Julia’s mouth worked wordlessly for several moments. “What… what did you say?” Surely, she’d heard him wrong, and he hadn’t told her what to do.
He stood from his leaning position and looked down his nose at her. “You heard quite clearly.”
Fire kindled in her chest, burning away any of the previous ache. She rose from her chair and graced him with her fiercest glower. “That was what I was afraid of. Who do you think you are, telling me what I can or can’t do?”
He stalked around the desk to loom over her. She held her ground, though it took every ounce of willpower. When had he gotten so tall? Thankfully, he made no effort to touch her, though some tiny portion of her traitorous body didn’t agree.
As he gazed at her, his eyes seemed to spit green flame. “I’m the man protecting you. I don’t care if you have all these gadgets that supposedly make you invincible. We saw how that went last time, didn’t we?”
His intensity shocked her into silence. When she didn’t answer, he lifted an arrogant brow. That broke her out of her stupor, and outright fury exploded at his arrogance. Oh, he wasn’t getting the best of her. No way.
She glared at him. “I think it has more to do with you pulling rank as an earl”— she curled her fingers in the air as she said the word earl— “than out of any true concern for me.”
“Forget my title. Right now, all I’m concerned about is an infuriating woman from the future who plans on prancing around places she doesn’t know.”
Her hands clenched. Prancing? She didn’t prance. Then his other words sank in. If she didn’t know better, it almost sounded like he was worried about her safety. But he’d barely met her, so his interest couldn’t be anything more than what he’d give any person in her place. Still, some nosey part of her prodded her to ask, “Why do you care?”
He raked a hand through his hair, frustration leaking out of every breath he took. “You’re different. I’ve been searching…. Gah! How do I explain this without sounding like a lunatic?”
“Just spit it out.”
He gave her a strange look. “Such ladylike language.”
Really, what she’d said had been bad? Wow, he should hear how some women from her time talk. “Your time’s morals aren’t mine.”
“Too true.” He sighed raggedly. “What I’m attempting to say is, I felt like something— or someone— would soon enter my life and change it for good or evil. Now, I wonder if you aren’t that person.”
Julia suddenly had trouble breathing. Panic lit in her gut. Was he some sort of gorgeous nut who thought they were fated for each other? She’d been thinking about getting a boyfriend, but this was crazy.
A new concern wormed its way into her consciousness, and a chill iced her spine. He’d said she wasn’t going anywhere. His declaration added a new dimension to those words. Would he hold her prisoner until she could escape? Once her week was over, she’d be out of there. But seven days seemed like a long time to someone being held against her will. Who knew what he could do in that time?
Then her mind went to her invisibility transmitter. She could always use it to get away. In fact, being invisible now sounded really good. Her right hand flew to the reticule that hung from her left wrist, but the earl caught her hand— and the ridicule. Her blossoming hope died.
“Ah, I don’t think it would be wise to leave this on your person.” He walked back to his desk and opened a drawer, dropping her device into it. A click indicated he’d locked the drawer.
Her heart dropped to her toes, while a spark of anger and helplessness shook her. He’d taken the only means she had for a clean escape. Now she would have to play by his rules. She’d have to find out exactly what he was after— and if she were in any danger.
He came back to stand before her. Her throat refused to function properly, but she still managed to get the words out. “Are you talking about marriage?”
Surprise flashed across his face, as if he hadn’t thought that far. His words backed up her assumption. “No, nothing so drastic. We don’t even know each other.”
A wave of relief swept over her. Maybe this wouldn’t turn out as bad as she first feared. “No, we don’t. And I’m only here for a week— to complete a mission, not to find love.”
His lips firmed. “Who said anything about that detestable emotion?”
Confusion gripped her. What on earth was he talking about, then, if not love? “What are you proposing?”
“That we get to know each other, and from there, decide what to do.”
“In one week? I have a life back in 2413.”
“Do you have a husband?” he asked, his voice tight.
Should she tell the truth? This could be her way out. She bit her lip, hating to lie. “Well, no, but—”
“Then you have no one important waiting for you.” His tone was assured, and dare she say it, smug?
She bristled. “I have plenty of people waiting for me. If I stayed, I wouldn’t be allowed to travel back to see them. My parents, my friends—”
He interrupted her again. “But you named no one with which you’d spend your life.”
Put that way, no. She cast about for a good rebuttal, but her mind only drew a blank.
“Not going to answer me?” he drawled.
Finally, she grasped something she could verbally smack him with. “Women of my age don’t need a significant other to spend our lives with.” She smiled, hoping what she’d say next would shock him into forgetting her existence. “And if we do find one, we often don’t marry them.”
His eyebrows drew together. “Do you approve of and partake in this lifestyle?”
Actually, she was quite old-fashioned and considered a throwback in her day. He definitely didn’t need to know that. She shrugged nonchalantly. “I see nothing wrong with it.” Her left eye twitched as she spoke.
“Liar,” he said softly and stepped closer, closing the distance between them. She refused to look at him. If she were being cowardly, fine by her. Was it her imagination, or did the heat of him radiate toward her? Like a drowning woman, she grasped onto the prior explanation with a death grip. Her imagination— yep, that had to be it.
He settled his hands on her shoulders.
Her mind froze, zeroing in on every movement he made, every breath he took.
Leaning down, he whispered in her ear, “I know women, their mannerisms. After all, I’ve made it my business to learn every facet of their bodies.”
The sensuousness of his words wrung a gasp from her lips, but the images left in her mind made her heart darken with rage. Was this what jealousy felt like? If so, it sucked.
She knocked his hands away and stepped back a pace. “I’m not one of your doxies.”
“No, but if I have my way, you’ll be my woman.”
She frowned at him. His woman? What did that mean? His kept mistress? His wife? She had big problems with both possibilities— the first one for obvious reasons, and the second because no one was forcing her into marriage. However, the reasons didn’t matter, because in a week she’d be home. “How about if I say otherwise?”
He turned the most charming and seductive smile on her. “I don’t think you will, but if you still want to leave after a week, I’ll let you go.”
She ignored how his grin had turned her knees to jelly by telling herself to toughen up. He was another Lothario, nothing more. “Maybe you’ll want to let me go.” Especially if she acted like a brat the entire time.
“Maybe.” His lips quirked as if he found her funny, which frustrated her beyond belief. “But I doubt it.”
“After my seven days are up, you promise that you’ll let me leave without any interference?”
He inclined his head. “You have my word.”
Yeah well, she didn’t know if she should trust that. And she still had her mission to accomplish. “If you want me to fall for you, kidnapping me isn’t the best way to go about it.”
“Don’t think of it in that way. I’m merely courting you as I watch over your safety. Any lady would be flattered.” He indicated to the chair she’d vacated. “Please, have a seat.”
“I guess I’m not a lady, then” she said flatly as she sat down.
“By the end of the week, you’ll be one.”
As he strode back to his desk and the chair waiting for him, she crossed her arms over her chest. What he left unspoken was that he thought she’d be whatever he desired. Like she was a brainless moron with no will or personality of her own that he could make over. “We’ll see about that. Anyway, won’t I sully your noble linage? As far as I know, I’m as common as they come.”
“I’m not concerned. There are ways around that. Money can ease many problems.”
“Ha, the typical response of someone who’s rich.”
He gave an elegant shrug. “I make no denials in that regard.”
“And tell me how I’ll finish my mission since you took my invisibility transmitter?”
A smile of satisfaction curved his lips. “The good old-fashioned way.”
“What? Breaking in?”
He sighed with exasperation. “I’m an earl. I’m invited to every ball, rout, and party you could desire. We’ll get all the information you need for your report.”
She tapped her foot. “And how about finding out who the thief is? I can’t very well hide in the Pendlebough’s study until the ring is stolen.”
He inspected his nails. “So it’s stolen from the study?”
“That was the Pendlebough’s story.”
“I know Lady Pendlebough and her brother quite well.”
Julia scrunched up her face in thought. “I think I remember reading something about him. He was… the Marquis of Avingdale?”
“Was?” asked the earl.
Ouch, here was a subject she really didn’t like discussing or even thinking about. But really, there was only one logical outcome to the matter. “Back in my time, he’s long dead. So are you. So is everyone from this period.”
The gravity of her words appeared to hit him like a punch, and he flinched. “That is more unsettling than I’d like to admit.” He paused before speaking again, a frown marring his brow. “However, you knew of Avingdale but not me?”
She smiled. He sounded almost affronted. “If it makes you feel any better, I may have seen your name mentioned.” A grin spread across his face, then she added, “In a footnote at the bottom of the page.”
His triumphant expression slipped faster than a woman wearing heels on ice. “You enjoy taking me down a peg, don’t you?”
“You make it so easy.”
He took a deep breath. “Then I will have to endeavor not to make it so.”
“I don’t know. I find your arrogance kind of cute.”
“Cute?” He spit out the word like it was poison. To a man like him, it probably was.
“Could be worse. It could be annoying.”
He seemed a bit appeased. “At least I’m not that.”
She threw him a sweet smile. “I said your arrogance could be kind of cute. I never said you weren’t annoying.”
“While I would love to continue our little verbal game, I believe we were discussing your mission.”
Oh, yeah. She’d been getting a little carried away and forgotten that. Not good if she wanted to keep everything with the earl as professional as possible. Was professional even the right word since he was holding her captive? She didn’t think so but was at a loss what to call it. Right now, the best thing to do was focus on her mission. “I have to watch the Pendlebough’s household. I don’t see how I can do that full-time while I’m here.”
“Full-time? Surely, that’s not necessary.”
“It’s standard protocol,” she said.
“Well, I’m changing your protocol.” He leveled a piercing stare at her. “I don’t want you alone in a strange man’s residence, invisible or not.”
Yeah right, the earl was probably more worried she’d escape if he let her use her invisibility transmitter. “Why? Lord Pendlebough is married, and he wouldn’t even see me.”
“He’s a libertine of the first order.”
“So? He wouldn’t see me if I were invisible. Anyway, how are you such an authority on the guy?”
He smirked. “Because I was a libertine, too. I don’t want you around one, even if you’re invisible, for an extended period of time.”
She gave a snort of laughter. Could he not see the irony? “Oh, that’s rich. I’m in your townhouse, unchaperoned.”
“Yes, and if anyone found out, that would be enough to ruin your reputation, though it sounds like women of your era no longer worry about such things,” he said derisively.
She shook her head in disbelief. “For a self-admitted Casanova, you sure have your double standards.”
“Women are held to a higher code of behavior than men.”
“Talk about hypocrisy.”
He shrugged. “It is what it is.”
Even in her day, such hypocrisy existed, though not to this extent. It rubbed her nerves the wrong way to be in a place where woman were seen as being little better than chattel. Fortunately, she wouldn’t have to put up with it for long. “So how am I going to get into their townhouse?”
“When is the ring stolen?”
“July 26th, sometime after 10 pm, according to the Pendleboughs,” she said automatically.
“That evening there’s a rout at the Pendlebough’s. We’ll be going.”
We? As in he was going with her? “We will?”
He sent her a satisfied look. “And we will find out the identity of the thief.”
While she was no historian on Regency-era manners, she knew that an unchaperoned young woman appearing out of thin air, with no pedigree to speak of, would arouse more talk than would be wise. She needed to be inconspicuous, not the center of gossip. “I don’t think this would be feasible. I’ve no standing here and don’t have time to get the proper papers to fake an aristocratic upbringing.”
“My grandmother will claim you as her guest from the States, the daughter of an old friend.”
Surprise mingled with alarm. He wanted to get his grandmother involved? She was sure her jaw was hanging on her lap. Was he that serious about courting her? “What will you tell her?”
“The truth?”
No. “We agreed you wouldn’t—”
“My grandmother wouldn’t do anything to endanger me— or you by extension of that. Anyway, we need her. As you’ve pointed out, you need a chaperone. There is no one else I’d trust with this.”
“I never said I needed—”
“You know you do, though. I won’t have anyone besmirching your name.”
The firm finality in his voice told her he’d brook no argument. She sighed. He was right, anyway. If she couldn’t be invisible, she’d have to play by Society’s rules. They were quite unforgiving to young, unmarried women who spurned them.
But she worried what his grandmother would think. To involve another native… “I concede your point. However, won’t your grandmother think we’re both insane, unless you mean to show her my devices?”
He leaned back in his chair, amusement all but leaking from his pores. “My grandmother is known to be… eccentric. I highly doubt anything I say will faze her one wit.”
As another thought came to her, she gave a smug smile. “What if I mentioned you were keeping me here by duress?”
He waved a hand in dismissal. “Again, I don’t think my grandmother would be shocked. She knows I’d do nothing to hurt you and would trust me to release you after a week, if that is what you would want.”
Another hope shot down. “Fine. But I think you’re complicating this tremendously by not letting me use my transmitter.” By the end of her last sentence, she was practically whining, but she didn’t care. He could deal with her less than pleasant mood.
“I’ve given my reasons.”
“I think it has more to do with my escaping than anything else.”
He smiled laconically. “There is that.”
“So when do we see your grandmother?” She wanted to get this farce started. Plus, not being alone with him was a smart choice. She was all too human, not that she feared she’d sleep with him. No, what concerned her was getting her emotions involved.
“Actually, I have fortuitous news. Her townhouse in Mayfair is undergoing remodeling, and as she hates the dust and hammering, she’s staying with me.”
“So we’re not alone.” He’d led her to believe they were. Well, he would have servants in the townhouse, but they weren’t deemed as respectable chaperones in most cases, except for short excursions in certain areas of town.
“We aren’t?” He raised a brow and glanced around the room.
“You know what I mean. There’s a chaperone in the house.”
He shook his head. “Not in here, and we’ve been alone long enough to ruin you. If caught, I’d have to do the right thing and come up to scratch,” he finished with a roguish grin.
She frowned. He had her there. Better to change the subject. “When will you tell your grandmother?”
A knock interrupted the relative silence of the room. He drummed his fingers on the desk. “I think right now will do.”
Her hands fluttered in her lap. She gave a jerky nod, half turning in her seat to face the door, and waited for his grandmother to enter.
A stately, middle-aged woman glided into the room, a lovely smile on her lightly lined face. Silvery blond hair peeked out of her cap. She looked too young to have a grandson the earl’s age, whatever that was. He was probably almost thirty, though.
The woman’s gaze swung over to Julia, and to her credit, her smile remained firmly on her face. “Who is this, James?”