How to Seduce a Bride

coach had gone. “Very clever, indeed.”

“She’s had to be. Poor child.”

Leland’s silence was his question.

“No harm in telling you the rest,” the earl said. “She told you how she got into her predicament, and if you’re going to help, you need to know more. You are going to help, aren’t you? You weren’t just being polite?”

“I’m never just polite. I meant it. I’ll send word to an employment agency; she’ll have eager would-be companions lining up at her hotel door tomorrow morning, early. And I’ll help to outfit her, too. That, at least, will be a pleasure. She really is a charming armful. Her body is exceptional. Slender, but firm and full… Oh, don’t scowl. I could go on, but I won’t. Still, she has spectacular good looks, you know.”

“I do.”

“That sounded very matrimonial,” Leland said with interest.

“What? Oh, ‘I do’? What? Me, and her? What are you thinking of? She’s younger than any of my boys. Far too young for me.”

“She’s also widowed, I remind you, and of age.”

“Yes, widowed, and good for her, poor child.”

Leland raised an eyebrow.

“Her husband, Tanner, was a brute,” the earl said sadly. “A good-natured brute when things were going his way. But a bully when they weren’t. He was a prison guard sent to the Antipodes with the convicts to watch over them in the new penal colony. He did it for the extra pay. He always loved money. Her father-now there was a cad-got her into prison. But he tried to do one good thing for her, at least. Or what he’d thought was good. He urged her to marry Tanner, as asked, so she could be protected from the other guards as well as prisoners on our ship.”

“I thought they kept the females separate,” Leland said with a frown. “That’s what the reformers are always demanding.”

“So they do. And so they have, here, or at least at most prisons in England. But once a ship is under way, it has its own law. No one can have a thousand eyes, and the few Bible thumpers who sailed with us were fooled a thousand ways. No question a little beauty like Daisy would have been ill used. So she did her father’s will and chose to be ill used by one brute instead of many, and married Tanner.”

“A wise choice,” Leland said into his glass, though his lips were curled in distaste. “She didn’t do too badly, though, did she? She’s rich now, or so she says. And she doesn’t look the worse for wear.”

The earl gave him a strange look. “Lee, you’re a clever fellow for a fool.”

The viscount sat up, his manner no longer lazy. “I play a fool, my lord, that’s true,” he snapped. “Lamentable, but true. It is an affectation that amuses me. Are you telling me you now believe me?”

The earl waved a hand. “Relax, please. Forgive me. My experiences in prison are still a sensitive subject. But no man can understand unless he was there. Life’s different for a convict. Actually, he no longer has a life of his own, that’s the point. He has only his dreams. Someone else owns his body. Many don’t survive. Those who do bear scars, some visible, some not, however deep and potentially lethal they may be. Amyas still has nightmares. He’s happy now, but I think he will always have them. We all do, because we lived a nightmare.

“Still, if it’s possible, it’s harder for a woman than a man. Daisy was just turned sixteen when she had to marry Tanner. He was three-and-thirty. He was a robust young man, not unhandsome, but she didn’t marry him for his looks. They were wed by a parson aboard ship on the way to the penal colony. Her father told her that if she married a guard, she’d be safer. And so it was. The authorities looked the other way and let her live with Tanner until her sentence was done.”

“So her father did try to look out for her? That’s good.”

“Did he?” the earl asked. “We’ll never know. Some of us thought that money changed hands, as did promises of special favors, because though other men wanted to marry her aside from Tanner, he was the only one her father urged her to wed. Whatever he meant or got from it, her father never saw any other gain. He died of a fever before we reached land.

“There’s no question living with Tanner helped Daisy survive her time in Botany Bay,” the earl went on as he stared at the glass in his hand. “But I think only just, in some ways. Hers might have been just as hard a sentence to serve as ours.”

Leland drained his own glass and waited for the earl to continue.

“She’s four-and-twenty now,” the earl finally said. “I saw her tonight and marveled. She looks and sounds wonderfully well. I don’t know how even that valiant spirit stayed so bright after six years of marriage to Tanner. He never spoke when he could shout. He never asked when he could order. He never hit her in the face, because even he could see how rarely beautiful she was, and I suppose he didn’t want to ruin that. It was a source of pride with him. But he did hit her, because he didn’t know how else to argue or show his displeasure; we all knew that. He struck her for such infractions as speaking up, for not speaking, for being there when he was drinking deep, but mostly, I think, for being who she was. He was as proud as he was resentful of her superior breeding, knowledge, and spirit.”

The room was still except for the spitting logs in the fire in the hearth.

“I did not know,” the viscount eventually said. “I wouldn’t have guessed. You’re right. She possesses more than a lovely face and a clever mind. She must be a brave spirit, indeed.” He cast a bright eye on his host. “So, what exactly is your part in this now? Do you think you can make it up to her? I wouldn’t blame you. You could; you’d be a good husband. And she’s very beautiful, and single again.”

“God! You have wedlock on the brain. No, and no, and no again,” the earl said, pacing in agitation. “I’m happy in my single life. I’m content. My wife was the best of wives; I’ve no desire to have less. And, sadly, I’d think any other woman was less.”

“Oh, you’ve taken up monkhood then,” the viscount commented dryly. “A new order? One that gives up abstinence? Interesting. Do you fellows make cheeses or brandy when you’re not at your prayers?”

The earl’s ears flushed. “I have my diversions, and well you know it. But those good women don’t demand more than my company and support. I can’t give them more, and don’t want more in return. As for Daisy? I always admired and pitied her, and just want to do good for her.”

“And if she wants more from you? Because I suspect she does.”

The earl stared at his guest.

“Her voice, when she speaks to you,” Leland said impatiently. “Her eyes. Good Lord, you could see it if you opened your eyes. She wants you, and for more than an old friend.”

“You see it, maybe,” the earl scoffed. “I don’t, and I don’t look for it.” He stared at his elegant guest. “So. The only question is: Will you help me help her?”

“You trust me with her?”

The earl laughed. “With a beautiful woman? Of course not, unless you give your word not to toy with her, and I won’t ask that. Not to denigrate your charms, Lee, but I believe her to be impervious to them. Open your eyes, my friend. Didn’t you see how she reacted to you? I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but for once in your career, you must admit you failed to charm a female. She didn’t like you.”

Leland gave his friend an odd look. “You thought so?”

“Yes, and I’m glad of it.”

“Am I then such a monster?” Leland asked mildly. “A seducer, a despoiler?”

“No, nothing of the sort. You never do real harm. You take a willing female under your protection, or dally with one, and leave her none the worse for the experience.”

“And usually a little richer,” Leland commented wryly.

“Yes, in funds and experience. But I don’t want that for Daisy. Because for all her experience, she’s inexperienced with men such as you.”

“There are no others such as I,” Leland said in mock affront.

“Probably true, but I’m not joking,” the earl said. “She doesn’t seem to like you, and that’s good because it will keep her safe. The only problem with it is that she must work with you if you’re to bring her up to snuff.”

Leland cocked his head to the side.

“She has to take your advice and follow your lead,” the earl said, as he took his friend’s glass and filled it again. “You know fashion. You know who is acceptable, and who is not. You’re accepted everywhere. My God, you could