Lord Perfect by Loretta Chase Read Free Book Online Page B

down along a mile-long
stretch of muscled leg and up again, over the immaculate, elegantly
garbed masculine figure. She gazed entranced at the strip of white
neckcloth visible above the coat collar and the thick, dark hair
curling against the neckcloth and the small, curving shadow the brim
of his hat made at his ear.
    "Ah, here she is," said Mr. Popham. She
blinked as his head came into view. The tall, aristocratic figure had
completely obscured the print seller's small person.
    The gentleman turned. Rathbourne, yes, of course. Who
else could be so… perfect, even from the back? Who else would
regard her so composedly, displaying not a flicker of surprise—no
hint of unseemly interest?
    He did not gawk like an imbecile.
    "Mrs. Wingate," he said. "You have
arrived in the very nick of time. Popham and I had almost come to
blows."
    "Oh, no, indeed, I am sure not, my lord," said
Mr. Popham, much flustered. "Merely a hesitation on my part, as
I was not at all certain…" He trailed off, clearly at a
loss.
    "I expressed a desire to observe your drawing
class," said his lordship. "Mr. Popham tells me it is
conducted upstairs."
    "The class is over," Bathsheba said. "I
thought your interest was as well. I received a note to that effect.
Or did I dream it?"
    "You are displeased with me," he said. "You
are thinking that when a man makes up his mind, he ought to make up
his mind."
    She was thinking she discerned an infuriatingly faint
hint of a smile at the right corner of his mouth. "What is
required to help you make up your mind once and for all?" she
said. "The class is over. My next is on Wednesday. Do you wish
to make another tedious journey to the other side of the moon to
observe it?"
    "Holborn is not the other side of the moon,"
he said.
    "It is not a sphere in which you customarily
travel," she said.
    "Perhaps you would wish me to wrap the painting
now, my lord, while you continue your conversation with Mrs.
Wingate?" Mr. Popham said. "Then it will be ready for you
when you leave. Or were you desiring to have it sent on?"
    "No, I shall take it with me," Rathbourne
said, his dark gaze never leaving Bathsheba.
    Popham disappeared into the back room.
    "Your watercolor of Hampstead Heath,"
Rathbourne said. "That is the problem, you see. That is what
brings me to Holborn. That is what has made me so indecisive. It has
haunted me since last Wednesday. I strongly doubt I should easily
find another instructor as gifted. The true talents devote their time
to creating and exhibiting their works. The more pedestrian make
their living by teaching. I wondered whether I ought to take
advantage before you come to your senses and leave off wasting your
time and talent teaching brats like my nephew."
    Had he complimented her beauty, Bathsheba could have
listened unmoved. Though she knew she was well past her bloom, she
was accustomed to that kind of flattery and thought little of it. Her
looks were not her doing.
    Her art was, and she had worked at it. She was
particularly proud of the painting of Hampstead Heath. He could not
have directed his praise more aptly.
    She was hot everywhere, blushing like the veriest
schoolgirl. "My usual pupils are nothing like your nephew,"
she said. "The classroom is nothing like what he is used to,
either. And talented or not, we both know I am not suitable. You
might be willing to overlook my background, but his family will go
into fits."
    "His family always goes into fits," Rathbourne
said. "I try to ignore them as much as possible. Would you be so
good as to show me the classroom, please, and allow me to try to
imagine it populated with students? I am not an artist, and my
imagination is limited. I hope it is a smallish class."
    "Eight students on Mondays," she said. 'This
way, then." She led him out of the shop and up the narrow
stairs.
    "Imagining eight is within my capabilities,"
he said, and his deep voice seemed lower yet in the cramped, dim
surroundings. "Girls? Boys? Both?"
    "Girls." It was two