A Gentleman Never Tells(59)

After taking off his gloves and scarf and unbuttoning his overcoat, the first thing he did was to pull out a flask and pour warm chocolate into a delicate china cup and hand it to her. She sipped the drink and watched in silence as he laid pieces of bread and containers holding butter and preserves onto the napkin the cup had been wrapped in.

“Mmm, this chocolate is wonderful, my lord, but has a strange taste to it.”

“That might be because it’s laced with a little brandy. I thought it might help keep you warm.”

“I’ve never had chocolate with brandy, and it does make my cheeks feel warm.”

“It also makes them turn a lovely shade of pink.”

“Really?” she said, touching her cheek.

Gabrielle set the cup aside. She felt wonderful sitting on the blanket under a tree with the viscount. She felt so happy and so free, she did the unthinkable and took off her gloves and laid them beside her.

She broke off a piece of bread and buttered it with the small knife he’d brought. “Will you tell me what happened between you and Staunton?”

Lord Brentwood popped a piece of bread loaded with fig preserves into his mouth and swallowed before saying, “There’s nothing to tell. There were very few words spoken between us.”

Gabrielle thought for a moment. Staunton had always been a man of few words. She’d actually had very few conversations with him during their engagement. When they had first become engaged, he’d often sought her out, always wanting her to take walks with him in the garden, or if they were at parties, to go out on the terrace with him. It hadn’t taken her long to realize all he wanted to do was kiss her, and that held no appeal to her, so she’d stopped going anywhere with him. He’d soon stopped asking. And that was obviously when he started noticing her sister and fell in love with her.

“Is it true he just walked up to you and hit you?”

The viscount gave her a crooked smile. “You know, Lady Gabrielle, I have only one thing to say about my encounter with Mr. Staunton. I might have hit a man, too, if I thought he’d stolen my fiancée from me. In fact, I might have done more than he did.”

“But Staunton didn’t want to marry me because—” Gabrielle caught herself before she revealed the truth about Staunton and Rosabelle. She quickly popped a piece of bread in her mouth.

“Staunton didn’t want to marry you because of what?”

She struggled to come up with something, but words were failing her. She needed to say something that would make herself sound like a dreadful person. Without thinking clearly, she quickly blurted out, “Because I have a nasty temper, and I’ve been known to throw things.”

“At Staunton?”

She hesitated. “No, others,” she said, sensing Lord Brentwood didn’t believe her for a moment, and she was only digging the hole she was standing in deeper. “Believe me, no man should have to abide a woman as ill-tempered as I.”

He sipped his chocolate and looked at her thoughtfully. “Did Staunton ever tell you that?”

She looked at Lord Brentwood. He was still waiting for an answer, so she said, “No, not in those words exactly. But take my word for it: he did not want to marry me.”

“All right,” he said calmly. “I’ll believe you.” He added more chocolate to their cups. “But what about you? Why didn’t you want to marry him?”

Gabrielle hesitated. How had she allowed them to get this far into a conversation about Staunton? She immediately started looking for a way out of it.

“I didn’t object at first when my father told me he’d picked Staunton for me. I’m sorry he hit you and cut your lip again.”

A half laugh blew past his lips and he shrugged. “Yes, it wouldn’t have been so bad if Staunton had caught me on the other side, but his fist landed where my lip had just healed.”

Her eyes searched his. Suddenly, everything around them was very quiet. On impulse, Gabrielle reached over and touched the injured side of his mouth with the pads of her fingers. He took hold of her hand and kissed the back of it while his gaze searched her face.

“The care and concern I see in your eyes isn’t necessary,” he said. “It’s almost well and doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“But it was because of me that Staunton hit you.”

He gave her a half smile. “A small price to pay for such sweet kisses.” His gaze stayed steady on hers. “Do you mind if I kiss you right now?”