by Lydia Dare
Livi tried to hold in a giggle, but to no avail. She couldn’t imagine Sophie bringing tea or washing chamber pots. Mr. Siddington was quite amusing. And handsome. And he seemed to be friendly enough. Her laughter drew his attention back to her once more.
“That sound is the most melodious tinkle I’ve heard all day.” His brown eyes twinkled with happiness. “Miss Mayeux, you should do it more often.”
Sophie shot him a stern glance and then looked at Livi. “Well-placed laughter is fine. But try to contain your mirth when you’re able.”
“Still spouting rules and regulations, Soph?” He made a noise in his throat. “At some point, you’ll have to stop being quite so proper and have some fun.”
“I’ll have fun when I have my cottage back,” Lady Sophia said in a soft voice.
Mr. Siddington’s face fell into a sympathetic smile.
There was a story there. And Livi was determined to find out what was so special about this blasted cottage. She fanned her face. “I find it very stuffy in here,” she said.
“Indeed,” the duchess agreed.
“So, tonight, at the musicale—”
“That is a very nice try, Sophie,” Mr. Siddington cut her off. “Only the loss of an unfortunate wager would make me attend that musicale. I’d like to still have my ears in working order this time tomorrow.”
Sophie sighed. “You were always so difficult.”
“One of my better qualities.”
“Henry,” Sophie pleaded. “Miss Mayeux is new to England and hardly knows a soul. If you won’t attend the Longboroughs’ musicale tonight, then I’ll expect you to show your face at the Assembly Room tomorrow. And I’ll expect you to partner Miss Mayeux for at least one dance.”
Mr. Siddington gazed at Sophie critically and said in a teasing voice, “So I can tread upon her toes? You know dancing is not my forte.”
“Then the two of you shall suit perfectly,” Sophie said. She gave him a pleading look that reminded Livi of her brothers’ hounds.
“Oh, good God. I’ll do it.” He bowed toward Livi. “Until tomorrow, Miss Mayeux?” he asked.
Dancing? Livi nodded reluctantly. He seemed like a nice enough man, especially if Sophie liked him. But dancing?
Sophie cleared her throat as though urging Livi to accept the offer.
“Until tomorrow,” Livi muttered.
Mr. Siddington nodded to someone across the room, then smiled back at the women at the table. “Do excuse me.” Then he turned on his heel and made his way through the crowd to Lord Robert’s side. Indeed, that man made the hair on the back of Livi’s neck stand up. How was it possible that the two men were friends?
“If only Mr. Siddington could be a good influence on Robert,” the duchess grumbled, “I’d leave the man half my fortune.”
Anxiety gnawed at Livi’s stomach. She looked at Sophie, who appeared to be engrossed in thought. “I believe you forgot one thing,” Livi said.
“What is that?” Sophie asked, her brow knitting.
“I do not know how to dance.”
The duchess gasped and Sophie rushed to soothe the old woman by placing her hand on one of the duchess’. “She is jesting, Your Grace. Miss Mayeux is a beautiful dancer.”
And Lady Sophia was a fantastic liar, but Livi held her tongue. She and her tutor would have to have a long talk as soon as they left the odiferous Pump Room. How in the world could Livi possibly become a beautiful dancer in only one day?
***
Gray slumped into a high-back chair in the front parlor, a copy of The Times in his hand. Thankfully his head pounded less, though that probably had more to do with the fact that no one but himself, the mostly silent servants, and the still sleeping Earl of Holmesfield were in residence than with the damned raw egg he’d swallowed. He couldn’t imagine what had possessed him to try such a thing. Positively disgusting.
He heard the front door creak open just as Holmesfield’s butler said, “My lord, welcome back.”
“Thank you.” Archer’s voice filtered into the parlor. “Be a good man and tell me the best path to take to avoid Lady Sophia.”
Gray sat a little straighter. “No one is here but me, Arch!” he called loudly.
A second later, his brother stood on the threshold, wearing the same clothes he’d donned the day before and with hair so rumpled that only a whore’s fingers could have done the job. “You look like hell.”
“So do you.”
Archer scoffed as he leaned against the doorjamb. “What you see before you is a gentleman who is both relaxed and in high spirits.”
His brother must have done even better at the tables after Gray returned to the house last night. “Hmm. What I see before me is a viscount who was just begging a butler to tell him how to escape a little slip of a lady.”
Archer’s golden eyes darkened. “A harpy, you mean. Where is she, by the way?”
Gray gestured toward the front window. “Out.”
“A man of few words today, are you?”
“If your head ached like mine, you’d say very little yourself.”
At that Archer chuckled, then pushed himself from the doorjamb and sauntered into the parlor, dropping onto the settee across from Gray. “Did the gin not set well, little brother?”
Gray growled low in his throat. Lycans had a high tolerance for spirits; however, even Lycans had their limits. “I had a little more than I should have,” he agreed, “and then Miss Mayeux coerced me into drinking a raw egg.”
Archer’s face scrunched at the very thought. “A raw egg? Does that double for an aphrodisiac in America?”
An aphrodisiac? Gray narrowed his eyes on his brother. “It was to help with my headache.”
“And did it?”
His head did feel a little better, or it had until his brother returned home. “I’m not sure.”
Archer smirked. “And where is your little poodle?”
Gray didn’t even bother to correct his brother. Doing so would only inspire Archer to needle him more. “With Lady Sophia. They headed into town for a morning in the Pump Room.”
“Then we should be safe for the time being.” Archer seemed to relax as he leaned back in his seat. “After you left last night, Lavendon took me to a very nice establishment.”
“Filled with pretty doxies?”
Archer chuckled. “How did you know?”
“Your hair looks as though you spent all evening standing in the middle of a tempest.”
Archer touched a hand to his hair. “They were a bit of a whirlwind. But that’s not where I was going with this. Well, not really. With the spot we’re using off the Thames for our establishment, what do you think about transporting a barge full of wenches to see to our customers’ needs and perhaps provide distraction from the play on the tables?”
Gray scoffed. “I think Wes would put a bullet in your skull. He dreamed up this idea as a source of income for each of us, not so we could make ourselves glorified flash men. He has a very proper wife, you might remember.”
“His connection to the Hayburns is a thorn in my side.”
“I cannot even imagine what the duchess would do to us if we connected her granddaughter to a place filled with whores. She’d turn us all into eunuchs before slowly murdering us.”
Archer scowled. “Her Grace is here in town, by the way. Lavendon told me as much last night. Why don’t we abandon all this nonsense in Bath and head for London?”
That was exactly what Gray had wanted to begin with. But before he could say as much, someone cleared her throat in the doorway. At the same moment the scent of violets drifted into the room. Lady Sophia. Gray’s and Archer’s eyes both shot to the doorway to find their tutor frowning at them with her arms folded across her chest. They both leapt to their feet like chastened schoolboys.
“London?” she asked. “Did I overhear you correctly, Lord Radbourne?”
Archer looked supremely satisfied. “Afraid you’ll miss me, sweetheart?”
�
��I have asked you not to call me that.”
“And I have asked you to go away.” Archer grinned unrepentantly. “Apparently, neither of us is to get our wish where the other is concerned.”
Lady Sophia heaved a sigh. “Neither of you are escaping to London. I need your assistance here.”
“You need us?” Archer quipped.
She narrowed her eyes on him. “You are to help me with Miss Mayeux, both of you.”
“She’s just one slight girl,” Archer protested. “Surely you can handle her all on your own, sweetheart.”
Lady Sophia straightened her spine. “I have yet to send my weekly report to Lord Eynsford. Please do not make me have to inform him that you are being difficult, my lord.”
A muscle twitched near Archer’s eye.
Gray cleared his throat. “I don’t see why you need us. Holmesfield doesn’t want us anywhere near the girl, and serving as escorts is really unnecessary, all things considered.”
A frown marred Lady Sophia’s pretty face. “I’m not certain what all I’ll need you for, Grayson. But today… Well, today I need your help in teaching Miss Mayeux to dance. I’m afraid she doesn’t know how, and tomorrow we’ll be at the Assembly Room.”
Teaching Liviana Mayeux to dance? Gray’s heart sped up at the thought of holding the chit in his arms. Honestly, staying in Bath couldn’t be that taxing, could it? He could stay a day or two more. London wasn’t going anywhere.
“If we do this,” Archer began, “may we be excused from the musicale this evening?”
She glared at him. “Why, my lord? So you may find your own entertainments as you obviously did last night?”
“One must be entertained,” Archer returned.
“But must one wear the same clothes two days in a row?” She sighed heavily and turned her attention back to Gray. “Please meet us in the music room in half an hour for her first lesson. And please make sure your brother is actually presentable.” Then she turned on her heel and disappeared down the corridor.
“Who knew,” Archer said quietly, “that she paid attention to my attire?”
Gray couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. “You look a mess, Arch. Have you even peeked in a mirror? I’m not certain you can be ready in half an hour.”
“Then won’t that little harridan be disappointed,” his brother grumbled.
Eight
Livi bit the inside of her cheek as she stood alone in her grandfather’s music room. Aside from a small piano in the corner, the rest of the room was empty. Settees and chairs had all been removed from the space so that nothing would hinder her first dancing lesson. First and last. Bon Dieu! She would never be ready in time for tomorrow night. Perhaps she could plead a headache and stay abed instead of heading to the Assembly Room. At least it would gain her a little time to learn what she was doing before being thrust into a ballroom.
“You look like a lady who has been sentenced to the gallows.” Mr. Hadley’s voice startled her from the threshold.
Shaken from her musings, Livi glanced up to find the handsome Lycan leaning his broad frame against the doorjamb. She laid a hand upon her chest to quiet her rapidly beating heart. “Mr. Hadley, you frightened me.”
A small smile quirked the corner of his mouth. “You seem a much more stalwart creature than that. I didn’t think you frightened so easily, Miss Mayeux.”
She returned his smile with one of her own. “All these English formalities. ‘Miss Mayeux’ makes me feel like someone’s governess. Please call me Livi.”
Surprise flashed in his dark eyes and he pushed himself off from the wall. “Livi, then,” he said as he took a step toward her. “You may call me Gray, if you’d like. Just don’t let Lady Sophia hear you. You’ll get us both in trouble.”
Livi couldn’t help but laugh. How could such a thing get him in trouble? “I had no idea your mother’s companion held such sway over your life, Gray.”
A frown marred his brow, but it vanished as quickly as it had appeared. He studied her face for a moment before saying, “She’s not really my mother’s companion.”
If a big green alligator had rushed into the room, Livi wouldn’t have been more surprised. Her mouth dropped open. Was there something between Gray and Sophie? Was that why her tutor had berated him the night before?
“She’s not?” Her voice came out in little more than a whisper. “What is she to you?” And why did Livi care? That was a much better question.
He shook his head. “Actually, you’re the only one I can tell the truth to, if you can be trusted. And I think you can. You’re in much the same situation that I’m in myself, after all.” He shrugged. “You know what I am. What Archer is. Our older half brother, our pack alpha, has hired Lady Sophia to turn us into gentlemen, as he found our behavior in polite society to be a bit lacking. But such a situation would ruin the lady in question, so to the rest of the world she is simply our mother’s companion.”
Livi’s mouth fell open even farther. “He finds you too wild?” she asked, not quite believing Gray. After all, he was the tamest Lycan of her acquaintance.
“Among other things.”
“But you seem so tame,” she replied, and then wished the words back when he looked wounded. “I mean you look so average.”
One brow arched at her.
“Oh, you know what I mean,” she finally said.
He stared at her for a moment with such a serious face that Livi was afraid to speak. Then that slow grin she was getting so used to spread across his face. He took one large step toward her, his head tilting as he appraised her face. Appraised much too closely for comfort. “I’m not certain I do,” he drawled. “Pray tell.”
Livi stumbled momentarily over her own tongue. It suddenly seemed unwieldy and much too clumsy for her mouth. Gray chuckled, and heat crept up Livi’s face.
“You were saying that you think I look average.” His quirky grin made her want to smile along with him. And fan herself. Fan herself profusely, because it was suddenly growing unbearably hot in the room. Leave it to this man to break the chill she’d felt in her bones since she’d arrived in his country.
“‘Tame’ was my original choice of words.”
“Tame? No one but you has ever referred to me as tame.” He rubbed his chin between his thumb and forefinger as though he was thinking it over. “I feel a little disempowered by your estimation of me.”
“Wounded your pride, did I?” She leaned her elbows on the pianoforte and tried her best to appear unconcerned. “You probably work very hard to seem disreputable.”
“On the contrary, trouble just seems to find us.”
Livi wondered absently who “us” was.
“The Hadley brothers,” he clarified, without her even having to ask.
She snorted. Sophie would probably scold her properly for making that noise. But Gray just grinned even broader.
“Never done anything to provoke the heaps of trouble that have fallen upon your head?” she asked.
He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Never,” he said softly. “I am a paragon of virtue.”
Just then, his older brother strolled into the room. “First, you discuss the birthmark on her thigh. Now you’re discussing her virtue.” Radbourne made a clicking sound with his tongue. “A wretched idea if her virtue is important to her.”
Gray colored profusely.
“You discussed my birthmark?” she hissed at him.
“You, Miss Mayeux, are the one who brought up the subject of your birthmark.” Gray avoided her censure.
“And you repeated it.” She shook her head at him, feeling quite a bit like Sophie must feel on a daily basis. “I cannot believe you discussed my personal comment to you with your brother.”
He tugged at the lapels of his jacket, as though it was suddenly too tight. “I couldn’t believe you brought it up in the first place.” Gray turned to his brother, who leaned casually in the doorway, a bored expression gracing his handsome face. “And you talk too much,�
� he grumbled at Radbourne. “You’re such an arse.”
“Sweet nothings in my ear will get you nowhere, Grayson,” he said as he crossed the floor and dropped onto the piano bench. “You probably owe the lady an apology,” he added as he began to pluck out a tune. “For mentioning her unmentionables.”
“I beg your pardon,” Grayson grumbled.
“You talked about my unmentionables too?” Livi raised an octave. She would have to do him bodily harm.
“I most certainly did not.” His eyes roamed down her body. “I can’t discuss things I haven’t seen,” he drawled slowly. Then he arched an amused brow at her again. “I can discuss it whenever you’d like, however.”
“Good Lord,” Radbourne muttered. “The two of you will be leg-shackled before the fortnight is over if you keep that up.” He scowled at them both. “Matter of fact, if you’re going to continue making calf eyes at her, I’ll take my leave,” he quipped.
Livi jumped to deny his assumption. But Gray held up a hand to stop her. “I’ll make calf eyes at her if I want to.”
He would? Livi’s heart skipped a beat. She’d assumed the heated glances were nothing of importance. Just a bit of flirtation. Was she wrong?
“I was just explaining to Miss Mayeux the odd circumstances regarding Lady Sophia’s employment with Mother. Or lack of employment with Mother.”
Lord Radbourne stopped playing and spun on the bench to face them both. “You told her that the harridan is here to teach us our manners?” He shook his head with what she assumed was disgust. “Have you taken leave of your senses? I’d never admit that to a lady I had a romantic interest in.”
“He doesn’t have any romantic interest in me,” Livi blurted.
But Gray didn’t deny his brother’s accusations. He just looked at her. His eyes were so serious that he could probably see all the way to her soul with his piercing gaze.
“I didn’t say marital interest, Miss Mayeux,” Radbourne said over a laugh.
“You two think you’re so scandalous with your improper discussions.” Livi stepped away from them, hoping to calm her pounding heart, since she knew full well they could both hear it. “But you forget that I have brothers just like you. Worse, even. I’ve heard every bawdy joke ever told. And I’ve seen more in my years than the ladies you’re used to dealing with.”
