Lady Eve's Indiscretion (9 page)

“Louisa, Countess of Kesmore, as well as Genevieve and Eve Windham. We're paying a call on King William, and I am escorting them, not entertaining them.”

“A pretty trio, but two of them are perilously unmarried, need I remind you.”

“As am I, need I remind you. When do you think you can have some figures ready for me, Anthony?”

Anthony peered at the paper and turned the pages over. “Which figures would those be?”

“The ones relating to our cash, our blunt, our coin of the realm.”

Anthony went still in a way that indicated he was not even trying to look like he was reading, but was instead merely staring at the paper while he formulated a polite reply. He sat back and frowned at his empty plate.

“You're determined on this? You really want to wade through years' worth of musty ledgers and obscure accountings? I'd commend you for your zeal, but it's a complicated, lengthy undertaking, and it truly won't yield you any better sense of things than you have now.”

“I want to know where I stand, Anthony.”

He needed to know, in fact, though he was hardly going to admit that to Anthony, cousin or not.

“Don't worry.” Anthony's smile was sardonic. “We've the blunt to keep you in red-haired whores for as long as you're able to enjoy them four at a time.”

Deene dispatched the last of his eggs and rose. “Perhaps we can start on that accounting after breakfast tomorrow.” He'd phrased it as a suggestion between cousins, though Anthony ought to have heard it as something closer to an order from his employer.

Anthony lifted his teacup in a little salute. “Your servant. Enjoy the ladies—but not too much.”

Whatever that meant.

The day was fair, though not quite warm. In a fit of optimism, Deene had the horses put to the landau. The vehicle had been imported just before the old marquis's death and was the best appointed of the town coaches. Deene elected to drive the thing rather than endure unnecessary miles sitting backward and trying to make small talk with the Windham sisters.

When he got to the Windham townhouse, he found Lady Eve waiting for him in the family parlor, dressed for an outing but sporting a mulish expression.

“You're here.”

Her inauspicious greeting indicated they were about to spar. He kept his expression politely neutral, despite the temptation to smile. “Was I supposed to be somewhere else?”

“No, you were not.” She crossed the room in a swish of skirts. “My sisters are supposed to be here as well, ready to depart with us, but no, Louisa has begged off, and Jenny just sent Hammet to tell me she is also utterly, immediately, and incurably indisposed for the day.”

Eve was piqued. It was on the tip of Deene's tongue to say they could simply reschedule—or better still, cancel altogether—but something in her expression stopped him.

“Would you be disappointed to miss this outing, Lady Eve?”

She swished over to the window and stood facing the back gardens. “Disappointed? Merely to miss a few hours in the country, stepping around the odoriferous evidence of livestock? Of course not.”

She was an endearingly bad liar. He came up behind her and put both hands on her shoulders to prevent any more of this swishing about, and spoke very quietly near her ear.

“You would so be disappointed.” He could feel it quivering through her, an indignation that her siblings would desert her like this.

She turned, forcing him to drop his hands. He did not step back.

“The weather bids fair to be a lovely day, my lord. I haven't seen the countryside since we spent the holidays at Morelands, and I have every confidence Mr. Trottenham intends to speak to Papa this very afternoon.”

She was not about to admit she'd been panting to make the acquaintance of his horse, but Deene was almost certain this was her true motive. By the end of the day, he vowed he would make her admit her objective honestly.

“Come with me anyway, Lady Eve. I brought the landau, the staff at The Downs is expecting our party, and once the Season gets underway, we'll neither of us have time for an outing.”

She was wavering. He could see her wavering in the way she almost worried a nail between her teeth but recalled at the last moment she was wearing gloves.

“Or don't come with me.” He slapped his gloves against his thigh. “I'll get a great deal more accomplished if I'm not forced to play host to somebody reluctant to make even such an innocuous outing with an old family friend.”

Her fists went to her hips. “
Forced
, Deene? Did I force this invitation from you? Did I force you to boast about the capabilities of a mere colt such as I might see on any of a dozen racecourses? Did I tell you to bring an open carriage when the weather this time of year is anything but certain?”

He stepped closer but kept his voice down in contrast to Eve's rising tones. “You will
never
see the like of this colt on any racecourse, unless King William is in the field. Never. This horse has more heart, more bottom, and more sheer, blazing—”

“Excuse me.” Esther, Duchess of Moreland, stood in the doorway, her expression puzzled. “Eve, I thought you would have left by now. One doesn't get days this promising very often so early in spring. Deene, good morning.”

“Your Grace.” He bowed to the appropriate depth and wondered if Her Grace had heard him exchanging
pleasantries
with Eve.

“I am not inclined to go without Jenny and Louisa, Mama. They would be disappointed to miss such an excursion.”

Her Grace's expression shifted to a smile more determined than gracious. “Nonsense. If they want to indulge in some extra rest, that's no reason to deprive yourself of fresh air, or of the company of such an amiable gentleman as Deene. He's practically family. Be off with you both, and, Deene, bring her home at a reasonable hour, or you will deal with me.”

Said in perfectly cordial tones, but Deene did not mistake the warning.

“Of course, Your Grace.” He winged his elbow at Eve—arguing before the duchess was
not
in his schedule—and was relieved when Eve wrapped a gloved hand around his arm.

“Have a pleasant time, my dears.”

As Deene ushered Eve through the door, he caught the duchess giving him a look. When their gazes collided, she must have gotten something in her eye, because it appeared for all the world as if Her Grace had winked at him.

Damn and blast Lucas Denning for needling her, for that's exactly what he'd done. Eve drew up sharply in the mews and dropped her escort's arm.

“Deene, where are your footmen, where is your driver?”

“Probably enjoying a merry pint or two despite the hour of the day.”

He started toward the landau while Eve resisted the urge to clobber him with her parasol. When he turned back to her a few paces away, he wore a smile that could only be described as taunting.

“Eve Windham, I am competent to drive you the less than two hours it will take to get to The Downs. For that matter, you are competent to drive me as well. You know this team, they're perfect gentlemen, and it's a calm day. Get into the carriage.”

The gleam in his blue eyes suggested he knew exactly what manner of challenge he'd just posed, both in referring to her driving skill and in
ordering
her into the carriage.

She walked up to Duke. “Good morning, Your Grace. You're looking very handsome today.” She took a bag of sliced apples from her reticule and fed the beast a treat. This was bad manners on her part—one never fed another's cattle treats without permission. The horse's bit would be particularly sticky and slimy now too.

She moved around to Marquis and offered him the same attention, taking an extra moment to scratch the gelding's neck.

“Loosen the check reins, Lucas. These horses are going to stretch their legs when we leave Town, and your grooms have fitted the harness with a greater eye toward appearances than the animals' comfort.”

He blinked, which was a supremely satisfying response to the use of the imperative on a man too handsome and self-assured for his own good.

While Deene tended to the harness, Eve climbed onto the driver's bench at the front of the vehicle. She was not going to sit back in the passengers' seats all by herself, shouting at Deene to make conversation for the next two hours.

Though apparently, that would not have been his intent. Eve had been telling herself for some miles that it was exhilarating to be behind such a spanking—and not the least bit frightening—team when Deene finally spoke.

“Did you or did you not wear a very fetching brown ensemble just so you might also wear brown gloves, the better to be petting horses?”

She had. That he would divine such a thing was disconcerting.

“The ensemble, as you note, my lord, is attractive, and the skirt cut for a walking length so I might move about your stables without concern for my hems. Then too, I've been told brown flatters my blond hair.”

He glanced over at her with such a fulminating look that Eve realized she'd brought them to the point of departure for another argument, which had
not
been her intent. She was driving out for the second time in a week with somebody besides family, and it was a pretty day.

“Tell me about The Downs, Lucas. St. Just said you inherited the property when you were a boy.”

“I did. What would you like to know about it?”

He was going to make her work for it, but she was a duke's daughter. If she couldn't make polite conversation with a familiar acquaintance, she didn't deserve her title.

“What draws you to it? You've many properties, and yet this is the one you take the greatest interest in.”

He looked for a moment like he'd quibble with even that, but then his shoulders relaxed. “My cousin Anthony is the Deene estate steward for all intents and purposes, and he does a marvelous job at a large and thankless task. Each property has a steward, some have both house and land stewards, and they all answer to him. The Downs is my own…”

He fell silent while the horses clip-clopped along.

“I have a little property,” Eve said, not wanting the silence to stretch any further. “It's a dear little place not three miles from Morelands, part of Mama's settlements.”

“Is this Lavender Corner?”

“It is. I've fitted out the household to my taste, and some days I just go there to enjoy the place.”

“To be alone?”

He was aiming another look at her while she tried to formulate an answer that was honest but not combative, when something—a hare, a shadow, a deer moving in the woods to the side of the road—gave the horses a fright.

Between one moment and the next, Eve went from a relatively innocuous chat with her escort to blind panic. As the vehicle surged forward, she clutched the rail and resisted the urge to jump to safety.

Except it
wasn't
safety, not when the horses could bolt off at a dead gallop over uneven terrain. As the trees flew by in a blur, she was reminded yet again that nowhere in the vicinity of a horse could she
ever
be truly safe.

“Ho, you silly buggers.” Deene's voice was calm over the clatter of the carriage. “That's enough of this. It was a damned rabbit, you idiots, and you're not getting any more treats if this is how you comport yourselves before a lady.”

His scold was lazy, almost affectionate, and to Eve's vast, enormous,
profound
relief, the horses slowed to a canter, then a trot.

“Lucas, I'm going to be sick.” When had she gotten her hand wrapped around his arm?

“You are not going to be sick. If I pull them over now, they'll understand that a queer start earns them a rest and possibly a snack. We'll let them blow in another mile or two when their little horsey brains have forgotten all about this frolic and detour.”

Eve closed her eyes, and in sheer misery, rested her forehead on Deene's muscular shoulder. A mile was forever, and yet what he said made perfect sense—to a competent horseman.

“I want to walk back to Town, Lucas. Right now, I want to walk back to Town.”

She felt him chuckle, damn and blast him. If he hadn't been the one holding the reins, she would have walloped him.

“I've seen you ride through much worse misbehavior than that little contretemps, Eve Windham, and you did it with a smile. There's a pretty view coming up. I typically let the team rest there.”

While Eve breathed in the lavender and cedar scent of Deene's jacket—a cure-all for not just megrims, apparently, but a nervous stomach as well—she considered that she might possibly, in some very small regard, be overreacting.

She raised her head but kept her arm linked with Deene's.

“You were going to tell me about The Downs.”

“You were going to tell me about Lavender Corner.”

Or they could argue about who was going to tell whom about which property. Despite her lingering upset, despite the looming challenge of the drive back to Town, Eve smiled.

Though she still did not turn loose of Deene's arm.

***

From time immemorial, the horses who stayed alive were the ones who galloped off at the first sign of possible danger, and then, two miles later, paused to consider the wisdom of their flight—or to get back to swishing their tails at flies and grazing.

Deene wasn't upset with his team for having a lively sense of self-preservation, though he was out of charity with them for scaring Eve Windham. He forgave them their lapse of composure when he realized Eve's unease was keeping her glued to his side, a petite, warm, female bundle of nerves, trying to decide whether to resume arguing with him or treat him to another round of polite discourse.

She opted for discourse—a small disappointment.

“I do go to Lavender Corner to be alone,” she said. “I always make some excuse, that I'm meeting with my housekeeper, that I want to see how the gardens are coming, but mostly…”

Her words trailed off, and Deene stepped into the breach, even as he wondered what she wasn't saying.

“I grew up with only the one sibling, and as a child, a five-year age difference made Marie seem like an adult. I always thought a lot of brothers and sisters would be wonderful, but I suppose it has drawbacks too.”

Her grip on his arm eased fractionally. “It is wonderful, unless they go off to war and don't come back, or have to spend years expiring of blasted consumption. Even then, I would not exchange the people I love for anything in the world.”

What could he say to that? The people he loved encompassed his niece, whom he was barely permitted to see, and Anthony, though Deene would never mistake his cousin for a friend.

“One can tell you love each other,” he said, it not being an appropriate moment for a disagreement. “It's there in your humor with each other, your protectiveness, your honesty. We've reached our pull off.”

For which he was grateful. Talk of love was for women among themselves, where it could safely stray off to that most inane subject, being
in
love. He pulled up the team, set the brake, wrapped the reins, and jumped down.

“Let's stretch our legs, shall we?”

He didn't really mean it as a question. Eve's face was still pale and she would fare better for using her legs.

“You'll let them graze?” she asked from her perch on the bench.

“They don't deserve it, but yes, if you prefer.” He held up his arms to assist her to the ground, and she hesitated. In the instant when he would have remonstrated her for her rudeness, he understood that forcing herself to move at all when there was no driver at the reins was… difficult for her. “Evie, come here.”

He plucked her bodily from the carriage—he was tall enough to do that—and let her slide down his body until her feet were planted on terra firma. When he would have stepped back, she dropped her forehead to his chest.

“I'm an idiot.”

“If so, you're a wonderfully fragrant idiot.” Also lithe, warm, and a surprisingly agreeable armful of woman. He kept his arms around her as he catalogued these appealing attributes and helped himself to a pleasing whiff of mock orange.

“I panicked back there when the horses startled.”

She sounded miserable over this admission. He took a liberty and turned her under his arm, keeping his arm across her shoulders while they walked a few paces away.

“I know you took a bad fall before your come out, Eve. There's no shame in a lingering distaste for injury. I still get irritable whenever I hear cannon firing, even if it's just a harbor sounding its signals.”

And for the longest time, thunder had had the same effect, as had the sound of a herd of horses galloping en masse. She moved away from his side, and he let her go while he released the check reins so the horses could graze.

“Being rattled from years at war is not the same thing at all as letting one fall—one, single fall—turn me into a ninnyhammer seven years and two months later.”

She probably knew the exact number of days as well, which made him hurt for her.

“I beg to differ with you, my lady—though I realize it has become an ungentlemanly habit. Tooling around the park, nobody's team is going to spook at anything, except perhaps Lady Dandridge's bonnets. If this is the first startled team you've been behind in years, then I'd be surprised if you weren't a little discommoded. Walk with me.” He held out a hand to her. “There's a patch of lily of the valley that is not to be missed over by those trees.”

She shot a wary glance at the horses, who were placidly grazing on the verge.

The look she gave his bare hand was equally cautious.

In that moment, he experienced a profound insight regarding Eve Windham, the things that spooked her, and
why
they spooked her. He ambled along in silence with her, hand in hand, resenting the insight mightily.

He found it much easier to consider Eve a well-bred young lady with ample self-confidence borne of a ducal upbringing, a very appealing feminine appearance, and no small amount of poise. He did not want to think of her as… wounded or in any way vulnerable.

“Have a seat,” he said some moments later, shrugging out of his jacket and spreading it on the ground for her.

Another woman would have argued over this rather than the silly things he debated with Eve—argued over the impropriety of being just out of sight of the road, of sharing a coat with a lone gentleman—but Eve sank gracefully to the ground, tugged off her gloves, and drew her knees up before her.

He sat beside her for a few moments in silence, letting the burbling of a nearby stream underscore what he hoped was a soothing silence. The air was redolent with the scent of lily of the valley, but beneath that he could still catch a little note of mock orange.

And Eve.

***

Now would be a fine time for Lucas Denning to share a few of his lovely kisses, but no, he had to sit beside Eve in the grass, all solemn and gentlemanly.

She wanted to scream and lay about with her parasol.

At the ninnyhammer horses and her ninnyhammer self. Also at the ninnyhammer
man
beside her, gone all proper, when what she could have really used, what she would have appreciated
greatly
was the heat and distraction of his mouth on hers, the feel of all that fine muscle and man right next to her, his body so close—

A thought popped into her head all at once. A novel, startling thought she'd never had before: if the man was such a blockhead as not to realize this was a kissing moment, then the woman could certainly be astute enough, bold enough—

She rounded on him and swung a leg across his middle before her mind articulated the rest of this brilliant idea. The element of surprise allowed her to push him flat to his back, and perhaps some element of misplaced gentlemanly restraint meant she could get her mouth on his before he reacted.

Though it was
such
a wonderful reaction. He growled into her mouth, lashed his arms around her, and rolled with her, so she was beneath him amid the lilies of the valley, his kisses mixing with the lush fragrance of the flowers, the scent of crushed green grass, and the feel of the cool earth at Eve's back.

Then he went still, and the disappointment Eve felt was so keen she was tempted to punch his shoulder… until his mouth came back to hers, sweetly, slowly, like a sigh feathering across her cheek, easing its way to her lips.