How to Romance a Rake

by Manda Collins

  “And they were?”

  Again the bitter laugh. “Yes, they’re mine. I didn’t even know that my own copies were missing. I suppose Anna must have taken them by mistake after a lesson and then simply saw a means to earn some money. I only wish she’d come to me if she needed more funds. Didn’t she know I’d give her more if I could?”

  For Juliet’s sake, he said, “Perhaps she knew you were dealing with your own problems and didn’t wish to ask for more. It cannot have been easy for her to take your charity after her child was born.”

  “No,” she said, sighing, “it wasn’t. I had to appeal to her love of the babe to get her to take as much as she did.” She straightened in her seat. “So why would she stoop to outright theft now? It makes no logical sense. She must have had another reason to do it. She needed funds for something she couldn’t tell me about.”

  Alec considered this. “What would she be unable to tell you about?”

  “I don’t know,” she said thoughtfully. “Her expenses were minimal. And Alice wasn’t ill so it can’t have been a physician.”

  “What about blackmail?”

  Juliet gripped his arm, and he felt the touch straight through his coat.

  “That’s it!” She nearly vibrated with excitement. “It has to be. Nothing else makes sense. She was an unwed mother with a need for discretion because if parents of her pupils were to learn the true circumstances of Alice’s birth they’d turn her into a social pariah at once. Someone must have figured out that there was no Mr. Turner and decided to earn some extra money.”

  Her relief at finding a plausible reason for her friend’s betrayal was palpable. Alec only hoped that her theory was right and that they weren’t expending all this energy to find a woman who might be better left unfound.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that her landlady was attempting to extort some extra funds from Mrs. Turner,” he said aloud. “Perhaps she overheard you and Mrs. Turner discussing her situation?”

  She thought about it. “A definite possibility. I shouldn’t think her above that sort of thing. Especially after what you told me of her treatment of little Alice. Anyone who would mistreat a child wouldn’t balk at blackmail.”

  “There is also another possibility,” Alec said. “What if someone with knowledge of the happenings at Squire Ramsey’s has decided to blackmail her?”

  “To what end?” Juliet asked. “I should think what happened in Little Wittington would have long since ceased to be of interest.”

  “But knowledge of either scandal could ruin her reputation with the wealthy cits whose children she teaches.”

  They fell silent for a moment as they entered the traffic of more fashionable London streets.

  Finally, Alec spoke. “I must ask you to make me a promise, Miss Shelby.”

  He could feel her gaze on him. Saw her raised brows from the corner of his eye.

  “I had thought we’d dispensed with titles last evening,” she said quietly. It was a bold statement for her, and he liked to think that her comfort in his presence made her able to speak her mind.

  Glancing around to ensure they were not under scrutiny, he pulled the curricle down a relatively quiet street, and drew the horses to a halt. Keeping the reins firmly in his left hand, he turned to her, dipping his head a little to see beneath her bonnet brim.

  “Juliet,” he said seriously, meeting her frank gaze with one of his own. “I will not endanger your reputation by addressing you by your given name in public. And I won’t apologize for what happened last night. Though I suppose I should if I were a true gentleman.”

  “I can think of no one who is more qualified to call himself a gentleman than you,” she said. “And if you apologized for last night I would draw your cork.”

  Her use of the cant phrase startled from him a laugh.

  “So, what is this promise you wish to coax from me?” she asked, her expression impish. Really, if the rest of the ton were aware of this side of her personality Amelia Snowe would find herself with serious competition for her position as reigning toast.

  “You cannot go out searching for clues to Mrs. Turner’s disappearance on your own. It is too dangerous. At this point we have no way of knowing whether your friend left of her own volition or was spirited off by someone up to no good. I won’t allow you to risk your safety.”

  At the mention of Mrs. Turner, Juliet’s expression fell, and she grew serious. Alec despised himself for breaking her good mood, but he could not stand by while she put herself in harm’s way.

  “If you must go out in search of your friend,” he said seriously, “then at least take Cecily or Madeline with you. I won’t suggest that you contact me, because that would endanger your reputation. But I will be sure to seek you out at social occasions so that we can compare notes and determine what our safest course of action might be.”

  “Then you won’t call on me yourself?” Her question was offhand, as if she were wondering aloud whether it would rain later, but he was not fooled by her studied indifference.

  He reached out a gloved finger and tipped her chin back so that he could look into her eyes. “Juliet,” he said softly, “I am the last man you wish to become involved with. The men in my family … my father…”

  A quick nod told him that she was not unaware of his father’s and uncle’s reputations. “Last night was…” He searched for a way to describe their encounter in the darkness of the garden. “It was sweeter than anything I’ve known in a long while,” he said finally. “But it cannot happen again. For your sake. You deserve a man who can give you a lifetime of happiness. And I’m afraid I am incapable of doing that.”

  “If you don’t mind, my lord,” she said curtly, “I would like to return home now. I have an engagement this evening and Mama will be looking for me.”

  He supposed he was asking too much for her to acknowledge his clumsy attempt to warn her off. Perhaps she hadn’t been as affected by their kiss as he’d been. And besides, what sort of self-important bastard demanded to be forgiven for protecting a woman from an entanglement?

  Their drive was silent until they reached Shelby House. A footman stepped forward to assist Juliet from the carriage, and Alec accepted her cool thanks and farewell with good grace.

  “If you wish to visit Alice,” he said, unable to stop himself, before she turned away, “I am gone most mornings. I will leave word with my staff that you are to be allowed in whether I or my sisters are there or not.”

  She nodded her acknowledgment, then turned, and for a woman with such a severe leg injury she managed to mount the steps in a remarkably speedy fashion.

  Cursing himself for a ham-handed fool, Alec turned his attention to his horses and drove away.

  * * *

  Still clutching her compositions, Juliet navigated the steps to the door of Shelby House with Weston close behind her. As she divested herself of her pelisse, the butler informed her that her cousin Madeline was waiting for her in her sitting room. Her sitting room that had an excellent view of the front entrance.

  Cursing her ill luck, and feeling perilously close to tears, Juliet made her way upstairs and prepared herself for an interrogation. Ah well, at least it was Maddie and not her mama who awaited her.

  “Never say you’ve been out driving with Lord Deveril, Juliet!” her cousin greeted her without preamble. “He has shown a marked partiality for you ever since our dance lessons.”

  “Well, I do not think anything will come of it,” Juliet said, gratefully accepting a cup of tea as she lowered herself to the settee. “Even if Mama wasn’t determined to see me marry Turlington, Alec … that is, Lord Deveril, just informed me that he is incapable of giving me the ‘lifetime of happiness’ I deserve.”

  Madeline’s mouth dropped open. “Incapable? You don’t suppose he means that he cannot…”

  Juliet gave a startled laugh despite herself. “No, I don’t think that’s what he meant. He was speaking about the men in his family in general.”
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br />   “Oh, that.” Maddie waved away the notion. “He is just being noble, then. This happens all the time in novels. The hero is drawn to the heroine despite himself, and then ruins everything by pushing her away.”

  “Yes, well, this isn’t a novel. It’s my very real life and I do think he has some serious concerns. His father was Devil Deveril, after all. Perhaps the sins of the father—”

  “Except that Lord Deveril has never shown the least propensity to behave like his father. Indeed, quite the opposite. He does have a bit of a rakish reputation, but nothing so troubling as his father, or his uncle for that matter.”

  Juliet knew Maddie was right. Alec was as far from his father’s type of man as a son could be. He was a gentleman through and through, and would no more seduce and abandon her than he would leave little Alice in the care of an abusive woman.

  “I fear you are right,” she said aloud. “But that doesn’t mean he’ll change his mind. So, I will put him from my mind and concentrate on finding Anna. I doubt Mama would approve Lord Deveril’s suit if he were to ask anyway, so the whole matter is moot.”

  Maddie looked as if she’d like to argue, but refrained from doing so. Instead she asked, “What are those pages? New sheet music?”

  Remembering the reason she’d been in Deveril’s company in the first place, Juliet told Maddie what she’d learned at Mr. Frampton’s shop.

  “So, Anna has been stealing your compositions?” Maddie whole being trembled with outrage at the teacher’s betrayal. “After all you’ve done for her! What a wicked thing for her to do.”

  “I must admit that I was shocked,” Juliet said. “But after I thought of it a bit, I wondered if she needed funds for some reason she couldn’t tell me about.”

  “You think she was being blackmailed?” the other girl asked. That they’d both leaped to the same conclusion said something about how their minds worked, but Juliet wasn’t overly concerned about that. Between Juliet’s dealings with her mother, and Maddie’s extensive reading they were both acquainted with the darker side of human nature. Even if Maddie’s was fictional, that didn’t mean she was incorrect.

  “I do,” Juliet said. “After all, she was in an even more precarious social position than she was in as a member of our household. At least here she was somewhat protected by my father. Out on her own, her reputation was her life. One blemish could mean ostracism. And therefore a loss of the only means she had to make a living.”

  “Who knew the real circumstances of little Alice’s birth?” Maddie asked.”You don’t suppose your mama told anyone, do you?”

  “No,” Juliet assured her. “She knows that if she reveals any of Anna’s secrets, Anna and I will reveal hers. I never thought that I’d be in a position where I’d have to blackmail my own mother, but I suppose given who my mother is, this is a small enough price to pay.”

  “Is there anyone Anna might have confided in?” Maddie bit into a macaroon. “Someone besides you, I mean?”

  “The only person I can think of is her mentor, Signor Boccardo, but he made no mention of it when Alec and I met with him.”

  She sighed, staring into the murky depths of her tea. “Between this business with Mrs. Turner and my mother’s championing of Lord Turlington’s suit, I begin to think you and Cecily are the only ladies in my life I can trust. I cannot believe I was so wrong about Anna.”

  “Dearest, you mustn’t punish yourself for trusting her. She was your friend, after all. And we do not know yet why she did the things she did. Yes, she did steal your compositions, but what if, as you have suggested, she needed the funds? Who knows what any of us might stoop to given the right circumstances. And she has always supported you in your dislike of Turlington, has she not?”

  “Indeed,” Juliet said thoughtfully. “She warned me against him even before my mother began to propose him as a possible suitor. When he practically ran tame in our house—back before she was dismissed—Anna warned me that he was not to be trusted. She even cautioned me to lock my door when he was in the house.”

  “You see?” Maddie reassured her. “Mrs. Turner had your best interest at heart. I feel sure that there is some rational explanation for her betrayals. At least I hope so. For your sake. And for little Alice’s sake as well. Surely she would not have left the baby behind without some serious inducement.”

  Juliet considered her cousin’s words. Perhaps if she hadn’t been so estranged from her mother, she would not have placed so much faith in Anna. Even so, despite all of her current misgivings, she still feared for Anna’s safety. Maddie was correct. Anna would not have left Alice behind without very good reason.

  Alice. It all came back to Alice.

  Eight

  “Now, my dear,” Lady Shelby said, pulling on her gloves as they rode through the streets of Mayfair in the Shelby carriage, “you must make sure that you speak only when spoken to, and that you pay special attention to anything Lord Turlington or his mother says to you. I want you to make a good impression on the family. And none of that slipping off to brood on your own like you did at the gallery. I mean for you to show them that you are more than capable of being the sort of wife an artist like Turlington needs.”

  Perhaps having realized that she’d crossed a line last night, Lady Shelby, while still pushing her into an unwanted match, had been kinder today. Juliet was not so naïve as to think that it had anything to do with her protests of last evening, but suspected that her mother had remembered the old adage about flies and honey. Whatever the case, she was thankful for the softening of her mother’s demands, if only because it would make their time spent together a bit less fraught. With all she’d learned this afternoon, and her decision that she might be forced to ruin her own reputation in an effort to escape marriage to Turlington, she felt a strange sense of calm and empowerment.

  “Yes, Mama,” she told her mother, in what she hoped was a meek tone.

  “Good girl,” Lady Shelby praised her. “I do like that ensemble on you. It hides your infirmity quite nicely. And the color is pleasing.”

  It was a silk gown of cerulean, one of the pieces Deveril had chosen for her from Madame Celeste’s. Juliet had worn it especially for her visit to the Turlington household because knowing she looked particularly well in it—or that Deveril thought she did—made her feel capable, no matter that he’d warned her off thinking of him in a romantic way that afternoon. The gown made her feel strong, and able to handle whatever sort of problems the Turlingtons sent her way. When they arrived at the Turlington residence, they were ushered into a drawing room decorated in dark, bold colors. The walls were draped in a russet-colored fabric and the furniture was a mix of dark woods and intricately patterned upholstery.

  “Ah, Lady Shelby,” crooned a woman in a feathered turban from her position perched on the edge of a settee, “I am so glad you were able to attend.”

  Juliet followed her mother to the circle of people already gathered around the woman she presumed to be Lady Turlington. The room itself was full to bursting with guests, who were clustered in small groups throughout the chamber. The conversations ranged from heated arguments to desultory chats and everything in between.

  When she and her mother reached Lady Turlington’s group, a few of the gentlemen on the edge of the group stepped back so that they might pay their respects to their hostess.

  “May I present my daughter, Miss Shelby?” Lady Shelby asked, pushing Juliet forward to make her curtsy to the other woman.

  Up close, Juliet saw that Lady Turlington was older than she had at first seemed. Her hair was an unnatural shade of yellow and the lines around her eyes and mouth had been softened, if Juliet was not mistaken, by a judicious use of cosmetics. She knew that women from earlier generations had not balked at using paints and powders to augment their looks, so it was less surprising than it might have been. But knowing how her mother abhorred the use of such unnatural enhancements, she was reminded once more of just how low her mother had come to push her only daughter i
nto marrying the son of a woman she might otherwise have shunned.

  “Lady Turlington,” Juliet said, rising from her obeisance. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

  “Well, child,” the countess said, looking her over with such intensity that Juliet almost offered her teeth for inspection, “you are a pretty enough little thing, aren’t you? I suppose you’ll do.”

  As there was no polite way to reply to such an observation, Juliet said nothing.

  Seeming disappointed, Lady Turlington shrugged and said, “There are some young ladies over there. I suppose you’d rather go have a chat with them. We’re discussing Elgin’s Marbles, and even I know that’s no fit topic for an unwed chit’s conversation.”

  Dismissed, Juliet glanced to her mother, who nodded her acquiescence.

  When she approached the circle of younger ladies, Juliet felt her heart sink when she saw that among them was Miss Snowe. What on earth was she doing at an artistic salon? Unable to turn away without causing offense, she stepped forward, her limp feeling more conspicuous than usual.

  “So I told Lord Spencer that he could either dance with me or retire to the card room in peace,” Amelia was saying, her china-doll blue eyes alight with merriment. “Of course he chose me.”

  “Naturally, my dear Miss Snowe,” said young Lord Lymington. “Any man would prefer you to a game of cards.”

  Juliet fought to keep her eyes from rolling at the young baron’s gallantry. Perhaps if she were quiet she could go chat with the circle of young matrons near the doorway.

  A hand on her arm diverted her attention from Amelia and her coterie. Her heart sinking at being recognized and therefore unable to slip away on her own, Juliet turned to see Miss Katherine Devenish, Lord Deveril’s younger sister.

  “My apologies for intruding,” the blond-haired young lady, who bore a strong resemblance to her brother, said. “I am so pleased to see you here, however. My brother has talked of no one else of late.”

  Juliet felt the eyes of everyone in the group on her. “You must have mistaken me for my cousin Lady Madeline Essex,” she said with a self-conscious laugh. Surely Deveril had not been so indiscreet as to mention their kiss last night to his baby sister.