Free A Christmas Bride / A Christmas Beau by Mary Balogh

desist. I should then feel obliged to apologize for seducing you and that would be tiresome since I do not feel sorry. But you need not fear that I will do it again. I never seduce the same man twice. It is a rule I have. Besides, in my experience no man is worth a second seduction.”
    “Ah,” he said, suddenly more amused than angry, “you will have the last word after all, will you? It was a magnificent set-down.”
    “I thought so, too,” she said. “You are a superior lover, Mr. Downes. Take it from someone who has hadsome experience of lovers. But I do not want a lover, even a very good one. Especially perhaps a very good one.”
    He despised himself for the satisfaction her words gave him.
    “I would prefer a friend,” she said.
    “A friend?” He looked at her.
    “Life can be tedious,” she said, “for a widow who chooses not to burden her relatives with the demand for a home and who chooses not to burden herself with another husband. You are an interesting man. You have more to talk of than health and the weather and horses. Many men have no knowledge of anything beyond their horses and their guns and their hunting. Do you kill, Mr. Downes?”
    “I have never been involved in gentlemanly sports,” he said.
    She smiled. “Then you will never be properly accepted in my world, sir,” she said. “Let us be friends. Shall we be? You will alleviate my tedium and I will ease you into my world. Do you enjoy wandering around galleries, admiring the paintings? Or around the British Museum, absorbing history?”
    “I am, I believe, a tolerably well-educated man, ma’am,” he said.
    She looked at him measuringly. “You are not perfect after all, are you?” she said. “You are sensitive about your origins. I did not imply that you are a clod, sir. But you do not know London well?”
    “Not well,” he admitted.
    “Take me somewhere tomorrow,” she said. “I shall decide where between now and then. Let me have someone intelligent with whom to share my observations.”
    He was tempted. How was he to say no? He must say no.
    “You are afraid of ruining your matrimonial chances,”she said, reading his hesitation aright. “How provincial, Mr. Downes. And how bourgeois. In my world it is no matter for raised eyebrows if a gentleman escorts a lady about who is not his wife or his betrothed or his intended, even when there is such another person in existence. And no one is scandalized when a woman allows a man to escort her who is not her husband or her father or her brother—even when she is married. In my world it is considered somewhat bad
ton
to be seen exclusively in the company of one’s spouse.”
    “I daresay, then,” he said, “that my sister is bad
ton
. And Lord Francis Kneller, too.”
    “Oh, those two.” She waved a dismissive hand as she got to her feet. “I do believe they still fancy themselves in love, sir, though they have been married forever. There are other such oddities in the beau monde, but they are in the minority, I do assure you.”
    “You were right,” he said. “I came to London in search of a bride. I promised my father that I would make my choice by Christmas. I rather think I should concentrate upon that task.”
    “My offer of friendship is rejected, then?” she said. “My
plea
for friendship? How very lowering. You are no gentleman, sir.”
    “No,” he said with slow clarity, “I am not, ma’am. In my world a man does not cultivate a friendship with one woman while courting another.”
    “Especially with a woman whom he has bedded,” she said.
    “Yes,” he agreed. “Especially with such a woman.”
    Her smile this time was one of pure contempt. “And you were right a minute or two ago, Mr. Downes,” she said. “You have stayed overlong. I tire of your bourgeois mentality. I would not find your friendship as satisfying as I found your lovemaking. And I do not desire lovemaking. I use men for my pleasure occasionally, butonly very occasionally. And