She had, after all, had sufficient opportunity to fall in love with him, and it was beyond his comprehension that she had not done so.On the other hand, considering that he had just—quite unintentionally—reduced both his new cook and his new housekeeper to tears, the basic problem could be that his understanding of the female mind was deficient.Knowing he was being unreasonable did not, however, stop him from feeling cross with Miss Jolliffe.He could, he realized too late, have saved himself a great deal of trouble by using his new butler as a go-between, rather than speaking directly to the two women. Signaling the man that he wished to speak to him, Gabriel retreated once again into his study.“I warn you, Exeter,” he said as soon as the door was closed behind them, “that my patience is wearing exceedingly thin. If you feel compelled to interrupt my every sentence or to turn into a watering pot, I shall quite likely flog you with a cat-o’-nine-tails.”“I should not dream of behaving in such an unseemly way,”
