The Trouble With Seduction (37 page)

“It’s something I have to show you.”

The carriage pulled to a stop and they strolled arm in arm up the walk.

Megpeas pulled open the door, beaming at them, and bowed. “Welcome home.”

Gracie curtsied at his side. “My lord, my lady. How was your honeymoon?”

“Brilliant.” Damen’s eyes grew soft as he gazed at Sarah.

“You shaved off your beard, my lord,” Gracie said merrily as she helped divest them of their coats and hats.

“I tried to talk him into taking off his glasses as well, but he refused,” Sarah added.

“The better to see you with, my dear,” he grinned wolfishly.

Megpeas cleared his throat. “While you were away, your brother, Mr Cornelius Ravenhill, sent his felicitations and said he will be coming to London next week.”

“Splendid, Megpeas! So he’s finally up and around. That is the best news we could come home to.” Damen slapped the butler on the shoulder.

Grasping her husband’s hand, Sarah turned to Megpeas and Gracie. “I must steal Falgate away. I promised to show him something.” She quickly pulled him up the stairs, down a long hall, and into a dim corridor.

After making sure the hallway was empty, she counted to the fifth rectangular molding and placed an ornate key into a hidden lock. Giving it a twist, the secret door creaked open. She tugged her husband through and relocked the door.

“What is this place?” He glided his fingers down one of the red veils hanging from the ceiling.

Sarah led him across the furs to the low bed. “It is a wonderland for fantasies.”

“Is it now?” He coiled his hands around her waist and leaned down to nuzzle her neck. “And what fantasy do you wish for today, my love?”

Her fingers worked feverishly on the buttons of his waistcoat and shirt.

He chuckled in her ear and ran his tongue around its edge. A shiver skittered up her spine as she felt his hands work along her back. By now he’d become quite adept at undressing her, his big hands managing the trickiest assemblage of buttons, tapes, and hooks.

“I’ve been dreaming of you on these furs,” she breathed as she pressed her hips into his.

He groaned and yanked her bodice down her arms.

***

Afterward, Sarah lay in her husband’s arms as he murmured in her ear, “I’d love to stay here the rest of the night but we probably should say our hellos.”

“And get something to eat.”

“Worked up an appetite, have we?” He grinned.

As Sarah gathered her clothes, Damen knelt down to search for a sock. “What’s this?” He pulled out a silver tray from under the bedside table and set it on top.

Sarah stifled a gasp. How could Damen always find things that were supposed to stay hidden?

He pulled back the red-velvet cover and gazed about the tray, his eyes lighting with curiosity. “Mmm, scented oils. I say, are these Strathford’s therapeutic devices? Mary Turner said she consulted with your husband in making them.”

“I’ll wager that’s not all she did,” Sarah grumbled under her breath.

“According to her, she tested the first prototypes and advised him on ways to fine-tune their design.”

Sarah tried not to grimace. And she’d thought Edward had been a genius to know exactly the right design and sensation to maximize enjoyment. Now she knew the truth. He’d consulted a prostitute. Mary had probably given him a point-by-point education on the finer details of female anatomy and excitation.

“Let’s see, how does this one work?” Damen picked up the spine tickler and ran his big hands over the ball bearings. “Smoooth, respooonsive.” He drew out the vowels.

Sarah’s face heated. She was too embarrassed to speak.

“Oh, hallo, haven’t seen you in a while.” He picked up the Buzzy Bee. “Now weren’t you in the invention gallery?” He wound up the key and placed it on the back of his neck to massage. “Ah, yes, it really works out the little kinks in sensitive muscles, doesn’t it?”

He handed her the still-buzzing toy and picked up the pony rocket. His brows wrinkled as he turned the pointed cylinder around in his fingers. “What does this one do?” He wound up the key. Something inside made the appropriate clicking noise but nothing happened. “It doesn’t seem to work.” He flipped it over and found a little latch at the blunt end, popped it open, and held it up to look inside. “Something’s in here.”

He pulled out a small roll of papers.

“What’s this?” He gazed at Sarah questioningly and smoothed them out, reading aloud.

Damen looked up from the letter. “The plans were real, after all?”

Sarah’s eyes widened. “Edward really did invent a small engine and made drawings.” She couldn’t keep the incredulity from her voice.

“I’d begun to think the device was an elaborate hoax.” Damen looked over the drawings and Strathford’s notes. “Hmmm. He wanted to use pyroglycerin with his engine.”

“Is that bad?”

“Quite. It’s highly unstable. Your husband hoped to find a way to make it safer. Unfortunately, if I were a betting man, I’d say that’s what caused the explosions.”

The Buzzy Bee still quivered merrily in Sarah’s hand and reminded her of a different kind of explosion. “My love…” She chewed on the side of her lip. “There is something you should probably know.”

Damen gazed at her expectantly.

With a wicked smile, she motioned for him to lie back on the bed. Fitting the key into the Buzzy Bee, she gave it a few more turns. “It’s time I showed you the real use for these little toys.”

Chapter 1

London, England, 1864

Captain Beauford Tollier knew the glue-like qualities of trouble. The stuff collected on him like burrs on wool socks. Over the years he’d devised a somewhat reliable rule—trouble avoided was trouble contained.

Hence, when the first two letters arrived, he prudently tossed them into the fire. With the third, however, he let the note linger in his fingers a moment too long. Long enough for the vanilla and honeysuckle perfume to seep into his senses. Long enough for him to notice the elegant, swirling penmanship. And long enough to read the large purple letters emblazoned across the back:

“PROMISING THE HIGHEST REWARDS AND BENEFITS.”

Trouble.

Yet here he stood at the designated fountain in London’s Cremorne Pleasure Gardens. In front of him, horns trumpeted a polka in the tall Chinese bandstand. Below, hundreds of colorful lamps shimmered over the dance platform where seemingly half of London bobbed and weaved.

Beau leaned against a flagpole and opened his pocket watch—eleven p.m.—the appointed time. Where was the mysterious letter writer signed only as C.C.?

Bells suddenly jangled in a nearby arcade. Tension riveted his spine. Spies often set traps with enticing words. But the letter’s mystery and its author’s persistence had tweaked his infernal curiosity.

Tapping his foot, he peered about the swarms of festive patrons milling around him. He shouldn’t be here. His return to England was to be a new start. He’d made a vow—if he survived the Yankee prison he would reunite with his brothers and change his life. Still, anticipation buzzed through his veins.

He flicked open his program, scanned it and stuffed it into his trouser pocket. Families still left at dusk. Now only roistering men and women remained. Save for a novel act or two, a dozen years hadn’t altered the variety of amusements and death-defying feats. Hot air balloons, operettas, circuses and tightrope walkers still entertained. He yawned—child’s play, really. Little could rival the excitement of blockade-running.

In the distance, a steam calliope whistled a merry tune. Aromas of coffee and hot grog tugged his attention to the outdoor café where flashy women ringed dainty tables. He brushed his hand over his jacket pocket and felt the note crinkle under his fingertips. Could one of those women be the mysterious letter writer?

“Dawdling won’t get you tuppence here. If you want one o’ ’em, ask her for a dance. Then negotiate.”

Beau flinched at the strange voice. With all the noise and commotion surrounding him, he hadn’t noticed the two well-dressed gentlemen step to his side. He narrowed his eyes on them.

The mustachioed fellow rattled on, “Got to exert yourself. That’s the way of it here at these pleasure gardens.” He motioned toward the crowded dance platform where a sea of hats and bonnets and every kind of suit and gown imaginable bounced about in something resembling more of a bacchanal than a polka.

“The tarts here do not solicit acquaintance. Got to be asked,” his friend said and adjusted his bowler hat.

Rockets burst overhead and exploded through the mist into flowering streams of silver. Beau’s sinews seized. Ghostly images of flying shrapnel and live shell fell all around him. “Take cover!” gurgled in his throat. He clutched the flagpole, gasped for air, pulled at his cravat and fought the panic rioting inside.

The man with the mustache stared, eyes bulging. “N-not that one o’ ’em wouldn’t be thrilled to accommodate a f-fine bloke such as yourself. Not to worry. London’s trollops are a friendly sort. That’s just how it’s done here at Cremorne.”

Beau dragged in desperate breaths. Even with the cool fall air floating in off the Thames, the boom of fireworks made him break into a sweat. Frustration boiled in his gullet. He’d come here to find out what ‘Rewards and Benefits’ meant, not fend off his lingering battle demons.

After nearly fifty runs through the blockade he’d lost his nerve, quite effectively ending his blockade-running career. Fortunately, he’d saved a tidy sum, but the money wouldn’t last. Even an earl’s third son needed to keep up appearances. With any luck, the letter writer would offer generous pay for legitimate, peaceful work. That wasn’t too much to ask for, was it?

Heart still pounding, he shoved a hand into his jacket pocket. “Blast!” He yanked it out again. The paper cut him! He knew better than to allow an infernal letter to tempt his curiosity. A more superstitious mariner would take it as a sign. He should leave.

Vacillating, he rubbed his stinging finger and studied the men. They didn’t seem dodgy enough to have sent the letter, but they were too friendly. He didn’t like friendly. And what made them think he didn’t know London? Was it his tan? He needed to get rid of them. “Perhaps you could show me how one procures…a tart.”

The bowler-hatted man gave him a crooked smile. “All right. It’s not so difficult. Remember, they got to make a living. Pick out one you fancy, be polite and ask.” He tipped his hat toward several women sitting at a nearby table. One smiled back. He soon disappeared with the woman into the mass whirling around the bandstand.

His friend twiddled his mustache and grinned. “Good on him. See? Easy. That’s how it’s done.”

Beau checked his pocket watch…six minutes past eleven. The letter writer was late. Patience had never been his virtue, but tardiness nearly gave him fits. The last time someone kept him waiting he’d been forced to confess to a lie to save his crew and was nearly hanged.

A ticklish skitter climbed his torso. Another grazed his face. He slowly peered around. Union spies had trailed him before. He’d been shocked by the amount of intelligence his nemesis, Union Navy Commander Rives, presented at his trial. Rives promised a bullet to the brain if he ever saw him again. Enough. Time to leave.

“Captain Tollier?”

The soft American accent pinched a raw nerve. He lurched around toward the woman’s voice.
Dear God in Heaven
. Fireworks exploded overhead in the grand finale. All Beau heard was a distant ringing.

Diamond lights sparkled in the large, dark-lashed eyes gazing up at him. Tight sable ringlets framed creamy skin. High cheekbones lent strength to a comely heart-shaped face. A thin, straight little nose tipped up with just a trace of determination. And her lips, oh, her full, soft lips were made to bedevil a man’s imagination.

At first he thought her a delicate maiden. In the next instant, she pursed those lovely lips ever so slightly to reveal an edge and maturity that hinted older. And with closer examination, her charming womanly curves suggested older as well. Surely this spectacular creature couldn’t be
the
C.C.

Stunned, he couldn’t respond, only watch her study his face and give him a smile—a very pretty smile—white teeth, a dimple on her soft left cheek. The glamour of it spurred stirrings he’d not felt in nearly a year.

“Oh dear, I must have been mistaken. Terribly sorry.” She turned to walk away.

An elbow dug into his side. The mustachioed man shot him a look of disbelief and gave a quick nod in her direction.

Rubbing his rib, Beau’s mind finally snapped into gear. “May I help you, miss?”

She turned back. “If you aren’t Captain Tollier, then no. I’m very sorry to bother you.”

Curiosity wrestled with uncertainty. She couldn’t have written the letter, could she? Stunning women made very beguiling spies, yet something about her didn’t quite fit the part. Sweeping his hat from his head he smiled, “And if I were he?”

“Then you’d know who you were. Do you know who you are?”

He couldn’t decide if her tone held a joke or condescension.

American women
. They spoke the same language, for the most part, but if he wasn’t mistaken, this one’s cheekiness included a subtle challenge.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the mustached fellow angle his arm for another shot to his ribs.