by Unknown
To say that Danielle felt uncomfortable as Sophia led her inside, chattering gaily, would have been a gross understatement. She was, however, very glad for Sophia's company, very glad that Sophia insisted on escorting her to her room for a short chat before she left her to rest. She knew very well that Adrian's temper hadn't improved since his revelation, and she had no real desire to be confronted with what he would certainly see as a grave deception. She thought, perhaps, that it might be best if his temper had time to cool.
He was not, she quickly discovered, to be turned from his objective, however. "Danny," he said in a deceptively pleasant voice as they parted on the upper landing, "I would like a word with you . . . before dinner, if you please."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
"I quite like the Kents. I hadn't expected them to be nearly so friendly! And Sophie, hadn't thought she'd be so very nice and beautiful, too. But she doesn't seem at all conscious of it, as one would suppose she would be. She's given me the room next to hers, so we can visit at night, she says, discuss parties and such." Danielle chuckled nervously, "When they began to tease each other, when we first arrived, it rather reminded me a lot of how it was with me and Jimmy and Daisy. It made me a little sad but comfortable, too, if you know what I mean," she added breathlessly, for really, Lord Beaumont was walking far too fast for her to catch her breath properly, and talk too, with her stays so tight. She hadn't gotten used to wearing the torture devises women of fashion used to make their waists so small. Not that she was really thinking about that at the moment.
Lord Beaumont didn't stop until he reached the summerhouse at the rear of the garden. Casting a quick look around then, he drew her up the steps and into the cool, darkened interior. Danielle eyed him warily in the dim light, chewing one corner of her lower lip.
He eyed her narrowly for several moments before he spoke. "Precisely how old are you, Danielle?" he asked in a voice of deceptive calm.
Danielle wasn't deceived. "I . . . uh . . . . Well, I don't know precisely. I did tell you I didn't, you know."
Adrian ground his teeth. "You told me you thought you were seventeen."
"More or less," Danielle reminded him and took a step back as he advanced on her.
"How much less?" Adrian asked grimly.
"I'm sure I don't know," Danielle said with credible hauteur.
He advanced another step. "No? Why is it that I doubt you, I wonder?"
Danielle took another step in retreat and came up against the wall of the summerhouse. "I don't know!" she snapped. "Jiminey! What's a couple of years one way or another? I mean, if you don't know anyway."
Adrian advanced again, blocking further retreat by placing a hand on either side of her head against the wall. "For one of your tender years? The difference between a child and a young woman."
"Well, I don't see that," Danielle disputed, refusing to meet his eyes. "You mightn't be aware of it, but I expect very nearly half the whores in London are no more than twelve or thirteen, some younger than that."
"I'm well aware of it," Adrian said dryly. "As it has nothing whatever to do with yourself, however, I think we can dismiss that subject." He felt his anger evaporate as he tucked his fingers beneath her chin and forced her to look up at him however. He only wished his disgust with himself would vanish half so quickly, for he knew, knew she'd lied to him, and he found that it made no difference. He still wanted her. It had been a mistake, he realized, to allow himself to get so close to her. "I'm not going to beat you, sweetheart, though I'll admit that was my first inclination. Only tell me you're not . . . you're not . . . ."
Danielle smiled a little uneasily. "Twelve? Oh, no! I'm much older than that. I'm sure!"
Adrian found that he wasn't as vastly relieved as he thought he'd be. Perhaps that was because he no longer knew just what to believe. "How much older? How old do you think you are, sweetheart?"
"I could be seventeen," she supplied cautiously.
"But you're not, are you?"
She shook her head slowly and Adrian felt a cold sweat pop from his brow. "Sixteen?" She shrugged. "Fifteen?" She chewed her lower lip. "Christ!" he exploded, raking his fingers through his hair distractedly. "Fifteen?" he asked again.
She gave him a mutinous look. "Bloody hell! I told you I didn't know! What difference does it make anyhow? Fourteen? Seventeen?"
"Fourteen?" Adrian asked in a strangled voice. "Danielle!"
She moistened her lips and looked away. "Probably not. Not that it makes any difference as far as I can tell. You couldn't tell the difference."
"Don't remind me!" Adrian growled and turned to pace the summerhouse. "Christ! You little fool! What possessed you to do such a witless thing! Did it not occur to you, even once, that I might have gotten you with child? And you not much more than that yourself!" The thought shook him, and he moved back to her, cupping her face in his hand. "I didn't, did I?"
Danielle blushed fierily. "I don't think so," she said dubiously.
Adrian frowned, thinking back. "For God's sake, Danielle! You ought to know by now! Have you had your time or not?"
"You said I wasn't to discuss such things!"
Adrian ground his teeth, resisting the urge to pull his hair out or throttle her. "This is no time for missishness, damn it!"
"Well then, no."
"No, what? No, you haven't had your time? No, you're not with child? No, you don't know? Which?"
"No, I'm not with child," she said flatly.
"Swear to me that this is the truth, Danielle," Adrian said determinedly.
She glared at him. "Bloody hell! If you wasn't going to believe me no how, why did you ask!"
"Stop swearing at me, Danielle, or I'm going to give in to temptation and turn you over my knee!" Adrian ground out.
"But you just told me to swear," Danielle objected.
"This is no time for your warped sense of humor!"
Danielle sighed. "I can't think why you're so upset. What's a year or two, more or less?"
"Don't start that again! If you mean to tell me now that you are twelve, I will beat you, you vile brat! Christ! This is the damnedest coil!"
"Well, I don't see that," Danielle put in placatingly.
Adrian glared at her. "You wouldn't!" He returned to his pacing. "What I'm to do with you now, I can't think."
Danielle stared at him, feeling the blood drain from her face. She had known he was angry with her, even before they spoke of it, because she hadn't been quite honest about her age. But she hadn't expected that he would be quite as angry as he apparently was. And it hadn't occurred to her that he might consider sending her away because of it. It occurred to her forcefully now that that was exactly what he was considering. "What do you mean by that?"
He gave her a distracted look, but he was far from oblivious to her, and he noticed at once that he'd frightened her. He strode to her and pulled her tightly against him. "Don't, precious. Don't look at me like that. Have you so little faith in me?"
She turned her head to look up at him. "I don't doubt you, but I don't understand."
He smiled faintly. "I don't suppose you would." He dropped a light kiss on her forehead and released her with some reluctance. "Go inside now, sweetheart, before I do something insanely stupid. I've got to think, and I can't when you're anywhere near me."
"She's an odd child," Sophia said musingly as she leaned against the rail, watching Danielle at her riding lessons.
Adrian frowned. "How so?"
Sophia bit her lip to hide a smile. "You needn't take me up. I didn't mean it at all in a derogatory way. It's just . . . ." She frowned, trying to think how to put it into words. "Sometimes she seems the merest babe, and I get the strongest urge to mother her, and in almost the very next moment, I begin to feel like the babe. And she has the quaintest way of looking at things. Sometimes its most disconcerting." She chuckled ruefully. "One thing is certain. A person would never be bored around her, for she's never predict
able."
Adrian smiled wryly. "No," he agreed. "She's never predictable."
He returned his attention to Danielle then, watching her keenly as the groom took her through her paces. Sophia took the opportunity to study him.
He had been a surprise, a not altogether welcome one. She hadn't expected to like him. She hadn't wanted to. Unfortunately, she'd discovered fairly quickly that she couldn't help liking him, because, despite his coolness, his reticence, she occasionally got a look at a different man entirely, and the two together were a powerful draw to feminine curiosity.
It was unfortunate, because she'd never been capable of hiding her feelings, as Adrian was apparently adept at hiding his. When she liked a person, it was as obvious as it was when she didn't care for them. And it was going to be very difficult to explain to her parents that what she felt for Adrian was not the sort of feelings a woman should have for her husband. They were bound to put it down to contrariness, and she was obliged to admit that it must appear so. There was nothing at all about the man that a woman could object to.
He was quite distressingly handsome. His manners and address were impeccable. If he had the least conceit, he hid it very well. He was never cruel. On the contrary, despite his best efforts to hide it, she suspected that he was a bit of a soft touch, at least where it concerned those he cared for. He was never rude, never short tempered. He was, in fact, quite tiresomely perfect, and how she was ever going to convince her parents that she preferred plain, far from perfect, Mr. Thomas Clanton, over Lord Beaumont, the perfect son of his perfect Duke of a father, she couldn't begin to guess.
She'd had little success in that direction even before Adrian had arrived, though she had been able to persuade her parents to keep the betrothal a secret within the family until she and Adrian were ready to announce it. Now that they'd met him, come to know him in the past few weeks, they were far too enamored of him to see her objections as anything short of insanity.
Regardless, she adored her bumbling, not terribly handsome, Thomas. He reminded her of a great, overgrown, cuddly, teddy bear, and he brought out a fierce maternal sense in her. He needed her. He just didn't know it yet . . . or, perhaps he did.
Of course, they wouldn't be in this predicament now if he hadn't been so annoyingly slow to come up to scratch. That was what came of setting one's heart on a shy man. It had taken her nearly a year to convince the lummox to court her, and she'd begun to think she'd end up an old maid, for she'd turned down every other offer. It wasn't until he'd seen he had practically a clear field that he'd gathered the courage to approach her at all. And after devoting more than a year to bringing him up to scratch, he'd decided to ask her after her father had received the Duke of Remming's offer for her for his son. It was enough to make a girl feel like screaming and pulling her hair out.
If it hadn't been so frustrating, it might have been amusing. She couldn't, at present, appreciate the amusing aspects of the situation, however.
True, she'd had no difficulty keeping Adrian at arm's length, and though she found it rather disconcerting, it was also a relief. But she knew very well that that couldn't last. Sooner or later, he was bound to formally request her hand in marriage, and when he did, she was duty bound to accept. Unless she could stave off the offer.
She turned to study Danielle speculatively. She'd begun to suspect that there was more to her particular situation than met the eye. She'd thought to begin with that Danielle was afraid of her guardian. It had brought forth a surge of protectiveness for the younger girl and steeled her determination, in the beginning, to dislike Adrian. It hadn't taken her long, however, to discover that Danielle's fear of displeasing him had nothing to do with a fear of punishment. Danielle quite obviously adored her guardian. The question was, how? And could it be put to her advantage?
She felt a little guilty at the thought, for she was genuinely fond of Danielle. But she assured herself that she would certainly do nothing that would harm Danielle in any way. She wouldn't encourage Danielle to flirt with her guardian. That might very well mean courting disaster, unless Adrian could be brought to look upon Danielle in the same way.
She could, however, study Adrian a little more closely whenever he was around Danielle. He was fond of his ward. She knew that much already, for he was very careful of her welfare. It was almost amusing to watch him check each advance her brothers attempted to worm their way into Danielle's regard. Particularly since she was almost certain Robin was entirely serious in this pursuit and was becoming increasingly frustrated by the fact that Danielle's guardian refused to consider him as a possible suitor.
That in itself wasn't sufficient for her aims, however. He would have to begin to consider Danielle as a woman, not an amusing, or tiresome, child as he seemed to now, if Danielle was ever to convince Adrian that the two of them were far better suited for each other than she and Adrian were. However, she began to see that they were well suited to one another. She began to see hope of salvation. After all, her father could hardly fault her if her suitor turned to his ward instead, could he? She could then have her darling, annoying Thomas, and Danielle, who surely deserved happiness if anyone ever did, could have the very perfect Adrian.
Her plans suffered a slight setback, however. Adrian was called away on business. It seemed the plantation he'd bought, rather than being near Charles Town as he'd supposed, bordered upon the colony of Georgia, along the Savannah river, an area that was claimed by both colonies. It shouldn't have mattered. Both colonies, in actually, belonged to the Crown, even though Georgia was, at present, under Trustee. However, the Trustees of Georgia had outlawed slavery in the colony, feeling that slaves would weaken the colony's military strength. They'd envisioned a colony of small farms where each man stood ready to defend not only the colony of Georgia but those to the north. And they'd proven the soundness of that wisdom and their usefulness in the capacity of buffer by repelling the recent Spanish invasion before it was hardly begun. However, a plantation required slave labor. Adrian must establish himself as a citizen and landholder of Carolina or his hopes of building a large estate would come to nothing.
He left to attend the matter and to oversee the progress on his home that was being built on his plantation, promising the Kents that he would return in time for the ball they had planned to formally introduce him to the residents of the district in three weeks time. Sophia was disappointed but decided to put the time to good use. She would see to it that Danielle was absolutely stunning. When she was through with her young friend, no man would be proof against her, not even her very self-possessed guardian.
Chapter Thirty
"You look ravishing tonight," Adrian said, taking Sophia's hand and bringing it to his lips. And the words were sincere, for all that they, and his actions, were more automatic than not, for he'd noticed in a detached sort of way that she was looking extraordinarily well tonight. His thoughts were on Danielle, however. He hadn't seen her since his return earlier in the day, and he wondered if she was avoiding him, or if she was so caught up in her new life that she was simply unaware of his return, or uncaring.
Kent had bent his ear for nearly an hour over her exploits in the weeks that he'd been gone. And although he'd listened impatiently at first, chafing at the delay when he'd meant to seek her out at once, afterwards, he'd decided against it. It seemed she was quite a success with the local gentry. Suitors had already begun to flock to his little ward, despite the fact that they'd taken care to set it about that her portion would be modest, Kent had been pleased to inform him, certain Adrian would be pleased with the news. Adrian had been far from pleased with the news.
Sophia resisted the urge to kick him in the shin, lowering her lashes in seeming modesty to hide her flash of temper. She was accustomed to receiving such accolades, for although she wasn't conceited, she knew very well that she was pretty. She wasn't accustomed, however, to having a man look through her when he made such a remark. It wasn't that she was put out . . . really
. She had no wish to attract him. Regardless, she couldn't help but be piqued. "You flatter me, I fear, but I thank you," she said dryly.
Adrian smiled faintly, amused despite his dark mood, for she hadn't managed to keep the pique from her voice. In the next moment, however, his amusement vanished, and he sighed inwardly. He was well aware that his courtship was not going as it should. Either he'd lost his touch entirely or she was as indifferent to him as he was to her. For, despite his best efforts, he was indifferent. Beautiful as she undoubtedly was, he felt no more attraction to her than he would have had she been his sister.
Still, the effort must be made. She was entitled to a courtship, regardless of the fact that theirs was an arranged marriage. "On the contrary, I but do my poor best to do you justice."
"Poor indeed," Sophia responded with just a trace of a sarcastic bite, then smiled brilliantly when his dark brows snapped together in a frown. "You must strive to do better when you see Danny. The child's amazingly modest. Nothing I could do could convince her that she would be a vast success tonight. For really this will be rather like a pre-presentation for her. Her first time in society, from what she tells me. You will lead her out for the first dance?"
"On no account!" Adrian said, raising his brows. "You must know I'll be expected to lead out my betrothed."
"Oh, you needn't worry for that!" Sophia said airily, though she felt a spasm of nerves. It was the first time he'd spoken openly of their betrothal, acknowledging it, and she had been at great pains to keep him from doing so. "No one knows."
Adrian frowned. "How is this?"
"I only thought it best not to spread it about before it was official. It seemed precipitate to do so. After all, we hadn't even met. What if we had found that we wouldn't suit at all?"
