Annabelle stood and greeted both women with warm hugs and kisses to their cheeks. “I expect them any moment,” she informed her future sister-in-law.
The two took their seats near Annabelle.
“Beau told me he was taking David to White’s,” Marianne said, a look of apprehension on her face.
Annabelle frowned. “Does that concern you?”
Marianne winced and nodded. “I’m afraid it does. Even though the Season has already begun, I’ve asked Beau not to take David out in Society much. Not until he’s had a chance to…benefit…from your tutelage.”
Annabelle laughed. She reached over and pressed her warm hand atop Marianne’s cold one. “I’m certain your brother is at least capable enough to handle a few men in their cups at the gentlemen’s club.”
Marianne bit her lip. “I don’t know.” She shared an uneasy look with Lady Courtney. “David is not quite used to going about in such circles. Neither am I, of course, but at least I’ve had Julianna’s and Frances’s help, in addition to Lady Courtney here.”
“Lady Julianna Montgomery and Lady Frances Wharton?” Annabelle clarified. The two ladies were the betrothed of Beau’s closest friends. Julianna was betrothed to Rhys Sheffield, the Duke of Worthington, and Frances was betrothed to Lucas Drake, the Earl of Kendall.
Marianne nodded.
It stood to reason that Julianna and Frances would take Marianne under their wings. Frances’s father had been arrested last autumn in a large scandal, but Lord Kendall had stood by her, and along with their other friends, they’d managed to keep Frances’s reputation intact. In fact, the three couples were all getting married together in only a few weeks’ time at the Duke of Worthington’s large country estate.
“I’ve told you countless times, Marianne, dear. I wouldn’t worry about your brother,” Lady Courtney interjected. “He’s a capable man, and I daresay once the ladies of the ton get a look at him, they’ll hardly be concerned about his manners.”
Annabelle arched a brow. What exactly did that mean? She wasn’t entirely certain, but it sounded intriguing. Was Lord Elmwood particularly handsome? His sister was certainly lovely, with long red hair and bright blue eyes. Annabelle had never been particularly attracted to men with red hair, but no doubt some of the ladies of the ton would be. Besides, with an earldom to offer, his looks would hardly matter to several of them. They were hunters, and a man with an eligible title and a large fortune were their prey. According to Beau, Lord Elmwood had both.
“Yes,” Marianne replied, nodding toward Lady Courtney “I know, but David and I… Well, you know how we were raised, Lady Courtney. Mama did her best to ensure we weren’t completely unaware of certain things, but we were hardly part of Society.”
Annabelle’s heart wrenched. Her poor lovely sister-in-law had no business being worried about the blowhards and backstabbers in London Society. She patted Marianne’s hand once more. “The truth is, I’ve never met anyone as dear as you are, Marianne, in all my years of living in Society. If your brother is half as kind and caring as you are, I’m certain he’ll be better than the lot of them as well.”
As if on cue, Stockton knocked at the door again. “Lord Bellingham and Lord Elmwood,” he announced with a bow before stepping aside and retreating.
Beau stepped into the room first as the three ladies rose to greet the men. Her brother’s form blocked Annabelle’s view of Lord Elmwood at first and she didn’t dare be impatient enough to lift up on tiptoes and crane her neck to try to see the man. That would be uncouth. She waited while Beau stepped forward to give her a hug. She squeezed him tightly. “It’s so good to see you, Beau,” she whispered.
“I’ve missed you, Annabelle,” he replied warmly.
“Annabelle,” Marianne said as soon as Beau had stepped away from her side. “Allow me to introduce you to my brother, David Ellsworth, the Earl of Elmwood.”
Annabelle lifted her chin to take in the dark-haired man who stepped forward.
Her jaw dropped. She quickly snapped it shut.
Standing in front of her in impeccably tailored clothing, wearing an ironic smile on his too-handsome face, was the self-same man she’d been unbearably rude to the night before in the Harrisons’ garden. The man who hadn’t been back at the dinner table when she’d returned, causing her no small amount of frustration. She’d nearly asked her hostess about him when she took her leave. Only stubborn pride had kept her from it.
“Ah, Lady Annabelle, is that your name, then?” Lord Elmwood said, his smile not wavering.
If Annabelle had been a different person, the kind of person who hadn’t spent years perfecting the art of showing no reaction when she chose, her face would have been up in flames by now. Instead, she was perfectly calm and collected when she allowed the smallest hint of a smile to lift one side of her mouth and replied, “Yes, my lord. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Ah, but we’ve already met, haven’t we?” he replied, his dark brow quirking into a frown. “Unless I’m mistaken. Wasn’t that you in the Harrisons’ garden last night?”
Annabelle inhaled sharply. Her face still blank. Very well. The man wasn’t going to do the honorable thing and pretend as if this was their first meeting. Marianne was right. He wasn’t trained in the subtle art of social niceties. Fine. “Yes.” She straightened her shoulders. “It was.”
“Ah, then surely you remember me.” He pointed at himself. “Don’t you recall? I am the only man in the country who isn’t trying to court you.”
Chapter Five
If he were being honest with himself, David could admit that he enjoyed seeing the look on Lady Presumptuous’s face when he introduced himself as the only man in the country who wasn’t trying to court her. It was a mixture of pure shock, a healthy dose of discomfort, and a hint of anger. Good. She should feel aghast after having treated him so rudely last night.
His sister’s elbow promptly met his ribcage, however, and he jerked forward, coughing slightly. “Don’t be rude, David,” Marianne said through a fake smile. “This is Beau’s sister.”
At the moment, David didn’t care who Lady Presumptuous was to Beau, but he promptly replaced the smug smile on his face with a more suitably bland one. “A pleasure,” he said, bowing to her the way he’d been instructed to by Lady Courtney.
Lady Annabelle cleared her throat and tossed back her head. “Lord Elmwood is correct. We’ve met,” she announced to Marianne with her own painfully tight smile. “At least…well, I didn’t realize who you were at the time, Lord Elmwood,” she finished quietly. “I believe you introduced yourself as Mr. Ellsworth.” The hint of irritation sounded in those last two words.
“Would it have made a difference in how you treated me, my lady?” he replied, still smiling. He didn’t care if he got Marianne’s elbow again, that comment had been worth it.
Marianne glanced back and forth between the two of them, her brow furrowed. “I don’t understand. You’ve met? When?”
“Yes,” Lady Annabelle hastened to answer, clearing her throat again uncomfortably. “At Lady Harrison’s dinner party last night. We ran into each other…in the garden.”
A thunderous look came over Marianne’s face. She turned to glare up at her brother. “David, please tell me you weren’t smoking again.”
David glanced at Lady Annabelle. He lifted a brow. Would she expose him? Given how rude she was, he wouldn’t put it past her.
“Oh, no. No. No,” Lady Annabelle hastened to say. “At least, I didn’t see him smoking.” Her voice was sweet, lovely, and entirely convincing. He might have even believed it himself, if he didn’t already know it was a lie.
David narrowed his eyes on her. So, she wanted to play nice now that she knew who he was? Lady Annabelle’s eyes met his with a clearly pleading expression in them. She was silently requesting that he play along. Fine. It was decent of her to not mention the smoking. He wouldn’t mention it, either.
“I don’t see why a grown man cannot enjoy a
cheroot from time to time,” Bell interjected.
“David doesn’t smoke cheroots,” Marianne replied. “He smokes hideous cigars from Portugal.”
“The cigars are from Spain,” he clarified. “I only received them while I was in Portugal.”
“Regardless,” Bell replied. “I say you should be able to smoke whatever you like.”
Marianne quickly took up that argument with her affianced while David eyed the young lady who stood in front of him today wearing a simple but obviously expensive white gown and matching white kid slippers. A wide pink sash was tied behind her back in a bow. Her blond hair was pulled up effortlessly in a bun on the back of her head and her cheeks were bright and full of life. She had a distinctive twinkle in her eye that he’d noticed last night, but today it was even more pronounced. He had not been wrong about her looks, either. The woman was gorgeous. There were no two ways about it. Too bad her beauty had obviously gone to her head and made her vain. She was clearly only attempting to be cordial to him now because she hadn’t realized before that he was the brother of her soon-to-be sister-in-law.
After he’d left the party last night, David had reflected upon their interaction all night. It had bothered him. If Society was full of a bunch of simpering prissy geese who thought they were the center of the universe, he truly was not going to like it here. For God’s sake, he would eventually be expected to find a wife among this type of young ladies. No, thank you. He much preferred the guileless girls in Brighton who smiled and laughed and danced and didn’t go around trying to accuse you of following them out into a garden where you went to have a cigar in peace and quiet.
And somehow this particular young lady, who clearly believed herself to be the princess of the debutantes, was not only going to be related to his sister through marriage, but she was supposed to be the one to teach him how to behave politely in Society? It was like having Atilla the Hun teach you subtlety. How could she teach him anything about being polite? She’d been beyond ill-mannered last night. Why in the world had Marianne and Bell thought she was the correct person for the task? Was it possible they had no idea how discourteous she was to bachelors?
Marianne finally turned back to David and Annabelle. “At any rate, I hope you’ll both be eager to start your lessons. I know David has been looking forward to it.”
Had been looking forward to it. David mentally corrected his sister. Or at least had been resigned to it. Now he didn’t trust the tutor. Or her knowledge.
“Oh, yes, ever so much,” Lady Annabelle replied in that same sweet voice that was clearly fake. Where had that voice been last night in the Harrisons’ gardens?
David gave both women a skeptical look. They were merely exchanging pleasantries and being polite, but his years in the army had taught him not to equivocate. “May I speak to Lady Annabelle alone for a moment, please?”
The room instantly fell silent.
“What?” David asked, glancing about from person to person. “Is that…unacceptable?” Excellent. He’d already blundered and he’d ostensibly just met the woman.
“It’s not entirely proper, my lord,” Lady Annabelle replied quickly. “But I don’t see what harm it would do if we were to go into the next room for a few moments with the door open.”
She glanced around the group as if to dare anyone to question her logic.
“That’s fine, dear,” Lady Courtney said with a regal nod, granting her approval.
Marianne looked as if she might chew off her bottom lip, but Beau merely laughed. “I swear the rules of Society can be stifling at times. Go. Go.” He waved them both off.
Lady Annabelle led the way to the next room while David followed closely behind her. As expected, the next room in Bell’s town house was as finely appointed as the first had been. David had found that wealthy people in London had several rooms for doing nothing more than entertaining callers. In Brighton, they’d had a big room for sitting and laughing and dancing and entertaining and sometimes even eating. They’d never stood on formality there. Sometimes he wondered if his father had left his formal life to get away from these stifling clothes and these stifling rules. He wouldn’t doubt it. Father had been a fun-loving man who welcomed anyone into his home, regardless of their social standing in life. David still missed him every day.
As soon as they were alone in the next room, with the door properly wide open, Lady Annabelle turned face him with a pleasant smile on her lips. But David didn’t miss the trace of apprehension in her ice-blue eyes. “What did you wish to speak to me about, my lord?” There was that fake-sweet voice again.
David scrubbed a hand through his hair. He already knew what he was about to say would probably be far too forthright for the Society-bred miss he was talking to, but he didn’t give a toss. He did, however, lower his voice, just in case the others were listening from the adjoining room.
“Look, I’m certain we both know why you trying to teach me how to go about in Society is a bad idea. Let’s simply tell them all so.” He jerked a thumb back in the direction of the other salon. “They may be temporarily disappointed, but I’m certain you don’t want to teach me any more than I want to be taught by you.”
If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought a look of disappointment flashed briefly across her pretty face. Disappointment and perhaps…embarrassment? Hmm. That was interesting. He hadn’t thought the disdainful lady he’d met last night would be capable of embarrassment.
“Oh, no, no. I’d like very much to teach you,” she replied with a smile that at least looked sincere.
David narrowed his eyes on her. “Really?”
She nodded convincingly too.
“But I don’t see how we can work together if you believe I’m attempting to court you.”
She snort-laughed at that, surprising him.
“I don’t believe that any longer, my lord,” she announced.
He eyed her skeptically. “You don’t?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Now that I know who you are, I—”
“But that’s the thing, Lady Annabelle,” he replied. “You didn’t know who I was last night in the Harrisons’ gardens. Had no clue, in fact, yet you treated me as if I were the lowest form of life. How am I to trust you?”
She took a deep breath and clasped her hands together, biting her lip and looking terribly guilty. “I understand, my lord, and I’d like to apologize.”
He cupped a hand behind his ear. “What was that?” Did she actually look contrite?
“I’d like to apologize,” she repeated. This time the look on her face told him she also sort of wanted to grind her heel into his foot for making her repeat herself.
“You’d like to or you’re going to?” he asked with as much smugness as he could muster.
“I am sorry, my lord,” she said, through slightly clenched teeth.
“Sorry for what, precisely?”
“Sorry for the way I behaved last night. I was…out of sorts and I…took it out on you. I apologize.”
His face softened. “That’s gracious of you, and I do appreciate it,” he allowed. Hmm. Perhaps he’d been wrong about her. She was mature enough to apologize, and he wasn’t so petty that he’d reject a sincere apology. Hers felt sincere.
“May we simply begin again?” she asked in small, hopeful voice. “I am sorry for my behavior last night. We clearly got off to the wrong start.”
Begin again? David rubbed his chin and considered it all for a moment. He didn’t entirely trust her, but she would be in his life regardless, given that his sister was planning to marry her brother. And he still needed lessons. They may as well make the best of it. He truly had little choice. He made his decision quickly. “Very well. I’m willing to start again if you are.”
A look of relief washed over her face. “You’ll allow me to teach you how to go about in Society?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “The truth is, I could use the help.”
She smiled and her face lit up, reminding hi
m once again how pretty she was. “Just promise me you won’t fancy yourself in love with me and we’ll do fine.” She winked at him.
“Don’t worry, Lady Annabelle,” David replied, shaking his head. “I assure you. You’re the last lady in London I would attempt to court. The very last.”
Chapter Six
That night Annabelle tossed and turned in her bed. Her bedchamber was completely black. She’d long ago conquered her fear of the dark. Her father had been dead for years, and she no longer allowed darkness to frighten her.
Memories of her earlier episode with Lord Elmwood rolled slowly through her head like a broken carriage. Especially that last bit. He didn’t have to be quite so rude about it when he’d told her she was the last lady in London he’d attempt to court, did he?
But she clearly had deserved his distrust. She had behaved abominably toward him the night before. She was used to having men toss themselves at her, make bets upon her marriage prospects, and generally hound her. She hadn’t expected a man who wasn’t even aware of her existence. Now that she had time to think about it, it was haughty of her. But it seemed that everywhere she went in Society, she had a bull’s-eye pinned to her back. She’d become so accustomed to it, she’d forgotten what it was like to meet a man who had no idea about any of it. It was a singularly novel experience. Lord Elmwood must think she was completely self-absorbed. She couldn’t blame him.
At least she’d been able to convince him to reconsider allowing her to teach him. It would have been beyond embarrassing to have had to explain to Beau and Mama why Lord Elmwood wanted nothing to do with her. He’d made her feel like a complete ass. And she had been an ass. But she would make it up to him. She would be the very best tutor in London. She would ensure he knew precisely how to behave in every social situation. Why, by the time she was through with him, Lord Elmwood would be the catch of the Season. A few whispered remarks behind her hand to the right debutantes and he would have the ton’s most beautiful and accomplished girls clamoring for his attention. That’s what Annabelle could do for him. And she would. To make up for her earlier rudeness.
Earl Lessons: The Footmen’s Club Series Page 4
