How to Seduce a Bride

Chapter Seven

Leland and Daffyd had their eyes fixed on Daisy, as did every male they’d passed so far. They were strolling through Vauxhall Gardens behind Daisy, the earl, and Helena Masters. It was sunset, and the park was beginning to be thronged with fashionable people as well as commoners there for the evening’s entertainment.

Daisy was hard to miss. She was wearing a low-cut green gown, enlivened by a green and yellow patterned shawl thrown over her shoulders. Her vivid hair was done up with white ribbons, and she wore a crystal rose on a silver chain at her neck. The crystal caught the last sunlight and danced rainbows on the white skin of her breast. She shone like the setting sun, and her radiance made the earl, dressed in a dun jacket, dark breeches and boots, and high white neck cloth, fade into the approaching twilight.

“Do you know?” Leland finally told Daffyd in a soft under voice. “I believe watching and waiting is foolish. You’re leaving Town soon, and besides, you don’t know how to ask her. I think I should see just how serious she really is about Geoff.”

Daffyd turned, his eyes grave. “You said you wouldn’t harm her.”

“Gads!” Leland said in annoyance. “What do you think I mean to do? Kidnap her and force the truth from her? I only thought to try a little friendly persuasion. She’s a grown woman, a widow, and one who’s been in darker places than I’ll ever know-you said so yourself. I simply meant I’d throw out lures and see if she took any. I may be a beanpole, with a nose that’s a caricaturist’s delight, homely as an old boot, in fact, but I have been known to attract a female or two in my time, you know.”

“I do know,” Daffyd said. “Too well. You almost stole my Meg from me.”

“Oh, yes,” Leland said sarcastically. “If I’d half a chance, you’d be visiting her in my house today. But she couldn’t see me once she’d met you.”

“She saw enough. She still says you’re madly attractive. I don’t know how you do it, but you do. All right. Daisy can take care of herself. She survived prison, Tanner, and Botany Bay. I guess she can deal with you. See what you can find out. If she really loves Geoff-then good luck to her. I don’t know her that well, but as I said, she’s a good sort, in all. Oh, by the way. She is rich. I asked someone who would know. It’s true.”

“I know,” Leland said. “I asked, too. But she’s not as rich as the earl is; few in England are. That’s always a lure. Some people never have enough money. Well, then, let’s see what happens, although there’s not much I can do if she keeps hanging on his arm like a bracelet. But there’s always dinner. She’ll have to let go so he can eat. Not that there’ll be much of that. Dinner here means watered wine, shaved ham, and bits of fruit, for a huge price. What a delightful evening,” he said too brightly. “Going to a fireworks display. What fun. You know, Daffy, if you and Geoff weren’t such good friends, I could think of many more interesting things to do.”

“Your virtue will save you money and the possibility of a nasty rash.”

Leland laughed. “I don’t have to pay all my flirts, you know. And thank you, Mother, but I listened to your lectures and I’m always very careful…” The laughter left his voice as he saw who was approaching the earl. “Oh my God,” he breathed. “Speak of the devil and there she is.”

They stared at the elegant woman who had paused to speak to the earl. She was a tall, beautifully dressed woman of middle years, with fair skin and fairer hair, and eyes that were dazzlingly deep blue even from a distance. Everything about her was impeccable; even her smile seemed to have been measured for a fit before she tried it on.

“Our noble parent,” Leland said. “I thought she was still in Bath. I didn’t know she was back in Town. Did you?”

“Why should I? ”Daffyd said with a shrug. “She only calls on me when she needs a favor, and doesn’t acknowledge me to the world at any time. No surprise there; after all, she left me a week after I was born, and didn’t speak to me again until I surprised her by turning up again last year. Remember? Much I care. But you’re the heir.”

“Much that matters. She left me when I was three to run off with your father, and only came back a year later because he beat her. Remember?” he echoed mockingly. “Well, you wouldn’t. That’s when she got you. One of the few things she’s done that I approve of. I didn’t at the time, of course, because your advent was a fact she neglected to share. Actually, I wouldn’t mind a few decades without her now. Neither would my baby brother, but he’s lucky. He’s in school and almost never has to see her. I, unfortunately, run into her at social occasions more often than is comfortable for either of us.”

“God!” Daffyd said. “What do you suppose she’ll make of Daisy?”

“Mincemeat,” Leland said, and walked over to greet his mother.

“Dear Haye,” the dowager viscountess Haye said, greeting Leland and offering the right side of her cheek to the air at the side of his left cheek. “Daffyd,” she said, nodding her head in a slight bow. “Heavens. Is this some sort of family excursion?”

“Mrs. Tanner is an old friend of mine and Daffyd’s,” the earl said. “As the viscount Haye is also a friend, we’re all taking her out on the Town to see the sights.”

“And you have never seen fireworks?” the viscountess asked Daisy, taking her in from her hair ribbons to her slippers in one long sweeping glance, pausing only to stare at the low neck of her dress, one eyebrow moving ever so slightly upward as she did.

Daisy had been smiling, but her smile stiffened when she saw how the older woman was weighing her up, and managing to criticize her without so much as saying a word. She felt the tension in the air around her, slowly let out a breath, and then smiled again.

“Fireworks? I’ve seen some when there was a celebration,” she answered. “But never what they’re supposed to have here in London. I hear their displays boggle the mind, and I’ve a mind to have mine boggled.”

She laughed. The men did, too, but the viscountess only smiled her cool smile.

“I see. And you are visiting from…?” the viscountess persisted.

The earl didn’t leap in to answer the question. Neither did Daffyd or Leland. So there was nothing for it but the truth, Daisy thought resignedly. Might as well know now as later how she’d fare in high society. Men might accept her, but women ran the ton, and if this female wasn’t Society with a capital “S,” she knew nothing at all. Geoff might marry her whatever anyone said, because he was that sort of fellow. But how much easier her road would be if she were accepted first.

She smiled her usual wide, radiant smile, an inch short of laughter. “I was raised in Sussex,” she said. “Then I went to London with my father. We stayed a while on Newgate Street, and then took a sea voyage halfway ’round the world. My poor papa never left the ship, at least alive. I settled in Botany Bay, where we’d been bound, and now I’m free, I just decided to come back home to England.”

The older woman didn’t blink. “Ah. A friend of the earl’s from the old days, indeed. And your husband, did he come with you?”

“He’d love to have done,” Daisy said. “But he’s dead. And so I’d be all on my own if the earl, and Daffyd, and the viscount Haye hadn’t taken pity on me. They’re very kind to widows, as you must know.”

“Do I?” the viscountess said softly. “I’d no idea they were so very charitable. How good for you to have such friends. Was your husband a companion of the earl’s in those days; is that how you came to know each other?”

“What a surprise,” Leland drawled. “You didn’t tell us you were applying for a job with my mama, Mrs. Tanner. In what capacity, may one ask?”

“I merely wished to know how such a lovely young creature like Mrs. Tanner came to befriend a man of the earl’s age and condition, Leland,” his mother snapped.

“My condition is fine, my lady,” the earl said, bowing. “Thank you for worrying.”

“Lord, how the gentlemen do rush to slay dragons for you, don’t they, Mrs. Tanner?” the viscountess said with a thin smile. “Although I hardly qualify as one, I promise you. But I was ever an inquisitive creature. Do forgive me if I seemed to be prying. And my lord,” she told the earl, “I never meant to imply you were in anything but fine fettle. One only needs to look at you to see that. Still, I must admit I wondered until I saw you just now. I’m relieved to discover all’s well. One never sees you at the usual social occasions, after all.”

“I fear one never will,” the earl said. “I’m not much of a hand for balls and musicales… though I suppose I’ll have to learn to be, won’t I?” he asked Daisy. “At least if I want to show you all of London’s gaiety.”

Daisy’s smile was relieved. “I don’t want to force you to do anything,” she said. “I can live without balls and musicales. After all, I’ve done it all my life.”

“No, you shall have it all,” the earl said, patting her hand where it lay on his arm. “Especially because you haven’t seen them before.”

The viscountess didn’t blink an eye, but those eyes looked keener now as she watched the earl and Daisy. “One hesitates to ask,” she said, “but there are times when one must. Would she have gone to such affairs had she not left England?”

Total silence fell over the people before her. Leland’s eyes narrowed and his lips grew tight.

His mother didn’t look at all perturbed. “I ask in order to spare Mrs. Tanner’s feelings,” she went on calmly, “not to wound them. London is one of the best cities in the world to visit, I understand, and a foreigner can get much pleasure from it. But there are some places that can only be visited for pleasure if one is considered fit to be there.”

“Or,” Leland said coldly, “if one is good at disguises, and can dress and speak like a lady or a gentleman.”

“I’ve done it many times myself, my lady,” Daffyd said. “And well you know it.”

“Yes, I do,” she said. “It’s done. How else does the footman get to elope with the duke’s daughter, or how is a jealous mistress finally able to see her gentleman friend’s wife up close? But I thought a lovely young woman like Mrs. Tanner wouldn’t get much pleasure out of being an incognito, especially on the Earl of Egremont’s arm. There’d be such gossip and tattle, after all.”

The others fell still, in shock. None of these things were proper to say in front of any young woman who might be Quality, even if she was a widow. Daisy knew that, too.

“They can gossip and tattle all they want, my lady,” Daisy said, taking her hand off the earl’s arm and stepping away from him. “And I’d give them good cause to. I was a prisoner at Botany Bay, transported for my father’s crimes. But I think it would be stale gossip. Papa was Sir Richard Searle of the Sussex Searles, one of the last of an old family. Everyone knew he poached on his neighbor’s grounds one too many times. It was the talk of our little town, at least.

“Papa hadn’t a penny left to pay anyone off. He’d gambled everything away and alienated whatever family remained, lost all his friends and made new enemies, and was a scandal in the neighborhood. He couldn’t be hanged, understand. Not for stealing dinner, at least, like any commoner would be. There are some benefits to being wellborn. But they wanted him far away, so they transported him, and me with him. As it turned out, he went farther away than they’d thought he would, because he died before he got to Botany Bay, and by then, no one cared but me.”

She shrugged, and well dressed as she was, looked very lost and vulnerable standing there in the growing twilight.

The earl lifted her little gloved hand to his lips. “That you were punished was a worse crime,” he said.

She looked down in pretty confusion.

“Well, that’s done it,” Daffyd murmured to Leland as they finally parted from the viscountess. “Attack an honorable man’s escort and he’ll find himself married to her in no time.”

“Not that honorable man, at least not if she’s not equally so, I promise you,” Leland said. “I said, leave it to me. Now pretend you’re having a wonderful time. Or go have one. Find an old friend to talk to, or a nice quiet place to compose odes to read to Meg when you get home. But let me see what I can do.”

“I doubt even you can budge her now. Looks like Geoff took the bait and the line and will run with it.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not. I can, at least, find out why the chit is so in love with Geoff. If she is. And if she isn’t, then why she wants him to think she is.”

Daffyd looked at him strangely. “And you’re doing all of this for Geoff’s sake?”

Leland smiled. “You know me well. Generosity isn’t always its own reward. There are always ancillary benefits, if a man is lucky.”

“I hate to leave you alone,” the earl told Daisy an hour later, hesitating as he stood by their table.

Daisy laughed. “Alone? There are hundreds of people here tonight.”

“Thousands,” he said. “But you’ll be alone at the table.”

“Not for long,” she said, smiling. “Helena said she’d be right back. And you won’t be far away. Anyway, it’s nice to just sit back and relax. I can’t wait to see the fireworks but they won’t go off until it’s full dark, and night’s slow in coming at this time of year. I’m safe enough, Geoff. You said the fellow in the Bath chair was an old friend; you’ll look no-account if you just keep waving to him. I have nothing to say to him, so it would only be awkward if you took me to his table. So, go. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

The earl wavered. Daffyd had gone to visit with a friend he’d spied at another table; Daisy’s companion had excused herself, obviously to find the convenience, and Leland must have done the same because he’d also vanished. The outdoor dining area in the park was set up for the brief English summer. It was a circular area outside an enclosed rotunda that was open on all sides. This dining section was quieter, it had small tables and chairs, and an ornate railing enclosing all. There was an airy canopy on poles stirring over the tables, but it didn’t keep out the soft spring breeze. Not only the breeze was free to roam; anyone could enter the place. The prices kept the rabble out.

Musician played soft music in the background, there were lit torches everywhere, and urns filled with flowers lent more beauty to the place. Londoners knew how to make money from any spectacle, and a night of fireworks drew in huge crowds. The wealthiest came here; the common man ate food brought from home or from one of the many roaming vendors. The earl knew Daisy would be safe enough. And his friend Roger Crandall couldn’t walk too well, so it was only right that the earl visit at his table. Daisy didn’t know him, and in truth, he was an old bore, so it wasn’t fair to either of them to drag her along. Still, the earl hesitated.

“Do go,” Daisy said. “He keeps watching you, and I feel guilty. I’ve been alone in a colony filled with hardened criminals and took care of myself very well. I don’t have to here. I’ll just rest and wait for you.”

“Very well,” he said. “But if anyone troubles you, call a waiter.”

Daisy smiled. If anyone troubled her, she’d give the troublemaker a thing or two to think about. But she nodded, and watched Geoff leave. Then she closed her eyes at last. She sat back and felt the night breeze stir her hair. She relaxed, feeling safe and content. She was in England again, and entirely free. Geoff liked her, and he was still the warmhearted, generous man she’d known. She thought lazily, considering her options. In time Geoff might come to love her, or at least maybe want to adopt her, as he had the boys.

Except in her case, he’d probably be willing to marry her instead. Things were finally going her way.

It didn’t take much to make her happy. New clothes delighted her; just being in London did, too. The opera and the theater were lovely, but it was also been great fun to come here tonight and stroll along, meeting people, being treated like a lady. But being alone and feeling safe while being so was in itself a rare treat for her, and she relished it.

“Fie!” a familiar voice purred by her ear. “They left you alone? Villains. That’s like leaving a pearl out on a velvet cushion in full view, with no guards around it. But never fear, I’m here.”

Leland’s voice stirred the smallest hairs up and down her arms and on the back of her neck. Her nostrils flared, the breeze brought the scent of warm sandalwood to her nose. She tried to banish the sensations. “Anyone trying to snatch that pearl would lose a hand,” she said, without opening her eyes. “I didn’t fall down in the last rain, my lord.”

She heard him settle in the chair next to her.

“ ‘My lord’?” he asked in intimate teasing tones. “But why? You call the earl Geoff and Daffyd Daffy. I’m consumed with jealousy. Please feel free to call me Lee, or Leland, or even Haye, if you must. Or dear Lee, or my darling, if you will.”

“Not likely, my lord,” she said, and kept her eyes closed.

“I offend you?” he asked softly.

If only he did, she thought, and said, “No, but I don’t know you.”

“Easily remedied,” he said. “Just talk with me awhile.”

He’d been much easier to talk with when she’d thought he didn’t desire females. Now she felt wary and uncomfortable with him. It wasn’t only that. He’d changed. He’d been ironic and distant before, languid, amused, and disinterested. Now, maybe because she knew the truth about him, or maybe because he’d changed when he was with her, he was definitely interested.

And now he was too close, and she realized he was trying to get closer. While she knew how to deal with an outright flirt or a lusty boor, she didn’t know how to talk with this elegant nobleman. He was friendly and charming, but everything he said was overlaid with innuendo and invitations that could be taken many ways. She’d never met anyone like him before. The only thing she could do was to be herself, and watch her step while she was at it. That was why she couldn’t look at him. The last time they’d spoken together, when he’d looked into her eyes, somehow he’d been able to bypass her usual defenses.

“Talk to you?” she asked. “If talking told a person true things about the other person, there’d be no wars.”

“A very wise saying,” he said.

“It’s not mine; my father used to say it,” she said. “But as you know, he wasn’t very wise.”

“Which, I suppose, proves your point,” he said. “Are you going to open your eyes? Or did the sight of me strike you blind?”

“I’m trying to get accustomed to the dark,” she lied. “Daffyd said that if you close your eyes first, then when you see the fireworks they look brighter.”

“Very true. Except that they aren’t going off for an hour. If you keep your eyes closed, you may be asleep by then.”

“Not if you keep talking to me.”

He laughed in what seemed like genuine delight. “But I must. I’m sitting here, and I get lonely. Anyway, the earl has seen me return. What will he think of me if I leave again? I’m an English gentleman, and I can’t leave a lady alone in the night.”

“I’m not a lady,” she said.

“You know,” he said in a flatter voice, “at the risk of being rude, I have to tell you that does pall, after a bit. You were born a lady, and raised one. What happened after doesn’t change that. It can’t.”

Her eyes snapped open. She glared at him. “What happened changed me forever, my lord. You try living in Newgate, being shipped out on a prison hulk, living with the lowest and trying to stay alive at all costs, and so then marrying… Well,” she said, swallowing hard, as she forced down more bitter words, “all I can say is that it does change you, forever. I can’t think of myself as a lady anymore.”

“And so you don’t think of the earl as a gentleman, either?” he asked with interest.

“That’s not what I meant. Of course he’s a gentleman. He always was and always will be.”

He tilted his head to the side, and smiled. “Yes. And so it is with you. Now, there are some ladies born who will always be common, and some commoners who will always be ladies, in spite of what those of my class might say. That can’t be changed. You can’t help it. And you ought to stop denying it. You don’t want the earl to start believing it, do you?”

The torchlight showed his eyes to be the color that lingered on the edges of the twilight sky as the day gave way to night. But they were warm, and human, and seemed to search her soul.

She shivered, finding she wanted to move closer to his compelling warmth, until she reminded herself that he was a virile male, and so no better than any she’d known, and perhaps even a bit worse because he could make her forget it, even for a minute.

“Geoff knows me,” she said, tearing her gaze from his, and looking down at her lap. “I don’t try to deceive him. I don’t think I could. So if he thinks I’m a lady, that’s fine. I’ll try to be one.”

“It isn’t a matter of trying. Or of airs and graces,” he said. “It’s to do with honor and heart, this matter of ladies and gentlemen. But of course in Society, it’s only semantics. My own mama, who thankfully is too busy or pretending to be at her table to bother with us, is deemed a great lady. But she’s not, far from it. The earl is a gentleman, and not only one born so. And you are a lady, even if not born to a title. There it is.”

“And you?” she asked, looking up at him because she couldn’t help herself.

“Oh, me?” He seemed surprised. Then his smile was sad. “I don’t know. I try to be a gentleman. I really do. It’s a thing I can’t know. Perhaps you could tell me when you get to know me. And you will, Mrs. Tanner, I mean to see that you do.”

She didn’t know if that was a promise or a threat, and in spite of everything she planned and felt and knew, she was threatened and challenged-and thrilled by it.