How to Seduce a Bride

“What a surprise,” Leland drawled. “You didn’t tell us you were applying for a job with my mama, Mrs. Tanner. In what capacity, may one ask?”

“I merely wished to know how such a lovely young creature like Mrs. Tanner came to befriend a man of the earl’s age and condition, Leland,” his mother snapped.

“My condition is fine, my lady,” the earl said, bowing. “Thank you for worrying.”

“Lord, how the gentlemen do rush to slay dragons for you, don’t they, Mrs. Tanner?” the viscountess said with a thin smile. “Although I hardly qualify as one, I promise you. But I was ever an inquisitive creature. Do forgive me if I seemed to be prying. And my lord,” she told the earl, “I never meant to imply you were in anything but fine fettle. One only needs to look at you to see that. Still, I must admit I wondered until I saw you just now. I’m relieved to discover all’s well. One never sees you at the usual social occasions, after all.”

“I fear one never will,” the earl said. “I’m not much of a hand for balls and musicales… though I suppose I’ll have to learn to be, won’t I?” he asked Daisy. “At least if I want to show you all of London’s gaiety.”

Daisy’s smile was relieved. “I don’t want to force you to do anything,” she said. “I can live without balls and musicales. After all, I’ve done it all my life.”

“No, you shall have it all,” the earl said, patting her hand where it lay on his arm. “Especially because you haven’t seen them before.”

The viscountess didn’t blink an eye, but those eyes looked keener now as she watched the earl and Daisy. “One hesitates to ask,” she said, “but there are times when one must. Would she have gone to such affairs had she not left England?”

Total silence fell over the people before her. Leland’s eyes narrowed and his lips grew tight.

His mother didn’t look at all perturbed. “I ask in order to spare Mrs. Tanner’s feelings,” she went on calmly, “not to wound them. London is one of the best cities in the world to visit, I understand, and a foreigner can get much pleasure from it. But there are some places that can only be visited for pleasure if one is considered fit to be there.”

“Or,” Leland said coldly, “if one is good at disguises, and can dress and speak like a lady or a gentleman.”

“I’ve done it many times myself, my lady,” Daffyd said. “And well you know it.”

“Yes, I do,” she said. “It’s done. How else does the footman get to elope with the duke’s daughter, or how is a jealous mistress finally able to see her gentleman friend’s wife up close? But I thought a lovely young woman like Mrs. Tanner wouldn’t get much pleasure out of being an incognito, especially on the Earl of Egremont’s arm. There’d be such gossip and tattle, after all.”

The others fell still, in shock. None of these things were proper to say in front of any young woman who might be Quality, even if she was a widow. Daisy knew that, too.

“They can gossip and tattle all they want, my lady,” Daisy said, taking her hand off the earl’s arm and stepping away from him. “And I’d give them good cause to. I was a prisoner at Botany Bay, transported for my father’s crimes. But I think it would be stale gossip. Papa was Sir Richard Searle of the Sussex Searles, one of the last of an old family. Everyone knew he poached on his neighbor’s grounds one too many times. It was the talk of our little town, at least.

“Papa hadn’t a penny left to pay anyone off. He’d gambled everything away and alienated whatever family remained, lost all his friends and made new enemies, and was a scandal in the neighborhood. He couldn’t be hanged, understand. Not for stealing dinner, at least, like any commoner would be. There are some benefits to being wellborn. But they wanted him far away, so they transported him, and me with him. As it turned out, he went farther away than they’d thought he would, because he died before he got to Botany Bay, and by then, no one cared but me.”

She shrugged, and well dressed as she was, looked very lost and vulnerable standing there in the growing twilight.

The earl lifted her little gloved hand to his lips. “That you were punished was a worse crime,” he said.

She looked down in pretty confusion.

“Well, that’s done it,” Daffyd murmured to Leland as they finally parted from the viscountess. “Attack an honorable man’s escort and he’ll find himself married to her in no time.”

“Not that honorable man, at least not if she’s not equally so, I promise you,” Leland said. “I said, leave it to me. Now pretend you’re having a wonderful time. Or go have one. Find an old friend to talk to, or a nice quiet place to compose odes to read to Meg when you get home. But let me see what I can do.”

“I doubt even you can budge her now. Looks like Geoff took the bait and the line and will run with it.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not. I can, at least, find out why the chit is so in love with Geoff. If she is. And if she isn’t, then why she wants him to think she is.”

Daffyd looked at him strangely. “And you’re doing all of this for Geoff’s sake?”

Leland smiled. “You know me well. Generosity isn’t always its own reward. There are always ancillary benefits, if a man is lucky.”

“I hate to leave you alone,” the earl told Daisy an hour later, hesitating as he stood by their table.

Daisy laughed. “Alone? There are hundreds of people here tonight.”

“Thousands,” he said. “But you’ll be alone at the table.”

“Not for long,” she said, smiling. “Helena said she’d be right back. And you won’t be far away. Anyway, it’s nice to just sit back and relax. I can’t wait to see the fireworks but they won’t go off until it’s full dark, and night’s slow in coming at this time of year. I’m safe enough, Geoff. You said the fellow in the Bath chair was an old friend; you’ll look no-account if you just keep waving to him. I have nothing to say to him, so it would only be awkward if you took me to his table. So, go. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

The earl wavered. Daffyd had gone to visit with a friend he’d spied at another table; Daisy’s companion had excused herself, obviously to find the convenience, and Leland must have done the same because he’d also vanished. The outdoor dining area in the park was set up for the brief English summer. It was a circular area outside an enclosed rotunda that was open on all sides. This dining section was quieter, it had small tables and chairs, and an ornate railing enclosing all. There was an airy canopy on poles stirring over the tables, but it didn’t keep out the soft spring breeze. Not only the breeze was free to roam; anyone could enter the place. The prices kept the rabble out.

Musician played soft music in the background, there were lit torches everywhere, and urns filled with flowers lent more beauty to the place. Londoners knew how to make money from any spectacle, and a night of fireworks drew in huge crowds. The wealthiest came here; the common man ate food brought from home or from one of the many roaming vendors. The earl knew Daisy would be safe enough. And his friend Roger Crandall couldn’t walk too well, so it was only right that the earl visit at his table. Daisy didn’t know him, and in truth, he was an old bore, so it wasn’t fair to either of them to drag her along. Still, the earl hesitated.

“Do go,” Daisy said. “He keeps watching you, and I feel guilty. I’ve been alone in a colony filled with hardened criminals and took care of myself very well. I don’t have to here. I’ll just rest and wait for you.”

“Very well,” he said. “But if anyone troubles you, call a waiter.”

Daisy smiled. If anyone troubled her, she’d give the troublemaker a thing or two to think about. But she nodded, and watched Geoff leave. Then she closed her eyes at last. She sat back and felt the night breeze stir her hair. She relaxed, feeling safe and content. She was in England again, and entirely free. Geoff liked her, and he was still the warmhearted, generous man she’d known. She thought lazily, considering her options. In time Geoff might come to love her, or at least maybe want to adopt her, as he had the boys.

Except in her case, he’d probably be willing to marry her instead. Things were finally going her way.

It didn’t take much to make her happy. New clothes delighted her; just being in London did, too. The opera and the theater were lovely, but it was also been great fun to come here tonight and stroll along, meeting people, being treated like a lady. But being alone and feeling safe while being so was in itself a rare treat for her, and she relished it.

“Fie!” a familiar voice purred by her ear. “They left you alone? Villains. That’s like leaving a pearl out on a velvet cushion in full view, with no guards around it. But never fear, I’m here.”

Leland’s voice stirred the smallest hairs up and down her arms and on the back of her neck. Her nostrils flared, the breeze brought the scent of warm sandalwood to her nose. She tried to banish the sensations. “Anyone trying to snatch that pearl would lose a hand,” she said, without opening her eyes. “I didn’t fall down in the last rain, my lord.”