A Lady Compromised (The Ladies) (14 page)

             
“That depends on whether or not the offer has an expiration date.”

             
“Oh, I should hardly think you’ll revoke it in the next few days,” she teased, “Perhaps we should not suit?”

             
“I think we both know we suited quite well last evening.”

             
Her blush was growing tiresome, Lady Delia thought as she blinked fiercely, attempting to calm her furious nerves. She looked at him from across the carriage seat of the hackney coach he hired to take them to Durham House.

             
“Surely there is more to marriage than the bed?” she interposed. “Suppose I dislike your method of eating asparagus? Or you slurp your soup?”

             
“You have seen me dine before at Washburn Court.”

             
“A single experience! Perhaps you were on your best behavior? And I confess I do not recall if we were served asparagus.”

             
“I recall nothing of what we ate.” She shivered at his look of pure lust and resolved to think of nothing but asparagus until she was safely delivered to her own chamber within Durham House.

When they arrived at the Marquess’ town house, Delia was instructed not to exit the carriage until the door had been opened and he was certain there was no one in the street who might recognize the lady, or carry unwanted tales to members of the
ton
. It was no use, he said, trying to hide her, if she was seen in broad daylight in front of Durham House on the first day of her residence at that address. Upon their entrance, Weebold and Melville, as well as Amelia, met them immediately.

“Are you quite alright, my lady? I was so worried when his lordship
called. I rather thought he would explain but he explained very little!”

“I am, indeed, quite well, Amelia. And there is no need to be concerned. We shall be perfectly safe here for several weeks. I am afraid I am entirely exhausted and in need of
a bath,” she said, looking to the maid’s lead to the bedchamber that had been prepared for her.

“I am pleased to welcome you to Durham House, Lady Delia,” Weebold interrupted in his most sonorous voice. “We only hope you will be as comfortable as if it were Washburn Court. If there is anything either myself or the housekeeper, Mrs. Keeble, may do to increase your comfort, please do not hesitate to ring.”

“I’m sure I shall be quite comfortable, Weebold,” Lady Delia replied. “But thank you and I will try to be as little trouble as possible.”

“My lady is no trouble whatsoever,” he assured her. As Amelia led her up the stairs to her rooms, Delia turned to smile at the Marquess, who, after removing his hat, had drawn a horrified gasp from his valet. She supposed there was not a valet in the world who was immune to his master’s appearing in such a state as Mason was in that moment and she giggled slightly to herself.

C
hapter 21

After Mason had bathed and dressed, he felt better despite the lingering exhaustion of his sleepless night. Melville had only just eased him into his coat when the Earl of Blackwell was announced and shown into the library, where Melville left the two of them, silently closing the doors behind him to leave the two men alone. Durham briefly explained to his friend what his valet had revealed about his former mistress, namely; that she had a male acquaintance and was attempting to garner some manner of covert information from the Marquess. He added his own details respecting Gigi’s strange behavior of late. The Earl listened in silence to his friend’s story.

“What will you do with her?” the Earl asked, speaking of Gigi.

“I would that I knew, dammit!” was his frustrated reply. “Our strategy must surely depend on what is contained in these letters, which I confess I am loathe to read. Perhaps this insipid correspondence will reveal their motives, though I am still ignorant of the identity of her accomplice. If it is not to be obtained from these letters,” he pointed to the packet left by Melville, “I must find a way to procure the information myself. That can hardly be obtained if our relationship degenerates to the point that she suspects—or worse—disappears.”

“Shall we not see what this first letter says?”

The men peered over a folded paper, still scented with the unmistakable perfume of the Marquess’ former mistress, and tried to make out the harsh scrawl.

“
My Dear Gigi,

I am relieved to hear that the Marquess still does not suspect you, however, you appear to have lost sight of your purpose. You must find out how connected he is to the Chateau you heard had the best bordello in France. There are whispers that it is used for smuggling brandy but we must know more if we are to blackmail Durham into giving us a cut of the smuggling profits!
You did excellent work, noticing that the Chateau had a reputation for providing delightful prostitutes and inquiring of the locals if it had any connections to England, however this is now woefully inadequate. If we are to live together in comfort, we must have a steady income! Especially as I still have not located my tiresome brat of a ward. Without her, I cannot hope to marry her and gain her fortune. Keep your eyes and ears open. It’s possible she has fled to the city—

The Marquess stopped at that moment. He stared at his friend and then his opened palm slapped the smooth top of the mahogany table at his side.

“No!” he gasped, shocked, “By
Jove, I cannot believe
my
former mistress would be connected with that devious conniving snake of a Rosewood!”
Blackwell whistled.

“What a perfectly ghastly pair!” his friend said in revulsion, “So if I collect what I have only just heard, Mr. Rosewood convinced Gigi to ingratiate herself to you and become your mistress, all the while planning to blackmail you into sharing the profits from the smuggling business he suspects you have
and
plotting to marry the now-disgraced Lady Delia, using you as her seducer!” The Earl looked positively white.

“I think it must have been he who damaged the carriage wheels on my way to escort the
Smythe-Dunstons to Heppens Hall in order to get a look at me and find out with whom he had decided to deal. Though he could not have planned the ruination of Lady Delia in quite the way it happened.”

“Durham?”

“Because at the time that Lady Delia was running into my bedchamber—yes—that much is true, she was in fact running
away
from her guardian. It was his intention to force himself upon her to ensure she would marry him. She simply had the misfortune to run into my room, which was a dashed convenient story for Rosewood to spread!

“So she
did
spend the night in your chamber!”

“Certainly not! When she discovered that the chamber was occupied, she returned to her own.”

“I see,” said Blackwell with a half smile.

“Don’t even think of it, Simon,” his friend replied with a scowl.

“I will endeavor not to. But what does it mean that he cannot locate his ward? Is the girl missing?”

“She is missing. To him,” Durham said with a sigh. “She actually was living in Charles Street and was the young lady you met at Covent Garden and was introduced to as ‘D.E. Mannering.’”

“Mason, you must be joking!”

“Quite so! Which is why I literally dragged her outside into the garden at the opera. She has been living in Town as a ‘female novelist,’ hiding from her guardian and writing absurd romantic manuscripts. Most recently, the
incongruously successful
Annabelle’s Adventures,
whose heroine’s exploits bear a shocking resemblance to the story circulating the
ton
regarding the Lady Delia and myself.”

Blackwell reached for the brandy.

“I rather believe I need a drink.”

“Pour two for me.”

“So the Lady Delia Ellsworth is actually Freddy’s luscious Mrs. Mannering.”

“Not Freddy’s. Mine. And she is above-stairs, here, probably having a bath, though I will not think of that. But here is where she will stay until we find a way to extricate her from Rosewood’s guardianship.”

“What?”

“You can hardly believe that I would permit a young woman such as Lady Delia Ellsworth to continue living, unchaperoned and unprotected, in a tiny house on Charles Street under a barely disguised pseudonym while her crazed guardian is hunting her to force her into a marriage?”

“I admit I failed to realize you were so well acquainted.”

“It is my fault that her reputation is in tatters. It would seem only chivalrous to do my best to repair it.”

“You think to keep her here and thereby repair it?” the Earl shook his head. “Not one of your brightest ideas, Mason.”

“No one
will need know it is she. I plan to have a very explicit conversation with her this afternoon about how she is not to leave the house, except to stroll in the back garden until I have resolved the situation. She cannot be seen, lest she be recognized.”

“I foresee that going well.”

“Thank you, sir, for your vote of confidence.”

“Mason, a young lady with enough gumption to flee to London with only a maid, hire a house and servants, and support herself by writing a novel, is not likely to take kindly to being imprisoned by you.”

“Imprisoned? I shall be keeping her safe!”

“She will see not view it in that manner. She will suggest she was perfectly safe in her old lodgings.”

“Then she is a simpleton.”

“I would advise against telling her so.” The Marquess sighed and ignored his friend. “What will you tell Freddy?”

“Why does he need to be told anything?”

“Because he is in love with her.”

“I can scarcely see how that is of concern to me.”

“But it might be to her. Have you asked if she reciprocates his devotion? In fact, that might be
a rather ideal resolution to the controversy. Lady Delia can marry Freddy! She is protected from Rosewood and off your hands.”

The Marquess’ frown deepened and a shadow crossed his face. What if she was in love with Freddy? The thought had not occurred to him. But she had agreed to accompany Freddy to Covent Garden. Ladies did not generally agree to such outings absent some small degree of regard. He ought to ask her, but he was not certain he could stomach her answer if it was yes.

“She will not marry Freddy,” he said. “The subject is closed.”

Lord Blackwell looked askance at his friend, but said nothing.

“Your confidence is quite overwhelming.”

His friend began musing
aloud. “Regardless, ought I to inform Gigi of her position as my
former
mistress? I feel I can hardly simply disappear and forget that she was plotting to blackmail me. And Rosewood is still Lady Delia’s guardian. I will prevail upon my solicitor to evaluate the will of the late Earl to see if there are any irregularities and evaluate the matter for Rosewood’s breach of fiduciary duty. That is why I have ensconced Lady Delia in Durham House. Until these matters are resolved, she must simply stay out of sight.”

“Indeed. I just wonder if hiding her in the middle
of London as the Little Season begins is the best strategy.”

“People will see what they expect to see. And I will not entertain until she is…until she is free from Rosewood.”

“Let us see if there is anything else to be gained from the remainder of the letters.”

The two men proceeded to read Gigi’s correspondence together and soon discovered that she and Rosewood had known each other for a number of years. It was not until the most recent letter that the men were able to determine it was the two of them who had been the ones responsible for the attempt to pass a ship off as one of Durham’s at his grandmother’s estate. 

The Marquess let out a low whistle, despite his growing fury. “To think, I didn’t suspect a thing the entire time I stayed at Washburn,” he said.

“There was no reason to, Mason,” his friend responded. “You had no idea then—nor did you have any idea when you took Gigi as your mistress.”

Durham stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I did. Or at least I ought to have. I was nearly not the one who selected Gigi. She chose me—and let me know it—one evening at the opera. I assumed that she had some idea of who I was and that I was between mistresses. I set her up the next day. All very easy—rather easier and less expensive than what is usually required to procure a new mistress. I ought to have been on my guard. All that time…she had been plying me for information.” Durham seemed less disturbed by Gigi’s betrayal than he was furious at the fact that he had not guessed it sooner. 

“Well, we can’t exactly collect Rosewood and deliver him up to the authorities, now, can we? We can’t risk it being known that I used grandmama’s estate for smuggling or the whole operation will be compromised. Rosewood will keep quiet because he thinks he may still benefit as well. We will simply have to find him first.”

“It is rather a strange coincidence that Rosewood is also guardian to Lady Delia Ellsworth, ruined by none other than Rosewood, and, rather, you yourself. Do you think anything of it?”

“I wonder, Simon, was Lady Delia cooperating with her guardian? Perhaps Rosewood sought to use Delia first, and, when that failed, sent Gigi instead?” He closed his eyes, not liking what the thought did to his insides.

“That seems highly unlikely. After all, Rosewood is the one who provided the gossip to destroy her. Given that he had the information and didn’t confront you with it in either an attempt to force you to marry the girl or in an attempt to blackmail you with the information to obtain information in return, it doesn’t seem as if she is likely to be part of the plot.”

“Well, as she is here, we
can certainly ask her ourselves. Though I am certain she is aware of nothing. She is so terrified of Rosewood and there is no way she would help him.”

“Terrified?”

“He assaulted her at Washburn Court.”

“Assaulted!”
              “She escaped with only a bruise, but it was not a pleasant experience. Recall, it was him she was running from the night she found me in my bed.”

“True.”

“Well,” Simon said, rising, “I must meet today with my contacts to obtain information about these latest developments. We still don’t know how Rosewood and Gigi discovered the secret code, nor do we know how they determined that the Chateau was a base for smuggling. And you have a willful young woman to attempt to corral.”

“I am fully convinced of my competence in this area.”

“That’s what I find frightening. Until next time.”

After Simon’s departure, he decided he had better visit Lady Delia to discuss her stay at Durham House. He was sure she would understand the necessity of remaining hidden.