How to Seduce a Bride

“No, no, sit down. He’s well. Gads, what a firework you are.”

Daffyd sat, but the viscount didn’t. He began to pace. That was so unusual that Daffyd frowned as he watched the tall figure range the room.

“No, Geoff’s healthy, wealthy, and wise, as always,” Leland said. “It’s just that… Damnation, the thing is that he’s lost his heart, if not his head. He’s met a female, Daffy, and he seems to be in love with her.”

“Well. Well, well,” Daffy said, sinking back into his chair. “What do you think of that?”

“Not much. Which is why I’m telling you before you see him and meet her. Although I think you may know her already. She’s from New South Wales.”

Now Daffyd scowled. “Not Millie Owens? Damnation. She’s the only one with enough gall to pursue him, unasked. She has the sensitivity of a brass monkey. Of course she’d follow him over the rainbow if she heard he came into money. But why would he choose her? It was only a brief affair, and I think he must have been drunk as a monkey at that, to start up with her in the first place…”

“It is not Millie Owens.”

Daffyd scowled. “Not Mrs. Parsons! No, it couldn’t be. She took up with Stanley Burns and was happy with him.”

“No,” Leland said. “He had no affair with this one; I believe she seeks to remedy that now. I didn’t know Geoff then, but I do know he’d never take up with another man’s wife-which this female was when you were there. Her name is Daisy Tanner.”

“Daisy?” Daffyd yelped. “Daisy Tanner? She’s here? Good for her. But wait-where’s Tanner?”

“Dead, and unmourned, I gather.”

“Of course not. What a thorough bastard that one was. But Daisy, she’s a darling, and just a girl! Her, and Geoff? Never. He was always kind to her because he felt sorry for her, but who didn’t? No, you’ve got windmills in your head and marriage on the noggin, brother, if you think anything would come of her and Geoff.” Daffyd chuckled.

“Whatever she was, she’s four-and-twenty now,” Leland said. “And extremely beautiful, charming, and, I understand, also now rich. Oh, she has a slight physical disability, too, which perhaps you don’t remember?”

“Daisy, disabled? Oh, too bad. I don’t remember anything like that.”

“Yes,” Leland drawled. “It seems she can’t stand without Geoff’s arm to support her, or see anyone else in the room if he’s there. At least, she seems unable to take her eyes off him. Her hearing is fine, though. Anything remotely amusing that he says makes her laugh. Geoff has noticed this debility. It appears to please him very well.”

Leland sat down opposite his guest and leaned forward, his eyes dark with concern. “Daffy, you and I are half brothers. Our fathers were different and neither of us was lucky enough to have one like Geoff. He is wise. But men of his age are known to let youthful lovers fool them into thinking they themselves are young. Sometimes such liaisons work well. Too often, they don’t. If she’s merely looking for a father, that mightn’t be too bad. He’s good at that, and even though I think he could have more from a wife, if that’s what he wants, there’s no harm in it. But is she after something else? Why would a young, rich, beautiful woman travel across the world to London, arrive, leave the docks, and then immediately-and I do mean immediately-seek out and try to captivate a man twice her age?

“I wonder, and I worry,” Leland said, frowning. “Because if she traps him in marriage and then finds a more suitable mate, for her bed, it would be devastating for him. You know that. We both have had experience with an unfaithful wife, if only at second hand. Our mama showed us how much joy there was in it for the innocent, didn’t she? We know too well the havoc unfaithfulness can cause. I worry, and wonder if this chit plans the same for Geoff. So, you know her. What do you think?”

“She’s not married anymore, Lee.”

“No, but she was, and she’s not an innocent by any stretch of the imagination, being both a widow and a convict. Her smiles and guiles are all for Geoff. He seems to love it. So, I ask you: What can be done? Should anything be done?”

“How long has she been here? Looks and smiles aren’t a contract.” Daffyd’s words were clipped. “Why do you think it’s serious?”

Leland shrugged. “She’s been here a week.”

His half brother interrupted him with a shout of laughter. “A week? She’s a daisy, in truth. But only God can achieve anything that serious in a week!”

“A week of luncheon together every day and dinner together every night; and the theater or the opera or the ballet every other night as well?” Leland said calmly.

Daffyd’s smile faded.

“She hasn’t gone out without him yet,” Leland continued, “because she says she doesn’t know anyone in Society, and he says he wants to make her comfortable until she does. She’s making herself very comfortable in his pocket, that’s certain. She’s delicious; I will say that for her. Her figure is nothing short of sensational. That golden red hair is spectacular, but somehow she manages to look more like an angel than a trollop. She has wit and charm. She’ll be your stepmama if this continues, I’d bet on it.”

“Not my stepmother,” Daffyd muttered. “He’s not my real father, though I wish he were.” He sat thinking. Then he studied his half brother for a moment. “And you? Have you been there each time, all this time?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. I see,” Daffyd said with a dawning tucked-in smile.

Leland waved a long hand. “You don’t. I’m there because Geoff begs me to be. He doesn’t want to ruin her reputation by seeing her alone, because even with her companion there it will look like they are a deux. He was the one to remind her that she needed a respectable companion, by the way, and I had to send her applicants for the position. Thank God I was visiting at the time she landed herself on Geoff, after stepping off the docks and into his life with only a maid in tow. I knew a good employment agency, or who knows what she may have accomplished by now?

“Geoff says he doesn’t know who to introduce her to yet. He says his other friends are too stodgy and opinionated to take her at face value, and friends from the old days in prison would want to take her for far more, whatever he said. He’d rather not bring her into Society until she has a full wardrobe and has been coached in the finer niceties… there being few practiced in New South Wales, I gather.”

“But she knows her manners. She was wellborn and well bred,” Daffyd said. “That was why Tanner insisted on marrying her soon as he clapped eyes on her. Pretty females are rare on a prison ship. He could have used her and passed her along for profit. That was done. But beautiful, innocent, and wellborn? If her damned fool of a father hadn’t alienated his family years before, she’d never have been there at all. Tanner seized the opportunity. He grabbed her and wouldn’t let go. He knew what he had. A real rarity.”

“Yes. Precisely,” Leland drawled. “She may have fallen into some sloppy speech patterns, but she knows how to speak and behave. Still, Geoff’s like a mother hen with her. If he were merely paternal, I wouldn’t worry. I’m not at all convinced that’s it. And if you were secretly amused a moment ago because you think I am slain by her big brown eyes,” he added too lightly, “I assure you I am not. She never turns them on me anyway.”

Daffyd’s eyes searched his. “And does that rankle? You’re famous for your taste in females, and as you say, she’s tasty. Are you annoyed because she ignores you?” The haughty look he received in return made him laugh. “Don’t give me your famous offended camel look. I don’t understand her overlooking you. I don’t know how you do it, but you usually get any female you want. And she doesn’t notice you at all? Really? Wait. Have you been nice or have you been your famous ‘Viscount Too Cruel,’ as that caricature put it? Be honest.”

“That ridiculous caricature?” Leland asked. “Really, no one’s nose is that long! Well, Wellington’s maybe. But Rowlandson drew that because he owed me money and was angry about it. The man’s a genius with his pen, but he should never bet on anything when he’s drunk. Actually, that means he should never bet. At any rate, I haven’t been cruel or kind, and it wouldn’t matter if I were. As I said, her eyes slide off me. She can only see Geoff.”

“Then it’s time for me to have a look,” Daffyd agreed. “I’ll get to the bottom of it. I doubt she’s up to anything underhanded, but it’s impossible to fool another old flimflammer, which is what I am.”

“Was,” his half brother corrected him. “And I’m not?” he added, sounding offended.