Dance of Seduction (36 page)

“And he makes us memorize them, too,” Mary said petulantly. She flashed Morgan a hopeful look. “Do you read stories?”

Morgan hid his smile. “Not today. I’ve only come to speak to Lady Clara briefly.”

“Don’t s’pose you could take that Lord Winter with you when you leave, could you?” David asked.

“I’m sure Lady Clara would rather that he stay.”

Mary shook her head, her pigtails flopping. “I don’t think so. The first day he came here, he made a big row, and Lady Clara’s been sore at him ever since. I can tell when she’s sore, too—she gets that look on her face, like somebody stuck a pin in her bottom. Whenever that Lord Winter comes in, she walks around like she’s got a pin in her bottom. Only I wish somebody would stick a pin in Lord Winter’s bottom instead.”

Morgan wanted fervently to oblige her, but he had to
avoid Lord “Winter.” The man would call him Blakely and ruin Morgan’s carefully crafted image of himself as a fence. But damn, if he didn’t tire of this double life. He’d be glad when it was all over.

“So what have you come to talk to Lady Clara about?” David asked.

“I hope you’re here to cheer her up,” Mary put in. “’Cause when Lady Clara is sad, it ain’t the same around here.”

“Has she been sad?” Morgan’s gut tightened painfully. He didn’t like thinking she hadn’t missed him, yet perversely he didn’t like knowing she might be unhappy.
Sacrebleu
, the woman was turning him inside out.

“She’s all right.” David shot Mary a cautioning glance. “Why do you want to know about Lady Clara anyway? You’re the cap’n, ain’t you? Johnny’s friend?”

“Yes.”

“Then you ain’t got no business being here. Lady Clara will skin your hide, she will, if she sees you talking to us. Being as how you’re a fence and all.”

“You may be right. Nonetheless, I need to speak to her privately about an important matter. So I’ll make you a bargain. I’ll keep quiet about you and your friend skulking about out here—”

“We ain’t skulking!” Mary protested.

“—if you’ll tell me how to get in to see Lady Clara without any of the servants or the other children seeing me. Do you think you could manage that?”

As David looked thoughtful, Mary mumbled, “We wasn’t skulking, that’s all I’m saying. It ain’t skulking if a body’s just sitting there leaving folks be…”

Paying her no mind, David nodded. “We can go round by the back stairs. It goes right up to the hall by Lady Clara’s office. Won’t nobody see you if I keep a lookout for Peg and Mrs. Carter.”

“Lead on then. There’s a guinea in it for you if you can manage it.”

“A guinea!” Mary exclaimed, all her protests forgotten. “Can I help?”

Morgan hesitated, then said, “I’ll give you a guinea of your own if you’ll do something else for me. But it’s not something you’ll like, I’m afraid.” He eyed her as if somehow finding fault, then shook his head. “No, I don’t think you’ll do it. Since you dislike Lord ‘Winter’ so much.”

She planted her little hands on bony hips and thrust out her lower lip. “I can do anything you want for a guinea.”

“Can you keep Lord ‘Winter’ busy until I’ve finished my business with Lady Clara? I don’t want him bothering us while I’m talking to her.”

Mary frowned. “You mean, I have to go back in there and listen to the old codger?”

“Yes. And if he tries to seek out Lady Clara, you have to coax him into staying put.” He started to climb back down the stairs. “Oh, never mind, I knew you couldn’t—”

“I’ll do it!” She held out her hand. “But I want my guinea now.”

He suppressed a smile. “Fair enough.”

When he handed her the guinea, she bit it, then flashed him a toothy smile. Squaring her shoulders, she marched up the stairs with all the regal bearing of a miniature Clara. At the top, she paused to strike a dramatically languid pose. “If I die of boredom, Captain, pray give me a good burial.”

As she sauntered inside, Morgan couldn’t restrain a laugh. But David merely snorted and grabbed his arm. “This way, Cap’n, if you want to see Lady Clara.”

Another guinea poorer and scarcely a minute later, Morgan found himself inside the building. He was in a hallway, facing the imposing door to what David had told him was
Clara’s office. The hall was deserted, thank God, because all the children were downstairs.

He hesitated only a second before easing the door open to slip inside. And there she was—his obsession, sitting at an ancient oak desk etched with scratches and stained with ink. Sunlight from a back window streaked across the room to dab at her muslin-draped arms and shoulders, gilding them in morning gold. Her head was bent as she concentrated on the ledger lying open before her. She was so absorbed she didn’t even notice anyone had entered.

But Morgan noticed everything—how ringlets of her pretty chestnut hair fringed her drawn brow, how the tip of her pink tongue darted out to lick her lips as she worked a sum, how her mere presence in the room made it brighter, bigger, sweeter.

When he moved further inside and closed the door behind him, however, her head shot up and the spell was broken.

“Morgan!” Pleasure briefly flashed in her face before agitation replaced it. “What are you doing here? I told you we mustn’t be seen together!”

“It’s all right. I sneaked in.”

She jumped up, suddenly as skittish as a cat, her gaze darting to the door, her hands fluttering to smooth and straighten her skirts. It pleased him that he could unnerve her as easily as she unnerved him.

“You have to leave,” she protested. “Lord Winthrop is here, and if he sees you, it will be disaster.”

“Don’t worry, it’s taken care of.” He rounded her desk. “What’s he doing here anyway?”

“Oh, it’s ridiculous.” Her sweet mouth drew up into a pout. “He’s got this foolish idea in his head that he should volunteer here. I asked him at the ball to come work with the boys, but I never thought he’d do it. I was trying to put him off for good.” She sighed. “No such luck. I told you—my
aunt is set on marrying me off to him, and now he seems to be falling in with her plans.”

Morgan scowled and caught her about the waist before she could back away. “Well, that’s out, because you’re marrying me.”

“Morgan—”

He cut off her words with a kiss, taking solace in her easy response, in the way she melted beneath his touch. He tasted lemons as he buried his tongue in the welcoming warmth of her luscious mouth over and over, wishing he could do more than kiss her.

Suddenly, she tore away from him, her eyes wide and her breath coming quickly. “We mustn’t do this. Not here.”

“I know,” he said regretfully as he allowed her to slip from his arms. “That’s why I’m taking you away for the day.”

“What? You can’t!”

“I can. My sister-in-law has invited you and your aunt to join her and my brother and me for an excursion into the countryside. A picnic, as it were. She has even convinced Ravenswood to come along to accompany your aunt.”

“But…but…” she sputtered.

“Remember, Juliet thinks we work here together. She told me to convince you to come with us for the day. And if I can’t manage it, she plans on coming down here to fetch you herself.” He cast her a taunting smile. “So you see, angel, you have no choice. If you don’t come out with us, she’ll show up here with my brother and ruin my entire scheme to capture the Specter. Just think of how the denizens of Spitalfields would react to see my twin descend from the Templemore coach, accompanied by footmen in full livery. You wouldn’t want to be responsible for that disaster, would you?”

“No, but…but couldn’t you talk Lady Juliet out of her plans? You should have told her you couldn’t do it or we were busy or…or…”

“Why would I do that? It was my idea.” When her confusion turned to anger, he added softly, “I wanted to be with you, angel, and I knew you’d never come out alone with me, so I engaged Juliet’s help. Now that the wheels are set in motion, you have to come.”

Her eyes narrowed. “This is blackmail, Morgan, and you know it.”

Reaching out, he caught her hand and lifted it for his kiss. “I do what I must to get what I want. And I want a day with you,
ma belle ange
. One day is all I ask.” He swept his other arm wide to take in the room and beyond. “Away from this, away from Spitalfields. Can’t you spare me even one day?”

She bit her lower lip, clearly undecided, though her eyes were fixed on the single window showing a perfect blue sky outside. He fancied that she tightened her grip on his hand as she stared out at the beautiful morning. “What shall I do about Lord Winthrop?”

He tugged her into his arms. “I can think of any number of suitable things—drowning, hanging, drawing and quartering—”

“Don’t be absurd,” she retorted with a weak laugh. “And I thought you said you weren’t jealous of him.”

He bent his head to nuzzle her hair and got a noseful of her sweet jasmine scent. Longing tightened a band around his chest. “I’m jealous of everyone who has your attention—the children in the Home, your aunt, Samuel…all of them. Because you give them everything while you begrudge me even a few hours…”

“And you begrudge me a lifetime,” she whispered into his cravat.

He winced. Damn her for always cutting right to the point. “I’ll begrudge you nothing today. Will you come spend the day with me?” He swept his hands along the curves of her waist, wishing they had time for more. “Please?”

“I-I can’t very well just walk out the door with you.”

“No. I’ll leave the way I came. Wait a few minutes, and call for your coach, then go fetch your aunt and join us at the Templemore town house.”

“Are you sure you want me to bring Aunt Verity? She knows you as Captain Pryce, and she’s sure to say something to your family.”

“Confound it all, I forgot about that.” He cupped her cheek. “No, that would muck things up considerably. Is there any way you could leave her at home? You could tell Juliet that she’s sick or something.”

“I’ll do that. It would hardly help for us to go to all this trouble to hide your true identity only to have my aunt blathering it everywhere.”

His breath caught. “Does that mean you’ll come?”

She cast him an arch glance. “You’re giving me no choice, are you?”

“None.”

“Then I suppose I
have
to, don’t I?”

“Absolutely.” The intensity of his relief that she’d said yes astonished him. “Sebastian and Juliet are taking us to an abandoned pleasure garden just outside London. He purchased it from a friend and hasn’t yet decided what to do with it. But it has ponds and waterfalls and a little arbor. I think you’ll like it.”

A smile broke over her face. “I’ll admit I could use a break from the Home.” She gestured to the desk. “And I’d much prefer a day in the country to doing the books.”

“Good.” He took a slip of paper from his pocket. “When you leave here, send your coachman to this address. We’ll be there waiting.” He tipped up her chin with one finger. “And if you haven’t come within the hour, I swear Juliet will drive down here and—”

“I know, I know. She’ll ruin your entire scheme to capture the Specter, and it’ll be all my fault.”

He chuckled. “You’re a fast learner, angel. But in case you get that little mind of yours working after I leave and think to change your plans—” Dragging her into his arms, he kissed her again, slowly, leisurely, taking his time to rouse her, letting his hands roam over the soft contours of her slender frame.

When he drew back, he was hard as iron and wishing he didn’t have to share her with his family today. “God, how I’ve missed you,” he whispered against her pinkening cheek.

“Me, too.”

They stood there a moment until a rattling of pebbles against the window made him jerk back. That was the signal he’d agreed upon with young David to indicate that Lord Winthrop and the children had come out into the hall downstairs. “I have to go,” he told her, pausing only to brush another kiss across her lips. “But I’ll see you in an hour, angel.”

Then he let himself out the way he’d come.

Clara could hardly contain her excitement as the Templemore carriage trundled out of the city. Her head told her to resent Morgan’s manipulation, but her heart thrilled to it. That he had missed her would have been enough, but for him to have gone to all this trouble…It gave her hope.

So did the way his family had welcomed her, as if they expected an announcement of marriage any day.

Take care
, she cautioned herself. But it was no use. She was too happy sitting across from Morgan in this delightful carriage, too pleased to be leaving the grimy streets of London behind on such a gorgeous day, if only for a few hours.

“Are you sure Lord Templemore is all right up there?” she asked Lady Juliet.

Lady Juliet, pretty and prim, smiled fondly at Clara. “Believe me, he’s having the time of his life. Sebastian enjoys the outdoors almost as much as I do.”

They’d planned to take two carriages until Clara had arrived without her aunt. When they’d realized that by fitting in only one extra person they could leave one carriage behind, Lord Templemore had chosen to ride with the coachman, and the other four of them had crowded into the lushly appointed but cramped family carriage.

She didn’t mind the squeeze, not with Morgan across from her, his legs intimately interlaced with hers and his gaze hot upon her. In the hour since they’d left, she must have blushed half a dozen times at the way he looked at her, though she tried to suppress it whenever she caught Lord Ravenswood watching them both.

If Lady Juliet noticed the blushes, she was much too polite and well-bred to indicate it. “Do tell me,” the young woman said, half-turning toward Clara, “how does our Morgan get on at the Home? Do you feel that the place is safer now that he spends his nights there?”

Clara swallowed. She hated lying to this perfectly nice woman, yet for some reason Morgan seemed determined not to tell his family what he was doing in Spitalfields. “Oh, yes, things are much better at night now that he’s around,” Clara murmured evasively. “I don’t know what I shall do once he’s gone.”

Lady Juliet patted her arm. “Then we’ll simply have to convince him to stay in London past the end of the wager, shan’t we?”