“As you see, I’m quite appalling,” he said in that gentle, seductive voice. “I thought it better if you were warned. Doubtless any number of people told you not to come tonight, not to allow my friendship.”

“No,” she said calmly. “No one said anything at all.”

For a moment he looked surprised. “Dear me … All that effort in building a terrifying reputation and it fails me completely.”

“Well, to be sure, I don’t go out much in society, so there wasn’t much of a chance for anyone to head me off,” she said in a placating voice. “I’m sure if any of my friends or family knew I’d made the acquaintance of such a hardened villain they would have warned me away, but they’re all out of town.”

For a moment an odd expression crossed his face. “Then I can only be glad for your absence of company,” he said in that soft, drawling voice. “This way we can get to know each other without helpful relatives interfering.” His expression was just on the very edge of a smile, one that didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ve bespoke dinner for the two of us in my study. I would hope you’d agree to join me.”

“But what about your guests?”

“Signor Tebaldi will doubtless sing until at least half the guests are asleep or drunk, and then Mr. Kean will attempt to wake them up with some stunning orations, and no one will notice whether I am there or not. In fact, I quite often fail to attend my own parties. It’s part of my delightful eccentricity.”

“Oh, I would like to be delightfully eccentric,” she said, unguarded. “It seems that only men can get away with it.”

“I will give you lessons, child. Join me for supper and we won’t even have to think about those people.”

In for a penny, in for a pound. She glanced down at Mr. Panelle, who was still making whistling noises between his teeth. “What shall we do about him?”

“The servants can dispose of him. Unless you’d like to hit him again. I doubt he’d even notice a sharp kick in the kidneys if you were so inclined.”

Had he read her thoughts? “I think he’s suffering quite sufficiently,” she finally pronounced, ignoring the temptation.

“I would offer you my arm but I’m afraid my gait is quite clumsy and it would be uncomfortable for you,” he murmured. “There’s a servant at the end of the terrace with a candelabrum in his hand. He’ll see you to my study while I make arrangements to rid us of this piece of detritus.”

She’d already spent half the night hesitating. She could do the safe, boring thing, go back to listen to Signor Tebaldi and take a hackney home.

But she’d never been fond of tenors.

Lucien de Malheur leaned over the agonized body, and the tip of his cane caressed the man’s pale, sweating face. “Well done, Gregory. You acquitted yourself admirably. It’s too bad that’s she’s so effective at defending her honor, but in truth I expect I might have hurt you more. And I think it’s better that I don’t come off as a gallant rescuer. Not yet.”

Gregory didn’t say anything. He couldn’t—he was still making high-pitched noises through his nose. “Don’t worry, I’ll take excellent care of her,” Lucien continued. “I know you have enough sense not to speak of this night’s work, lest you end up unable to speak ever again.” His voice was soft, like that of a lover.

“Girl … deserves to be schooled …” Gregory gasped out. “Beaten.”

“She’ll be schooled, Gregory. Broken to my bridle most effectively, I promise you, though I find there are much more effective ways than brute force. Now go home and avail yourself of some ice if you can procure it. All your parts should be working well enough in a week or so.”

As he followed his guest across the broad terrace he heard the belated, muffled shriek of his Judas goat, and he smiled.

4

The door led to a study, bathed in warm candlelight, mercifully quiet after Signor Tebaldi’s famous fortissimo, and Miranda stepped inside, breathing a sigh of relief. There was a table set for two, a blazing fire taking the chill out of the air, and some of her apprehension began to fade.

She’d felt the eyes on her as she’d headed out onto the terrace. She would have hoped that a similar outcast like the earl would have fewer gossip-minded guests, but even among the demi-ton curiosity seemed to run rampant.

She should never have come. And she would tell her host that she should leave—he could send her home in his carriage, or at the very least have one of his servants call her a hackney.

She heard him approach—the steady strike of his cane, the faint drag of his leg. She supposed she should feel a sense of dread; the stories about this man were legend. But she didn’t. The brief glimpse of him on the shadowed terrace had been enough of a forewarning. She would sit across from him over a candlelit dinner and view his ruined beauty without blinking.

Because beneath the scoring across his face he was indeed beautiful, and she wondered what or who could have caused such cruel damage.

He moved into the room, a peculiar grace to his broken gait. But then, he struck her as a man who was never less than graceful. He sank down into the chair opposite and she met his gaze calmly.

“Most women keep their eyes in the general area of my shoulder, Lady Miranda. Do you have a particular fascination for horrors?”

She couldn’t help it, she laughed, and he looked genuinely startled. “Hardly a horror, my lord. You had me expecting something out of a Gothic romance.”

“I’ve disappointed you?” His voice was silky, his sangfroid back in place. “You continue to surprise me. Would there be a difference in your response if I were the deformed creature you were expecting?”

“I imagine I’d be compassionate, understanding. But all you’ve got is some scarring and a bad leg. Hardly the stuff of nightmares.”

He seemed to have gotten over his initial surprise, and he simply looked at her coolly. He poured her a glass of wine, then one for himself. “So I have no call on your compassion and patience as I am?”

“Of course you do, if you need it. I must say, you don’t seem to be particularly needy.”

“Very astute. I have most of what I need in this life, save one thing, and I imagine it’s something you could do with, as well.” He leaned back in the chair, languid and elegant, and yet beneath his light tone she sensed a truth. “I have business partners, enemies, lovers and social acquaintances. I need a friend.”

It was, of course, the one thing he could say that would move her, but she kept her own face as impassive as his. “You think we can be friends? I must admit friends have been in very short supply recently. But simple friendship between a man and a woman tends to be misinterpreted. Would society approve?” The last trace of her wariness had vanished.

“I doubt it, and I doubt you care. It does seem like we don’t have a large pool of prospective friends to pick from. Tolerant people are fairly thin on the ground around here. I don’t think one should dismiss possibilities too swiftly without due consideration.”

She looked at him for a long, meditative moment. In some ways he seemed like a little boy, cherishing his differences even as he hated them. And yet it wouldn’t do to underestimate him. Despite his scarred face and wounded body he seemed oddly … potent. Masculine. And after her wretched mistake, she’d learned to beware of that trait.

But still, his offer of friendship felt genuine. As if he actually cared about her empty life. And he was right—there hadn’t been many other options.

“I would be honored to count you my friend,” she said abruptly, surprising even herself.

His answering smile was a revelation. Lucien de Malheur would have been an Adonis if it weren’t for the scarring. When he smiled everything else disappeared.

She smiled back.

To her astonishment the hours slipped by as they talked, and she realized he was someone she had dreamed about. A friend, rather than a lover. Someone who saw things the way she did, slightly askew. He made her laugh, particularly when he was doing his best to sound tortured and villainous, and she loved puncturing his perverted vanity.

“I can see you as some plucky Shakespearian heroine,” he said at one point. “Not quite a Miranda—you’re no wizard’s daughter. More likely someone who dresses in boy’s clothes and runs into the forest, like Rosalind or Viola, and tricks the poor young hero into being fool enough to think he’s fallen in love with another man.”

“Perhaps. I’m sure you’d like to think of yourself as Othello, all broody and tortured, but I see you as more of a Caliban, not nearly so monstrous as you’d like to believe.”

He looked at her for a long moment, and she met his gaze fearlessly. “No, my lady,” He said gently. “Wrong play. I’m Richard the Third, determined to prove a villain.”

She laughed, because there was no other response, and his answering smile was faint enough that she felt some lingering unease surface again. He was joking, of course. But looking into his pale eyes she wasn’t quite certain.

She was still thinking about that moment as she rode home, comfortably ensconced in his elegant carriage, the same one that had carried her in the rain. It had been brought to a side door, and he’d accompanied her out there, away from the guests, tucking her in, catching her hand in his and holding it for a breathless moment while he looked up at her in the darkness, and she’d waited for his mouth to touch her skin.

But instead, he released it, and she immediately pulled her gloves on, knowing to her shame that she’d paused there because she’d wanted to feel his mouth against her hand. A moment later he’d closed the carriage door and she was bowling down the narrow alley away from his huge, dark house, and she sank back against the tufted cushions and closed her eyes.

Good God. What was wrong with her? Was it simply because she’d been so isolated for so long, that even a reputed monster would arouse her banked interest? Not that he was a monster at all. Within moments she’d looked past the scars and only seen his face, the beautiful bones, the pale, watchful eyes, the mouth that kept drawing her gaze. He had beautiful hands, as well—long fingers, hands that looked capable of great strength and elegant tenderness.