The Rake's Mistress (5 page)

‘I hear,’ Nan said, holding her teacup delicately between painted fingernails, ‘that you had a most exciting encounter with Lord Lucas Kestrel last night, Rebecca.’

Rebecca pushed her sketches away with an impatient hand. ‘I suppose that Samuel told you?’

‘Of course. He was most concerned for your safety, my love. He would have stepped in at any moment, you know, had his assistance been required.’

‘Handsome of him,’ Rebecca murmured, remembering the alacrity with which the coachman had taken orders from Lucas Kestrel. ‘Fortunately I was in no real danger.’

‘Tell me all about it,’ Nan invited, leaning forward. ‘You are flying high there, Becca. The Kestrels are monstrously high in the instep.’

‘I am scarcely pursuing their acquaintance,’ Rebecca said drily. ‘Indeed, I should be happy if I never set eyes on a member of that family again. One meeting was quite enough for me.’

‘It sounds as though you set eyes on quite a lot of Stephen Kestrel,’ Nan said, arching her plucked eyebrows knowingly. ‘Almost all of him, in fact. Sam was concerned that he might catch his death of cold when he hopped into the carriage half-naked.’

Rebecca stifled a laugh. ‘Happily for Lord Stephen, I lent him my cloak. And I averted my gaze as best I could.’

Nan opened her reticule and popped a sugared almond into her mouth, crunching with fervour. ‘I hear that he is a sweet boy.’

‘Very,’ Rebecca said wryly. ‘I felt very sisterly toward him.’

‘I wonder if he has a penchant for bawdy houses and low company?’ Nan mused. ‘Perhaps I could make his acquaintance?’

Rebecca gave her a very sharp look. ‘He has no money of his own,’ she said. ‘I think he is beneath your notice, Nan.’

‘Oh, well…’ Nan put her reticule aside with a pettish gesture. ‘I doubt the game would be worth the candle. Young boys…’ She shrugged. ‘They are usually grateful and eager, but it is seldom worth it in the end.’

‘Besides which, you would incur the wrath of Lord Lucas Kestrel,’ Rebecca said feelingly, ‘which is not a fate I would wish on anyone.’

Nan’s blue eyes lit with laughter. ‘What did you think of him, Becca? I doubt that
he
aroused any sisterly feelings in you. That is not the sentiment he generally produces in the ladies.’

‘No,’ Rebecca said. ‘I imagine that it is not.’ She thought of all the feelings that Lucas Kestrel had aroused in her: the anger and the edgy excitement and the longing. She fidgeted with her teacup, impatient with herself, wishing that it was possible to dismiss Lucas from her thoughts.

‘Have you met him?’ she asked.

‘Only in passing,’ Nan said with every evidence of regret. ‘He is not one of Bosham’s set.’

‘Nor a member of the Archangel Club?’

Nan put her head back and gave a peal of laughter. ‘I should think not! Lord Lucas Kestrel is far too straight for the Angels!’

Rebecca raised her brows. She did not like the sense of relief the news brought her. ‘I thought him a rake.’

‘Oh, he is, but…’ Nan wrinkled up her nose ‘…his tastes do not run to the exotic.’ She shot Rebecca a curious look. ‘Did you like him, Becca?’

Rebecca reached for her pieces of paper and idly sketched a few kestrels. She was good at drawing hawks. Their grace and fearless pride had always attracted her. She felt tired. It had been Lucas Kestrel who was responsible for the fact that she had overslept that morning, for even after the carriage had finally delivered her home the night before she had found that she could not sleep immediately. Lord Lucas’s face was before her when she closed her eyes. She imagined that she could still feel his touch against her skin. She could hear his voice and see the way his eyes had darkened with disturbing intentness when he had focussed on her. No man had ever stirred her in such a way before.

After two hours of tossing and turning in her cold bed, she had risen to warm some milk and make herself a soothing drink with nutmeg and honey. And finally she had slept, only to be troubled by a tumble of broken and erotic dreams that left her wide awake, flushed and aroused, and distressed to find herself so.

‘Lord Lucas is like many of his type,’ she said now. ‘He is arrogant, overbearing and damnably sure of himself. I always avoid men of that stamp.’

There was a great deal more feeling in her voice than she had intended and Nan opened her eyes very wide.

‘So there
is
a man who can wring a passionate response from you, Rebecca! How very interesting.’

Rebecca made an exasperated noise and folded her arms tightly. ‘Nan, the only feeling I have for Lord Lucas Kestrel is one of extreme dislike!’

‘What better welcome could a man have?’ an amused masculine voice said from the doorway. ‘Good morning, Miss Raleigh. It is such a pleasure to see you again!’

Lord Lucas Kestrel was standing with his hand on the latch and now he swung the door closed behind him and stepped into the workshop. He was immaculately dressed in a dark-green morning coat and buff pantaloons, and his black hussar boots gleamed almost blue in the patches of sunshine that speckled the floor. Under his arm was a brown paper package tied up with string, which he brought across to the table and presented to Rebecca with a small, ironic bow. Rebecca, conscious that her face was bright pink and that she was extremely flustered, muttered an incoherent word of thanks and wished that she might be anywhere
other than right there under Lucas’s laughing hazel gaze. She felt at an extreme disadvantage.

Nan was not so reticent. She slid from the
chaise-longue
with a certain feline grace and held out a hand to the newcomer.

‘I fear that my friend’s powers of speech have deserted her, my lord, so that I am obliged to introduce myself. Anne Astley, delighted to make your acquaintance.’

Lucas took her hand and bowed over it with an old-fashioned style that clearly charmed her.

‘Miss Astley. Lord Lucas Kestrel, at your service.’

‘We were speaking of you only a moment ago,’ Nan said artlessly, making Rebecca glare at her. ‘Rebecca was telling me of her experience last night.’

Lucas’s mouth quirked into a grin. He shot Rebecca a wicked sideways look.

‘I hope that Miss Raleigh found it as bracing an incident as I did myself,’ he said.

‘I am happy to say that I do not require my life to be braced by such events,’ Rebecca said. She gestured to the parcel. ‘I thank you for your kindness in returning the cloak, my lord, but as I said last night, it was quite unnecessary for you to call in person.’

Lucas smiled into her eyes and she felt his gaze like a physical touch. ‘Wild horses would not have kept me away from you, Miss Raleigh,’ he said gently.

‘Well,’ Rebecca said, feeling her temper start to simmer at the mocking light in his hazel eyes, ‘I wish that I could offer you some refreshment as reward for your persistence, Lord Lucas, but I fear that Miss Astley and I have just taken tea. Besides, I am persuaded that you must be quite extraordinarily busy, so I shall not delay you a moment longer.’

Lucas laughed. ‘You quite mistake the case, Miss Raleigh, for I have set aside the entire morning in order to come and see you.’

‘Then I am desolated to disappoint you, my lord,’ Rebecca said, ‘but I must continue with my work.’ She turned away, intending it as a dismissal, but was very conscious that Lucas had not left.

In fact, he was politely holding the door for Nan with the words, ‘Miss Astley, I do believe that your carriage is waiting. It was a pleasure to meet you…’

Rebecca hurried across the workshop. To be left alone with Lucas Kestrel was not in the least what she wanted. She felt quite breathless at the thought. She caught Nan’s sleeve between urgent fingers.
‘Nan, wait! There is no need for you to hurry away.’

‘I fear that I must be at the Club within the hour,’ Nan said, smiling at Lucas with a complicity that Rebecca found both frustrating and irritating. ‘I shall be back soon to see how you fare, Becca. In the meanwhile, think about Lord Fremantle’s offer. It is a good one.’ She glanced at Lucas again. ‘You will receive none better.’

Rebecca could feel Lucas’s quizzical gaze on her face and coloured up again. Nan leaned over and kissed the air by Rebecca’s cheek, then gave Lucas a flirtatious look over her shoulder. ‘I shall hope to see you again soon, my lord.’

‘The pleasure will be all mine,’ Lucas said, with an expressive lift of his brows.

Rebecca watched him give Nan his hand up into the carriage. She was sorely tempted to bolt the door against him whilst he was outside, except that he struck her as the sort of man who would probably climb in at the window. So she waited, her jaw set, a stormy look in her eyes.

‘You look quite put out, Miss Raleigh,’ Lucas said, as the coach rolled away down the street. He closed the workshop door quietly and came across to her. ‘Whatever can have happened to put you in so poor a temper?’

Rebecca pressed her lips together hard. ‘I apologise if I appear unwelcoming, my lord. The fact
of the matter is that I have an important commission to fulfill and have already lost time today through Miss Astley’s visit. You must excuse me—’

‘Must I?’ Lucas murmured. He took a step closer, his eyes on her face. ‘But I have gone to an inordinate amount of trouble just to find you, Miss Raleigh.’

‘Then you would have done better to save yourself the effort, my lord,’ Rebecca said, above the swift beating of her heart, ‘for I have no time to spare.’

Lucas’s gaze searched her face. ‘You are mighty quick to dismiss me, Miss Raleigh. What if I too had an offer to make you?’

Rebecca’s heart raced. She turned away, retreating behind her desk. ‘I am not interested in the type of offer a gentleman might make to me,’ she said. ‘They usually involve the sort of work that is…not my forte…’

Lucas was following her, his footsteps slow, soft and inevitable. He was smiling. ‘And what sort of offers might those be, Miss Raleigh?’

‘You know full well,’ Rebecca said, her mouth dry.

‘Yes, I think that I do.’ Lucas came to stand in front of her. His voice hardened. ‘They are the kind of propositions made by the likes of Lord Fremantle, are they not?’ His gaze drifted over her
thoughtfully. ‘Have you ever accepted such a commission, Miss Raleigh?’

The angry sparks lit Rebecca’s blue eyes. ‘You should mind your own damned business, my lord.’

Lucas’s smile deepened. ‘You could become my business, Miss Raleigh.’

‘You mistake, my lord. That could not happen.’

‘No?’ Lucas tilted his head thoughtfully. There was a challenge in his eyes. Rebecca saw it and her heart stuttered.

‘No.’ She did not sound even a quarter as certain as she would have liked.

Lucas watched her for a few seconds, his expression very still, then he drove his hands into his pockets. ‘We shall see. As it happens, you quite mistake me, Miss Raleigh. The offer I intended to make was a commission for a piece of work.’

Rebecca was startled. ‘A commission?’

‘Of course.’ Lucas’s dark hazel gaze mocked her. ‘I am quite offended that you think me callow enough to offer you
carte blanche
when what I really wanted was a set of engraved glasses as a wedding present for my brother.’

Rebecca was neatly trapped and she knew it. She had not the slightest belief that Lord Lucas had even thought of commissioning a piece of engraved glass before the previous night. Very likely the matter of glass engraving had not been one on
which he had had any opinions at all. Yet she could scarcely accuse him of lying…

The words broke from her. ‘I cannot believe, my lord, that you have had a long-cherished intention of ordering a piece of engraved glass for your brother’s wedding!’

Lucas laughed. ‘Of course I have not, Miss Raleigh, but there is a perfectly simple explanation. I have been cudgelling my brains this fortnight past to think of what I might give Richard and Deborah as a wedding present. When I met you—’ he gestured airily ‘—the problem was solved.’

Rebecca sighed heavily. It was a plausible enough explanation and, goodness knew, she should be grateful for the commission. A piece of work done for an eminent family like the Kestrels might lead to other orders and before long her business would be flourishing again. And beggars could not be choosers, no matter how much she wished to avoid Lord Lucas Kestrel.

‘I take it,’ Lucas said lightly, ‘that you will not be declining my offer?’

‘No,’ Rebecca said guardedly. The words seemed to stick in her throat. ‘I should be happy to accept.’

‘Capital!’ Lucas smiled at her. ‘You must tell me how we proceed, Miss Raleigh.’

Rebecca waved at the display shelves. ‘If you would care to take a look at the work I have on
display, my lord, you may choose the type of glass you want and the design that you would like me to engrave on it.’

Lucas nodded. He moved across to look at the shelves. ‘I may take a little while, Miss Raleigh, so pray do not let me distract you from your work. I shall come over when I have decided.’

Rebecca felt a little put out. It was true that time was precious and she should be starting to sketch out the angel patterns on the glass bowl, but she was not at all sure that she could concentrate on her work whilst Lucas was there. She went into the storeroom that led off her studio. The room was cold and dark, and the ranks of glasses, bowls and vases that were normally stacked there to await engraving had dwindled until there were only a few items left. This was the last of her uncle’s stock and Rebecca knew that she would have to order more glass in soon, but she did not have the means to pay for it yet. When the commission for the Archangel Club was completed, perhaps… But that was assuming that she would gain more orders. It would be dangerous to buy more glass when her business was so precarious. With a sigh, Rebecca reached for the large glass rose bowl at the back of the shelf and took it back out into the workshop.

Lucas was studying one of the engraved glass panels that Rebecca had hung from the ceiling. His
head was tilted and Rebecca watched the fall of dark auburn hair across his forehead and the hard, shadowed line of his cheek in the candlelight, and something strange happened to her insides. Her heart gave an erratic thump.