Lovers and Ladies

by Jo Beverley

  Deirdre did not reply.

  At her silence, he glanced over. “There must be something about your devoted admirer that is of interest.”

  Deirdre looked down at her yellow mittens. “I’m not sure I wish to speak of him to you, my lord.”

  “Why not? I’m hardly a rival for your hand. I’ve bowed out, remember?”

  Still, Deirdre felt reluctant. No one had encouraged her to talk about Howard. Her mother always became scathing, and Eunice—her sister who lived close by—could not conceal that she failed to appreciate his charms. Even her dearest friend, Anna Treese, had not been able to enter into her feelings.

  Lord Everdon would be the least sympathetic of all.

  “He is a scholar,” she said reluctantly. “A mathematician. He is working on some new calculation which will have great importance.”

  “Refining the dimensions of the earth by another inch or so, I suppose.”

  Deirdre raised her chin. “I knew you would sneer. We will talk of something else, if you please.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said with apparent sincerity. “I know little of mathematics. Perhaps during my stay at Missinger I will meet your suitor and have the opportunity to learn.”

  “That seems unlikely, my lord. My parents do not invite Howard to the house, and in any case, he is far too busy for idle socializing. Anyway, I fear his work would be beyond you.” Then she realized that was a trifle rude and glanced at him.

  His brows rose but he only said, “Do you understand his work, Lady Deirdre?”

  Deirdre felt the splotches grow in her cheeks. “Not exactly. He does try to explain, but I have little background with figures other than household accounts.”

  “What do you speak of, then?”

  Deirdre felt as if she were being interrogated, but she wanted to convince at least one person of how perfect her life with Howard would be. “We plan our life together. He inherited a charming cottage in the village. We will live there, at least at first. It will need a few changes…” She racked her brain for more. “I remind him of things, for he is inclined to forget…”

  Deirdre sighed. It was impossible to describe her time with Howard and convey the truth of it. How could she convince someone like Lord Everdon of her contentment with just sitting and sewing while Howard worked on his calculations? Of how happy she was to walk with him as he spoke of his latest problem, even if she didn’t understand it…

  She stopped trying, and he did not press her. Deirdre relaxed a little and set to enjoying the scenery.

  This part of the park was scarcely damaged, and with its spreading trees and deer pound in the distance, could well be the country, so uncivilized did it appear. The leaves were heavy with summer green and formed a barrier to the bustling city. At this time of day, it was largely deserted.

  Then Lord Everdon spoke again. “It must be quite delightful for Howard to have someone like you to take care of him, Lady Deirdre. How does he care for you?”

  “Of course he cares for me!”

  “That is not what I asked.”

  Deirdre turned to face him. “You have no right to ask me anything.”

  He stopped the horses, holding them in check with one negligent hand. “Do I not? You wear my ring, Lady Deirdre.” He glanced at her gloved hand, which clearly held no rings. “Somewhere.”

  “It is in my jewel box at home, my lord. Without an announcement, I cannot wear it even if I would.”

  “Figuratively speaking, you wear my ring,” he said firmly. “That gives me some responsibilities.”

  “It gives you nothing. This engagement is a farce, my lord, and I insist you treat me entirely as a stranger.”

  “Oh, I think not.” He trapped her head with a hand curled around her neck and seared her with a slanting kiss.

  It was over before Deirdre had time to react, other than to grow very hot. She scrubbed at her mouth. “How dare you, sir!”

  “Don’t be foolish. I dare a great deal more than that, but I’m unlikely to go much further without encouragement.”

  “Which you will never receive,” she said hotly. “I give you fair warning, Lord Everdon. Do that again and I’ll slap your face!”

  A light flickered in his eyes. “You should never warn the enemy. Now I have only to capture your hands before assaulting you.”

  Deirdre’s eyes didn’t waver from his. “Then I will wait until I am free. I mean what I say, my lord. Kiss me again and I will hit you with all the power in my arm at the first occasion, even if it takes decades!”

  He burst out laughing. “I am entranced! Imagine us, two decrepit specimens lingering at Bath, when you see your opportunity at last. You totter over to my side and tip me out of my Bath chair with a strong right.”

  Despite her fury, a laugh escaped Deirdre. “I would not have to wait that long, I assure you.”

  “Of course not.” He started the horses again. “I promise when next I kiss you, I’ll wait for the retaliation.”

  A shiver passed down Deirdre’s spine. “You won’t kiss me again.”

  “Won’t I?”

  “If you don’t give me your word not to kiss me again, I will never be alone with you.”

  “Won’t that be a little hard to manage with your mother insisting on us behaving as a properly engaged couple?”

  “And you would take advantage of that fact?” Deirdre protested.

  “I’m sure I will find it irresistible.”

  Deirdre’s hands fisted with anger. “You, sir, are an un-mitigated cad!”

  Infuriatingly, he smiled at her. “Oh, there, must be a mitigating factor somewhere…”

  She swung at him. He swayed aside and she missed. “You’ll have to practice your technique, Deirdre.”

  They were coming up to a group of riders. Deirdre suppressed the urge to do just that. She put her clenched fists firmly in her lap and looked ahead, struggling to understand how this man could have driven her to attempt violence. She could still feel the power of the desire to do him injury vibrating through her, and she knew he had done it deliberately. He had goaded her for his amusement.

  How the devil was she going to survive the next few weeks and remain sane?

  3

  DEIRDRE REPEATED THAT PLEA TO HER FRIEND, Anna Treese, as soon as she was back home in Somerset. Anna’s family owned the adjacent estate, Starling Hall, which lay but a two-mile walk from Missinger. Deirdre had rushed over there the morning after her return.

  “How will you survive?” repeated Anna, a pretty, dimpled brunette. “What is so terrible about flirting with a Don Juan? Especially as you will get your Howard in the end.”

  Deirdre caught the sour note in the last sentence. Anna had never made any bones about the fact that she considered Howard a poor candidate for a husband.

  “You might not mind it,” Deirdre pointed out, cradling her teacup. “You’ve vast experience with flirting, and you’ve always enjoyed it. I haven’t. Compare it to riding, which you do little of. How would you like to be forced to ride a fiery stallion?”

  Anna giggled, then hastily steadied her cup. “What a comparison to make!”

  Deirdre blushed hot red. “Anna, really!”

  “Well, I can’t help but have a saucy mind. It’s my brothers. They will talk in front of me. And the books they leave lying around…”

  “You don’t have to read them,” Deirdre pointed out severely.

  “But they’re so informative. Have another scone, dear.” She took one for herself. “As for your comparison, I am not anticipating a life in the saddle. If I were, I suspect I would learn to like riding the best.”

  “Well, I am not…” Deirdre trailed off.

  “Anticipating life with a man? Of course you are.”

  “Howard is the best,” Deirdre said firmly.

  “Really? In what way?”

  Why, thought Deirdre, do I always have to justify Howard? “He has a fine mind.”

  “That won’t keep you warm on a cold night.”<
br />
  Deirdre blushed. “He needs me.”

  Anna shook her head. “Old Tom needs you more. Why not marry him?”

  As Old Tom was a lackwit much given to the bottle, this was true and completely irrelevant. “Old Tom is not handsome, whereas Howard is. I’m sure that argument carries weight with you.”

  “More handsome than Lord Everdon?” Anna asked as she topped up their cups.

  “In my eyes,” said Deirdre firmly. Thank heavens Howard was good-looking since that was all anyone seemed to care about.

  “Your Howard is well enough,” said Anna, adding surprisingly, “though looks are not so important in my mind. I’ll grant that Mr. Dunstable has height, and a noble profile, and that his wavy blond hair is very becoming. There’s something missing, though, for me at least. I’d rather spend time with Arthur Kealey. He still has spots, poor lad, but he’s fun and has a kind heart.”

  “Has Arthur won your heart, then?” teased Deirdre, deliberately changing the subject. “You always rub along so well.”

  “Oh no,” said Anna practically. “It may just be that he’s too young as yet, or that he’s not the one. I’m in no hurry. We’re all just eighteen,” she said, adding pointedly, “None of us need rush into matrimony yet.”

  “But,” said Deirdre triumphantly, “Howard clearly is the one for me, for I want to rush into matrimony. And it would all be settled now,” she added darkly, “if not for Lord Everdon.”

  “But he’s promised to sort it out.”

  Deirdre put down her empty cup with slightly unsteady hands. “That means he will be coming here, though.”

  Anna licked crumbs from her fingers and grinned. “Don Juan in Missinger. I can hardly wait.”

  Deirdre would have willingly waited an eternity for her next encounter with Don Juan, but she knew that could not be. As it was, she spent a great deal of time planning how to limit their encounters to safe locales.

  Don Juan, however, caught her in the open, far from cover. So much for careful planning.

  Deirdre was strolling down the drive, returning from a flower-gathering expedition, when she heard coach wheels on the gravel. She turned to see a handsome traveling chariot bowling toward her. If she possessed a deeply suspicious nature, she would think Lord Everdon had hovered by the gates all day waiting for just such an opportunity.

  The carriage stopped. He opened the door. “May I take you up to the house, Lady Deirdre?”

  “Thank you, my lord, but no. I am enjoying the walk.”

  He leapt down, an image of country perfection in buckskins and top boots, and a great deal more handsome than she remembered. “A stroll after hours in a carriage sounds delightful.” He commanded the carriage to go on, then came to her side, a twinkle in his deep brown eyes. “You really should try to look pleased to see me, you know.”

  Deirdre glared at him. She hadn’t seen him since that drive, for she and her family had left London for Missinger the next day, carrying the dowager with them. He had set off for Northamptonshire to inform Sir Bertram and Lady Brandon of their daughter’s demise.

  The news of his wife’s death had appeared in the papers a few days later.

  “I am not pleased to see you,” she said flatly, wanting to make the situation absolutely clear.

  She set off purposefully toward the house, a good mile away. As she went, she considered tactics. If the under-handed wretch tried to kiss her here, she’d either have to put up with it, or drop her armful of flowers to retaliate. She’d be able to retaliate, she was sure. She had sought advice from Margery Noons, one of the dairymaids. She’d once seen Margery lay out one of the stable lads with a mighty blow.

  “You got to swing into it good, milady,” the girl advised. “Think like you want to knock their block right off their shoulders.”

  Deirdre was quite prepared to do just that, but she’d rather it be sometime when she didn’t have a mass of carefully selected blossoms in her hands.

  “An interesting collection of blooms there,” Everdon said amiably. “Let me guess. You have decided to embroider plants after all, and intend a novel assembly of wildflowers.”

  How did he know that? “I never said I refused to use plant designs.”

  “Wildflowers after the style of Mr. Turner,” he mused. “I look forward to seeing the end result.”

  Deirdre pounced on that. “You will be gone by then, my lord.”

  “Alas, it is quite likely. Will you send it to me as a parting gift?”

  She glanced at him, startled. “Why should I?”

  His smile had a lazy kind of power. “I am going to have to exert myself to free you, Lady Deirdre. Do I not deserve a reward?”

  “That depends,” she said pointedly, “on how you behave in the meantime.”

  “Ah,” he said with twitching lips. “You mean the kisses.”

  Alarm shot through her. “I warned you, sir…”

  He raised his brows. “I thought you would have noted my restraint, Lady Deirdre. I am quite aware that you are under a handicap at the moment, and thus have not attacked. I need no such advantages.”

  Deirdre could think of no suitable response, and speeded up her pace.

  Having much longer legs, he kept up with her without difficulty. “This is a charming property,” he said, “and the land about seems to be in excellent heart. I understand your father is very well informed on agricultural matters…” He kept up an effortless monologue on agriculture all the way to the house.

  Deirdre was relieved not to have to bandy words with him. It was only when they arrived at the house that she realized he had been talking sense. He seemed to know his crops and cattle, and could not be entirely a social butterfly.

  His monologue had also allowed her to recover her equilibrium and good manners. She turned to face him. “Here we are, my lord. Welcome to Missinger. I see my parents waiting to greet you. I am a little untidy, however, and need to put these blooms into water, so I will leave you here and use a side entrance.”

  He made no attempt to stay her, but bowed. “Until later, Deirdre.”

  Deirdre made herself walk away calmly.

  A few minutes later, while she arranged the flowers, she talked herself into sense. “I knew he was coming,” she muttered as she snipped stems. “I knew he’d be up to mischief.” She worked the pump to fill three vases with water. “Heaven knows why he teases me so. I suppose he just can’t help himself.” She pushed the poor flowers into their vases rather roughly. “Despite what he says, I needn’t be alone with him much.”

  She washed her hands, glaring at the fragile blossoms. “And if he tries to kiss me,” she told them, “I will try to knock his block off.”

  What worried Deirdre, however, was not so much the fact that he would try to kiss her again—it had become a kind of challenge, she saw that—but the alarming response she felt to the prospect. She wouldn’t say the challenge was pleasant, but it was unignorable.

  When she’d explained her strange situation to Howard—and he hadn’t seemed to mind—she had tried to get him to kiss her, to substitute one experience for the other. He had not complied. In fact, he’d been rather shocked, and accused her of coming back from London with some very peculiar notions.

  He was right, she told herself firmly. Libertines like Everdon might kiss women without a care in the world. Good, decent people waited at least until they were properly betrothed, and probably until they were married.

  She rang for a footman, and ordered the flowers taken to her workroom, then went up to her bedroom to change.

  The question was, what to wear?

  She still had all her London gowns, but having been free of them for a week, she really couldn’t face the prospect of wearing them again. Anyway, her two brothers would tease her unmercifully if she did. Consequently she let Agatha choose, and ended up in a very ordinary, but becoming, cream muslin sprigged with rosebuds. Then the maid looped her hair back with a ribbon.

  When she joined her family in t
he drawing room, Deirdre knew she looked as well as possible, and better than Everdon had ever seen her.

  She found him instantly, safely talking to her mother and the dowager. Her father was part of the same group in body, but could not be said to be so in spirit, as he was absorbed in Poulter’s Treatise on Agricultural Management. Deirdre’s two brothers were some way from their elders, joking together and lounging their lanky bodies in a very sloppy way. She joined them.

  Her older brother, Viscount Ripon—generally called Rip—greeted her with, “Ain’t you going to sit by your beau, Dee? Most women can’t keep their hands off him.” Rip was a handsome, dashing blond, and just now his grin came perilously close to a leer.

  She smiled tightly. “I’m sure he’s a reformed character now, Rip.”

  “Don’t know as they ever reform,” said her younger brother, Henry. At just seventeen, nearly two years younger than Deirdre, various bits of him had still to catch up to the rest. He showed every sign of following the Stowe tradition, however, and being a danger to the opposite sex. Deirdre knew herself to be the sparrow in a family of showy birds.

  Henry was always trying to emulate his older brother, so he essayed a leer, too. “Everdon’s strong meat for a little squab like you, Dee, but I’m sure he’ll know how to please any lady. Do you think he’d give me a few pointers?”

  Deirdre forced a smile. “I suspect he’d give you a facer if you asked.”

  She felt her tormentor coming before she really saw him, and experienced no surprise when he sat beside her on the sofa. “What a pleasant house Missinger is,” he said smoothly to the three of them. If he’d overheard the conversation, he wasn’t going to make an issue of it. “Just large enough to be commodious, but small enough to be comfortable. A real home.”

  That led them safely into a discussion of the house. Deirdre noted how Everdon continued to steer the conversation—to the local landscape, and then into the sporting opportunities in the area. His sophistication and elegant manners made Rip seem almost as callow as Henry. Soon both her brothers were behaving like wide-eyed acolytes and eagerly offering to take him on any number of sporting outings.