Free The Surrender of Miss Fairbourne by Madeline Hunter Page B

interested in her reaction. She could not dispel the notion that he waited to see his reference fluster her, as if that would be some victory for him.
    She managed not to reveal her surprise. However, she reacted to his gaze and insinuation, and not with the indignation that was warranted. Instead of disgust or anger, a very different emotion affected her. A thrilling sensation fluttered up to her throat, then spiraled down through her body, stirring her. Invisible sparkles danced on her skin and a foolish giggle bubbled in her brain. It was much like the taste of forbidden pleasure last night, only much less languid.
    It dismayed her that her own femininity conspired against her by making her susceptible to this man, in that way, at this time. How incredibly unfair.
    She reminded herself that Southwaite wanted to destroy Fairbourne’s. She sought refuge in her anger, but was incapable of summoning its full force again, or of obliterating the new, discomforting awareness she had of Southwaite’s masculinity, which saturated the air between them and made her nervous.
    “I spoke with Mr. Weatherby today.” She made her voice as crisp and unwavering as she could. “I know that you visited him after you left my house yesterday, and told him to stop referring applicants to me.”
    He calmly drank some coffee, then assumed a very cool expression. “Yes, I did. I had just proven how that advertisement could lead to misconceptions about the situation it described. I could not allow Mr. Weatherby to send prospectsto your house all week, and risk the world knowing that the daughter of Maurice Fairbourne had written such a thing.”
    “You sought to preserve my reputation?”
    “As best I could under the unfortunate circumstances, yes.”
    “Do you not find that in the least ironic, Lord Southwaite?”
    He thought a moment, then shook his head. “I see no irony. Even if we had come to an arrangement yesterday, I would have used all of my power to avoid scandal for you.”
    He was speaking of it again!
    “You will be relieved to know that I also paid off the men who were there when I arrived, and made them promise not to speak of where Mr. Weatherby sent them,” he continued. “We will have to hope those you interviewed prior to my arrival are discreet. If they are not, I can only pray that you did not have any of them remove their coats.”
    He was scolding her. Obliquely, but it was a scold all the same. Worse, he did so as if he had the right to.
    “Lord Southwaite, I came here to explain that Fairbourne’s does not need or welcome your interference, only to learn just how much more you interfered than I knew. It was not your place to send those men away at all. Now I discover that you paid them for silence, as if I had committed a crime that needed to be obscured.”
    “You were not guilty of a crime, Miss Fairbourne. Only weak judgment.”
    “Forgive me for speaking plainly, but—”
    “If I do not forgive you, will I be spared? No? I did not think so.” He sighed with forbearance. “Pray, continue.”
    It was not easy to do so after he said that. Still, she managed to speak the message she had come here to give him. “Your meddling is not wanted. Your help is not needed. You were an invisible investor for years and should remain so.”
    “Miss Fairbourne, with your father’s passing, the situation is much changed. We are two halves of a financial whole, and your half is now troublesome to mine. I will interfere as I see necessary and as I see fit.”
    He spoke like the lord he was, without the slightest note of apology or hesitation. Her mind formed scathing criticisms of his arrogant manner. Another part of her, the stupid feminine part giving her unexpected trouble today, was awed by his masterful presence and supreme confidence.
    A slow smile appeared on his stunningly handsome face. It was a dazzling one that seemed calculated to appease the furious Emma and entrance the stupid one, as if he knew both