A Warriner to Seduce Her

by Virginia Heath

  Jake knew he should be watching the men, but his eyes followed her as she began to walk towards the lake and his shady vantage point. Making a snap decision he hoped he would not regret, Jake decided to forget about Rowley and his acquaintance. He quickly dismounted, secured his horse to a branch, then sauntered towards her.

  Fliss had her back to him as she watched some swans close to the edge of the water. Her neck curved gracefully, much like those of the swans. Something he would rather die than mention as it was yet another trite bird analogy, but he suddenly had the urge to place a kiss on the exposed slash of skin between her bonnet and collar. He didn’t, knowing full well it would probably be the last liberty she ever afforded him and because he was here on the King’s shilling. Jake had a job to do and needed to stop being waylaid from the purpose of his quest by swanlike necks and spectacles and tiredness-induced yearnings.

  Chapter Eight

  On the chilly banks of the Serpentine

  ‘Hiding again, Fliss? We must stop meeting like this.’

  To her credit she didn’t jump or startle, despite the fact he had crept up on her unawares, making him hope that she had experienced the same early awareness of him as he did her. Instead she slanted him a glance and gifted him with a smile which lifted the dullness of the day in much the same way a beautiful sunrise would. ‘Good morning, Mr Warriner... Even though it is not morning by any sensible standards in the rest of England, but here in the capital it apparently still is.’

  ‘I see you have escaped the clutches of your evil uncle.’

  She frowned slightly, her perfect brows wrinkling for a split second before they smoothed and she appeared bored. ‘Evil? Why did you choose that word?’ The way she studied his face intently, waiting for his answer, gave him pause. Did she know or suspect something about Rowley’s activities?

  ‘Merely that he tried to force the Earl of Redditch on you at the ball. Why? Has he done more dastardly deeds I should be aware of?’

  ‘I don’t think so.’ She stared back at the water, her expressive brows furrowed briefly again. Not a no, then. Interesting. ‘But he has dragged me here, as far as I can ascertain, just to ignore me, although he claims we are going to get ice cream. In February.’ Her eyebrows said all the things she stopped herself telling him. Now they were slightly raised. Not amused.

  ‘People do odd things like that here in town. It takes a while to get used to their peculiar ways. Why are you stood here all alone?’ They both gazed back at the intense conversation going on between Rowley and a man Jake was sure he recognised, but could not place.

  ‘I have been dismissed while my uncle talks business. Again.’

  ‘How rude of him.’ Jake offered his arm. ‘Would you care to take a little turn about the lake, Fliss? To help pass the time?’

  She briefly flicked her gaze back to her uncle’s phaeton, saw he was still engrossed in whatever social discourse he was embroiled in and nodded curtly. ‘I do believe I would, Mr Warriner. Are you going to flirt?’

  ‘Most assuredly.’

  ‘How tiresome.’ But she smiled as she took his arm and Jake purposely led her along the bank and away from both her uncle and prying eyes. He allowed the companionable silence to hang for a minute, quietly enjoying the way her undulating hips intermittently brushed against his as they walked.

  ‘Forgive me if I am speaking out of turn, but I get the distinct impression all is not right between you and your uncle this morning.’

  ‘Is it that obvious?’

  ‘To me it is. Every time I see you with him, your expression always tells me you want to be somewhere else.’

  ‘I am trying to enjoy my visit here. It’s just...’ She sighed and shook her head. ‘Why do I keep confiding in you, Mr Warriner?’

  ‘Perhaps because I ask the right questions?’

  ‘You do have a canny knack of hitting the nail on the head.’

  ‘It’s a northern trait. Like you, I say things as I see them and here that is a rare treat.’

  She paused, then laughed. It was a throaty, earthy sound. Unpractised and without any artifice. Jake made the mistake of turning to look at her and when their eyes met he lost himself for a moment.

  ‘It is a treat. I never thought I would miss northern honesty. It can be brutal at times. But I do. I miss saying what I think without first checking myself.’

  ‘Then I am glad I came along to fill the void. Be brutally blunt, Miss Blunt. You know you want to. Unburden yourself by listing all the things you are not enjoying about your visit. Cry on my attractively broad shoulders.’

  She stopped for a second, assessing him with amusement, before tugging gently on his arm to signal she was ready to walk again. ‘I had hoped to see the sights today. The interesting sights like the lions at the Tower or museums and such, but instead I have been ambushed yet again by my uncle’s personal agenda. Since I arrived, I have done everything he has wanted and nothing of mine. I’ve been dragged to Almack’s and launched. I’ve made a tiresome number of morning calls on strangers I do not know and have no desire to, eaten numerous dull dinners in the company of the awful Earl of Redditch, where I am forced to listen to dreary conversation about barges or have to suffer the old fool’s unwelcome attentions. I’m coerced into coming here to Hyde Park rather than visiting the Menagerie as I had planned. Soon I shall be fed ice cream because Gunther’s is apparently the place to be seen. But I don’t want to be seen, Mr Warriner. I am desperate to see things before I run out of time and have to go home.’

  His mission dictated he should press her about the dinner conversations, but her eyes were suddenly sad and he wanted to make her smile. ‘No wonder you are at odds with your uncle.’

  ‘I think I am doomed always to be at odds with my uncle. His matchmaking aside, we have nothing in common. All he cares about are appearances and business. Uncharitably, I am starting to believe the only reason he hauled me away from Cumbria was to give that stinky Earl someone to fawn over, for all my uncle cares about is how I look. Which is never quite good enough.’

  ‘I can’t think why. You look splendid.’

  She shook her head at his rakish grin. It made a stray tendril of hair float in the faint breeze enticingly against the rim of her bonnet. If she had been any other woman he had been ordered to seduce, Jake would have given in to the urge to touch it and tuck it back where it belonged, knowing that brief intimacy would create a frisson between them. For some reason, although desperate, too, he kept his itching fingers to himself.

  ‘We have already had words about my dour appearance today. He thoroughly disapproves of my choice of outfit this morning. Who knew that warm wool was not suitable for a cold ride in Hyde Park? Clearly I am expected to freeze to death in one of the frivolous silk concoctions he has had made for me.’

  Jake couldn’t help sweeping his eyes down the length of her. The dress and her winter coat might well be sensible, but she filled them spectacularly. The way the wool clung to her pert bosom and trim waist made his mouth water. The dark navy was the perfect showcase for her golden hair and English rose complexion. She was beautiful, breathtakingly so. ‘Your uncle clearly also needs spectacles if he thinks you look dour. That is a very lovely outfit despite being less draughty than silk.’

  For some reason, she blushed slightly and her fingers went to her spectacles. Without looking at him she slipped them off and stared at them in her hands. ‘He disapproves of these most of all. I know they are ugly, but I can’t see further than my nose without them.’

  They weren’t ugly at all. They were achingly erotic. ‘I like them. I’ve already told you I think they give you the air of a schoolmistress. All prim and proper and bossy.’

  ‘I am a schoolmistress.’

  ‘Are you really?’ The profession suited her.

  ‘Yes, I am. Back at Sister Ursuline’s I teach literature and grammar to the girls,
with a smattering of history.’

  ‘And are you prim, proper and bossy?’

  ‘When the occasion calls for it.’

  Because they were now completely shaded by a patch of trees, Jake couldn’t resist gently prising the spectacles out of her hand and placing them back on her face. Because he had to, he arranged that stray silken tendril to sit against the soft skin of her cheek. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to haul her into his arms and kiss her till both felt their knees buckle—instead, he took a step back and pretended to admire his work. ‘I’m intrigued. Professionally speaking, how would you deal with a naughty boy, Miss Blunt? A very naughty boy. Would you tell him off?’

  ‘I suppose it depends on what he has done.’ She shot him a saucy grin which heated his blood quicker than any kiss ever had. ‘For a mild misdemeanour, a few terse words might suffice. For something outrageously bad, it would need to be more severe. Perhaps he would be sent to bed without supper and have all privileges withdrawn.’

  ‘Would you spank him?’

  She rolled her eyes, but played along. For all her northern bluntness, she had a mischievous sense of humour. She didn’t take herself too seriously and enjoyed a laugh. He liked that about her. ‘In my opinion, a good teacher should never have to resort to physical violence. The most effective weapon in my arsenal is my disapproval. A really disappointed expression works wonders.’ She peered at him over the rims of her spectacles, those green eyes hardened like emeralds.

  He shuddered for effect. ‘That is a terrifyingly disappointed look. I’m positively quaking in my boots.’

  ‘It’s been known to bring even the most unrepentant miscreants to tears. I can be fearsome when I put my mind to it.’

  ‘Not to me. Now that I know I shan’t be beaten if I’m naughty it’s given me ideas to thoroughly earn your disapproval.’ Rash and stupid ideas, which blessedly aligned with his mission. A mission he was coming to hate because he suddenly hated lying to her.

  ‘Really?’ She feigned boredom. ‘I’m not in the mood for your infantile flirting, Mr Warriner. You’d do well to stop it now because my mood is quite foul and I can be very shrewish when annoyed, and despite the flirting, my anger is not directed at you, so it wouldn’t be fair to let you take the brunt of it. Besides, I’m leaving it to ferment for the real culprit.’ She stopped walking abruptly so that she could angle her head to look back at her uncle. Her eyes widened and those eyebrows Jake was becoming quite fluent in disappeared under her hair. ‘Oh, for goodness sake!’

  At her exasperated tone, Jake followed her stare and saw the Earl of Redditch hoisting himself into the small pillion seat on the back of Rowley’s phaeton and making himself thoroughly comfortable.

  ‘I should have known!’ She groaned loudly and narrowed her eyes.

  ‘Oh, dear. It does look as if you will be having a table for three at Gunther’s.’

  ‘He did it on purpose! The wretch prevented me from spending a perfectly pleasant day at my leisure so that he could foist Redditch on me again! He must have planned it last night at the ball. He wanted us to get better acquainted indeed. Every word that comes out of his mouth is a falsehood. I should have trusted my instincts and said no from the outset.’ She was ranting to herself now and pacing around in a small circle, her expressive gloved hand slashing the air like a rapier. ‘When is my uncle going to get it into his thick head that I’m not interested in that awful man and resent the interference?’

  Outraged she was magnificent. The emerald eyes were stormy behind the lenses of her spectacles, those lush pink lips were pouting and her generous bosom was heaving with each frustrated, angry breath. ‘How dare he! He’s gone too far this time. Too far...if he thinks he is going dictate to me where I go or to whom I speak, then he has another think coming... He promised me a surprise! I postponed my own plans at his insistence and this is how he repays me?’

  Jake shrugged ineffectually because she made a damn good point. The way her uncle was behaving was outrageous and he felt for her. Nobody deserved to have an aged earl thrust upon them as a potential suitor, especially when she had repeatedly voiced her refusal, but some men thought it was acceptable to bully women. Jake’s own father had been such a man and had made his mother’s life a misery, so, his mission aside, he was predisposed to loathe Rowley.

  However, as one of the King’s Elite he also needed to closely watch the events play out as the scoundrel intended. The man’s sudden interest in both his niece and one of the main investors in the new Regent’s Canal was in no way coincidental. The best and most prudent course of action would be to stand back and allow events to naturally unfold. He would be her shoulder to cry on. A sympathetic ear. Whatever was afoot today, duty dictated he should encourage her to go back to her uncle’s phaeton and suffer the unwanted attentions of a man nearly three times her age. At Gunther’s, she might well hear information that unlocked the case.

  ‘Is there something I can do to help, Fliss?’ Not the words he meant to say.

  She slowly angled her face to his and Jake could see the cogs whirring inside her clever mind. ‘Perhaps...’ She inhaled deeply, her eyes closing, and appeared to centre herself from somewhere deep within. When her eyes opened, he knew she had made some sort of decision about the best course of action, because they slowly turned towards him and a new resolute defiance was shining back out of them. ‘What are your plans for the rest of the day, Mr Warriner?’

  ‘I don’t have any.’

  ‘Would you like to see the lions with me?’

  ‘I can think of nothing I would like more.’ Jake’s pulse quickened. They would be all alone. Together. For hours. Finally, he could properly seduce her just as he’d been tasked.

  ‘Then do you think you can smuggle me out of here without my uncle seeing?’

  ‘As a matter of fact, I do. I excel at skulduggery.’ He held out his gloved hand and she took it, causing intense awareness to shimmer through his fingers despite the layers of leather between them. Business and pleasure. Too good an opportunity to waste on both counts. He’d deal with the uncomfortable guilt which had settled in his gut later. ‘Follow me.’

  Chapter Nine

  Wandering towards Traitor’s Gate at the

  Tower of London

  Escaping proved to be scandalously thrilling. Inexcusably irresponsible and definitely childish, but more fun than Fliss had had in years. It had been a very long time since she had allowed the precocious and wayward part of her character to run free and to do so for an ill-advised and fleeting afternoon was exactly the right medicine to cure her irritation at her uncle’s conniving.

  After Jake had hidden her behind his horse, the pair of them had crept out of Hyde Park giggling like children. He’d found a ragged, dubious-looking fellow with an angry scar running down one side of his face and paid him a few coins to take his mount back to his bachelor lodgings, then flagged down a hackney to spirit them to the medieval castle.

  The Tower had proved every bit as fascinating as Fliss had hoped and Jake was entertaining company. Together they marvelled at the four ragged lions as they tore apart fresh meat, gawped at the elephant, stared at snakes, petted some monkeys and tried to invent stories as to why Old Martin, the curmudgeonly grizzly bear, was so bad tempered. Jake had then paid a Beefeater to show them the jewels and take them on a tour around the fortress. The fellow had been so knowledgeable that Fliss’s feet were now aching and her head was swimming with interesting facts she was looking forward to sharing with her students. Finally they were left alone to wander freely and Jake was reading from the guide book he had purchased.

  ‘It says here that Queen Elizabeth passed through Traitor’s Gate after being accused of treason by her mad sister, Queen Mary. The poor girl was only twenty and must have been terrified. Especially after what happened to her mother.’ The Beefeater’s story had been particularly graphic as he had recounted the executi
on of Anne Boleyn on the green by the White Tower. ‘I’m glad I wasn’t born back then. History is so gruesome, don’t you think?’

  ‘The gruesomeness is what makes it so interesting. Poor Elizabeth. Was she a prisoner here for very long?’

  Jake consulted the guide book again. ‘Eight weeks apparently. Not sure I could stand being incarcerated here for eight hours. I can’t imagine how she suffered. I bet your uncle and the Earl of Redditch would find the story riveting, though. Look, it says she was brought to the Tower on a barge.’ He grinned. ‘The pair of them do get excited about barges. I wonder why?’

  His question reminded Fliss she would soon have to go back to her uncle’s soulless house and answer for pathetically running away. ‘I’d rather not talk about my uncle just yet.’ Although there was no getting away from it really. While she couldn’t bring herself to care about Uncle Crispin’s feelings, Daphne and Cressida didn’t deserve to worry. She would need to apologise to them for causing them undue stress. ‘I suppose I should head back. As furious as I am with him, my aunts will be anxious and it’ll be dark soon.’ February days were too short, she decided. Far too short. ‘I still have no idea what I’m going to say to him about his duplicity. It’s bound to be ugly.’

  Jake picked up her hand and wound it around his arm. ‘Hopefully, once his temper has cooled, he’ll listen to your objections properly.’ They began to stroll towards the gate they had entered a few hours before. ‘Perhaps we can rehearse your argument in the carriage?’

  ‘We could.’ It couldn’t hurt, although Fliss doubted Uncle Crispin would listen. ‘Or perhaps I should simply tell him I think it is time for me to return home to Cumbria? I’m tired of his overbearing and dictatorial manner.’