How to Seduce a Bride

She heard him settle in the chair next to her.

“ ‘My lord’?” he asked in intimate teasing tones. “But why? You call the earl Geoff and Daffyd Daffy. I’m consumed with jealousy. Please feel free to call me Lee, or Leland, or even Haye, if you must. Or dear Lee, or my darling, if you will.”

“Not likely, my lord,” she said, and kept her eyes closed.

“I offend you?” he asked softly.

If only he did, she thought, and said, “No, but I don’t know you.”

“Easily remedied,” he said. “Just talk with me awhile.”

He’d been much easier to talk with when she’d thought he didn’t desire females. Now she felt wary and uncomfortable with him. It wasn’t only that. He’d changed. He’d been ironic and distant before, languid, amused, and disinterested. Now, maybe because she knew the truth about him, or maybe because he’d changed when he was with her, he was definitely interested.

And now he was too close, and she realized he was trying to get closer. While she knew how to deal with an outright flirt or a lusty boor, she didn’t know how to talk with this elegant nobleman. He was friendly and charming, but everything he said was overlaid with innuendo and invitations that could be taken many ways. She’d never met anyone like him before. The only thing she could do was to be herself, and watch her step while she was at it. That was why she couldn’t look at him. The last time they’d spoken together, when he’d looked into her eyes, somehow he’d been able to bypass her usual defenses.

“Talk to you?” she asked. “If talking told a person true things about the other person, there’d be no wars.”

“A very wise saying,” he said.

“It’s not mine; my father used to say it,” she said. “But as you know, he wasn’t very wise.”

“Which, I suppose, proves your point,” he said. “Are you going to open your eyes? Or did the sight of me strike you blind?”

“I’m trying to get accustomed to the dark,” she lied. “Daffyd said that if you close your eyes first, then when you see the fireworks they look brighter.”

“Very true. Except that they aren’t going off for an hour. If you keep your eyes closed, you may be asleep by then.”

“Not if you keep talking to me.”

He laughed in what seemed like genuine delight. “But I must. I’m sitting here, and I get lonely. Anyway, the earl has seen me return. What will he think of me if I leave again? I’m an English gentleman, and I can’t leave a lady alone in the night.”

“I’m not a lady,” she said.

“You know,” he said in a flatter voice, “at the risk of being rude, I have to tell you that does pall, after a bit. You were born a lady, and raised one. What happened after doesn’t change that. It can’t.”

Her eyes snapped open. She glared at him. “What happened changed me forever, my lord. You try living in Newgate, being shipped out on a prison hulk, living with the lowest and trying to stay alive at all costs, and so then marrying… Well,” she said, swallowing hard, as she forced down more bitter words, “all I can say is that it does change you, forever. I can’t think of myself as a lady anymore.”

“And so you don’t think of the earl as a gentleman, either?” he asked with interest.

“That’s not what I meant. Of course he’s a gentleman. He always was and always will be.”

He tilted his head to the side, and smiled. “Yes. And so it is with you. Now, there are some ladies born who will always be common, and some commoners who will always be ladies, in spite of what those of my class might say. That can’t be changed. You can’t help it. And you ought to stop denying it. You don’t want the earl to start believing it, do you?”

The torchlight showed his eyes to be the color that lingered on the edges of the twilight sky as the day gave way to night. But they were warm, and human, and seemed to search her soul.

She shivered, finding she wanted to move closer to his compelling warmth, until she reminded herself that he was a virile male, and so no better than any she’d known, and perhaps even a bit worse because he could make her forget it, even for a minute.

“Geoff knows me,” she said, tearing her gaze from his, and looking down at her lap. “I don’t try to deceive him. I don’t think I could. So if he thinks I’m a lady, that’s fine. I’ll try to be one.”

“It isn’t a matter of trying. Or of airs and graces,” he said. “It’s to do with honor and heart, this matter of ladies and gentlemen. But of course in Society, it’s only semantics. My own mama, who thankfully is too busy or pretending to be at her table to bother with us, is deemed a great lady. But she’s not, far from it. The earl is a gentleman, and not only one born so. And you are a lady, even if not born to a title. There it is.”

“And you?” she asked, looking up at him because she couldn’t help herself.

“Oh, me?” He seemed surprised. Then his smile was sad. “I don’t know. I try to be a gentleman. I really do. It’s a thing I can’t know. Perhaps you could tell me when you get to know me. And you will, Mrs. Tanner, I mean to see that you do.”

She didn’t know if that was a promise or a threat, and in spite of everything she planned and felt and knew, she was threatened and challenged-and thrilled by it.

Chapter Eight

“Ready to go see the fireworks?” Geoff asked Daisy when he returned to their table.

“Go?” Daisy blinked and turned her head from the viscount’s steady gaze, feeling her face grow warm. Geoff’s words cut into the strange daze she’d been in as she’d gazed into the viscount’s eyes. She felt as though she’d been caught doing something illicit.

“Oh. Yes,” she said, snatching up her wrap and bolting from her chair as though it had started burning. “But why go?”

“Because though they can be seen from here, they can be seen better from elsewhere,” the earl said. “I didn’t mean to rush you, but I saw Daffyd and he said he’d be here directly. We have to wait for your companion though. By the way, shouldn’t she be back by now?”

“Blast me for a fool!” Daisy exclaimed. “She should be! She went to the lady’s withdrawing room, wherever it is, and didn’t come back, and I didn’t notice. Give a dog a good meal and it forgets the streets,” she muttered. “No female ought to walk alone at night, here or anywhere. At least not one as gently bred as Helena. What was I thinking? Come, who’ll go with me to find her?”

Leland looked at her with surprise. “I would if you had to. But you don’t. Don’t worry. They keep the rabble out of this place; she’ll be fine.”

“The rabble isn’t what I’m worrying about right now,” Daisy snapped. “You gentlemen do your share of mischief, you know. And Helena’s a fine-looking woman. Let’s go.”

“I’ll come with you,” the earl said. “What was she wearing?”

“Lavender, she always wears lavender,” Leland said.

Trust him to know that, Daisy thought, and said, “Not as of tomorrow, she won’t,” she said, scowling fiercely. “She’s got a lovely saffron frock coming, and a red one, too.”

“Wait,” Leland said, raising his head to see over the top of the crowd. “I see her coming now.”

Helena walked into the torch-lit circle, and Daisy immediately rushed over to her. “Where have you been?” she demanded, hands on hips.

“I’m sorry I took so long,” Helena said breathlessly, and then, seeing them all standing, looking at her, her face flushed. “There was such a long line. Pardon me if I delayed you.”

“No need to ask pardon, just don’t go alone again,” Daisy said gruffly.

“You’re not angry?”

“Well, I was,” Daisy said as she pulled on her gloves. “But not at you. I’m sorry I let you go alone. I don’t know what I was thinking. Forgive me.”