“Shoddy way to treat you. Following you from one side of the room to the other. It’s clear you’re not yourself.”
“That’s what they were counting on.” He held still as Fanny tried to loosen the knot just a little bit more. “This knot has not been your usual style,” she noted.
“The duke suggested I try something more formal for the evening,” he murmured. “I like the way it looks but not how it hugs so damn tight about my throat.”
She worked on the knot carefully, trying her best not to ruin it. “In my experience, gentlemen usually favor just one or two styles of knot for their cravat.” She frowned. “Why have you started taking advice from my father on how to dress?”
“It’s a habit from the theater. We actors always consult each other when dressing for a new role.” He laughed. “It also seems a good way to stay on the duke’s good side.”
“Father only has good sides. He’s the easiest of men.”
Jeremy snorted as if he didn’t believe her, but she ignored the chance to set him straight while she finished her adjustment. Jeremy could learn a lot from her father, but perhaps not about cravats. “There, done.”
He rubbed his throat. “Ah, that is so much better. Thank you, my lady.”
He beamed at her—and Fanny’s heart gave the most alarming lurch in response. As she stared up into his handsome face, a feeling of disquiet filled her. Jeremy was an actor playing the role of her admirer. She would do well not to mistake his interest for something real.
Fanny turned away and looked up. “I’ve always loved this time of year at Stapleton. The skies are so clear at night. As a child, I always thought I should be able to reach up and touch the stars, they’re so close.”
“I can easily believe you,” Jeremy murmured, looking up, too. He stretched up his hand, fingers reaching for the bright points of light above them. “You don’t get this sort of view when you grow up in the gutter.”
She turned to Jeremy. “Tell me about that.”
“I’d rather not.” Jeremy stubbornly shook his head. “The future is all that matters, or so a very learned woman told me the day she took me on.”
She blushed. “A happy day that was for me.”
“I’m not sure your family would agree with that now. Don’t take this the wrong way, but your father and brothers gathered together are almost as frightening as my childhood was.”
“They mean you no harm.”
He snorted.
“Papa already knows how we met. I told him this, my little play, was my idea and not yours.”
Jeremy shook his head. “He must have been shocked.”
Fanny shrugged, trying not to remember the expression th
at had graced her father’s face when she’d told him she’d hired an actor to play the part of her lover. But she’d explained and reassured him it was only make-believe. “I’m a grown woman and my business is my own. He can do nothing.”
Jeremy crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m sure he knows how to make a man who crosses him disappear.”
Fanny laughed. The idea of her father seriously threatening anyone, let alone Jeremy Dawes, was ludicrous. “My gut, as you men call it, told me that you were a sound investment.”
Jeremy sighed. “Women’s intuition is flawed.”
She was taken aback by his statement. Never before had she heard him speak dismissively of women, or her, in her presence before. “I don’t think—”
He drew closer and lowered his voice, “Now, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. You are a brilliant woman. Astute at business as any man, I hear, but when it comes to people, it’s not your head making decisions for you, but your heart. You ought to be more cautious who you trust with your confidences.”
“You are worried that someone might learn about last night?”
He nodded.
“Nothing happened between us. Not even a kiss.”
He drew closer still, his voice a low rumble as he continued, “No one would believe I wouldn’t have tried for that or more. You were upset, vulnerable.”