How to Seduce a Bride

saffron, just as Mrs. Tanner promised.”

As Helena smiled and thanked him, Daisy tilted her head to the side. So it was “Helena” so soon, and no correction offered, even when her companion was such a monster of propriety? And four “Mrs. Tanners” in a row? She doubted it was an accident. A glance at the light dancing in the viscount’s dark blue eyes told her it wasn’t.

“You can call me Daisy,” she told him grudgingly. “Save yourself some breath that way, and I guess you need it today.”

He put one hand on his heart. “I’m moved almost to tears. Thank you, Daisy. Is that your given Christian name, by the way?”

Daisy’s face flushed. “My father always called me that, so everyone else did, too. But I was given the name Deidre. He thought it was too formal for”-“a little redheaded sprite” was what her father had said all those years ago, but that she wouldn’t share-“a little girl. Daisy suits me, though. I don’t think I’d even answer to Deidre if I heard it.”

“ ‘Deidre of the sorrows,’ ” Leland quoted thoughtfully. “Yes, I can see it doesn’t fit a little sprite like you. Have I said something wrong?” he asked when he saw her start.

“No, it’s just that was what he said. Anyway,” she said, trying to collect herself, “sometimes a name you get by accident is the one you keep. Funny, that. Even my father forgot Daisy wasn’t my name. Years later, I asked if the fact that it wasn’t my real name on my marriage lines made them invalid, but the magistrate said no, since everyone knew me as Daisy.” She sighed with remembered regret. “Well, it was a long shot, but I tried. So it seems if you use a name long enough, it’s yours to keep.”

Leland watched her, seeing how bleak memory brought sorrow to her face. “Why, yes,” he said. “In many ways. If I suddenly turned to nothing but acts of charity and repaired to a monastery, I’d still be called a rake. Not that I plan to do that!” he said in mock horror, to make her smile again. “My injury didn’t frighten me that much. I’d need to be struck by an axe, not a knife, for that kind of repentance.”

She smiled at him as his lips quirked in a real smile, too. Their eyes met in acknowledgment of the joke. It was a curiously intimate moment for Daisy. She liked the feeling she was sharing something amusing with another person who understood; she hadn’t done that since she was a girl and had shared secret jests with her best friend. When she realized that a second later, her eyes widened.

What was it about this man? He wasn’t handsome, not by half. But she found herself increasingly appreciating his arresting, angular looks. She’d passed so many years in a place where females were in the minority that she’d thought she’d met every kind of male. But she’d never met one like him, so full of manners and yet also filled with mirth and clever wickedness. He spoke as lightly as he moved and seemed to take nothing seriously except fashion. And yet he was strong and virile.

He was a novelty. She thought that might be it, entirely. At least she hoped so. In time, after meeting more fellows like the viscount, she might come to regard him with fondness, not the disturbing mixture of pleasure and alarm she felt whenever she met his gaze. As now, when she felt like squirming because of how he was watching her with rueful amusement and yet with sympathy.

He looked away, releasing her. “Any new ideas about my assailant?” he asked the earl.

“No. And you?”

“None,” Leland said. “I pride myself on my enemies. After all, it isn’t only one’s friends that are the measure of a man. My enemies are superior, too.” When they stopped laughing, he added, “At least my enemies are outspoken and would never hire anyone to do their dirty work. The more I think of it, the more I think it was an accident. London’s full of thieves; they can’t all be expert. But Daisy,” he added, meeting her eyes again with a steady, serious gaze, “you be careful, at least until we’re sure.”

“I’m prepared,” she said, holding up her chin.

“I’ll bet you are,” he said. “But I don’t want to see you tested. Now, I should be ready for a public viewing by the end of the week. Shall it be at the theater or a party? Or a ball? I’ve invitations to a delightful ball; it will be a mad crush. I haven’t sent in my card yet.”

Daisy considered it. She wanted to go anywhere the earl could, to find out if she’d fit into his world.

She just wasn’t sure if she was ready for such a big test. It wasn’t a matter of suitable gowns. Because if she found she was a total scandal, she’d have to leave Geoff, with regrets. She wanted him as her husband but it wasn’t fair to saddle him with a wife who could never be accepted. She knew too well how it felt to be an outsider, and wouldn’t wish it on anyone she liked.

“But surely you aren’t ready to dance,” the earl protested.

“No, but I never am,” Leland said. “I do it only to be obliging, but I don’t care to caper, I’m just not cut out for it. I look like a scarecrow in the wind if I join a country dance, and like I’ve also got a broomstick up my breeches if I try a minuet. Excuse me,” he said, with a look at Helena, seeing she was trying to suppress her laughter. “I’ll try to be more sensible of my guests’ tender ears, ma’am.

“Still, I could dance by then, if I wished,” he added. “And if not, then surely flirting won’t use up my strength, and that’s what I do best. Another benefit is that I’ll be such a sensation after my mishap that we can slip Daisy into any fashionable party without anyone looking at her with undue scrutiny. They’d be too busy goggling at me. Would you mind not being the belle of the ball?” he asked Daisy.

She could swear he’d read her mind. “No,” she said, with relief, “not at all.”

“I’m not sure the doctor will let you,” the earl told him. “But if you want to try, we have to leave you now, so you can be up to it. The doctor said rest, and that’s what you’ll get until his next visit.”

“Alas!” Leland said, sinking back on his pillows. “You’re not going to let any more lovely ladies come up to my bedchamber? That might kill me. But I will survive, if only because I’ll be readying myself for Saturday evening. Save a waltz for me, Daisy, will you?”

His voice asked for more than a waltz; his eyes did, too. She found herself unable to say yes, because of the sudden vision of herself in his arms. How could she resolve her uneasy feelings about him if she got that close to him?

“I haven’t danced in years,” she said truthfully.

He waved a hand. “You’ll remember when you hear the music. And I’m infinitely patient. So?”

“Thank you, yes. I’d like that,” she lied.

He grinned, and she knew that he knew that, too.

Leland lay back and closed his eyes after Daisy left, seeing the red of his inner eyelids in the sunlight, and the red-gold of her hair in his mind’s eye; feeling the warmth of the sun on his face, imagining the warmth of her body next to his. He didn’t know if he’d ever feel that in reality, because for some reason he’d frightened her today. He didn’t know why.

He had the reputation of a rake, that was true.

But why should she fear that? Especially coming from where she’d been? After all, with all he was, he was a gentleman. She had to know he’d never force her to do anything. In fact, he wasn’t sure he was that much of a libertine; it was only that he’d gotten the name and it amused him to keep it. Many gentlemen had just as many lovers, but he was more open about it than most; he’d concede that.

The truth was that he loved to love. The joy of a woman’s body was a miracle in which he could always forget himself, and that was no small miracle in itself. He liked more than their bodies; he numbered women, even though many were unobtainable, among his friends. Unlike other men he knew, he didn’t believe a person’s body shaped her mind, at least not entirely. Yet he’d never loved the way poets said a man could: once and forever and with a burning desire that was more than passion. Since he hadn’t, he didn’t know if he could. But the game of love, flirtation and challenge, acceptance and pleasure, always delighted him.

He didn’t know whether Daisy Tanner knew she’d been flirting with him. She’d done it beautifully, though, until he’d frightened her. That surprised him. Did she have a guilty secret? Did that have something to do with why she was wary of him and making a dead set for Geoff?

It was important, for Geoff’s sake, that he find out. He laughed aloud.

“My lord?” his valet, who had been cleaning the room, asked. “Are you all right?”

He opened his eyes. “Nothing,” he said. “It’s nothing. I laughed because I was so amused by lies I was telling myself. It must be the effect of the medicine the good doctor gave me for pain. I tell you what, give me some more to make me sleep. I have to be ready to dance.”