‘Neither do I,’ he responded, frowning, ‘but for Gerald’s sake, I’ll do anything I can.’
Mischief overtook Melusine. She ran her gaze over him, and allowed her eyelashes to flutter down.
To her satisfaction, the captain reddened a trifle. ‘No need to upset yourself. Happy to do anything in my power.’
Melusine sighed deeply. ‘You see, it is that I have a plan to marry an Englishman.’
His brows rose. ‘So that’s true, is it?’
‘Certainly it is true,’ Melusine said, opening her eyes wide. ‘And I am thinking now that you may be very suitable.’
‘Eh?’
Almost Melusine betrayed herself at his startled look. But she must not laugh.
‘You will like to marry me, yes?’ she pursued. ‘That will be very helpful to me.’
‘Marry you!’
He shot off the desk, such horror in his face that Melusine felt a little irritated. Was she so bad a prospect?
‘No good, Melusine,’ said a new voice from the doorway.
Melusine jumped up, turning swiftly. ‘Gérard!’
Before she could react to this new menace, the captain spun round. ‘She wants me to marry her.’
‘So I heard.’ Gerald came into the room as he spoke, his eyes on the stormclouds rapidly gathering in Melusine’s face. ‘He’s already spoken for, Melusine. You’ll have to find someone else.’
‘You, perhaps?’ she flung at him furiously, stepping out from behind the desk.
He uttered a short laugh. ‘Lord, no! I’ve a better regard for my skin, I thank you.’
‘Parbleu, but I find you excessively rude,’ she snapped, marching to meet him.
‘You usually do,’ he said lightly.
‘Do not smile at me and try to make me not angry any more,’ Melusine warned, ‘for I am very angry indeed with you.’
‘What, for not wanting to marry you?’
‘Imbecile. Do you think I would marry you? Rather would I marry the pig in the convent.’
‘You mean the one that you refused to feed?’ demanded Gerald, seizing this promising cue and adopting a mournful note. ‘But that is excessively unkind of you, Melusine. To compare me to a starving pig.’
She bit her lip, but her eyes betrayed her. ‘Do not say such things, you—you imbecile.’
With satisfaction, Gerald noted that her voice was hopelessly unsteady and drove home his advantage.
‘I will not, if you will assure me that an imbecile is a better marriage prospect than a starving pig.’
Melusine bubbled over and warmth rose in Gerald’s chest.
‘Idiot. Near as idiot as this capitaine of yours. He believed me when I asked him to marry me. You would not have believed me, I know well.’
Gerald eyed her with interest. ‘Did you sigh and flutter your eyelashes?’
‘Certainly I did.’
‘No, I wouldn’t have believed you.’ He glanced at Roding. ‘Don’t concern yourself, Hilary. She was only trying to distract you so that she might escape.’
‘Distract me? She nigh on gave me an apoplexy.’
Gerald laughed, and turned back to Melusine, who was frowning again. ‘What now?’
‘Now,’ she answered flatly, ‘you will please to tell me at once why you have come here.’
‘That’s easy. You’re trespassing again, and I’ve come to arrest you,’ Gerald said promptly.
‘I do not believe you. En tout cas, I am not trespassing at all. This—’ waving an imperious hand in a sweeping arc about the library ‘—is my house.’
So that was it. Gerald glanced at Hilary and saw the stunned look on his face. The fellow Kimble, to whom Gerald was indebted, was gaping.
‘You will have to prove it, you know,’ Gerald said quietly.
‘Do you think I do not know? What am I doing here, do you think?’
‘That’s just exactly what I’ve been asking myself,’ he returned. ‘Are you going to tell me?’
