How to Seduce a Bride

have been more charitable. That doesn’t make me a murderess!” she said, looking up at their faces.

They looked at each other, and they didn’t smile.

She swallowed hard. “I know more about the law than most females, from being exposed to it so young and so often. But doesn’t my accuser have to face me in court?”

“So he would,” the earl said. “But we don’t believe it will ever come to that.”

“Why not?” Daisy asked. She frowned as the men exchanged looks again. Leland, looking more tense and sober than she’d ever seen him; Geoff, growing a little red around the ears.

“I’ll tell you later,” the earl said evasively. “If it even comes to that.”

“For now,” Leland said abruptly, “we need you to relax, settle down, and make a list of anyone you think might mean you harm. Anyone,” he said. “First, from the days before your father was arrested. Someone had to inform on him. We’ll search the old records, but we’d like to know who you think that might have been. Include anyone you may have met in Newgate prison who might bear a grudge, and anyone similarly bent that you can remember from the ship that brought you to Botany Bay. We’d also like a list of those you knew from then on, of course. That will give us something to work with.”

“We need to know who did this to you,” the earl said.

Daisy’s eyes widened. “Will they be able to put me in Newgate again?” she asked again. She frowned to hear her voice shake.

“No,” Leland said. “Not while I live.”

“Nor I,” the earl agreed.

She nodded, relieved. Then she raised her head. “You know, actually, I don’t think my accuser is anyone we know from those bad days, Geoff. Because, say I was put in jail: Even if I were transported again, who’d profit? What good would it do them? They couldn’t get my money. So why bother? Convicts don’t like courts, do they, Geoff?” she asked, like a child in the night wanting to be told there was nothing in her darkened wardrobe but imagination. “Don’t you remember?”

“Yes,” he said. “But they could easily pay someone else to broach the suit for them.”

“I see,” she said, thinking hard. “It could even be someone who never did anything bad, someone who just didn’t want me getting too close to you, Geoff. Or you, my lord,” she said, looking straight at Leland.

The earl stared at her. Leland put his head to side as he considered her.

“Well, you two foisted me off on Society,” she said. “There are high sticklers who could be mighty mad that you introduced a common convict to the cream of the ton. They mightn’t like having to rub elbows with such as me, whether I was guilty or not. Accusing me of a murder is just the kind of sneaking, rotten, rancid thing a person like that would do.”

“So it would be,” the earl said, exchanging a look with Leland.

“So it might be,” Leland said sharply. He seemed, for the first time since she’d known him, agitated, all his customary lazy good humor vanished. “It’s all conjecture. I must get some real investigation started. So I have to leave now. There are people to speak to, and more to be threatened. Mrs. Masters?” he said through tightened lips. “If I might see you outside for a moment?”

Helena looked surprised.

“Not to worry,” Leland assured her, more gently. “No one suspects you of anything. I just need to speak with you, alone.”

Helena’s expression cleared. “Of course, my lord,” she said quietly. “I’ll be just outside, Daisy,” she said, and went to the door.

Leland followed.

Daisy found herself alone, with Geoff. Then, and only then, did she suddenly understand the unspoken conversation he’d had with the viscount, as clearly as if she had heard it.

“Oh, by all that’s holy,” she muttered, putting her hand to her forehead. “Now I’ve done it. I’ve gone and forced your hand, haven’t I?”

“No, Daisy,” the earl said, as he came to stand before her. “You’ve gone and made me realize that I should ask for your hand, and not dillydally anymore.”

“That’s what I meant,” she said miserably.

Chapter Fifteen

“No one can touch you if you’re my wife,” the earl told Daisy. “There’d be no more talk of murders and such nonsense.”

He hesitated. “I promise you won’t be prosecuted for Tanner’s death, but… I’d like to know. Just between the two of us, and I’ll never speak it again. You had just cause, and I couldn’t blame you, and wouldn’t. But… you didn’t have a hand in it, did you?”

“Oh, Geoff,” she said sadly.

“I’m sorry I asked, but I had to,” he said, his face becoming ruddy. “But think on, if you’d been me, you would have done it, too.”

“Likely,” she said. She looked around the room and sighed. The bookcases were filled with heavy, beautifully covered tomes. She didn’t doubt he’d read them all. It was the room of a rich and educated man. Geoff was proposing marriage to her, but for the first time since she’d met him, that prospect had never seemed farther away.

“So,” he said, smiling again. “Give me your answer and I’ll arrange all the details. My dear Daisy, will you marry me? I confess that I mightn’t have had the audacity to ask a woman half my age for her hand, but it’s clear now that you need me. We’ll deal very well together, I think, and you’ll never have to worry again.”

He hit his forehead with his hand. “Ridiculous proposal! Where’s the romance. Where’s the drama? I ought to have brought flowers, or jewelry. But I never thought I’d actually ask. I’ve been thinking about this for some days now. Only a crisis like this could have forced me into it, though, and I admit, I’ve never been happier that it did. It seems the right thing to do for both of us. I may be too old, but not if you don’t think I am. We might even be able to start a new family. That will be odd-having a child my grandchildren’s age. But we won’t be the first or last to do something like that. I’m old”-he chuckled-“but not incapable. And never fear! You know my boys, Christian, Amyas, and Daffyd. And they know you. They won’t mind; in fact, they’ll be glad, I think.”

He put an arm around her waist, the other went to the back of her neck, and he started to draw near. He was tentative and gentle. He smelled of good shaving soap. But as he neared she could see how weathered his skin was, and that he had a few freckled blotches on his forehead. He had fine eyes, but there were lines around them, as well as those furrows that ran down from the sides of his nose to the sides of his mouth. She saw he was looking at her lips, and his own parted. She closed her eyes. He touched her mouth gently with his.

His mouth was warm and dry, and felt so terribly wrong, she wanted to weep. Her stomach seemed to do a little flip. She shuddered and pulled away.

He dropped his arms and drew back, looking at her with concern.

Daisy looked into his face. It was a dear face to her. So she had to place her words as carefully as she could. “Geoff,” she said softly. “No. It won’t do. I like you very much. The truth is, I came to England with just this in mind. I guess you knew that; everybody did. But do you know why? It’s because you made such an impression on me when I met you. Remember? You were a prisoner, dressed like the others, but you stood out. Everyone listened to what you said. You did the books for the governor! Even Tanner didn’t have a bad thing to say against you. Then you were free, but you were still nice to me. Some days, when I was feeling especially beaten down and trapped, I’d see you, and you always had a smile and a comforting word for me. You were such a gentleman, you made me start dreaming of coming back home one day and meeting a world full of men like you.

“Now here I am, and you’re still a gentleman. And you’re asking what I wanted to hear. But now I know it’s not right. It couldn’t be, though you would be the one to ask in order to set me free again. Geoff, it wasn’t a romantic proposal because it couldn’t be. We’re not in love. I like you very much but I don’t like to think of being in bed with you, or with any man. Thing is, I don’t know if I ever can.”

His expression was instantly one of deep concern.