How to Seduce a Bride

what they wear.”

“He’s interested, believe me,” Helena said. “He’s famous for it.”

“But he drawls… and acts the man of fashion.”

“He is the man of fashion, and not the least because he’s a rake. Oh, dear,” Helena said sadly. “And I thought I’d like it here with you. But I know I’ve been too outspoken. Please give me a second chance. I won’t be so bold again. Please forgive me.”

“Of course not,” Daisy said. “There’s nothing to forgive. I need someone I can talk with who’ll be honest with me. Now, don’t be foolish, please. Just, promise, always be honest with me, and I’ll be happy.”

“I’ll try,” Helena said, turning her face away. But she didn’t promise. Because there were some things she would prefer never to mention. Such as the fact that she thought the Earl of Egremont would be a wonderful husband, just not for Daisy Tanner.

Chapter Seven

Leland and Daffyd had their eyes fixed on Daisy, as did every male they’d passed so far. They were strolling through Vauxhall Gardens behind Daisy, the earl, and Helena Masters. It was sunset, and the park was beginning to be thronged with fashionable people as well as commoners there for the evening’s entertainment.

Daisy was hard to miss. She was wearing a low-cut green gown, enlivened by a green and yellow patterned shawl thrown over her shoulders. Her vivid hair was done up with white ribbons, and she wore a crystal rose on a silver chain at her neck. The crystal caught the last sunlight and danced rainbows on the white skin of her breast. She shone like the setting sun, and her radiance made the earl, dressed in a dun jacket, dark breeches and boots, and high white neck cloth, fade into the approaching twilight.

“Do you know?” Leland finally told Daffyd in a soft under voice. “I believe watching and waiting is foolish. You’re leaving Town soon, and besides, you don’t know how to ask her. I think I should see just how serious she really is about Geoff.”

Daffyd turned, his eyes grave. “You said you wouldn’t harm her.”

“Gads!” Leland said in annoyance. “What do you think I mean to do? Kidnap her and force the truth from her? I only thought to try a little friendly persuasion. She’s a grown woman, a widow, and one who’s been in darker places than I’ll ever know-you said so yourself. I simply meant I’d throw out lures and see if she took any. I may be a beanpole, with a nose that’s a caricaturist’s delight, homely as an old boot, in fact, but I have been known to attract a female or two in my time, you know.”

“I do know,” Daffyd said. “Too well. You almost stole my Meg from me.”

“Oh, yes,” Leland said sarcastically. “If I’d half a chance, you’d be visiting her in my house today. But she couldn’t see me once she’d met you.”

“She saw enough. She still says you’re madly attractive. I don’t know how you do it, but you do. All right. Daisy can take care of herself. She survived prison, Tanner, and Botany Bay. I guess she can deal with you. See what you can find out. If she really loves Geoff-then good luck to her. I don’t know her that well, but as I said, she’s a good sort, in all. Oh, by the way. She is rich. I asked someone who would know. It’s true.”

“I know,” Leland said. “I asked, too. But she’s not as rich as the earl is; few in England are. That’s always a lure. Some people never have enough money. Well, then, let’s see what happens, although there’s not much I can do if she keeps hanging on his arm like a bracelet. But there’s always dinner. She’ll have to let go so he can eat. Not that there’ll be much of that. Dinner here means watered wine, shaved ham, and bits of fruit, for a huge price. What a delightful evening,” he said too brightly. “Going to a fireworks display. What fun. You know, Daffy, if you and Geoff weren’t such good friends, I could think of many more interesting things to do.”

“Your virtue will save you money and the possibility of a nasty rash.”

Leland laughed. “I don’t have to pay all my flirts, you know. And thank you, Mother, but I listened to your lectures and I’m always very careful…” The laughter left his voice as he saw who was approaching the earl. “Oh my God,” he breathed. “Speak of the devil and there she is.”

They stared at the elegant woman who had paused to speak to the earl. She was a tall, beautifully dressed woman of middle years, with fair skin and fairer hair, and eyes that were dazzlingly deep blue even from a distance. Everything about her was impeccable; even her smile seemed to have been measured for a fit before she tried it on.

“Our noble parent,” Leland said. “I thought she was still in Bath. I didn’t know she was back in Town. Did you?”

“Why should I? ”Daffyd said with a shrug. “She only calls on me when she needs a favor, and doesn’t acknowledge me to the world at any time. No surprise there; after all, she left me a week after I was born, and didn’t speak to me again until I surprised her by turning up again last year. Remember? Much I care. But you’re the heir.”

“Much that matters. She left me when I was three to run off with your father, and only came back a year later because he beat her. Remember?” he echoed mockingly. “Well, you wouldn’t. That’s when she got you. One of the few things she’s done that I approve of. I didn’t at the time, of course, because your advent was a fact she neglected to share. Actually, I wouldn’t mind a few decades without her now. Neither would my baby brother, but he’s lucky. He’s in school and almost never has to see her. I, unfortunately, run into her at social occasions more often than is comfortable for either of us.”

“God!” Daffyd said. “What do you suppose she’ll make of Daisy?”

“Mincemeat,” Leland said, and walked over to greet his mother.

“Dear Haye,” the dowager viscountess Haye said, greeting Leland and offering the right side of her cheek to the air at the side of his left cheek. “Daffyd,” she said, nodding her head in a slight bow. “Heavens. Is this some sort of family excursion?”

“Mrs. Tanner is an old friend of mine and Daffyd’s,” the earl said. “As the viscount Haye is also a friend, we’re all taking her out on the Town to see the sights.”

“And you have never seen fireworks?” the viscountess asked Daisy, taking her in from her hair ribbons to her slippers in one long sweeping glance, pausing only to stare at the low neck of her dress, one eyebrow moving ever so slightly upward as she did.

Daisy had been smiling, but her smile stiffened when she saw how the older woman was weighing her up, and managing to criticize her without so much as saying a word. She felt the tension in the air around her, slowly let out a breath, and then smiled again.

“Fireworks? I’ve seen some when there was a celebration,” she answered. “But never what they’re supposed to have here in London. I hear their displays boggle the mind, and I’ve a mind to have mine boggled.”

She laughed. The men did, too, but the viscountess only smiled her cool smile.

“I see. And you are visiting from…?” the viscountess persisted.

The earl didn’t leap in to answer the question. Neither did Daffyd or Leland. So there was nothing for it but the truth, Daisy thought resignedly. Might as well know now as later how she’d fare in high society. Men might accept her, but women ran the ton, and if this female wasn’t Society with a capital “S,” she knew nothing at all. Geoff might marry her whatever anyone said, because he was that sort of fellow. But how much easier her road would be if she were accepted first.

She smiled her usual wide, radiant smile, an inch short of laughter. “I was raised in Sussex,” she said. “Then I went to London with my father. We stayed a while on Newgate Street, and then took a sea voyage halfway ’round the world. My poor papa never left the ship, at least alive. I settled in Botany Bay, where we’d been bound, and now I’m free, I just decided to come back home to England.”

The older woman didn’t blink. “Ah. A friend of the earl’s from the old days, indeed. And your husband, did he come with you?”

“He’d love to have done,” Daisy said. “But he’s dead. And so I’d be all on my own if the earl, and Daffyd, and the viscount Haye hadn’t taken pity on me. They’re very kind to widows, as you must know.”

“Do I?” the viscountess said softly. “I’d no idea they were so very charitable. How good for you to have such friends. Was your husband a companion of the earl’s in those days; is that how you came to know each other?”