How to Seduce a Bride

“You know?” she said in a bright, tight, little voice. “I think I’ve bought enough for one day. So I won’t take the gold gown, after all. My goodness! I’ve never had so many new ones at once.”

“Oh?” the viscount purred. “So you don’t intend to go into Society?”

She stared at him.

“You’ve bought enough for one morning visit, one afternoon’s walk, one afternoon tea, and an evening soiree,” he explained. “That will do for one day. No one ever wears the same garment twice in a week.”

“Maybe you’re right,” she said, whispering in a fierce under voice, keeping one eye on the modiste to be sure the woman wouldn’t hear. “But do we have to get them all at the same place? I mean, we should shop around, see if there are some for sale at a better price… and perhaps,” she added, seeing his surprise and trying to make it sound like she meant something else all along, “we could find better styles as well.”

“Better than at Madame Bertrand’s?” he asked, amazed.

Mrs. Masters’s eyes widened. Daisy realized she’d made a mistake.

“I think,” the earl said, “what Daisy means is that she’s not used to buying so much, and certainly not at one place, without comparing prices. She’s just in the habit of being frugal.”

“Yes,” Daisy said in relief. “That’s it exactly.”

“Not a bad habit, either,” Leland said. “But not one we’re used to here in London.”

“Does that mean I have to squander my money to be accepted?” she asked angrily.

“It means you must never talk about money,” he said, holding up one long finger the way a teacher would if he called for silence. “But I will talk about money now, if only to tell you that many of the ladies who buy here don’t pay their bills for years, if ever. No one in the ton does.”

“Except you, Lee,” the earl said, smiling, “and me. Me, because I never want to be in debt for any reason. I’ve seen too many poor souls in prison because of it. And you, because you love to be contrary.”

“Thank you for noticing,” the viscount said, as he got to his feet and slowly uncoiled his long body. “I do try. But I also know that too many merchants who cater to the rich have to run their businesses like gamblers, and too often lose because of it. They think serving the nobility is good advertising, but what good does it do them if they only attract more rich spongers? The upper classes can be debtors because of the ever-present promise of their money, at least as shown by their inherited properties. But I think they really can do it because of all their friends in high places. If you own the legal system, you’re not likely to be bitten by it.”

“Very republican talk for a nobleman,” the earl commented, suppressing a smile.

“Yes, good that I’m not from across the Channel, isn’t it?” Leland agreed. “I’d have taken my last ride in a tumbrel years ago.”

“Of course,” the earl commented to a wide-eyed Daisy, “you know he may say the opposite tomorrow if it amuses him.”

“So I may,” Leland agreed. “Now, I’ll just have a word with madame, and then we’ll have luncheon, shall we?”

“Yes,” the earl said, “and tell her to have at least one gown made up and ready to go by tomorrow evening.”

Leland stopped and looked at his friend curiously.

“We want to take Daisy to the theater, don’t we?” the earl asked.

“Do we?” Leland answered, as though fascinated.

“Well, I do,” the earl said. “Sad stuff to sit around a hotel room while all London is amusing itself outside your window, but you don’t know the city enough to venture out on your own. In Daisy’s case, it’s even worse, because she can’t go anywhere at night by herself.”

“Indeed,” Leland said expressionlessly. “I’m to be included in all this merrymaking, am I?”

“If you’d be so kind,” the earl said. “You know London better than I do.”

“So I do,” Leland said, bowed, and strolled away.

Daisy watched as he sauntered over to talk with the dressmaker. He was so tall and thin, she’d have thought he’d be awkward, but he moved with the same lazy, effortless grace he spoke with. Today he was dressed in black and dark gray, except for a splash of crimson in his waistcoat. The gentlemen she’d seen in fashion plates were tidy men, neat and precise. He was much too tall, thin, and careless for fashion, but he was Fashion. It still amazed her.

He spoke with the modiste, and Daisy’s eyes narrowed as she saw him amble over to the model wearing the gold gown she’d wanted. He stopped and smiled down at the woman. For one mad moment, Daisy thought he was going to arrange to buy the gown for her, as an apology for how disagreeable he’d been about it.

The model was tall and slender, but she still had to look up at the viscount. She was striking, with classical features. Her sleek black hair was pulled back tightly in a bun, as all the models’ were, so as not to interfere with the presentation of the gown, or so the viscount had said.

The earl rose to his feet, too, so Daisy did as well, but she kept her eyes on the viscount. As she watched, she saw him lift one long white hand and run the back of it lightly across the model’s cheek in a careless caress as he whispered to her. He’d been right. The material of the gold gown was thin. Daisy couldn’t help but notice that the nipples on the model’s small, pointed breasts rose in peaks when he touched her cheek. She’d bet they weren’t talking about his purchasing the gown.

She was confused. It wasn’t really an intimate gesture; it couldn’t be, especially coming from a man like Viscount Haye. But it suddenly seemed like one. She frowned.

“Don’t mind Lee,” the earl said, seeing her expression. “He means well.”

“I’m just surprised,” she murmured, without thinking.

The earl saw the direction of her gaze. “Surprised?”

“I didn’t think he was interested in… ” She suddenly realized what she was saying and her face colored up.

“In what?” the earl asked with interest.

Well, in for a penny, she thought, in for a pound. There was no time like the present to find out about the earl.

“In… females.”

The earl’s eyebrows shot up. “Lee? You wondered that about him?”

“I didn’t mean to offend,” she said quickly. “It’s none of my business. But the way he talks… I mean,” she said, backing off the subject when she saw his obvious astonishment. “Forgive me! You must remember how it was back at the colony: What you think is what you say and devil take the hindmost. I’ve been gone from England too long, I need to retrain my tongue as well as my manners.”

The earl became thoughtful. He looked over at the viscount and the model who was now staring, as if mesmerized, up into his eyes, and a slow smile dawned on his own face. “Well,” he said slowly, “there’s a thought, indeed. How amusing,” he murmured as if to himself, his eyes sparkling. “How ironic. I’d share it with him if it weren’t impossible.”

He looked back to Daisy, and then said sincerely, “All I’ll say is that you needn’t worry about Leland’s attentions, my dear.”

“Oh,” she said. So it was true. But then, what about Geoff himself?

“Whatever else he is, Leland is entertaining, good company, and a good man under all his affectation,” the earl went on, “which is why I like to spend time with him, as do my sons.”

“Doesn’t living with him become trying, though?”

“Living with him?” The earl laughed. “Daisy, the fellow runs tame at my house, but he doesn’t live there!”

“Oh,” she said, and beamed her vast relief at him.

“So, shall we?” he asked, smiling down at her in turn as he offered her his arm.

“Thank you, yes,” she said, taking his arm and looking up at him as though he’d presented her with a gift, and so not noticing that the viscount was now watching them, or the slight concerned frown he wore as he did.

Chapter Four