rather negligent of me not to.

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