Convenient Proposal To The Lady

‘Did none of the other guests notice the marked change in your behaviour?’

‘Since I generally participate as little as possible in these gatherings, they don’t know how I normally behave. Though initially, my mother was alarmed! But after I assured her I was only trying to follow her advice, deferring to the gentlemen, she couldn’t really protest the behaviour,’ she ended with another chuckle.

How those gold-flecked eyes mesmerised when she was amused, Ben thought, once again fighting the urge to take her in his arms. ‘A case of being careful what you wish for.’

‘Perhaps.’ Her amusement fading, she said, ‘In particular, I watched Denbry, for the others deferred to him. I even told him at the outset that I had not received a good account of his character from my brother.’

Surprised that she would almost...bait the man, Ben said, ‘To which he replied?’

‘He protested that, as he and my brother had always been rivals, Harleton was unlikely to give him the best report. Then added a great deal of claptrap about how he’d outgrown his misspent youth and now was ready to settle down—with the right lady, of course. That bit of rubbish accompanied by ardent looks and much flattery.’ She twisted her lip in disgust. ‘A great rake, suddenly reforming his womanising ways? Are there truly any females who would believe such nonsense?’

‘That the love of one special lady might convince a man to change his character? It is a romantic notion, you must allow. It would depend, I think, on how persuasive the gentleman was.’

‘And how naïve and sheltered—or desperate, the female?’ she said, her bitter tone making him wonder about her own experiences. Had some rake led her on, then betrayed her, when she was young and naïve?

‘So you do believe now that they are trying to entice you.’

A flush heated her face. ‘Humiliating as it is to acknowledge, I’m forced to admit it must be true.’

Angered again on her behalf, he said, ‘Fortunately, they have no idea they are dealing with a lady far different than the slighting description they received. Now that you know what they are about, you can simply ignore them.’

Her expression hardened, something—indignation?—sparking in her eyes. ‘Yes, they are dealing with a female far different than what they expected—not that my performance last night gave any indication of it. But I don’t intend to ignore them; I intend to continue giving Denbry all the encouragement he needs to believe his scheme will succeed.’

‘You’re going to encourage him?’ Ben asked, frowning. ‘Why in the world would you do that?’

‘What if I had been the sort of anxious, desperate-to-marry female they envisioned? Why should Lord Denbry be able to target the virtue of some innocent maid, callously ruin her life—and walk away, completely untouched? Knowing what he intended, I can’t just...let him go and do nothing!’

Beguiling as it was to fantasise about a warrior princess, it was disturbing in the extreme to consider she might actually act like one. Alarmed, Ben said, ‘I strongly advise you to do just that! Were he to discover that you’d been playing him for a fool, he’d be furious. You know what sort of man he is! Regrettable it might be, and certainly unfair, but gentlemen hold most of the cards in this game; there are any number of retaliatory actions he could take to besmirch your character. All he need do upon his return to London is put it about—very discreetly, of course—that you’d allowed him to take liberties with your person as you walked alone in the garden and your reputation would be in shreds. It wouldn’t be as dramatic as the ruination he planned—but it would limit your ability to secure a suitable marriage almost as effectively.’

‘Perhaps—but don’t I invite that sort of retaliation, regardless of what I do next?’ she argued back. ‘If I were suddenly to shun him, he would be forced to admit he’d miscalculated my character—or his own attractiveness to females. Either result would show him up in front of his friends, who have all witnessed the marked attention he paid me. Wouldn’t that outcome be just as likely to spur him to some retaliation?’

Swallowing the oath that observation prompted, Ben paused, irritated that he’d hadn’t foreseen that possibility himself. She truly was needle-witted! Much as he’d like to dismiss her concern, the damnable fact was, she was right.

Before he could devise a safer way to counter that threat, she said, ‘Since there’s a good chance he’s going to make a run at ruining me in any event, instead of retreating in submissive, helpless fashion, why shouldn’t I at least take advantage of the opportunity to administer a lesson of my own?’

‘Administer a lesson?’ Ben echoed, truly aghast now. ‘Dam—Heaven forfend! What crack-brained notion have you taken into your head?’

‘Well, I would very much like to shoot him—if I were a man and he had impugned my honour, I’d be able call him out, wouldn’t I? I am an excellent shot, by the way. But since, regrettably, he’d only laugh at a challenge issued by a female, I shall have to take a different path. I intend to seem to go along with his plan, letting him “entice” me to the point of an elopement. I shall insist I dare not leave Dornton Manor with him, but will slip away after dark and meet him instead at some inn. I’ll beg him to hire the horses and a coach for a dash to the border—or wherever it is he plans to carry me off—and wait for me there. Only instead of a silly, eager female running into his arms, he’ll receive a message, reproving him for his dishonourable intentions and expressing the hope that he will not, in future, try to lead some other unfortunate young woman to her ruin.’

‘Don’t do it,’ Ben said flatly.

‘Why not? How does it put me in any more danger than I stand in now? I’ve already walked in the garden with him, alone, so he’d easily be able to return to London and impugn my reputation in the manner you described. No matter how angry he might be, he wouldn’t go as far as to try to make off with me by force—there’s that law against kidnapping you mentioned. Nor would he try to physically assault me—there are statutes against that, too. He may be venal, but I do not think he is stupid.’

Though Ben wasn’t as confident as she seemed about that, to his relief, a better solution came to mind. ‘No, confide in your mother instead. Have her invent some sudden illness and carry you back home. There’d be no insult, no blame. If he were to believe his design had been succeeding and someone who suspected the truth spoiled the plan, he would hold your mother at fault. There’s nothing he could do to injure her.’

‘Maybe. But there’s still the possibility someone could titter behind his back that my mama thought him so deficient in character, she felt compelled to remove her innocent daughter from his presence. He’d still be free to make allegations about my virtue—and get away with it.’

Looking furious, she stamped her foot. ‘When I think of that smug, conceited face, I’d like to plant him a facer! It’s not as if I want to pay him back in a manner as damaging as what he intended for me. But how can I slink away and do...nothing?’

She gazed up at him, her outrage so justifiable, he couldn’t help but sympathise. Even so, it would still be most ill advised for her to try to retaliate. Warrior princess or not, she was still a female living in a society entirely unforgiving of any woman whose behaviour violated its rules. Somehow, he needed to convince her of that.

‘He’s despicable, I agree. But in the case of something as precious as your reputation, discretion would be the better part of valour.’

‘Would you just meekly walk away and do nothing? If he’d tried to impugn your honour and ruin your good name?’

She had him there. ‘It’s not the same,’ he protested. ‘I’m a man and there’s only so much he could—’

‘Why is it, just because I’m female, I’m supposed to let this...this reprobate threaten me and look the other way?’

‘You know why!’ he shot back in exasperation. ‘Don’t engage him in a battle it would be far too easy for him to win and you to lose! Once destroyed, your reputation is gone for ever.’

‘You’ll say I’m naïve, or I haven’t considered the matter rationally, but I assure you, I don’t care if my reputation is ruined. It might even be helpful. I can afford to engage in a battle most females, whose futures do depend upon possessing a spotless character, could not.’

He stared at her, perplexed. Had she really been so traumatised by some previous heartbreak that she was reckless enough to throw away her future? ‘No woman—or man, for that matter—can do without a reputation. What do you possibly hope to achieve without it? Surely, in spite of whatever—unhappy experience you may have had earlier, you can’t be that opposed to eventually marrying.’

‘No, I’m not—or I wasn’t—opposed to marriage.’ She looked up, sighing, and for an instant he caught a glimpse in her eyes of an anguish so great, he felt the shock of its reverberation like a blow to his chest.

Then, the fire seeming to leave her, she said quietly, ‘I suppose I shall have to explain, lest you lapse into superior masculine manner and think me mentally deficient, like all of my sex. Very well.’

With a distracted air, she paced deeper into the woods, motioning him to follow. ‘I’ve always had a passion for sketching,’ she said as they walked, ‘and during my second Season, one swain who became aware of that obsession brought me to see one of the folios of Mr Audubon’s Birds of America, for which his cousin, the Duke of Northumberland, was a subscriber. How transported I was by the marvellous detail, the wonderful colours! I began a conversation about them with the Duke’s secretary, William McCalister, which led to my meeting Will again later and showing him some of my own watercolours. He thought them excellent and that, with the great success of Mr Aubudon’s engravings, some publisher might be interested in bringing out a similar work for British birds, as Mr Bewick’s otherwise very comprehensive guide is illustrated only by black-and-white woodcuts. With my permission, he approached a publisher, who was not only interested, he wrote out a contract on the spot, giving the artist—he had no idea it was a female, of course—until the end of this winter to finish the drawings.’

By this time, they’d reached the clearing. Absently, she took a seat on the log, Ben sitting beside her. ‘Harleton learned of my meetings with Will and reported them to my father, who forbade me to see him again; the son of a younger son of minor gentry wasn’t a fitting companion for an earl’s daughter. Yet, how could I help loving Will? The only person I’d ever met who not only showed an interest in my drawing, but understood how much it means to me and encouraged me to use my talents for something more useful than decorating china plates. When I continued to sneak out to see him, fearing I might make a misalliance that would embarrass the family, my father arranged to have him offered a position with a colonial official in Barbados. A clever man, my father—seeing this as a way to earn the wealth and advancement that would make him “worthy” of me, Will accepted the position. My father locked me in my room until Will’s ship sailed for the Indies, to make sure I could not elope with him. Six months after his arrival, Will contracted some tropic disease, and died.’

Ben had never been in love, fully and completely. But he knew how much his mother had dared in order to be with the man she’d loved and he knew how much the support and friendship of the Hellions had meant to him at Oxford, an outcast with aspirations no one else understood. To have all that wrapped up in one person and lose it... ‘I’m so sorry,’ he murmured.

‘No man of good birth would allow his wife to work as an artist, for payment. Nor could I tolerate being a useless society wife. I have money enough that I don’t need to marry to be able to set up an establishment of my own. Except that,’ she added with another sigh, ‘despite being of age, I cannot access the funds from my great-aunt’s trust without my father’s approval. Which he is unlikely to give, an earl’s daughter living on her own being almost as scandalous as her running away to marry a nobody. But if I were ruined, with no hope of marriage, an embarrassment for him to have under his roof, he might wash his hands of me and let me live the life I want. The sooner, the better, since if I do not submit the portfolio by the end of the year, I will likely lose the opportunity to publish altogether. If confronting Denbry risks ruination, I’m ready. And if I’m right and implementing my plan only delivers a smack to the nose of his disreputable intentions, at least I’ll have been able to strike a small blow for a woman’s right to respect. One most females couldn’t risk delivering.’

Ben stared at her, his mind in turmoil. She was of age and entitled to decide on her own actions. He was barely more than a stranger, with no connection of blood or friendship that gave him the right to dictate her behaviour. But every instinct argued against allowing her to launch a plan that, to his mind, had so many chances of ending badly.

‘I don’t have any standing to keep you from attempting this. I even concede that ruination might—might—prove useful, if the scenario played out as you envision it. But my time in the army taught me that if you’re heading into an ambush, you should always plan several alterative counter-strikes to every conceivable attack your enemy might deliver. Never walk into a fight with only one defence in mind.’

‘What other outcome could there be, besides a chastened—or at least stymied—gentleman, or the ruin of my reputation?’

‘I don’t know. But I don’t like being boxed into a corner.’

‘Mr Tawny, I appreciate your taking the time and trouble to warn me about Lord Denbry’s scheme. You could have had no idea, before meeting me, how unlikely I was to be taken in by it and can justly commend yourself for preventing what could have been some poor female’s ruination. But having delivered that warning, you really bear no further responsibility for what happens next.’

He studied her for a moment. ‘You’re going to do this anyway, regardless of my advice.’

‘I really think I must. I’d feel such a...coward, backing down now.’

‘Prudence is not the same as cowardice. Do you really think showing up Denbry will teach him a lesson?’

‘Probably not,’ she conceded. ‘But I will feel better, having made the attempt. As I’m sure you do, having put forth the effort to stop his scheme.’

‘I’ve not really stopped it, if you allow it to continue.’

‘Surely whether or not it continues is now my decision. Or do you, like my father and brother, feel that because I’m a female, I am not fit to choose my own future?’

‘If you were a friend and a man, I would still advise you to avoid a confrontation. Please, Lady Alyssa! I can understand why, after your father stole from you the life and the love you wanted, you would resist a man’s guidance. But don’t let your anger over that previous injury propel you into a situation that could end up much worse.’

He watched her, hoping his appeal would persuade. He had to find some way to put a stop to this before her plan progressed any further. Even if it meant doing what he’d hoped to avoid—confronting Denbry himself.

‘Will you promise me not to intervene?’ she asked. ‘That’s what you’re considering now, isn’t it? Riding up to Dornton Manor, seeking out Lord Denbry and telling him you’ve warned me of his intentions, so he might as well take himself off?’

Sometimes she was too needle-witted. ‘Would that be so bad? He’d be furious, of course, but hardly surprised; I told him the night he proposed the wager that I found the scheme disgraceful. He’d get over his anger—and if he didn’t, there’s not much he could do to injure me. Having me intervene would preserve all your alternatives. You could still argue your father into releasing your great-aunt’s funds. But, if you were not living in exiled disgrace, you would safeguard your opportunities to meet, and marry, a respectable gentleman. Like your Will.’

‘That’s a generous offer. But you can’t be eager to insert yourself into this tawdry affair, else you would have confronted Denbry at once, rather than warning me.’

‘I hadn’t intended to confront him,’ Ben admitted. ‘But I’m certainly prepared to do so, if that will prevent him causing you harm.’

‘But this is personal now—don’t you see? Not just a threat to some poor nameless female, he has threatened me. I want to see it through myself—not hand it over to a male champion. Will you give me your promise not to interfere?’

Ben hesitated, trying to think of a pledge that he could, in good conscience, manage to keep. ‘How about this?’ he said, improvising as he went along. ‘I promise not to come to Dornton Manor and confront Denbry, if you promise to meet me here each morning and report your progress. In the interim, I’ll remain in the village, where I can keep an eye on the posting inns, in case...further assistance should be needed.’

While she paused, considering his suggestion, he ran the plan through his head again. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was the best guarantee of safety he could come up with on the spur of the moment. Denbry would have to hire a carriage; he wouldn’t risk trying to abduct an unwilling female on horseback, her struggles clearly visible for any passer-by to notice. If Lady Alyssa insisted in holding her ground, there was nothing he could do to minimise the risk that the Earl might later try to spread rumours about her, but he could at least make sure the man couldn’t make off with her.

‘Do you really feel so strongly that, despite having delivered your warning, you cannot just return to London?’

‘Not now—when it’s the warning I gave which has prompted you to take further action. Not until Denbry, Rossiter and Quinlen leave and the danger of any confrontation is over. It’s hard enough to accept that I can’t do anything more to prevent them whispering about you later.’

She sighed. ‘You really do have the deepest sense of responsibility I’ve ever encountered in a man.’

‘From what you’ve told me of the men of your family, that wouldn’t be difficult.’

‘Very well. Though I hate to further delay your return to London, I agree to meet you here each morning—as long as you promise not to come to Dornton Manor. I don’t believe it will take much longer for Denbry to suggest an elopement. First, because spending time in my company must be wearisome for him, and second, because he can’t be sure my brother won’t unexpectedly show up and he knows Harleton would never believe he harbours “honourable intentions” towards me. Speaking of being found out, how have you managed to lurk about Dornton Village? Hasn’t the merchant who engaged you begun to wonder why a poor, unemployed former soldier remains in town, freely spending his blunt at an inn?’

‘I told him there was a possibility of getting some work at Dornton later—which is true!’ he added, holding up a hand to forestall her protest. ‘I didn’t specify when such employment might become available. Sooner or later, a large country house like Dornton will find itself in need of another gardener or groom or footman. And I’ve funded my food and lodging by engaging the locals in a few rounds of cards every evening. One couldn’t leave the army in India without becoming an expert at every known game of chance.’

She shook her head at him. ‘You are the most complete hand! I only hope you didn’t fleece the poor villagers out of too much blunt.’

‘Just enough to pay my shot,’ Ben assured her with a grin.

She glanced up, studying the slant of sunlight through the trees. ‘It’s getting late. I must go.’

They both stood and he bowed to her. ‘I cannot wish you good luck with your plan, Lady Alyssa, but I do wish it swiftly completed.’

‘Fair enough.’ She offered her hand and, bemused at that conspiratorial touch, he shook it. A startlingly intense sensual connection rocketed from her fingers to his, firing the smoking attraction between them back to flame.

For a moment, they stood that hand-clasp apart, gazes riveting, the desire he recognised in her eyes making it even more difficult for Ben to fight off the urgent need to kiss her.

Before he lost the battle, she dropped her gaze and pulled her hand free. ‘No one has ever volunteered to be my champion,’ she said, her voice gruff. ‘I’m very touched by your offer—even though I can’t accept it. Until tomorrow, Mr Tawny.’

‘Until tomorrow, Lady Alyssa.’

Absently rubbing his fingers, where her touch still seemed to tingle on his skin, he watched her walk away, battling the urge to follow and intervene, despite her express wish. He hated having his hands tied, even though he’d devised a plan that stood a reasonable chance of protecting her.

Concentrating on how best to guarantee her safety might help him fight off the desire that simple handshake had just fired in him. He should also remind himself that a gently bred virgin was off limits, no matter that it seemed she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

Although he disagreed with almost every other particular, he thought she was correct in assuming Denbry would push to complete his plan in the shortest possible time. He certainly hoped so.

Then he could get himself back to his work in London and bury any lingering regret at bidding farewell to the dangerously alluring Lady Alyssa Lambornne.

Chapter Four

Three days later, Alyssa walked in the early morning sunlight towards the clearing where, as promised, she’d been meeting Mr Tawny. She’d begun looking forward to those encounters far more than she should—the novelty of conversing with an intelligent man who listened to her opinions and observations as she reported on the progress of Denbry’s wooing; the delight of making him laugh as she described the timid, yet increasingly adoring behaviour that must be exasperating the Earl almost beyond bearing.

And then there was that sensual awareness in his eyes as he watched her; the zing of attraction that made her pulses leap when she saw him and kept her awake at night, wondering what it would be like to kiss him. Be possessed by him.

In turning her back on marriage, she was likely shutting away passion as well—before she’d ever had a chance to fully taste its pleasures. Pleasures that what he’d admitted about himself, and what she sensed every time she was near him, said he’d be able to deliver in full measure.

Sadly, their meetings would end before she had a chance to decide if it was worth the risk of pursuing that attraction. Yesterday, Lord Denbry had finally revealed his plan for the elopement he’d several times hinted at and last night was to have been the rendezvous.

With a smile, she wondered how he had reacted when, instead of her ardent self, he received at the inn the note she’d had delivered.

She doubted he’d return today to confront her—what could he possibly say, in front of her mother and the assembled guests? And she’d certainly not agree to any more cosy walks alone in the garden! Most likely, after cursing her soundly, he’d availed himself of the horses and carriage and set off—wherever it was dissolute young men like him set off to assuage their frustrations.

Intent on watching the drive for signs of Mr Tawny, she didn’t hear the footsteps behind her until a branch snapped close by. Alarmed, she whirled around—but it was only Mr Rossiter, who’d ceased approaching her, once his charismatic friend had begun monopolising her time—though his hopeful gaze still followed her.

Relieved that she wasn’t facing a potentially nasty interview with a furious Lord Denbry, she said, ‘Mr Rossiter! What brings you out so early?’

‘You do,’ he replied, giving her a shy smile. If she hadn’t known he’d been involved in the wager, she might almost have been charmed by it. ‘Your maid, Molly, told me you liked to come out early to sketch.’

‘I don’t wish to be uncivil, but she should also have told you I prefer to sketch alone.’

‘Oh, sorry—I didn’t intend to bother you. I—I guess Denbry did enough of that. Quite a joke you played on him.’