Page 22 of Substitute Bride

“What kind of plans does she have for you?”

Rose shivered at the thought. “I have no idea. She’s always left me alone to be a nanny. I don’t know why though. She made Deanna go to every garden party and cotillion on the calendar in the hopes of finding her a rich husband. I don’t know why she wasn’t on the same sort of quest with me.”

She had a random glum thought that might answer that. She added, “Maybe she just thought I wasn’t pretty enough to be of interest to a rich man.”

“Don’t be stupid,” James said gruffly, giving her a decidedly cool look.

She raised her eyebrows, surprised by the words. He’d never been rude to her before. “It’s not stupid. It’s just a thought. I’ve never been as pretty as Deanna.”

“That’s not even true.” He seemed to be bristling with some sort of resentment, which was nice if he resented what she’d said about herself.

“It is true,” she said. She wasn’t insecure like she used to be, but she was realistic about who she was and what she looked like. “I’m not saying I’m ugly or anything, but Deanna was always prettier. You’ve never even met Deanna.”

“I’ve seen her pictures, and she’s not prettier than you.”

Rose felt herself blushing again no matter how firmly she told herself to stop. “Well, I don’t think so, but thanks for the thought anyway.”

“What about your younger sister?” James asked.

“Oh, she’s very pretty too, but she refuses to dress up or make herself more attractive. You saw her last night.”

“I didn’t mean if she was pretty. I meant, does your grandmother have big plans for her?”

Rose shook her head. “Not that I know of. As far as I can tell, she really relies on Kelly. Kelly takes care of the house now. Maybe Grandmama doesn’t want to marry her off because that would mean there would be no one left in the house with her.”

“I’m sure you all would take care of her.”

“Of course we would. She’s eccentric and pushy and sometimes incredibly embarrassing, but we love her.”

“What does she do that’s embarrassing?”

Rose shot him a quick look. “Like last night, bullying you into wearing the jacket and top hat, even though you clearly didn’t want to. She’s always done things like that with our friends and people we want to impress. I can’t tell you how many times I was embarrassed growing up.”

James was almost smiling now, his eyes resting on her face. “Which am I?”

“Which are you, what?”

“Which am I? A friend or someone you want to impress?”

“Oh.” Rose dropped her eyes. “I don’t know. I didn’t mean you.”

James chuckled softly and reached up to brush back the fall of her hair, which she’d been hiding her face behind. “You’d be terrible at poker.” Despite the words, his tone was soft, almost affectionate.

She sucked in a breath and met his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you can never hide what you’re feeling.”

She hoped—desperately hoped—that wasn’t true. “I certainly can,” she said, a little sharply. “I’ve felt all kinds of things that you have no idea about.”

“Is that right?” He was smiling again, pushing her hair back again since it had fallen forward into her face once more. “What kinds of things have you been feeling all this time?”

Her heart was racing now, and she couldn’t seem to take a full breath. He’d never acted like this with her before, but that didn’t mean that it was serious, that it meant something.

He was in a strange mood, and people did a lot of things they didn’t mean when they were in strange moods.

“That’s none of your business. All I meant was that you can’t possibly know everything I feel just by my face. I don’t give away everything.”

“You give away a lot. Either you blush, or you lower your eyes, or you let a little dimple right here show.” His finger brushed the side of her mouth, very softly, making little shivers of pleasure run up and down Rose’s spine. “Your face is very easy to read.”