How to Seduce a Bride

richest men in England. He’d been the talk of the town, and considered slightly scandalous because of his past. But London gossip faded like cut flowers, and now, a year later, he was accepted everywhere.

But he seldom chose to go anywhere that Society did.

“I’ve congratulated her,” the earl said. “I was just on my way out. I won’t keep you if you’ve business here.”

“Oh, but that business can’t be done here, my lord,” Leland said easily. “It can be arranged, but not completed. Credit me with some sense of propriety. So if you’re going anywhere interesting, I’d be pleased to accompany you.”

“I was thinking of a warm fireside, a glass of port, and an early bedtime,” the earl said with a sigh. “But I’m promised to Major Reese tonight, for a late dinner at his club. Care to join us?”

“And fight those battles in the colonies all over again with him? Lovely fellow, but I think not. I respect his zeal and regret his lost limb, but there is a limit to how many times I can enjoy vicarious warfare.”

“Yes, but he’s an old friend and I’m bound to oblige him. How about luncheon at my house, tomorrow? We haven’t spoken for a while.”

“Not for at least a week! Yes, I’d like that.”

“I’ll see you then,” the earl said, bowed, and asked a footman for his coat.

“My lord!” a sultry, thrilling, voice called. “Not leaving so soon, are you?”

“My dear,” the earl said to the star of the evening’s play, who had left the group of gentlemen she’d been with. “But you were surrounded by admirers. I just wanted to be one of them and then leave you to your well-deserved applause.”

“Old friends mean more than casual observers,” she said, but her kohl-rimmed eyes glanced over to the viscount.

“This is my dear friend, Viscount Haye,” the earl said. “Leland, may I present Miss La Fey?”

“You not only may,” Leland breathed, looking down at the actress intently. “You must. Please believe that I am more than a casual observer,” he told her, taking her hand in his and raising it to his lips. “I am an enraptured one. As who would not be? Your performance was miraculous. Your presence here, next to me, is even more so.”

She smiled. “Are you leaving, too?” she asked.

“Not if you don’t wish me to.”

She stared up into his amused eyes, and shivered slightly. “I don’t wish you to. But I am occupied with well- wishers and can’t snub them. Can you wait until I do the pretty with all those I must?”

“I can,” he said, one hand on his heart. “If you will be half so kind to me.”

“We shall see. I’ll be back soon,” she promised, and gave him a long, smoldering look before she went back to the crowd of men waiting for her.

The earl shook his head. “How do you do it?”

“I don’t know that I did. I think it’s this new cologne, actually… My lord?” the viscount asked with an exaggeratedly casual air. “Care to tell me just why she was incarcerated?”

The earl grinned. “No. That should make your evening more interesting. Just-I wouldn’t suggest getting her annoyed. Or if you do, then I suggest you not drink anything that she doesn’t. Good night then,” he said cheerfully. “See you tomorrow. I hope.”

The viscount bowed. “So do I. Good to know you look after me so well,” he said with an ironic smile. But it was a wide one.

“Good, you’re just in time,” the earl said after Leland gave his beaver hat and greatcoat to a footman, and came into his host’s study, rubbing his hands together.

“Oh, ‘good,’ indeed,” Leland murmured as he went to the fireside and held his hands up to it. “I’ve seen cold days in springtime, but this one is ridiculous. I shouldn’t be surprised if the Thames froze over again.”

“In April?”

“I said I shouldn’t be surprised, which is not the same as saying I expected it. It’s freezing out there. Still, nothing would keep me from a meal prepared by your chef. The fellow could name his price at Carlton House.”

“Yes, but they’d have to take him there in chains,” the earl said.

“The way they took him away from London the first time?” Leland asked with a tilted smile.

“Now, now. You know his history is not mine to divulge. He did his time in Botany Bay, and now is free as you or I: past forgotten, future being made. Speaking of emigres… how did you and my old friend get on last evening?”

“ ‘Now, now,’ indeed!” his younger friend said. “I am a gentleman. I never discuss my dealings with a lady, or a female who aspires to be one. Suffice it to say it was a pleasant interlude for both of us. She’d no reason to be angry with me. And so,” he added too casually, “since I never infuriated her, I couldn’t tell: Why exactly was she sent to the Antipodes?”

“She was there because she was a fair hand with a lethal flying object, or so I was told.”

Leland laughed. “Score one for you! I took your bait and ran with it. Though we parted on amicable terms, she must have thought me a strange fellow, because brave I may be, but I didn’t dare take wine with her.”

The earl sketched a bow, though his eyes twinkled. “Forgive me. Will you accept my apology in the form of a seat at my table? We’re having your favorite soup, lobster, squab, beef, and fresh green peas! They’ve come from a hothouse, but I’m promised they taste as if they came from heaven.”

“For half that menu,” Leland said fervently, “you could stab me through the heart and I wouldn’t complain. So long as you let me sop up the gravy as I fell.”

They were laughing when the butler came in, clearing his throat.

“Luncheon ready, is it?” the earl asked.

“Not quite, my lord. But you have a visitor.”

“I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

“The young woman vowed you’d receive her.” The butler looked down instead of at his employer. “She said I’d be out on my ear if I didn’t let her in.” A fraction of a smile appeared on his usually stolid face. “You know her, m’lord,” he said, his accents slipping. “As do I. She’s from… the old country, y’see.”

The earl began to laugh. “I think I know who it is.” He glanced over at his guest. “You must have impressed her more than you realized.”

Leland’s eyebrow went up. “I am surprised. But maybe she has a complaint?”

“Show her in,” the earl told his butler. “I don’t know how you do it, Lee,” he commented as the butler went to show his guest in. “But you have a profound effect on females.”

Leland wore a rueful expression. He shrugged. “Actually I don’t know why, either. I see no reason why a lovely creature like that should fling herself at ridiculous, long-nosed, affected creature like me. It can’t have been for money. She isn’t a courtesan; she has talent and fame and earns a comfortable living. Mind, I do have my ways, and if I set a trap I expect to catch something. If I don’t, I start worrying why anyone would want to catch me. It’s what made me effective in France when I went there on His Majesty’s behalf. I suppose it’s also why I’m still single.”

“I doubt she was angling for matrimony.” The earl looked pensive. “Well, who knows? Maybe she was. Whatever it is, let’s settle it. She’s a good sort even if she did once make a mistake. After all, it’s a long climb from being a penniless orange seller in Spitalfields to becoming toast of the London stage. Maybe she’s after another title.”

“Then why not you?”

“I’m a lost cause, and she knows it.”

“No one knows that but you. Are you so sure?”

“Positive! Ah, here she comes. Courage!”

Both men stood straight as the butler brought the new arrival in. Then the earl blinked, before he smiled in delight.

Leland blinked, too, and for once, with no affectation, he simply stared.

The young woman was something to stare at.

She was more theatrically beautiful than any actress they’d seen on the stage last night, but her face hadn’t a hint of paint. The cold and her own excitement had been her cosmetics. Her plump lips were dark pink, the frigid air