“What happened?” he asked. “Did you succeed in propositioning our host?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “He agreed to my terms.”
“And?”
“I am to return here on Saturday,” she answered, her expression bland as she looked straight ahead, seeing James leave the group he was with and come towards her, fixing her with a hard, reproving glare.
“Where have you been?” he muttered angrily, careful not to draw further attention to themselves by openly displaying his displeasure as everyone began to turn away. “How dare you make such a ridiculous display of yourself? Have you any idea what people are saying? It’s not like you to act so brazenly. Your behaviour is highly reprehensible, Louisa, and I insist we leave this very minute,” he said. Her conduct had sobered him up and he sounded unaccustomedly assertive, having been humiliated and made to look a fool by his sister, who everyone took to be his mistress—and one who had shamelessly deserted him for a man of more handsome looks and means.
“Lord Dunstan has just been showing me his house, James.” Louisa smiled, speaking lightly in an attempt to humour him. “That is all—and nothing to get so worked up about.”
“I think you should wait a while before you leave, James,” said Timothy. “If you leave now you will only give credence to what people are saying.”
Wishing to avoid further gossip, reluctantly James agreed to do just that. “Very well. If you say so then I suppose we must. But half an hour. No more. Besides,” he said sullenly, taking a large gulp of brandy, “there’s little pleasure to be had when the tables are barred to me.”
Chapter Five
With a sigh, Louisa excused herself and went to find the room which had been set aside for the ladies, eager to relax for a few moments away from inquisitive eyes. It wasn’t until then that she realised she was still holding the book Lord Dunstan had given her, and, finding the room empty, without even a maid on duty, with a little smile she seated herself in a chair and began to flick through the pages, eager for the time when she would be able to read it properly.
At that moment the door opened and someone came in. Looking up, Louisa saw it was Lady Bricknell, and she had a peculiar feeling that she had followed her into the room. Over the years Lady Bricknell had acquired a formidable presence, tall and statuesque, her strong, handsome features bearing down on any challenge with icy authority, and she was clearly a force to be reckoned with. She was, Louisa thought, dressed in the most garish taste, but her presence was undeniable.
Louisa rose, closing her book and smoothing her skirts, intending to leave, but Lady Bricknell put out a bejewelled hand and stopped her, her shrewd eyes assessing her from a tranquil face.
“Don’t go, my dear. I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to be introduced to you all evening. As you’ve no doubt gathered by now, I am Lady Bricknell—and you are Miss Divine, I believe?” she said, without reservation.
“That is correct,” said Louisa, glancing at her uncertainly, having already wondered about the nature of Lady Bricknell’s connection with Lord Dunstan, suspecting they were frequently in each other’s presence.
“How curious. Forgive me for asking, but is that your real name?”
“Why would it not be?”
Lady Bricknell’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “Oh, no reason. It just strikes me as being a little theatrical, that is all. And you need not tell me your real name if you prefer to keep it a secret.” She smiled, lowering her tone in happy complicity. “I would rather remain in ignorance than be fobbed off with a falsehood. You are here with Mr Fraser?”
“Yes,” said Louisa, beginning to relax, finding Lady Bricknell not at all as she had expected. Her tone was warm and when she smiled it was quite entrancing. In her mid-thirties, she was still at the height of her beauty, in a certain style, and it was not difficult to see why she was such a popular figure.
“Then it is monstrously unfair of him to have deprived us of your company for so long. However, I have to confess that I’ve been watching you and I can tell this isn’t to your taste. You cast your eye over us as if we are a crowd of vacuous idiots, and, speaking for at least half the company here tonight—” she chuckled, patting her vivid red hair into place as she glanced quickly at her reflection in the mirror, the jewels on her fingers catching the light and casting dancing patterns on the walls “—I have to say you are not wrong. You must have seen for yourself that most of the guests are vapid, full of endless, empty twitterings.”
“I apologise if I give that impression. It is not my intention to appear rude or to give offence.”
“I’m sure it isn’t, my dear,” Lady Bricknell said kindly. “You are extremely lovely, and I find it strange that we have not seen you at any of the functions before now.”
“That is because I have only recently arrived from Surrey.”
“Then that explains it. It is easy to see why Alistair is so taken with you—despite the fact that you are not free.”
Louisa paled and stared at her. “I—I beg your pardon?”
“I know Alistair too well, my dear. He is always appreciative of a beautiful woman. The way he looks at you with particular interest tells me he has singled you out. In fact, you are the first woman he has shown a serious interest in since that unfortunate affair with his wife. He is susceptible and you are attractive.” She looked at Louisa searchingly. “And you are attracted to him, otherwise you would not have left us all to be alone with him for such a long time. Is that not so?”
Louisa stared at her mutely, and Lady Bricknell could read, by the sudden colour that sprang to her cheeks and the confusion in her eyes, that she had hit upon the truth.
“You must think me frightfully inquisitive and outspoken,” she went on, a faint glint of anxiety showing behind the bland smile, “and you must forgive me, but do not be mistaken by all this. Unlike many men of Alistair’s background, he is a private man and stays away from frivolous intrigues, even though several ladies have made their availability known to him. Let’s face it, he’s got the kind of mesmerising looks and charm that would make him a lady-killer if he wished. Women find him irresistible. Oh, he is a man of consummate experience and has not been without his amorous affairs, but the reality is somewhat different.”
“Why are you telling me this, Lady Bricknell?” Louisa asked, her features impassive.
“Because you are not like the rest. You’re different. I can see that, and I should hate to see you get burned. My instinct tells me you do not altogether understand the way of the world or society as we do—and, as someone who knows it only too well, take my advice and return to the country.”
“I understand things much better than you think, Lady Bricknell,” Louisa said quietly, looking at her steadily. “Are you sure it is not because you want Lord Dunstan for yourself?” she dared to venture.
Instead of being angry, Lady Bricknell smiled broadly and chuckled, her eyes twinkling with merriment, dispelling any notion Louisa had that she and Lord Dunstan’s relationship was anything other than platonic.
“Oh, my dear—you really are quite naive, aren’t you?” she said, not unkindly. “Anyone who knows me will tell you that any passion that was between Alistair and myself burned itself out many years ago, long before it even started, in fact—and I am much too old for him.”
“You do yourself an injustice, Lady Bricknell. Looking as beautiful as you do,” smiled Louisa, “I do not believe that for a moment.”
Appreciative of the compliment, Lady Bricknell’s eyes danced. “You are extremely generous and a flatterer, my dear. Thank you. However,” she said, on a more serious note, looking at Louisa intently, “Alistair and I remain friends—good friends—which cannot be said of most women of his acquaintance. You’re flattered by his attentions, I know. Every woman is whom Alistair deems to cast his eye over. He is marked with a proud arrogance and an indomitable will, and I advise you to think very carefully before becoming involved with him. I am saying this for your sake
as well as his.”
“You—you mentioned his wife?” Louisa asked tentatively.
“Yes. She hurt him desperately. It is a subject he always avoids talking about, but since that time he has held virtually every woman he has come into contact with in contempt, regarding them as being irrelevant—both dispensable and replaceable. If you are drawn into an affair with him, and find yourself wanting to remain with him, take care—because when a woman becomes possessive he quickly becomes unobtainable. His liberty is too important to him at present. I would not wish to see you get hurt.”
“Thank you, Lady Bricknell. I appreciate your concern—but, being a stranger to you, I am somewhat puzzled by it.”
For a moment Lady Bricknell was silent as she regarded Louisa a little sadly, and then she said, “Yes, I am sure you are. It’s just that you seem so young and innocent. I wanted to warn you before it is too late.”
“Thank you, but I am no woolly-headed milksop come to town for a few days, so dazzled and blinded by the excitement of society and its ways that I do not see the sordid disillusionment. I am not nearly so naive as you imagine me to be, Lady Bricknell. I am experienced enough to recognise a gentleman’s intentions, and to know when to step back.”
Smiling graciously, Lady Bricknell turned and walked towards the door, but then she turned and looked back with a strangely reflective, cynical smile. “I thought so too at your age. Unfortunately, with one husband and a string of lovers behind me, I was easily tempted by a handsome face—and more so when a fortune was dangled in front of me like a carrot to a donkey. I had a dreadful habit of stepping forward instead of back, and jumping in with both feet. It would seem that I have been incapable of learning by experience to conduct my life in less turbulent waters. Goodbye, my dear.”
Louisa watched her go, strangely touched by Lady Bricknell’s obvious concern for her well-being. How she would like to take her advice and return to Surrey immediately, but unfortunately it was already too late.
Louisa was quiet in the carriage taking them away from Dunstan House. The whole evening and what had transpired had left her numb. It didn’t help either that her thoughts kept returning to Lord Dunstan’s embrace and devastating kiss, making her aware of her own femininity, and making him appear so very desirable. How he would be as a lover was beyond her experience to imagine, but she did not believe she would be disappointed. He could not have been unaffected by their embrace either, otherwise he would not have agreed to pay the high price she had placed on herself to warm his bed.
But she was puzzled by him. He held many mysteries, mysteries she was not too eager to solve, having many qualms about the solution. He fascinated her and she could not even begin to understand the convolutions of his character.
No human being had ever made her feel like this, so at first she did not recognise the feeling. If he could render her defenceless after one kiss, causing a weakness to spread through her body like liquid fire that left her wanting more, what would she be like after sharing his bed? The memory of his burning touch, and his kiss, and the dark, hidden pleasure it had stirred within her, roused her to fresh paroxysms of desire.
He had kissed her as though he owned her—which, she thought with bitter irony, in a way he did, until after Saturday night. But could she blame him? He thought she was easy, because at their very first encounter at Bricknell House she had given him good reason to think so, and her behaviour tonight had confirmed his opinion. And had she not set out to encourage his advances yet hold him at a distance until he became mad with desire for her?
But how she would like to show him how wrong he was, that she was serious-minded and correct in every way, and that when he begged for her to go to him she would coldly turn away.
Back in Henrietta Street she said goodnight to James and entered her room, cold with memory, and with secret tears of helplessness gathering in her eyes.
When Timothy called the following morning, in the hope that Louisa would have had second thoughts about going to Dunstan House the next day, he found her alone. She was pale and the shadows around her eyes told of her sleepless night. His heart was wrung with concern and pity at her plight.
“Louisa, you must see that what you are doing is sheer madness,” he said, determined to have one last try at making her see sense. “You’re far too respectable to sully yourself in this manner. You’re so young—an innocent. Lord Dunstan will eat you alive.”
She shook her head in a helpless gesture. “I have to go through with it, Timothy. What choice have I? I am desperate.”
“Have you any idea what will happen to you—what he will expect of you?”
Louisa flushed to the roots of her hair, wanting to ask him for guidance but too embarrassed. “I am not ignorant as to what happens between men and women—but I do admit that I have no idea how to go about being a seductress.”
Timothy looked grim. “I don’t think you’ll have to seduce Lord Dunstan, Louisa. Just be your usual lovely self. I can assure you that he will do the rest,” he told her bluntly.
“At least it will be for just the one night.”
Timothy was unconvinced. “If he is prepared to waive James’s IOU for one night of love, then I very much doubt he intends for it to be a momentary diversion. I do not believe you are as resilient as you would like me to think. Will you be quite calm and able to deal with it when the time comes?”
Louisa sighed, asking herself as she had countless times throughout the night if she would be able to detach her body and mind from what was going on, what he was doing to her. Would she want to?
“I think so. I feel like an actress on the eve of a new performance, all my senses concentrated on making it a success—for on that success my own and James’s survival depends. I have to make it the performance of my life, Timothy, and my instinct tells me that if I keep a level head I can do it—and survival is a question of instinct. Dear Lord, let it serve me well tomorrow night. But how am I going to escape James?”
“That is already taken care of. My parents share Amelia’s fondness for James and have invited him to Kettering, our family home in Oxfordshire, for the weekend. You too, as it happens, but no doubt you can come up with some excuse to get out of it.”
Which she did, pleading a headache and telling James that with the present unhappy state of their affairs she was in no mood for socialising. James accepted this, but to her alarm she saw he was touched by a feeling of guilt that he should be prepared to embark on a jolly weekend when she was so obviously suffering from his actions.
In the end Louisa managed to persuade him to go to Oxfordshire, telling him that a short break in the country air would do him good, saying that nothing could be achieved by his remaining at home in London. So Timothy arranged to collect him first thing on Saturday morning, leaving the carriage free for her own use.
Filled with trepidation and an unfamiliar tingling of excitement due to the clandestine nature of her secret assignment, Louisa woke on Saturday morning with a clear sense of purpose, strangely relieved that the moment of her confrontation with Lord Dunstan had arrived.
Later in the day, as she prepared to go to Dunstan House, she had reason to be grateful to Timothy for procuring the two dresses that had belonged to his sister. They might not be the height of fashion, but they were not so outmoded as to appear ridiculous. In fact, they were extremely elegant and quite pretty.
She dressed with extraordinary care, and the dress she chose to wear was a violet taffeta. It had a modestly low bodice, trimmed with lace, with a waistband of deeper violet. The sleeves, also trimmed with lace, were elbow-length and the full skirt belled out over several white frilly undergarments.
Her arrival at Dunstan House was expected and she was shown inside by a servant where she was met in the hall by Alistair, who did not attempt to hide his glow of appreciation as his eyes rested on her. He was dressed in a dark green coat and grey breeches, the snowy whiteness of his elegant cravat emphasising the blueness of his eyes, and Lou
isa was conscious only of his magnificence and became transfixed. With his dark brown hair brushed back, his face stamped with nobility and pride and his muscular body emanating raw power, he seemed extraordinarily tall and broad-shouldered as he came towards her.
Although she was trembling inside, Louisa faced him with outward calm. He held her hand when she would have withdrawn it a moment longer, and when he looked at her she felt his eyes slide into her, turning her bones to water. Now she was faced with the situation she had a peculiar sense of inadequacy, a fear that no matter what she did or said it would seem foolish to him. Any idea she’d had of casting a spell over him, of behaving in a manner which was so very alien to her, had disintegrated the moment she stepped inside Dunstan House and saw him again.
Sensing her unease, Alistair smiled into the soft, anxious amber eyes. Never had he met a woman who had such a stranglehold on his emotions. Initially he’d believed it might be because he hadn’t been amorously involved with a woman in a while, but the more he thought about it, the more he realised that it was she, herself, whom he wanted. Not only did he want her, he wanted her to want him, to banish all thoughts of James Fraser from her mind.
This worried him, because he did not intend becoming trapped in the kind of relationship he’d had with Marianne, his beautiful, unscrupulous wife, eight years ago, the kind of relationship he had thought was perfect, only to have his love and desire used against him like a treacherous weapon in her hands. Her betrayal and desertion when it came had almost destroyed him and he could not forget. Not since that time had any woman succeeded in coming close. He used them to satisfy his needs and then forgot them, casting them aside in the same callous manner as his wife had cast him aside.
But from his first encounter with Louisa Divine his instinct had told him she was not like the rest. She had become the supreme object of his desire, and her sensuality somehow seemed more potent in the demureness of her violet gown.
An Innocent Proposal Page 10
