The Importance of Being Wicked. Victoria AlexanderЧитать онлайн книгу.
wait.” She inclined her head toward the younger woman in a confidential manner. “I know my son claims to be a progressive sort, but in truth he does have a tendency to be something of a stick-in-the-mud.”
“Mother!”
“Don’t take that tone with me. You know full well it’s true.” Mother sniffed. “Not that I’m not pleased that you value our heritage, but, Winfield, dear, you do need to move with the times.”
Win’s jaw tightened. “I do move with the times.”
It was obviously all Lady Garret could do to keep from laughing.
“Well, we shall see.” Mother cast him an affectionate smile that did little to take the sting out of her assessment of his character. One could certainly value tradition without being a stick-in-the-mud. “Lady Garret, I know you and Winfield have matters to discuss, but would you join me for tea before you take the train back to London? I know your mother, but it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen her.”
The younger woman hesitated, then nodded in a gracious manner. “I should like nothing better.”
“Excellent. When you are finished here then.” She glanced at her son. “Do try to be pleasant.”
“I am being pleasant!”
“My mistake then. I thought you were being rather stiff and stodgy and annoyed and just the tiniest bit outraged. I’m sure no one else noticed.” His mother traded amused glances with the younger woman and took her leave.
He turned his attention to Lady Garret. “Wasn’t I being pleasant?”
“I am sorry, my lord,” she said at precisely the same time.
“What?” He stared at her.
“I was offering you my apology.”
He narrowed his gaze. “For what?”
“I put you in an untenable position with your family even if that was not my intention.” She shook her head and sighed. “I had no idea you would be so averse to the idea of modern—”
“I am not averse to the idea of modern anything! I wish all of you would stop saying that!” he snapped, then caught himself. What was this woman doing to him? She had him ranting like a lunatic. He inhaled deeply and mustered his composure. “It is I who owe you an apology. You simply caught me off-guard, that’s all. I had never considered the idea of electricity at Fairborough Hall.”
“And are you considering it now?”
“Yes, I suppose I am.” He shook his head. “But I have any number of concerns about this.”
She nodded. “To be expected of course.”
“There is the danger of fire to consider.” Good God, did he really sound that pompous? It was a logical concern and yet his tone was decidedly, well, pompous. “I mean, we must think about safety.” Oh yes, that was better.
“I cannot guarantee nothing will go wrong in the future, but I can tell you there are strides being made almost daily to improve the safety of wiring in a house.”
“That’s something, I suppose.”
“Admittedly, there is always a great deal that will be unknown about a new endeavor.”
“Indeed there is.” It struck him that she was very much a new endeavor and there was entirely too much unknown about her. “I am not the sort of man to blindly plunge ahead into the unknown.”
“I never imagined that you were.”
“I admit, there was a time when I perhaps made decisions in a particularly hasty manner when I should have given matters greater thought. When I plunged ahead when I should have considered said plunging rationally. But I have learned any number of lessons on the foolishness of rash decisions.”
She nodded. “And a wise man learns from his mistakes.”
“One can only hope.”
Her gaze met his. He could have sworn her eyes were brown. Today they were definitely that elusive hazel color. It was the lighting in the library, no doubt. “But isn’t something new, something unknown, even something that one fears might be a tiny bit dangerous, isn’t that worth the risk? Why, one could say that is what makes life exciting.”
“One could say that.” He smiled, albeit reluctantly. “I fear I am leaning—no, I have decided—in favor of electrification. God help us all.”
She laughed. It was surprisingly delightful. “I daresay—”
He held up his hand to stop her. “If you were going to say God has more to worry about than electricity coursing through the walls of my ancestral home, I would most heartily disagree. I would hope God could spare a moment or two to keep us safe from the ravages of progress.”
“I should think God would be amenable to that, especially as electricity is one of God’s creations and man is simply harnessing it.”
“That does sound simple,” he said wryly.
“But I didn’t finish my apology. I am sorry that I pitted you against the rest of your family. It wasn’t at all fair and certainly not what I envisioned.”
She sounded sincere enough and yet . . . “I don’t believe you.”
Her eyes widened. “Why on earth not?”
“Because you strike me as the kind of woman who gets what she wants and will use whatever means necessary to achieve it. Who will not back down from a position when she believes she is right.”
Surprise shone in her eyes. “I do?”
“The very fact that you are here, representing your late husband’s firm, is a testament to that.”
“Is it?”
“Indeed it is.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “It is most unbecoming in a female.”
“Oh?” Her brow rose. “Which part? Getting what I want? Using whatever means necessary? Or refusing to retreat when I know I am right?”
“All of it!”
“And what do you think is becoming in a female?”
“A female who knows her place in the world is most becoming,” he said in a lofty manner. Even as he said the words he knew they were a mistake. But something inside him—something quite irrational and probably extremely stupid—made him want to annoy her as much as she annoyed him.
“Her place in the world?” she repeated as if she couldn’t quite believe his words.
Win had a difficult time believing them himself. Indeed, he had always preferred women with a bit of independence and intelligence to them, women who made up their own minds and forged their own paths even if that had proved his undoing on more than one occasion.
“And what would that place be?”
“At home. With her family. Not out and about espousing electricity.”
Her brows drew together. “Do forgive me, my lord, for not meeting your standards of feminine behavior.”
“You manipulated me, Lady Garret. I do not like being manipulated. I particularly dislike that you used my family to do it.”
“And for that I have apologized. I shall not do so again.”
“What? Apologize or manipulate?”
“I certainly won’t apologize again.” She turned in a dismissive manner and considered the plans spread on the desk. “Is there anything else we should discuss today?”
Ha! Obviously she thought better of continuing a debate she could not possibly win. Good. If there was a score being kept—not that there was—he would have won a point. He moved closer and studied the drawings.