His Lady in Breeches

XII. Library Visit

"I..." Maxine could not put her thoughts together so she chose to say the words that first popped in her head. "I believe you are delusional, milord."

His face merely darkened, forcing Maxine to involuntarily take a step back.

"I am no woman," she blurted out.

He took a step forward and she took another back. He followed her, his stance menacing. "Do you wish me to strip you naked to prove my point, valet?"

Her eyes widened with horror. That would not be a good idea at all.

Bloody tarnation! How was she supposed to get away with this?

Maxine tore her eyes away from Maxwell, desperately looking for an escape.

"Well?" he asked, lips quirked into a devilish smug smile.

Her jaws tightened. She was caught. No, she was doomed! But how? How did he know?

He must have seen the question in her eyes. He tilted his head and forced her eyes to look back at him. "I am a great observer, valet." His green eyes looked her up and down before settling back to imprison hers in an intense gaze. "They may see you as how you try to be, but what I see is what you try not to be."

She wanted him to tell her. What did he see? What gave her away?

But he did not answer her unspoken question. Instead, he roughly grasped her arm and pulled her closer. "Now, tell me why you are here and who you really are."

Maxine swallowed and craned her neck to escape his murderous gaze. "No one you ought to bother with," she gritted out.

He let out a dry chuckle. "Bother with," he said. His smile disappeared and Maxine went cold once again. "You dress up like a man, enter my brother's estate, eat his food and serve him every day. Now, how do you suppose I ought not to be bothered by you?"

She pulled at her arm but he would not let her go. "I do not have plans that concern you or your family, milord. Believe me when I say that—"

"I do not easily believe anyone, valet." He twisted his hand and she flinched in pain. "Now tell me why you are here. Who sent you?"

"I came on my own."

"Who sent you here?" he repeated harshly.

"No one!" she shouted back, planting her free hand on his chest to push him away. "Let me go at once." But he was as sturdy as a rock.

"You dare order me?"

"No, I dare oblige you, milord!"

"Should I drag you to the nearest Town Guard? Surely you would know where that will land you."

"I am not who you think you believe me to be, milord."

"Ah, so do I truly have to strip you naked and prove my point?"

"Would you dare strip a woman?" she asked, voice shaking.

Her question, in a queer way, must have rendered him speechless.

"Or would you dare strip a man? Either way is wrong and you shall find yourself in trouble more than I will," she added when he did not offer a reply. "You cannot prove anything, milord, for I shall not be stripped, nor does the law allow it! And if it is true that I am indeed a woman, I have every excuse to be here as no one—not anyone—ever asked me my gender, nor have I verbally acknowledged anything." She forced a smile on her lips. "That is, if I am truly who you believe me to be."

His eyes glinted with fury and he narrowed them down at her. "Wait until I—"

Maxine opened her mouth to interject but the door to the parlor suddenly flung open, stopping Maxwell's words all the same.