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a small whoosh of air swept from between her lips. What possible reason had he to remember right down to the day? She was afraid to ask. Wishful thinking and hope were her enemies. Both had let her down before.
    “Your sister tells me you are her guest until your brother and his family returns from London.”
    “Yes. Parliament doesn’t recess for Easter until the eighth of April,” she replied politely, as if her heart hadn’t started a frantic beating within the too tight confines of her chest walls.
    “And neither of us could stand the thought of Katie puttering about Rutherford Manor all alone. Though to be completely honest, it saves us both countless trips back and forth. Had I been successful this past year, she’d be calling Gretchen Manor her home.” Charlotte smiled warmly at her.
    As much as she loved her twin or perhaps because she loved her so very much, she could never accept such an offer. She wasn’t so selfish as to infringe on her sister’s time alone with Alex when a year ago she’d returned after a five-year absence.
    “Charlotte, if you don’t mind, I wish to speak with your sister alone.” Without waiting for her sister’s response, he took Catherine’s arm and steered her toward the library at the opposite end of the main corridor. His hand on her elbow was by all appearances appropriately circumspect but in truth, it felt rather possessive…intimate. The silk of her sleeve merely served as a conduit of his body heat as it burned her everywhere his bare flesh touched hers. She resented him for treating her so familiarly, as if their time apart didn’t warrant some apprehension on his part, and certainly some acrimony on hers.
    Upon entrance to the library, Lucas closed the door. She moved out of his reach and turned to eye him directly, chin elevated. “You are behaving quite presumptuously.” She prayed the chill in her voice would mask her roiling emotions.
    Lucas’s smile appeared like the languid stretch of a cat on a lazy Sunday afternoon. “I rather thought you liked my presumptuousness .” He made the word a potent caress. “At least it appeared that way on several occasions when I was last in England.”
    Catherine did not accept embarrassment with the politesse of a lady—flushed cheeks and a timid smile most men found enchanting. Instead, her walls snapped up as she erected her defenses. “It is very rude of you to bring up the incident.”
    His brows rose, his lips twitched and his hazel eyes held the promise of something terribly wicked. “The incident? I thought it was a kiss. And I recall there being more than one of such—” he cleared his throat “—incidents, as you say.”
    Scorching degrees of heat burned her cheeks. “It was a mistake and I wish you wouldn’t speak of it again.”
    “I did not mean to discomfit.” His voice was all feigned contriteness.
    “Mr. Beaumont, you flatter yourself. You haven’t the power to discomfit me in the least.” She spoke with a bravado she did not feel nor was likely to be able to follow through on should she be put to the test. Lucas could discomfit her like no other man.
    His gaze became hooded and when next he spoke, his voice seemed to have dropped an entire octave. “Am I to take that as a challenge, Miss Rutherford?”
    It took her a moment to understand his meaning. The same time it took for his eyes to smolder, coming close to igniting her own desires. Unease had her swallowing hard and drawing in a shaky breath. “Nothing in my response issued any sort of challenge. I was merely stating the truth.”
    “Why then do you not want me to speak of the incidents ?” he asked in a quiet rumble brimming with everything sexual and illicit.
    “Why?” Catherine averted her gaze for the instant it took her to gather her composure and regain some of that legendary Rutherford pride. “Because it is unseemly, that is why. I fear you are forgetting, Mr. Beaumont, that I am a respectable young lady.” Though