by Jade Lee
He looked up as she neared, and his expression warmed with delight. Maybe that was the reason. She could recall no other gentleman who seemed genuinely happy to see her. Not even her father, though he could be delightful for short periods of time. Or maybe it was the way Lord Redhill simply looked at her, his eyes steady and clear. What did he see when he stared at her like that? She saw a man who did not drink to excess, who had a clear understanding of himself and the world, and who—apparently for this moment—wanted to spend his time with her.
She was powerless to refuse him. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t tweak him a bit.
“Looking for something in tulle, perhaps?” she asked gesturing to the book. “I don’t recommend flounces on someone as tall as you. But perhaps a dash of lace somewhere around the bodice, perhaps?”
His eyes lightened in merriment. The edges crinkled a little, and she would swear they shifted to a honey brown. “I’m afraid I’m not much interested in lace. Itches too much, you know. My valet is forever starching my collars until they are hard enough to cut wood. Or my chin. I shudder to think what would happen to my tender skin should he get hold of lace.”
Helaine laughed. “Well, then I would definitely steer away from that. Perhaps a lovely ribbon or two.”
“For my hair, you think? A big bow, perhaps, to bring out my eyes.”
“Definitely.”
They were joking, of course, and about a silly thing. Lord Redhill generally dressed in simple lines, clean masculine attire that was serviceable, casually fashionable, and wholly himself. The idea of him as a dandy just made her smile. That they could joke about something like this was completely unheard-of in her experience. Certainly she teased her female friends, but never a man, and never with someone as unsettling as him.
“Would you care for some tea, my lord? I have recently acquired a rather unusual oriental blend. Imagine, but it just appeared in my cabinet the other day.”
“How odd,” he said. “Shall we repair to the kitchen to try it out?”
Helaine felt her skin heat at his words. The intimacy of the idea, not to mention what they had done the last time they went to the kitchen, made her fingers tighten and her thoughts scatter. When had she become this silly girl, distracted by the slightest memory of him, unable to form a coherent statement?
“Helaine?”
“Um, I believe my mother is heating tea for Penny upstairs. We have a small cookstove up there as well. She will make extra for us, I am sure.”
“And the special tea blend?”
“I believe that is Wendy’s, as she is the one who opened the door to the messenger who brought it. Mama will make something from upstairs. Unless you wish me to go tell her specifically—”
“No, no!” he cried. “Pray don’t leave. I have a need to talk with you.” Then he gestured to the chair opposite the settee. “Please, won’t you sit?”
He was inviting her to sit in her own salon, but somehow the gesture felt right. Or as right as anything this afternoon had been. Truthfully, Lord Redhill possessed the quiet confidence that would allow him to command in whatever location. But oddly enough, he wasn’t commanding her to sit, merely asking. And looking a little flushed himself as he did it.
She settled into the chair, using the motion to cover her nervousness. And when that did not ease the quivering in her belly, she glanced back at him. “This is most odd, you know. I cannot imagine what you would like to discuss with me.”
“Actually, Helaine, I came seeking your advice.”
She frowned. “My advice? I don’t understand.”
“Pray let me explain. My father purchased a coal mine that is having some problems. Not the mine itself, though that is difficult enough. I had to shut it down for some much-needed repairs. You cannot imagine the danger those people endure every day. I went down there once and was caught in a collapse. It was horrible.”
“You were caught in a collapse?”
“I was on the good side of it, if there is such a thing. Not hurt at all, though I have suffered a nightmare or two.”
“I can imagine,” she said with a shudder of her own.
“I really ought to tell you how I made a heroic rescue of the miners and the like, risking my neck in feats of derring-do, but truthfully, it happened so fast. I simply reacted, and then when the dust settled, we grabbed on to each other and ran for our lives. It wasn’t until everything was over that I started shaking. And then, let me tell you, I was terrified.”
“We? So there were others with you?”
“The former manager, whom I promptly fired. The new manager, who had helped me escape. But none of that happened until afterward.”
She scanned his face. He wasn’t even pale, and he certainly wasn’t crowing about what he’d done. He was simply relaying what had happened as if it were incidental to what he wanted to talk about. And yet, she kept thinking of it. This man could have been killed in a mine collapse. Possibly a few feet difference and he would have died.
“That is horrifying,” she whispered. She felt chilled to the bone.
“The conditions in that mine were horrifying,” he returned. “Which is why my problem right now is so very baffling.”
She was about to ask what he meant, when they were interrupted. As she expected, her mother had made tea. She was coming downstairs with the tea tray, her eyes sparkling with interest. Helaine leaped up to help her. The woman had never been one for lifting anything, much less a full tea tray while coming down stairs. And while Helaine was taking command of the tray, her mother beamed at Lord Redhill. Helaine had only a moment to look at her mother and realize that she was in trouble. The lady was dressed in her best gown, her hair obviously brushed and rapidly pinned up in a style from ten or more years ago. While Helaine was busy settling the tea things, her mother was extending her hand like the countess she was.
Except she was not a countess anymore. Their identities were hidden, their names changed. But one look at her mother and she knew the lady wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret. Not when this was the first lord in years to make anything resembling a social call. Even if it was in the salon of a dressmaker’s shop.
“Good afternoon, Lord Redhill,” her mother began. “I trust my daughter is making you comfortable? So kind of you to send her that oriental tea. I had it made up especially for this afternoon so that you could taste some. An excellent choice, I must say. Quite stimulating.”
Her mother paused for a breath, which gave Helaine time to rush in with the “correct” introductions. “Lord Redhill, please allow me to introduce my mother, Mrs. Appleton.” Appleton was her maiden name, and Helaine hoped that by speaking it so clearly, the woman would remember that she was no longer Lady Chelmorton. Sadly, it had no obvious effect. Her mother simply smiled and sat down in the chair Helaine had just vacated. That, of course, forced Helaine to sit beside his lordship on the settee, which had no doubt been exactly her design.
“It is a lovely day, is it not, my lord?” her mother began as she waved for Helaine to serve the tea. “I vow the summer will be here before we know it. Why, Helaine was remarking on that just the other day.”
Lord Redhill answered exactly as one would expect, moving smoothly into the polite social banter one exchanges with a debutante’s mother. Helaine tried to participate. She even managed to comment once or twice, but the whole time she was on pins and needles praying that her mother didn’t slip up, that Lord Redhill remained blissfully ignorant of how bizarre it was to take tea with a dressmaker’s mother, and yet all the while secretly pleased that her mother could have this one moment of her former glory. One afternoon’s tea wherein she got to be the lady of the manor again. One short twenty minutes of what should have been her life.
And then, thank God, it was done. Her mother gasped in mock horror at the time and pushed to her feet. “I’m terribly sorry, my lord, but I must beg your indulgence. Penny has been upstairs with that rapscallion all this time, and she really needs help with the b
oy. Please, do excuse me.”
Lord Redhill stood and bowed over her hand. “It has been a pleasure, Mrs. Appleton. I hope that I may call more often.”
“Of course, of course! And now you really must excuse me. That boy, you know.” And off she went. She even left the door to the back staircase open just as any good chaperone would do if she were stepping out of a parlor for a moment.
Helaine released a sigh of relief. Her mother had enjoyed her moment of remembered glory and no harm had come of it. Or so she thought, until she turned to look back at Lord Redhill. She should have realized he was too intelligent to be fooled. She should have barred her mother from joining them, because one look at his thoughtful face told her that he was seconds from figuring it out. Not exactly who she was, but that her parentage was much more elevated than any dressmaker’s.
“My lord,” she began, not even knowing what she wanted to say but she had to distract him somehow.
He turned his chocolate eyes her way and all her words disappeared. He knew. She could see it in the way he kept his expression extremely neutral, and yet his eyes seemed to sparkle with a secret understanding. He didn’t say anything and neither did she. She was too busy fighting panic to formulate any thought at all. Finally he spoke, his words confirming her fears.
“Your mother is lovely, but sad. As if she has suffered a great loss.” He tilted his head. “If I might ask, what happened to your father?”
“Gone,” she said, the words choking her. “Many years now.”
“I’m sorry. How did he die?”
Helaine shook her head. “Not dead. Just gone. We don’t even know where. Just…gone.”
His eyes widened as he worked through the implications of that. “But what of his money? His employer or…or other income?”
Like from his lands? Unlike most earldoms, the land had not been entailed, as Helaine’s grandfather had been as irresponsible as her father. The paperwork had never been filed, which meant the land was free to sell. And it had been, shortly before Helaine’s fourteenth birthday. At the time, it had been great fun. They left the moldering old estate for a set of rooms in London. But without any income at all, the money steadily disappeared. A year after her father had disappeared, there was nothing left and creditors were banging on the door.
“We had nothing, my lord, except what I could manage here.”
His eyes roved the small shop, taking in the wallpaper that was beginning to yellow, the cheapness of the furnishing. He was likely remembering that the mirror in the back required resilvering and that she usually kept the very cheap tea for herself.
“You’ve had a difficult time of it, haven’t you?”
She looked at her hands, ashamed of the tears that burned her eyes. Things were going well for them. Lady Gwen’s order alone would see them through much of the winter, or so she hoped. This was not the time or place to become weepy.
She felt his hand caressing her cheek, the slow stroke of his thumb across a tear that had escaped. She pulled away.
“Forgive me,” she said. “I’m afraid it has been a long day.”
He did not pursue her, but neither did he pull away. He simply let his hand drop from her face to land on the settee near hers. Not touching, but the merest shift would bring them into contact.
“No,” he said softly. “Forgive me. I believe I have upset your life more than I realized. You have a business to run, and yet I am here taking up your time with tea and chats with your mother.”
Helaine released a sad snort at that statement. “As you can see, we are overflowing with customers right now. They are lined up around the block.” Obviously it was a lie. Sadly, they had no more appointments for another few days. It had all been a downward spiral the moment the fabric sellers had refused them credit. From then, they’d needed to request prepayment from their customers, which had many of them fleeing to other dressmakers. Helaine’s only hope was for Lady Gwen to look so excellent that she pulled in more customers from her references.
“Then let me pay you for your advice. Please, allow me to take you to dinner somewhere. We can talk as we eat.”
She shook her head. “My lord, that is not appropriate—”
“I can hardly discuss what I want with your mother upstairs and more people in the back likely to walk in at any moment.”
Strangely enough, Wendy was not in the back, which was highly unusual. But it was true that they had been interrupted at every turn.
“Please, I really could use your advice,” he said.
“I can’t imagine that I could be of any assistance. You were speaking about mining.”
He nodded. “Well, yes, this is rather unusual. Which is why I should like our discussion to be discreet.”
She looked at him then, studying his face for clues. Obviously this was yet another attempt at seduction, but in a most unusual manner. He had come discussing coal mining.
“A meal at an inn I know. Excellent fare, quiet conversation, that is all. I shall return you home by ten.”
“It hardly seems appropriate.”
“Of course it’s not appropriate. A future earl asking the advice of a dressmaker? Good God, I would be the laughingstock of London. If it got out, I would be banned from my clubs, even spit on in the streets.”
He sounded so aggrieved that she couldn’t keep from smiling. “My goodness. Put like that, it’s a wonder you did not appear at the door with a bag over your head.”
“I considered it, believe me. Though more because I thought you would bar the door to me than any other reason.”
“Yes, well, that was a reasonable fear. Fortunately for you, Tommy had a firm grip on your finger and dragged you inside against my will.”
“Thank God for Tommy.”
“Yes—”
“And thank God that you are an understanding sort, kind and compassionate. You will not tell a soul of what I am asking. And you will allow me to pay for your excellent advice with a meal of very hearty stew.”
“But—”
“Please, Helaine, do not make me beg. My grandfather is already rolling over in his grave as it is.”
It was his expression that finally swayed her. Part teasing, part desperate, and wholly delightful. He was not commanding her, he was charming her. And he had just given quite a gift to her mother in that twenty minutes of polite tea. The two combined made for a potent package. Plus, she had to admit to a great deal of curiosity about what advice he could possibly want from her. But she couldn’t give in yet.
“I have a great deal to do this evening,” she said. “I am learning to keep my own books, and that takes time and diligence. There is also correspondence to manage, and Penny has come for a visit.”
He paused, hope still shining in his eyes. Then he reached out and squeezed her hand. “What time should my carriage come by? You can finish your bookkeeping and reward yourself with an excellent meal with a delightful companion.”
She bit her lip, trying to sort through the evening. She would need time to finish the accounting, then bathe and dress her hair. Time as well for some light cosmetics and to air out her best gown. It was not a ball gown or anything like that. Simply a dress that was more appropriate to evening and…
And seduction.
She paused, trying to examine the situation logically. But try as she might, she couldn’t force herself to say no. She wanted a lovely dinner. She wanted to be pursued. She wanted to laugh and tease and discuss mining with this man. And even if he meant to bed her for the pleasure, she did not have to say yes. He was not the sort to force her when she refused. Her virtue would be absolutely safe, provided she maintained her own discipline.
“Three hours,” she suddenly said.
He raised his eyebrows. “Three hours?”
“I have a lot of accounting to do.”
He nodded. “Of course. Then I shall endeavor to be sure that the dinner is an appropriate reward for such diligent work.”
He stood to leave, taking the
time to bend over her hand. She allowed him to do so, reveling in the feel of being courted as if she were Lady Helaine again.
“Three hours, Helaine. Not a moment more.”
“Not a single second.”
Then he left. She waited a few seconds, reliving the afternoon’s events, anticipating the evening to come, and relishing the excitement that was tingling through her blood. And when good sense started to surface, she roughly pushed it aside. A minute later she was buried in her books, using the steady march of numbers to obliterate all rational, moral considerations.
Chapter 11
Robert walked blindly away from her shop, his mind in a whirl. He knew who she was! Robert knew her real identity and that changed everything. She was Lady Helaine, daughter of Reginald Talbott, Earl of Chelmorton, aka the Thief of the Ton. The scandal might be five years old, but he remembered. It had been all the talk for a Season at least.
The man had stolen from the military troops. The exact details escaped him, but the crime was heinous enough. Stealing from English boys so far from home? Many people cried for the man’s blood. But Talbott was an earl and not a smart one. Robert’s father had once called the man a buffoon, and considering the source, that was an insult indeed.
There had been quite the debate about what was to be done. It went without saying that the entire family was banned from society. Now Robert felt cruel for joking about being tossed from his clubs and spit on in the street. Her father had certainly suffered that fate. Herself as well, most likely, though he could not remember specific events.
So much was clear now. She’d been educated as the daughter of an earl, so of course she would speak and move as a lady born. As did her mother. No wonder the woman seemed so sad. She’d lost everything just because she’d married a fool.
He hadn’t heard how the debacle was settled. The earl disappeared from society, the discussion of his punishment was overtaken by another matter, and nothing was heard of the Chelmortons again. Until now. Half a decade later, he’d found the daughter, Helaine. She was a talented dressmaker who barely survived above her shop. And her poor mother obviously lived as such women did, playing with children and reliving past glories. She couldn’t even marry again because her husband had disappeared, not died.