Lord Suitor (5 page)

"So,"
Tessa had to know. "What did dear Roger say?"

Hetty
shrugged and set her golden curls bobbing. "That you'd been seen arguing
with Mitcham, that Lord Fenniston had intervened, and later he and Lord Fenniston
had played cards. Then, after heavy losses Mitcham had left arm in arm with Fenniston."

"Something
and nothing," Tessa said dismissingly, even though she longed to divulge
her dilemma to her friend. "Both gentlemen and I had a chat on the terrace
before I left with a headache." She shrugged and changed the subject.
"When will Roger grow up?"

"Who
knows, though Papa is muttering about sending him to the estate in Scotland if
he doesn't man up."

"Poor
Scots."

"Exactly
my thoughts."

The
conversation lapsed as Lady Howell, Hetty's mother, entered the room followed
by several servants carrying loaded trays which, as Tessa has prophesized, carried
enough food for a family of four for a sennight.

"Tuck
in, girls, and stock up for the afternoon. Cordelia Coplestone is not renown
for her generosity with refreshments, as we all know. And a rumbling tummy in
the middle of a harpist's performance would be too mortifying. Why the harpist
might think it was a reflection on her playing." Lady Howell picked up a
slice of ham pie and began to eat. Suddenly she put the pie back on the plate.
"Mind you, if it's Letty Bellhaven, it well could be. That girl doesn't
know a harp string from a heartstring. She pulls on them both, and both in a
very bad way."

Hetty
looked at Tessa and snorted. Tessa bit back a snigger. Lady Howell's eyes
twinkled. "Let's hope it's someone slightly more accomplished." She
picked her pie up again and continued eating.

"Mama,
you are incorrigible," Hetty said.

"Oh,
I do hope so. Eat up. We best not be too late."

Hetty
turned to Tessa. "Why not?" she muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

Tessa
grinned. "No idea."

"I
heard that," Lady Howell said, in what Tessa thought she perceived as a
disapproving tone. Somehow it didn't quite work.

"Mama,
you were meant to and you agree," Hetty said as she piled her plate high.

"Sadly,
I do."

Tess
chuckled. Hetty and her mama reminded her of herself and her own maman.

Chapter Five

From
his vantage point in the gardens of the leafy square, Nat watched Tessa leave
her house and grinned. He'd thought she might well do something like that, and
had to give her credit for her audacity. Idly he wondered what reason for her
departure she'd given her parents. Nat genuinely liked both Theo and Mijo, and
admired them for their honesty toward him when he'd asked for Tessa's hand in
marriage. Even if he suspected Theo hadn't been totally straight about the
state of his finances, when he had explained that Tessa's dowry was minimal. As
Nat had told the other man, his fortune made a dowry unnecessary—if Tessa
agreed to be his wife. That was something Nat wasn't sure of, but he looked
forward to the challenge.

"Take
this to the house over there." He handed a missive to the urchin he'd
promised sixpence to. Just in case Tessa
did
decide to try to disappear, Nat had planned accordingly. A bribe to a
potboy, a note to Mijo to say he was meeting Tessa at the soiree and would
escort her home, and Nat's alternative plans were put in place.

The
urchin bobbed a bow and bit the coin. "It's a real un," he determined
and took hold of the letter.

"Of
course it is," Nat said and ruffled the boy's hair. He hoped it was pure
and honest dirt in it, nothing else, but something about the lad drew him. The
look of innocence in his eyes perhaps? "Have I ever played you
false?" he asked the child.

"Nah,
you're a good un, you is. Any times you wants me, I'll be around. Fank you,
gov." He gave a sketchy bow and dashed across the road.

Nat
watched until the note was delivered and received by the majordomo before he turned
and strolled away. His urchin ran back to him and hovered nearby, looking at
Nat anxiously.

"What's
the matter? Did you have a reply for me?"

The
lad shook his head. "Nah, but..." He hopped from one foot to another.
"Does you not need me allus? Can I sleep in your stables and work for you,
guv? I won't need money more than I gets, but..." He broke off and stared
at Nat imploringly. "I could watch out for you. There's a lot of bad uns
about."

Nat
stared back. "Do you have a home?"

The
lad shook his head. "Under the arches when I gets there in time."

It
sounded as if that occurrence wasn't frequent.

"Parents?"

The
lad shrugged. "Maybe, I s'pose. Dunno really. Me dad went inside, and me
mum took up with Ned Thrapston. Didn't want me."

Nat
had heard of Ned Thrapston, one of the alleged bully boys of the stews. It was
perhaps as well the lad wasn't wanted there. He made his mind up. "Do you
want to stay in the city?"

"Nah,
I's a country boy really. Well, I was. Till me ma..." His voice trailed
off.

"Here."
Nat took out a tablet from his pocket and scribbled a note. "Take this to
the stables behind Fenniston house. Do you know where I mean?"

The
lad nodded.

"Good.
Give it to Michaels and be prepared to leave for the country as soon as I can
find someone to take you. What's your name?" It might be a good idea to
know that.

"Cubby,
M'l...G...say, what should I call you?" Cubby screwed his face up. "And
mind if you can't dish up the ready, I'll unnerstand, but can I have some togs
or a benny? I wants to do you proud."

"'My
lord' will do." Nat liked Cubby's earnestness. He racked his brains to
remember some cant and to translate the lad's request. "Michaels will
arrange clothes for you."

"And
a ben?"

"And
a coat," Nat agreed.

"Cor,
I'm off to him then, Mis...my lord." He did his quaint bow and ran off
along the road.

Nat
watched him go with a smile. Somehow he didn't think his faith in the lad would
be ill judged, and hoped Michaels saw things the same way. As soon as it was
feasible, he'd send Cubby to Fenniston Hall, where Frost, his factor, would
find him something suitable to do and Mrs. Frost would mother him.

With
a spare few hours, Nat dropped into Whites to peruse the newspapers and see if
any of his cronies were around. Several were. By the time he'd shaken his head
with regards to the goings-on in France, eaten a hearty sandwich, quaffed a
tankard of ale, and agreed on a visit to Jackson's salon on the following day,
it was time to call for his curricle to be brought around. He bade his
companions farewell and made his way to Mrs. Coplestone's. He'd timed it to
arrive just as the attendees were leaving. Nat had no intention of adding fuel
to the tabbies’ fire and showing his face at something he'd never ever given
lip service to. Not only did he value his hearing, Nat valued his reputation.
Not even to pursue Tessa would he jeopardize that.

His
idea was to be passing at the appropriate moment, just as Tessa left. Doris her
maid, and Stanley, his tiger, were both willing participants in what they
thought was such a romantic tryst. Nat didn't disabuse them. If romance and cash
worked, so be it.

He
left his curricle on the corner, in the capable hands of Stanley, who was well
primed on what to do, and strolled toward the door of the house. As he
approached the flight of shallow steps that led up to the entrance, he was
rewarded as Tessa came out followed by her maid. The maid who favored his suit.

Ned
waved at Stanley, whom he trusted to trot his horses up to where he waited and then
moved between Tessa and Doris. Doris took a half step back. Tessa stood still
and stared at him in surprise.

"My
lord?" Her voice conveyed her surprise and her wariness.

"My
dear Miss Birch. After my lamentable inability to meet with you earlier, I have
arranged with your maman that I will escort you home." He took her arm and
handed her into his curricle. As he'd suspected, his appearance and his
pleasant demeanor had thrown her. He was able to seat her beside him and get the
curricle underway before she had a chance to respond.

"Your
inability... Pardon... Were we to..." She blushed. "Argh, what have
you done to my brain? I didn't, we didn't..."

As
Nat had thought, she didn't have the ability to lie with aplomb.

"What
on earth are you doing?" Tessa twisted on the seat to glare at him. "Where
are we going? Where is my maid?"

"Taking
you for a drive to Hyde Park. On her way home, with my tiger. With whom, before
you ask, she is stepping out." He ignored the half query about his nonappearance,
and steered the equipage through the gates into the park. There was, he judged,
around an hour before he would have to return her to her parents. At this hour
the park wasn't too busy, but soon it would be bustling for a while. He
intended to be away by then.

"It
will be very handy for when we are wed. I have a cottage earmarked for them at
Fenniston." He turned along one of the tracks that crisscrossed the park
and urged his horses into a brisk trot.

"What?
Take me home at once. I'm not marrying you." She stamped her foot on the floor
of the curricle. "You, my lord, are deluded."

"Not
at all, and before you decide so, neither am I compromising you. Look, your
maman is sitting under the tree with Lady Jersey."

"What?"
This time it was a shriek. "Please tell me it isn't so. Not Silence.
She'll have us married and me with child before we leave the park. Which I
insist you do now."

Nat
chuckled. "I knew that would get a response. However, in one respect I
must disappoint you. Even I would find it hard to ensure you were with child before
we left the park."

"Argh..."

"Never
fear. Your maman is actually sitting with your papa."

"Argh."

"Repetitive,
my dear."

"Argh,
argh, and argh," Tessa said, her voice rising as she spoke. She ended on a
muted shriek.

Nat
didn't think he'd ever heard a lady say that one word in such a tone, in
public. It was a mixture of a hiss and a groan, even in her tone of voice, and
he thought, very arousing. The last time he'd heard anything akin to it was
when the lady he was with was in the throes of passion and he had his mouth on
her quim and his tongue inside her channel as he lapped up her juices.

As
ever his cock responded to that feminine noise like a bee to nectar, and he was
hard pressed not to adjust it under his unmentionables.

"Just
so," he said agreeably. "Now shall we have one more tool along the
row before I bring you back to your parents?"

"Hmm.
No more talk about weddings?"

"No
more today, at least," he promised.

"Hmm."

Nat
grinned. It seemed she loved that word almost as much as
argh
. "Well?" He prompted her. "Do we have a
deal?"

She
laughed. Her inability to stay annoyed was one thing he'd noticed and admired
about her.

"A
deal, my lord. I'd love to feel the breeze on my cheeks."

"Do
you miss Devon?" he asked as he moved the horses forward, curious to know
her feelings on the county of both their births.

Tessa
sighed. "Every day, my lord. I am no town bird. I prefer the countryside, be
it cloaked in mist, frost, snow, or sunshine. I suffer town. I enjoy Devon.
Even the rain at home is softer and more welcoming."

He
nodded as he rounded the end of the row with a flourish and urged his horses back
the way they came. "I will not state the obvious."

"Please
don't. We've had harmony for all of five minutes. Let us not spoil it."

He
risked a glance at her and was reassured by the humor in her expression.
"As you say. I also prefer my country estate. A little of the capital goes
a long way, although I tend to be here when the house is in session. I refuse
to be a nonattendee lord. And, no, I do not pay lip service to my role. I
believe it is my duty to serve my country as I can. Now my father is dead, I
can no longer command a regiment, so I work to make sure those who do get the
monies and backup they need." He knew his voice was grim, but after having
had to buy himself out to take over the reins of Fenniston, and seeing Napoleon
escape from Elba, Nat often yearned for the camaraderie and discipline of his
regiment. Somehow it was galling to know they would soon see active service and
he would be left behind.

"Do
you worry?" Tessa's voice was low. "About Napoleon having landed in
France one more?"

"Of
course." He drew the horses up by the bench where Mijo and Theo sat.
"Anyone with an ounce of sense would. But as I can't fight, I'll do my bit
here."

Theo
walked over and took hold of the horses' heads while Nat sprang down to help
Tessa alight. Nat kissed her hand, very properly, and moved across to Mijo to
do the same.

"Did
you enjoy your ride?"

"It
was a surprise," Tessa said. "However, we are both still alive."

"It
was interesting," Nat said guardedly.

Mijo
laughed and leaned toward him. "The fainthearted never succeed. A good general
picks his battles carefully. You, I think, are one."

"I
like to think so as well." Nat jumped up into the body of the phaeton and
gathered up the reins. "A good general, not a battle. Until later."

Tessa's
head jerked up. "Later?"

He
inclined his head. "Why, yes, your maman has kindly agreed she will
accompany me to the theater."

The
look of astonishment on her face was all he could wish for.

"She
has?"

"But
of course," Mijo said complacently. "Who would turn down such a
treat? It is Mr. Kean in
Othello
at
Drury Lane."

"Ah,
well, I'm sure you will enjoy it."

"Do
you think you will not?" Nat held his restless horses in check. He was
enjoying himself far too much to cut the interchange off.

"I,
my lord?"

"But
of course you." He clicked his tongue to urge his horses forward. "Why?
Did you think you were to miss the treat? Of course you won't. Your maman has
accepted on your behalf as well."

She
opened her mouth and closed it again. Twice. "You…you…argh…" Tessa
took a deep breath. "Grr."

It
promised to be an interesting evening. Nat whistled tunefully as he tooled his
horses back to their stables.

****

By
the time Nat rapped on the door and Tessa heard Thurbelow—their major-domo's—stately
tread cross the wooden floorboards of the hall, she almost had her temper in
check. Almost. It seemed all the fates were against her. Her siblings were much
too busy with their own ploys to help and in the main ignored her, and her
maman told her severely she was being churlish, and it would not do. To hear
that from her easygoing parent shook Tessa to the core. Was she really so awful?
She put the question to Mijo.

"Yes,
ma cherie
," Mijo said. "And
it must stop now. Whatever you decide to do in the end, rudeness is never to be
tolerated." She patted Tessa's cheek. "Truly is he so bad?"