Hugo wrinkled his nose. ‘Come to mention it, you do smell rather ripe.’
When she made no move from the sofa, His Grace the Seventh Duke of Wherever-it-was extended his hand to urge her to her feet. But she had finally reached the stage where, had she been a bottle of ginger beer, her top would have popped off under the pressure building up inside from constant shaking.
‘Will you stop,’ said Prudence, batting away his hand, ‘calling me Miss Carstairs? And telling everyone I am your fiancée. When obviously I can never be anything of the sort!’
Dukes didn’t marry nobodies. Especially not nobodies they’d only known five minutes.
He didn’t even have the grace to flinch. Clearly all the grace he had was in his inherited title.
‘Overwrought,’ said the man who had first appeared to be a villain, had then for a few magical hours looked to her like the answer to all her prayers, but who now turned out to be a duke. ‘I can understand that the discovery you are about to become a duchess has come as a shock. But once you have had a lie-down and composed yourself you will see that—’
‘Don’t talk to me in that beastly manner. And don’t—’ she swatted his hand away again ‘—order me about.’
She was just taking a breath to unburden herself in regard to her sense of injustice when there came another knock at the door. This time it was a plain, practical-looking woman dressed all in black who came in.
‘Excellent timing, Mrs Hoskins,’ said Gregory smoothly, taking Prudence’s elbow in a vice-like grip and lifting her to her feet. ‘Miss Carstairs, as you can see, is in dire need of a change of clothes and a bath. As am I,’ he said with a grimace of distaste. ‘Miss Carstairs,’ he said, giving her a level look. ‘I will speak with you again at dinner.’
‘Dinner! You intend to leave me in this state until dinner?’
‘We keep country hours at Bramley Park,’ he said. ‘You will only have to wait until four of the clock. It will take you at least that long to bathe and change and,’ he said, in the same steely tone he’d used on Hugo, ‘to calm down.’
Calm down? Calm down! She’d give him ‘calm down’. How dared he talk to her in that insufferably arrogant way? As though she was in need of a set-down?
‘You can take your hands off me,’ she hissed, wrenching her arm out of his grip. ‘And think yourself lucky I am too well-bred to slap your face for your...impertinence!’
Lady Mixby gasped. Pressed both hands to her flushed face this time.
Prudence stuck her nose in the air and stalked from the room.
Chapter Thirteen
Prudence was well on her way up the stairs before realising she had no idea where she was going. She would have to slow down and wait for Mrs Hoskins, or she’d risk looking like an idiot.
As well as feeling like one.
For what kind of idiot proposed to a man she’d only known for two days? A man she’d met, moreover, in bed? And stark naked at that.
Her feet stumbled and slowed of their own accord, which gave Mrs Hoskins a chance to catch up with her.
‘It’s just along this way, miss,’ she panted, indicating the left branch of the upper landing. ‘I hope it’s to your liking.’
Prudence hoped she’d made an appropriate response, because it certainly wouldn’t be this woman’s fault if it wasn’t. But in the event, when she saw the room, it was almost enough to make her burst into tears. Because it was simply magnificent. The most beautifully decorated, perfectly proportioned room she’d ever had for her sole use.
To start with, everything matched. There were velvet curtains in various shades of green all over the place, chairs with spindly gilt legs upholstered in toning shades of satin, and a mostly green carpet that looked as soft as moss. Clearly each item of furniture, each square yard of velvet and satin, had been purchased specifically to enhance the beauty of this one room.
It cast her own little room in her aunt’s house in Stoketown completely in the shade. And that room had totally intimidated her when she’d first seen it. It had made all the rough-and-ready billets in which her parents had lived seem like hovels.
‘Is something amiss? Would you prefer to have a room at the back of the house? It will not have such a fine view, but it would get less sunlight,’ said Mrs Hoskins.
The housekeeper looked so concerned Prudence made a determined effort to pull herself together. She could step into this room. They wouldn’t have had the carpet put on the floor if they weren’t prepared to let people walk on it. True, they couldn’t have imagined anyone with such mucky shoes ever setting foot up here, but she could remove them. She was at least wearing stockings today, even if they were borrowed and rather too large. So her feet wouldn’t leave a trail of bloodstains behind.