'I am so glad you suggested it, my lord, thank you.'
Sebastian turned his head, and his eyes moved slowly over her face. 'You have no need to thank me with words, Desiree, for the look I saw on your face when you were galloping across that field was all I needed.' He drew the stallion to a halt. 'You are a remarkably beautiful woman, Desiree Nash. Have I ever told you that?'
'Not in...such a way,' Desiree admitted as she likewise drew the mare to a halt. 'As I recall, your comments to me at the pool last year were somewhat more...direct in nature.'
Sebastian's eyes brimmed with tenderness. 'My comments to you then were as honest as they are today. Though, I admit, they were not as tempered by my feelings. I did not know you then, but I do now. Indeed, I like to think I have come to know...a great deal about you in the short time we have been acquainted.' He suddenly sent her a look so intense that it sent a shiver up her spine. 'Desiree, I—'
'Well, well, what have we here?' a voice cut in unexpectedly. 'The rake and the schoolmistress enjoying a quiet coze in the park. How charming. I hope I am not interrupting anything.'
Desiree felt her entire body go icy cold. Lord Perry! But...what was he doing here? Was it just a coincidence that he was in the park this morning?
Sebastian didn't seem to think so. He turned to regard the newcomer with eyes that glinted like slivers of black ice. 'There is nothing to interrupt, Lord Perry. Miss Nash and I were simply enjoying a morning ride and some quiet conversation. But I take exception to your terms of address and would advise you not to use them again.'
'Of course.' Lord Perry inclined his head. 'I meant no offence. It is just that the morning air seems to agree with you, Miss Nash. It has raised a most becoming colour in your cheeks. But then, I have always said that riding is best done first thing in the day.'
Desiree steeled herself to look at him. There was nothing she could take exception to in his appearance. He was seated astride a fine grey stallion and was, as always, impeccably dressed. But it was the unpleasant curl of his lip and the mocking expression in his eyes that made her shudder. 'I take it Lady Perry does not share your enjoyment of the morning air?' she asked, compelled by good manners to respond.
'Lady Perry does not rise until noon and does so then only to take herself to the shops,' Lord Perry remarked distantly. 'We keep very different hours.'
'A pity for you,' Sebastian said mockingly.
Lord Perry shrugged. 'I find other ways to amuse myself.' His smile widened as he looked at Desiree. 'A man always can.'
His mocking tone brought an uncomfortable flush to Desiree's cheeks, and she quickly looked away. She knew what he was alluding to; as did Sebastian, judging by the way his hands suddenly tightened on his reins. 'Come, Miss Nash, it is time we were returning home. My aunt will be expecting you. Good day, Perry,' he said coldly.
Lord Perry smiled and touched the brim of his beaver. 'Always a pleasure, Miss Nash. Buckworth.'
Anxious to escape his leering eyes, Desiree pulled the mare's head around and lightly flicked the crop against her flanks. Dear God, would she never be free of the hateful man? The memory of his words burned in her heart and brought tears of anger and humiliation to her eyes. She could not bear the way he looked at her or the way he made her feel. Indeed, whatever pleasure she had taken in Sebastian's company had been effectively destroyed by his unwelcome presence and suggestive remarks.
'Desiree!' Sebastian called. 'Wait!'
Reluctantly, Desiree drew the mare to a halt. She turned her head away and quickly dashed the back of her hand across her eyes. 'I am sorry, Lord Buckworth, it was rude of me not to wait.'
'Don't be silly, you had every right to leave. The man is a thoughtless boor and I am more sorry than I can say that our ride had to come to such an end,'
Sebastian said as he drew level with her. 'Had I but known he would be here—'
'You could not, my lord, so you certainly owe me no apology,' Desiree interrupted. 'But I, too, am exceedingly sorry that he was here all the same.'
'Desiree, I must ask, how do you come to know Lord Perry?' Sebastian enquired urgently. 'And please do not tell me that you first met at Lady Rumsden's ball, because I know that is not the case. You were already acquainted with the man when he came up to you at the ball, were you not?'
'Yes.' Desiree briefly closed her eyes. 'Lord Perry's daughter, Elizabeth, was one of the pupils I taught at Mrs Guarding's Academy. I was introduced to him, as I was to the parents of all the girls, at the time Elizabeth was enrolled.'
'Did you and Lord Perry have much occasion to speak to each other?'
Desiree swallowed hard. 'I saw Lord Perry...several times at the Academy, but I spoke to him...only once.'
'And you do not like him.'
It was not a question, but a statement of fact, and Desiree acknowledged it as such. 'No, I do not.'
'Was he aware of your feelings towards him?'
'I have no reason to suspect that he was not.'
'Then why did he seek you out at Lady Rumsden's ball?'
Desiree faltered. 'He...wished to make me known to his wife.'
'I see.' Sebastian's blue eyes pierced the distance between them. 'Does it not seem strange to you that a man who knew of your enmity would wish to introduce you to his wife?'
'In all honesty, I did not stop to think about it at the time,' Desiree told him distantly. 'I turned around to find him standing behind me and realised moments later that Lady Perry was with him. I suppose it would have been rude had he not introduced her, given that he and I were obviously acquainted. But now, I think you are correct, Lord Buckworth, we should be returning home,' Desiree said, abruptly gathering the reins. 'Your aunt will surely be wondering where I am.'
With that, she pressed her heel into the mare's side and set her off at a brisk trot.
Sebastian sighed and fell in behind her. He knew that Desiree was hiding something about her relationship with Lord Perry, but he also knew that badgering her would do no good. Whatever had happened between them was obviously a source of pain, and he sensed that it was something she would not talk about easily. Which meant that he would have to find out for himself what had happened.
With that grim thought in mind, he turned and headed back to Mayfair.
The next few days seemed interminable for Desiree. She accompanied Lady Charlton to a Venetian breakfast the next day and to a musicale the following evening, but her thoughts were too much on Sebastian to allow her any kind of enjoyment of either event.
He had said little to her on the ride home from the park. Had he been wondering, perhaps, at the nature of the relationship between herself and Lord Perry? She could not blame him if he had. Her disgust of the man had been all too evident, and it would only have been natural for Sebastian to question what had caused it to be so in the first place. Especially when she had not offered any logical explanation for her dislike.
'Miss Nash, you are remarkably quiet this evening,' Lady Charlton commented with a frown. 'It is not like you to be so distracted when I am speaking to you.'
Desiree flushed in embarrassment. 'Lady Charlton, forgive me. I fear I have been rather preoccupied of late.'
'Yes, but the question, my dear, is why—or by whom,' she said wryly. 'I am beginning to wonder if some handsome gentleman has not captured your heart.'
The words were so close to the truth that Desiree hardly knew where to look. Had Lady Charlton guessed her secret? She could not bear to think that she had. What would the lady think if she were to learn that her companion had fallen in love with her nephew?
'Lady Charlton, I think I shall go and fetch some punch,' Desiree said, abruptly rising to her feet. 'I find it...exceedingly warm of a sudden. Do you not agree?'
'Well, I am comfortable enough,' the lady said, 'though the temperature has risen to be sure. But I would not turn down a glass of punch regardless, my dear. Thank you for offering.'
Desiree quickly turned and headed into the next room, where a number o
f couples were gathering to dance. She smiled at a lady she remembered having been introduced to at Lady Rumsden's ball, and then made her way to the large silver punchbowl. Her cheeks were still burning from Lady Charlton's untimely comment about the likelihood of a gentleman stealing her heart, and in the absence of a cool cloth to press against them, she picked up a gleaming silver cup and placed that against her cheek instead.
'Well, fortune seems to be smiling upon me yet again,' Lord Perry said from behind her. 'She has a way of putting you in my path at the most convenient of times.'
The cup slipped from Desiree's fingers. It landed on the edge of the table and clattered to the floor, drawing the attention of every eye in the room. Desiree groaned as she bent to pick it up.
'Lord Perry. I am beginning to think that you are following me.' She set the cup on the table and smiled apologetically at her audience.
Lord Perry smiled too, but with superiority rather than apology in his air. 'Nothing so evil as that, I can assure you. Your role as companion to Lady Charlton simply affords us the opportunity of attending the same social gatherings. If it was in my mind to pursue you, however, the outcome would be much the same. I can be very persistent when I feel it is worth my while. And you, my dear, are very much worth my while.'
'Lord Perry, what will it take to convince you that I have no wish to become involved with you?' Desiree said coldly.
His thin smile flashed. 'You cannot, my dear, because while serving as a lady's companion must be eminently preferable to being a teacher at a girls' school, it will not allow you the kind of privileges I can give you if you consent to be my mistress.'
'You are sadly mistaken if you think I long for such privileges.'
'But they could be yours nevertheless. All it would take is one word from you.'
Desiree shuddered at the thought. 'Lord Perry, let me be very clear. There is nothing you can say that would induce me to become your mistress. I am very happy with the circumstances of my life and I have no wish to change them. Lady Charlton is a kind and generous employer and I am provided with all that I require.'
'But what about pleasure, Desiree? Lady Charlton cannot give you the type of pleasure to be found in the arms of an experienced lover.'
'Neither can you, Lord Perry. And now I would thank you to leave me alone.'
Lord Perry smiled and let his gaze roam absently around the room. 'I wonder, Miss Nash, if your reticence to become my mistress has anything to do with a certain gentleman I found you riding with in the park the other morning. Perhaps you are hoping to receive a similar offer from him?'
Desiree's heart skipped a beat. 'You are quite mistaken, sir. My relationship with Lord Buckworth is nothing of the kind.'
'But you admit that you do have a relationship with him. Or perhaps, that you would like to.'
'My acquaintance with Lord Buckworth is no concern of yours,' Desiree said stiffly. 'Nor is any other aspect of my life.'
'Of course not. But I should tell you, my dear, that if you are hoping to receive a respectable offer from Buckworth, or from any other gentleman for that matter, you would do well to think again.'
'Is that a threat, Lord Perry?'
He shrugged with deceptive nonchalance. 'Not at all. I am simply stating the facts as I see them.'
Desiree sighed, all too aware of where this was going. 'Lord Perry, I know that it is within your power to destroy whatever reputation I have left in London, just as you destroyed the one I had at Guarding's—'
'Oh no, my dear, I did nothing to ruin your reputation at Guarding's. That was done long before I appeared on the scene.'
Desiree frowned. 'What are you talking about?'
Lord Perry slowly began to smile. 'Desiree, you are a beautiful and desirable woman, but I would hardly have gone to the trouble of travelling all the way to Steep Abbot if I did not think it would be worth my while.'
'Now you are not making sense,' she said in annoyance. 'Surely your only reason for going to Steep Abbot was to visit your daughter.'
'That was my excuse for going to Steep Abbot. It was not my reason for doing so.'
A shadow of alarm touched her face. 'I have...no idea what you're talking about,' she whispered.
'I am talking about Lord Buckworth and the story he told as to how he found you swimming naked in a secluded woodland pool.'
'W-what?'
'And about what happened after he joined you in the water.'
Desiree felt the colour slowly drain from her face. 'You are lying!'
'Am I?' Lord Perry laughed softly. 'Then why don't you ask him for yourself?'
Desiree quickly looked away from him, aware of a roaring in her ears that drowned out every other sound. No. Not Sebastian. Surely he would not have done this...
'I see that my news has startled you,' Lord Perry murmured. 'Forgive me, I did not mean to destroy whatever illusions you might have of the fellow. But neither was I willing to have you think that I alone was responsible for bringing you to your current situation.'
Desiree stared up at him with a mixture of horror and disbelief. 'When did...Lord Buckworth tell you about this?'
'I believe it was towards the end of last summer. And he didn't tell me. I had it from another chap who'd heard Buckworth talking about it at his club. Apparently he related the story with considerable enjoyment.'
'But Lord Buckworth didn't know who I was,' Desiree said, grasping at straws. 'I never told him my name. So why would you or anyone else assume that I was the young woman about whom he was speaking?'
'Desiree, do you really think a man like Buckworth would find it difficult to discover the identity of a beautiful young woman who lived in a tiny place like Steep Abbot? Especially if he was of a mind to. After all, I myself knew that you liked swimming in the river and if / am able to discover such things, why would you think Buckworth could not?'
Desiree shuddered as she stared down at the silver punch-bowl. 'Who else...knows about this?' she asked in a hoarse voice.
'Oh, a number of the gentlemen here tonight, I should think,' Lord Perry said as he glanced around the room. 'Which is why I say that you may as well accept my offer, Desiree, because you will not receive a better one.'
Desiree's heart began to beat with alarming force. She was speechless with shock; her world turned upside down by the horrifying news she had just received. Sebastian had betrayed her. He had come back to London and told several of his friends about his encounter with her in the pool at Steep Wood. Worse, he had lied about it, making it sound—according to Lord Perry—far less innocent than it had really been.
And knowing that, how could she possibly go about in society now? How could she hold her head up when she knew what people were thinking? What dignity had he left her?
'You could of course, leave London and begin life elsewhere,' Lord Perry continued pleasantly. 'Perhaps you might meet a shopkeeper or a prosperous farmer in some small country village. They would certainly not be familiar with the details of your background and they would, I am sure, be happy to offer you marriage. But they could not give you the type of lifestyle I am offering you, Desiree. And I should think a beautiful young woman like you would prefer not to have the rough, callused hands of a tradesman or farm worker all over her.'
Desiree closed her eyes to shut out the hateful sight of him. 'Please leave me, Lord Perry.'
'Yes, perhaps I shall,' Lord Perry said smugly. 'I have given you enough to think about for one night. And I am prepared to give you a few more to mull over what I have said. Then we will meet again. You can give me your answer at that time.'
Desiree was not aware of Lord Perry moving away from her. She stared down at the floor, feeling nothing but the pain of Sebastian's betrayal stabbing at her heart. How could he have done this to her? How could he have lied about her in such a cruel and heartless manner?
Aware that her knees were dangerously close to giving way, Desiree turned and stumbled towards the door. She had to get out. She had to leave before
she saw anyone else. Even now, she imagined that all of the men in the room were looking at her, watching her, as they recalled Sebastian's lurid descriptions of how she had looked in the woodland pool. How she had been sport for a gentleman. Well, she would be sport no longer.
She was halfway across the hall when Sebastian walked in. She saw him at precisely the same moment he saw her—and watched his smile fade as he drew closer.
'Desiree, what in God's name is wrong? Your face is deathly pale.'
Desiree stood and gazed at him with haunted eyes. Oh, how she longed to hurt him. To fling angry words at him and to wound him as deeply as he had wounded her. But what good would it do? The damage to her reputation was already done. There was nothing she could say to regain that which she had lost. She could not change what had happened that day in the pool, any more than she could change what had resulted from it.
'I am...fine, Lord Buckworth,' Desiree said finally. 'I was on my way back to Lady Charlton.' And to beg her to let me go home.
'But you look ill,' Sebastian repeated, his concern for her evident. 'Shall I take you home?'
'Yes. No! That is, yes, I should...like to go home,' Desiree said wretchedly. But not with you. Never again with you.
'Shall I fetch my aunt?' Sebastian suggested.
'Yes. T-thank you.'
'Desiree, you are not well,' he repeated urgently. 'Let me fetch a doctor.'
'No, I said I am...well. I have no need of... attention. I should simply like to go home.'
Sebastian left her then to go and find Lady Charlton. Desiree took advantage of the time to gather her scattered thoughts and to try to regain some semblance of composure. Her initial shock was rapidly giving way to anger and hurt. She would hold those emotions close to her heart, knowing that she would need them to get her through this. Anger would allow her to survive. Despair would bring her to her knees.
'I told my aunt that I am taking you home,' Sebastian said when he returned to her side, 'and that I shall come back for her directly.'
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