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companion.”
    “It’s a preferment beyond my wildest dreams,” she said quickly.
    For an uncomfortable moment, she wondered if he’d try to shake the truth out of her. Surely only her guilty conscience persuaded her that he recognized her lies.
    “I’d like to hear more about your wildest dreams, Miss Trim,” he said slowly.
    She clutched her clammy hands together to hide their unsteadiness and stared directly into those unfathomable eyes. “Do you suspect that I’m not who I claim, my lord?”
    To her surprise and considerable discomfort, he smiled.This was the first time she’d seen his smile and she wouldn’t describe it as nice. It was the sort of smile a wolf gave a chicken before he tore it to pieces. Flashing masculine attraction and straight white teeth that looked ready to snap at her.
    “Outlandish fancies, I’m sure, Miss Trim.”
    Dangerously, she forgot her meekness. “Do you put all your domestics through this inquisition?”
    “Only the ones I discover raiding my library in the middle of the night,” he said affably.
    Curse her blushing. “I told you, I wanted something to read.”
    “Yet in all those volumes, nothing caught your interest.”
    Oh, dear God, he was a devil. Why wouldn’t he leave her be? She’d been overjoyed when the marchioness had promoted her. She’d soon discovered that housemaids had no privacy and little time to search a house the size of Alloway Chase. As a companion, she had a lot of free time—the marchioness wasn’t demanding—and a room of her own. Not only that, she had access to the family’s apartments.
    The disadvantage of her new status was that she’d hoped to pass through Alloway Chase without attracting notice. Even before last night’s encounter with the marquess, her ladyship’s favoritism put paid to that idea.
    “Perhaps I could advise you on purchasing some novels, my lord,” she said with cloying helpfulness.
    If she’d thought his smile was astonishing, his laugh made her sit up like a startled rabbit. It was warm with appreciation. She liked it so much that she had to struggle shamefully hard to remember she despised him. She stopped wondering why Dorothy had found him appealing. Even she, with every reason to loathe him, couldn’t stifle a prickle of attraction.
    Dorothy hadn’t stood a chance.
    “Perhaps you should.” The watchful light returned to his eyes. “Do you enjoy your post, Miss Trim?”
    “Yes, sir,” she said, only partly a lie. The marchioness was a darling. Her kindness had gone a long way to helping Nell cope with her grief over Dorothy’s death. Nell winced to think that her vendetta against the marquess would ultimately hurt Lady Leath.
    “I need hardly say that I take great care for my mother’s happiness.”
    Given that he hadn’t visited his mother in months, she could disagree. But even if she’d been his social equal, it would be impertinent to say so. “As do I, my lord.”
    His eyes glinted as if he saw every prevarication. “Then please don’t imagine that your attentions will go unremarked.”
    “No, sir.” She took the words as the warning they were.
    “You may go, Trim.”
    Trim, not Miss Trim, she noticed. Clearly he’d indulged her delusions of importance as far as he intended. That suited her fine. She couldn’t help feeling that if she lingered, that searching dark gaze would winkle out every secret. Then where would she be? Out on her ear. And he’d be free to continue on his nasty, seducing, ruinous way.
    Strangely she was angrier now than when she’d arrived. And more intent on bringing this brute down. Even after a short acquaintance, she recognized that the marquess was a clever, perceptive, interesting man. Yet still he chose to wreck innocent lives.
    Taunton, Somerset, early October
    Hector Greengrass settled his considerable bulk into the oak armchair in the cozy little tavern’s inglenook. It was abloody chilly night, but in the month that he’d been in the area, he’d