Rapturous Rakes Bundle (24 page)

bland, but there was amusement lurking at the back of

his eyes. ‘Then you would not be required to show

me the slightest degree of affection.’

Rebecca blushed again and looked away. ‘I cannot,’

she said. ‘It would be too difficult. Why do we need

to pretend anything of the sort?’

‘We need a reason, Miss Raleigh,’ Lucas said per-

suasively. ‘I am sworn to protect you and therefore we

need a reason to explain why I shall stay as close to

you as a lover.’

The air in the salon seemed suddenly highly

charged. Rebecca was trapped by the look in his eyes,

which conjured up the heated images of the previous

night.

‘No,’ she said for a third time, but this time it came

out as a whisper.

‘I think,’ Rachel Newlyn said, breaking the fraught

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The
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Mistress

silence with a tactful clearing of the throat and throw-

ing a look at her husband for support, ‘that we might

consider some other solution, Justin. How would it be

if Miss Raleigh was to be a cousin of yours—a distant

one?’

‘Good idea,’ Cory Newlyn said at once. ‘You have

so many cousins, Justin, that no one would remark on

it.’

Justin nodded slowly. ‘It might serve. What do you

say, Miss Raleigh? You are a distant cousin whom

Lucas has met again for the first time in years and he

is quite
e´pris.
’ A smile lurked at the corner of his

mouth. ‘You, alas, are not in the least smitten by him.’

Rebecca felt swamped with relief. Once again, she

caught Lucas’s quizzical look and glanced hastily

away. He made her feel as though her defences were

as fragile as glass.

‘I am content to agree to that,’ she said cautiously,

‘as long as I do not have to pretend to any degree of

fondness for Lord Lucas.’

‘Capital!’ Justin Kestrel said, smiling broadly. ‘I

shall leave the two of you to work out the details of

our family connection and tell the rest of us how it

stands. Keep it as simple as possible. You will wish

to spend some time with Miss Raleigh after luncheon,

Lucas?’

‘I shall,’ Lucas said, with disconcerting promptness.

‘Then we shall travel to Midwinter tomorrow morn-

ing,’ Justin Kestrel concluded. ‘I shall send a message

ahead to Kestrel Court. Is there anything else?’

Rachel Newlyn raised a point of her own. ‘We are

Nicola
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181

going to need some time to arrange suitable attire for

Miss Raleigh,’ she said.

Everyone looked at her, including Rebecca. She had

not given any thought to clothes. She seldom did.

‘I can go back to Clerkenwell to fetch my belong-

ings,’ she began, but Lucas shook his head.

‘In the first instance, it is too dangerous for you to

return there until this matter is settled,’ he said, ‘and

in the second, I doubt you have anything suitable for

this masquerade.’

Rebecca glared at him. She knew that she was being

trivial, but it was good to have an excuse to argue. ‘I

assure you, Lord Lucas, that I have some very attrac-

tive gowns. It is simply that I do not wear them.’

‘Lucas is in the right of it, Miss Raleigh,’ Justin

interposed smoothly, ‘although he could have ex-

pressed himself much more diplomatically. No one

will believe that you are our cousin unless you are

suitably attired.’

Rebecca looked around the rose salon at the simple

but expensive furnishings and the understated elegance

of her hosts. She deflated slightly. ‘Oh, very well! But

I require the minimum of items. I cannot believe my

stay will be a long one and there is no point in wasting

the money.’

She saw the brothers exchange a look and wondered

just what Lucas had told his brother about her. ‘Just

so, Miss Raleigh,’ Justin Kestrel said. ‘We shall be

most frugal.’

Even so, it soon transpired that the Duke’s idea of

frugality and Rebecca’s own did not accord particu-

larly well.

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The
Rake’s
Mistress

‘This cannot be right,’ Rebecca said hopelessly,

gazing at the mountains of clothing and accessories

that were piled up in all corners of the blue bedroom

by the middle of the afternoon. ‘I cannot possibly need

all of this! I have not ordered the half of it!’

‘No, I did,’ Rachel Newlyn said calmly. She ges-

tured to the piles in turn. ‘You have gloves over there,

Rebecca, stockings there, various undergarments

there—I shall not put you to the blush by itemising

them!—nightgowns and robes, handkerchiefs and

scarves, hats to choose from there—oh, and shoes, of

course.’

Rebecca pressed both hands to her hot cheeks.

Never had she imagined setting eyes upon such a se-

lection of fashionable and expensive clothes, much

less being able to purchase them. Yet there was no

possibility of refusal on her part. Rachel had accom-

panied Rebecca to Bond Street, for a bewildering array

of items Rebecca had not even realised she needed. In

addition to all her clothes there was a selection of glass

cosmetic bottles and a very beautiful set of silver-

backed brushes. Her head ached with the opulence of

it all.

The day dress she was wearing became her well. It

was rose pink and suited her complexion perfectly. On

the bed was a huge selection of gowns—walking

dresses, riding habits, ballgowns, spencers, pelisses...

She had no notion when she would have the oppor-

tunity to wear them all. When she had first tried on

the rose-pink gown she had stared at herself in the

mirror for quite five minutes, for it had utterly trans-

formed her appearance. Her thick chestnut hair, which

Nicola
Cornick

183

normally she wore tied back or pushed hastily under

a lace cap, was loose about her face in a dark cloud.

Her eyes were a vivid blue. It felt odd to be a dressed

as a lady of fashion, but she knew she looked pretty.

She hesitated to use the word for it had not had much

currency in her world, but it was true.

‘You look lovely, Rebecca,’ Rachel said warmly,

watching her with amusement. ‘It is a shame that we

have had to buy your gowns off the peg, but you are

fortunate to have found things that fit you well.’

‘I had no idea what I was choosing,’ Rebecca ad-

mitted, still turning surreptitiously to view the gown

from all angles in the mirror. ‘I was looking at colour

and cut.’

‘You have a flair for it,’ Rachel agreed. ‘It must be

the artist in you.’

‘It feels strange,’ Rebecca admitted. ‘I never wear

clothes like this.’

‘Do you like them?’ Rachel asked, her eyes twin-

kling at Rebecca’s poor attempts to conceal her pleas-

ure.

‘Oh, yes,’ Rebecca admitted with a little sigh.

‘Rather too much! It will be a pang for me to give

them up when the masquerade is at an end.’

There was a knock at the door. ‘Come in!’ Rachel

called, before Rebecca could say anything.

Lucas Kestrel walked in. ‘I am come to see how

much longer the security of the nation must wait on

the demands of fashion—’ he began, then his eyes fell

on Rebecca and he stopped.

She stood somewhat self-consciously before him

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The
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Mistress

whilst his astounded gaze travelled over her. There

was a long moment of silence.

‘Good God, Rebecca...’ Lucas said. He sounded

stunned.

‘Try for something more coherent, Lucas,’ Rachel

said, a spark of amusement in her eyes. ‘Does Rebecca

not look fine?’

Lucas seemed to recollect himself. ‘It is extraordi-

nary what one can achieve with good grooming,’ he

said. ‘I am come to ask Miss Raleigh when she will

be free to discuss our plans.’

‘We shall not be much longer,’ Rachel said. ‘Re-

becca may join you in the garden shortly, as it is a

fine day.’

Lucas went, with one long, backward look at Re-

becca, who had gathered the nearest piece of material

to her—a riding habit—and was holding it defensively

at her breast, despite the fact that the pink gown was

all that was demure.

‘How rude he is,’ she said breathlessly. ‘Good

grooming, indeed!’

Rachel laughed. ‘He was only rude because he was

shaken,’ she said shrewdly, ‘and if you can do that to

Lucas, who is accounted a man of experience, I’ll war-

rant you will have the whole of Midwinter falling at

your feet, Rebecca!’

Chapter
Eight

When Rebecca joined Lucas in the garden some

twenty minutes later, she was wearing a warm pelisse

over the pink day dress and therefore felt a great deal

more prepared to face him. Her confidence lasted pre-

cisely thirty seconds—until he took her hand in his to

guide her to the wooden seat that overlooked a pretty

little ornamental fishpond.

‘Are you sufficiently warm out here?’ he asked. ‘We

may talk inside if you prefer.’

Rebecca shook her head. At least out here in the

open air she felt free. The thought of being shut away

privately with Lucas was enough to make her

breathing constrict.

‘It is a pleasant day and I have not been outside

much of late,’ she said. ‘I am content to stay here.’

‘Very well.’ Lucas sat down beside her, crossing his

long, elegant legs and giving her a sideways apprais-

ing look.

‘So we are to be cousins, Miss Raleigh,’ he said

softly. ‘I rather like that, although I could ask for a

closer relationship.’

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The
Rake’s
Mistress

‘Even this is too close,’ Rebecca said. ‘We are not

kissing cousins, my lord. If you recall, you have suc-

cumbed to a
tendre
for me but I, alas, wish for none

of it.’

‘Kissing cousins...’ Lucas said. The corner of his

mouth lifted in a smile. ‘I rather like that idea.’

‘Pray disregard it,’ Rebecca said sharply. ‘You are

supposed to be acting as though you suffer unrequited

love, rather than planning a conquest.’

Lucas’s smile deepened as it rested on her face. ‘It

would not be in character for me to ignore a challenge,

Miss Raleigh.’

Rebecca’s pulse fluttered and was ignored. He had

already told her that he would do all in his power to

convince her to accept his suit. This, then, was the

confirmation.

‘I believe we are intended to be discussing my aris-

tocratic antecedents,’ she said, ‘rather than wasting our

time. To which branch of your illustrious family do I

belong?’

Lucas laughed. ‘You are to be a very distant cousin

on the distaff side. We have so many cousins that no

one will think anything of it.’

‘And the reason that I have come to visit you?’

‘We thought to stick as closely to the truth as pos-

sible,’ Lucas said. ‘The relatives with whom you lived

were recently carried off by fever and so you are on

a protracted visit to us whilst Justin, as head of the

family, decides what is to become of you.’

‘How very convenient,’ Rebecca said, her lips thin-

ning. ‘Not only does it have the ring of authenticity

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187

but it would be a cruel person indeed to question me

when I have been in mourning.’

‘Indeed so,’ Lucas said. ‘It also explains why you

have not been in society.’

‘But not why I never had a season or made an ad-

vantageous match,’ Rebecca said. ‘I am scarcely a de´-

butante, my lord, so what is the explanation for that?

Were we too poor?’

‘No,’ Lucas said. ‘That would make Justin look un-

generous for failing to sponsor you.’ He put his head

on one side. ‘I think, Miss Raleigh, that you must have

been disappointed in love.’

Rebecca raised her brows. ‘That will not require a

great leap of imagination, my lord,’ she said bitterly.

Their gazes clashed. ‘And I am pledged to make

you forget,’ Lucas said softly, ‘which is why I dog

your footsteps like a suitor.’

‘I prefer to think of you as a faithful hound,’ Re-