Wicked Nights With a Proper Lady (9 page)

“Not every man is worth marrying, darling. Besides, we learned over the course of the party how ill suited we were. I am happy to report that both gentlemen are now happily settled.”

“A shame you didn’t meet someone else,” Ariel said.

“I don’t regret my decision to remain unattached. I hate to think what would have happened to my great-aunt had I not been there to offer my companionship to her before coming to Charlotte. I have no regrets.”

“None?” Lady Carleton asked, her tone disbelieving.

“None,” Genny assured everyone present.

Interesting. Leo wondered if the “no regrets” extended to the time they’d spent together.

The countess’s husband came around, took his lady wife’s arm, and announced dinner. They all filed out of the drawing room and into the dining room. Leo wasn’t far behind Genny; not that she paid him any mind; she was busy chattering with Lady Hargrove.

*   *   *

“Just like old times, I see.” Genny gestured to the nameplates at the table that lacked proper order. No one sat by rank at a Carleton party; everyone was treated as an equal. “You’ll have to suffer my company for the evening, Lord Barrington.”

She looked at him from beneath her lashes, quite satisfied with everything turning in her favor. On the other side of her was Castleigh’s nameplate.

It seemed that Charlotte was allocated to the opposite side of the table, next to Lord Chester, a distant relation to the host. Lord Chester was a man of indeterminate age with a jovial laugh and he sported a shock of white frizzy hair that matched his long gray beard. To Charlotte’s left was Mr. Torrance, who was a scholar and poet.

Genny looked back to Leo and clasped her hands together. “Lady Luck is on my side this evening. Lord Castleigh to my left, as he should be,” she added under her breath. “Though it would be equally satisfying to put you in that position, Lord Barrington.”

The way Leo tilted his head and looked at her full of raw intention had her breath freezing in her lungs.

“I’d enjoy playing your devil, Miss Camden,” he responded, equally as private as her comment had been. “I have always thought it better the devil you know than to invite a new one into your midst.” He leaned in close to her ear. “And though you cast the marquess so, I am a far greater threat to your virtue, my dear.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” How she managed to keep her voice cool and calm when she felt rather parched by his insinuation was quite a miracle. How could anyone be aroused by mere banter?

“Let me share a secret with you, Miss Camden. Once you have had your first taste of ambrosia”—Leo waved the footman away when he came to pull her chair out and instead did it himself—“you cannot so easily resist its allure again.”

He flicked out her napkin, placed it over his bent arm, and gave her a deep bow. “I am ever your servant, madam.”

As Genny sat, she hissed, “Ever the ass.” A shame she didn’t have a better retort, but the man knew how to fluster her.

With a chuckle, Leo placed the napkin in her lap. Lest she feel the urge to further insult him, Genny turned from him and focused on Castleigh, in the hope that she could better understand his character before dinner concluded. She would like to understand where his desire stemmed from in his obvious attempt to court Charlotte.

“I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure of dining together at previous social events, Lord Castleigh.”

“We have not.” His smile was all charm. “I don’t make it a habit to indulge in decent affairs.”

“Only the wicked will do for you, then?” she teased.

Castleigh’s gaze slipped past hers and to Leo’s. “This one will put you in your place.” To her, he said, “Wicked is as wicked does.”

“Don’t you grow bored of all the wickedness after a while?”

“You’re quick, Miss Camden,” Tristan said. “It’s no wonder you were paired with Lady Charlotte this season. You are quite the match.”

“We are cousins,” she reminded him.

“I will not forget it.”

It was hard to tell if Tristan was goading her into compliance or if he was heeding her advice to remember that they were both strong-willed women and not easily taken advantage of.

“Are you always so agreeable?” she asked.

He gave her a wide smile and winked at her. “I try to be as accommodating as possible when the situation warrants it.”

“And what kind of situation would this be?”

“Well, Miss Camden, I find I like you. If you wish to warn me away from your cousin, then I will do my best to comply with those wishes.” He bent closer to her and whispered, “But you should know, she seems to have a mind of her own when it comes down to doing what she wants. I cannot curb her desire to befriend me any more than you can fend off the friend sitting on the other side of you.”

“Lord Barrington and I have a long history.” She heard the defensive quality in her own voice and cursed it.

“So it seems,” Tristan mused.

Her mouth flapped open once, then she snapped it shut realizing she was at a loss for what to say. Leo slid his chair farther under the table; his hand brushed the side of her thigh quite intentionally and it startled her.

“You’re mighty jumpy tonight, as though there were a mouse at your feet.”

“It’s not a mouse, my lord. It appears to be a very large rat.”

Both gentlemen on either side of her laughed just as the first course was set down in front of them. Dinner couldn’t end fast enough.

Chapter 6

Ah, won’t you be pleased with what has been uncovered about the chaperone. Yes, you read that correctly—the
chaperone
of one Miss C
^___
, daughter of Lord P
^___
was caught in company with Lord B
^___
. My ears are humming at what is slowly being uncovered about her past, which I will share with my dear readers after the full history is revealed to this writer.

The Mayfair Chronicles, May 29, 1846

Where had Charlotte disappeared to now?

With a quick look over the heads of every guest in the room, Genny could not find her cousin. Or for that matter Lord Castleigh.

How had she let her attention be occupied for even a moment of nonsensical chatter? Genny could not find Lady Ariel, either, so it was possible the girls were off giggling and gossiping together as they were wont to do whenever the occasion presented itself.

Genny excused herself from Lady Carleton’s company, hinting she might have to loosen her stays in the powder room after all the food she’d consumed since it had been so delicious and since eating had given her a reason not to converse with the imps on either side of her.

Donning a serene look of calm as she headed toward the powder room, she picked up her pace to a near skip once she was out of view of the rest of the dinner guests.

There was a small chance her cousin and Ariel had sequestered themselves in the powder room and not somewhere else. How had her cousin escaped her eagle eye while she’d been on the balcony with Lady Carleton for no more than a few minutes?

That apparently was all the time Charlotte needed to disappear.

Genny checked the resting room, where not a soul was to be found. The house was a simple enough layout: a narrow hallway stretched about forty feet in front of her, two doors on both sides, one a pocket door at the end that she assumed was the library.

Her slippered feet made no sound as she traversed the beige marble floor. Marble eventually made way for dark-planked wood flooring in the first room. Moss-green papered walls with inlaid gold molding and a simple furniture arrangement were all she saw. Shutting the heavy door behind her, she made for the next one, and came to a sudden halt on hearing whispered voices.

The voices were too low to determine who was inside, and she couldn’t be sure everyone had been present in the main parlor before she’d gone in search of Charlotte. Not wishing to catch anyone in a compromising situation, she pushed up the latch. The hinges were well greased for the bolt clicked over and the door slid smoothly open.

Genny peered through the crack but it was no help. Whoever was in the room was on the other side of the door and she would have to enter fully to see who resided within.

“How convenient that I should find you all alone.” The whispered words came from behind her.

Genny turned her head and peered at Leo over her shoulder. “Why did you follow me?”

“Why shouldn’t I follow the most delectable woman present this evening?”

Leo’s hands caressed hers as he provocatively embraced her while pulling the door closed again.

As she turned to face her foe, his hand moved easily against her hips and guided her so her back was pressed to the wall. Leo stood close, not so close they touched, but close enough that she did not mistake the flaring of his pupils for anything but ardor. She pinched her lips tighter knowing she needed to remain quiet lest they be overheard.

With one finger skimming over the side of her jaw, Leo tilted her head to the side, his hand tracing the delicate spot of her neck in a teasing gesture. Oh, he hadn’t forgotten how to heighten her senses, or how to make her breath catch from the slightest of touches.

Afraid to speak too loudly and give away their position, she whispered, “What do you want?”

He grinned like the cat that ate the canary. He didn’t need to respond. It was loud and quite clear to her what he would say. Simply “you” or even something more daring, such as … “can’t you guess,” or …

“Isn’t it obvious?” he responded so quietly she barely heard him and doubted she would have had he not been two inches from her face.

Her back pressed firmly against the wall, the molding jabbed into her shoulder blades. How could she care about a little bit of pain when she knew that if she didn’t sidle past Leo, he’d make his intentions of seduction more clear than he already had? And she wasn’t sure she could resist him a moment longer.

“Let me pass, Barrington. If you dare stop me from finding my cousin, I’ll find a way to make you pay, and pay dearly.”

“Your cousin is not doing anything you yourself haven’t tried at least once.”

She grasped the front lapel of his jacket between her fists, uncaring that she might wrinkle the fine material. “She is in my care, and I’ll not let her be ruined as you ruined me.”

He looked down to where her hand clutched at him, a perplexed expression on his face before his lip curled upward. “If inciting your ire was all I needed to do to have you touching me, I’d have tipped you over that scale last eve when I was sporting an erect—”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!”

He only gave her that infuriatingly handsome, smug smile that made her want to simultaneously kiss and smack it away.

No, that wasn’t right.

She did
not
want to kiss him.

Not at all.

All right, perhaps a little, but that wasn’t something she’d ever admit to out loud, especially to him.

Pushing past him, she made for the door successfully this time and didn’t hesitate at the entrance. She strode right through the doorway, uncaring of what she might be witness to because it was better than being trapped in Leo’s arms, thinking illicit thoughts.

The sight that met her couldn’t have shocked her more.

Sitting in opposing sage-velvet chairs, her cousin faced off with Castleigh …

Over a game of chess.

Lady Ariel sat on a settee four feet away, her attention focused on an open book.

Genny looked closely at her cousin’s dress. Every pearl button was perfectly lined up and in place. And not a strand of hair had moved from the upswept ringlets, nor did any wrinkles blemish her voluminous skirts. It was a picture of pure innocence.

She narrowed her gaze and placed her hands on her hips.
What sort of trickery was this?

“Charlotte.” Even though she’d been caught off guard by the wholly harmless sight, Genny managed to keep her voice stern. “Castleigh, you cannot simply abscond with my cousin as the mood takes you. Had you asked for her company, I would have been willing to escort you both from the parlor to a more private setting.”

Ariel looked up from her book. “You were occupied with Lady Carleton and we did not wish to interrupt.”

“And I did not think you’d be so accommodating. We’ve done nothing wrong, cousin. I even came with a witness.” Charlotte looked at Castleigh and had the audacity to flash the man a daring grin. “Pooh, we’ll have to arrange to play another game now that I’ve angered Genny. And I was winning.”

Charlotte stood and Castleigh followed suit as etiquette dictated.

“Do escort me back to the rest of the company, my lord.” With a clever flick of her hips, Charlotte realigned her skirts to perfection before gliding from the room with Ariel on her heels, book tucked beneath her arm.

How had Genny lost this small battle? It was she who should be at her cousin’s side, not Charlotte’s friend and certainly not
that
man.

Someone cleared their throat behind her. How had she forgotten
he
was present? The door clicked shut and the lock tumbled over as she turned to face her shadow and nemesis.

“Do you really think that wise?”

Leo glanced over his shoulder at the bolted door. “Quite.”

“You’re a cad, Barrington.”

She picked up her skirts in a huff and barreled her way toward the exit. Gently grasping her upper arm, Barrington pulled her to a stop just before she could pass him by.

“Why the rush to quit my company?”

“You cannot be serious, my lord.”

He maneuvered himself in front of her and crossed his arms over his wide chest. “You once called me by my given name.”

“We will never know each other on so intimate a level again.”

“I disagree.”

She dropped her hold on her skirts and stamped her foot in a poor demonstration of her frustration. “Let me pass.”

“Call me Leo first.”

Genny shook her head, refusing him any concessions.