How to Seduce a Bride

Chapter Nine

“You should lie down,” Daisy told the viscount.

“If I did everything I should, I’d be a very different man, and a much unhappier one,” Leland said. “Don’t worry,” he added more gently, “not only is there not enough room in this carriage for a maypole like myself to lie down, there’s no need of it.”

The viscount had gotten a knife thrust in his chest, and no one could be sure he was as well as he insisted he was. He sat in the carriage, head back, the earl and Daffyd close on either side of him so he wouldn’t be shaken by the ride. Daisy worried because he was so pale, and because of the amount of blood she’d seen. She sat opposite him, alongside Helena, and they stared at their wounded companion.

“Nothing vital’s been punctured,” Leland reassured them with a faint smile. “Or I couldn’t be sitting here arguing with you. Nothing’s bubbling or spurting-sorry, but you force me to be graphic. How can I say it politely? However I put it, I’m not in distress. I’ve got handkerchiefs and my neck cloth binding up the wound, so I won’t be shedding any more blood. My only concern is being seen in public with a bare throat. That I’d never live down. I ought to have taken your neck cloth when you offered,” he told Daffyd, “because I’m convinced you wouldn’t have cared half so much as I do.”

“You’re right. I’d have just tied a handkerchief ’round my neck like the Gypsy I am,” Daffyd said. “Don’t worry about being seen. No one will see you but the doctor. He’s already been sent for.”

Leland peered out the coach window. “This is not the way to my house.”

“No,” the earl agreed. “It isn’t. You’re coming with me. I don’t trust you to care for yourself, Lee. You’re too casual with your life. You get a knife in your chest, diagnose the wound, whip off a neck cloth to blot up the gore, and pronounce yourself fine. That won’t do.”

“Worse if I pronounced myself dead,” Leland muttered. But though he joked, his voice was fainter, his pallor pronounced, and those in the coach with him exchanged worried glances. “Any rate, even if it were bad, it’s always best to greet the devil with a quip. I hear he likes that… Only jesting,” he said into the sudden silence. “Would you rather I moaned?”

“I’d rather you took it seriously,” the earl said.

“I’ve survived worse,” Leland murmured. “My poor heart must be impervious to insult by now, what with all the fair maidens who have rejected me, and the rivals who stabbed me in the back. But thank you, Geoff. I think I will take advantage of your hospitality, because…” He paused, and his eyelids fluttered down.

Everyone in the coach stiffened.

Leland opened his eyes, and laughed. “… because my valet would surely suffer a heart attack if he saw me in this state.”

They waited in the earl’s salon, not saying much because they were too anxious. Daffyd paced and Daisy looked out the window, while Helena sat quietly waiting. They relaxed when they saw the earl’s expression as he came into the room.

“He’ll do,” the earl told his guests. “The doctor says he’s lucky, the knife missed heart and lungs, but we guessed that. He might run a fever, and that would be another story. I’ve sent for his valet. Lee’s agreed to stay on here until I’m sure he’s well, but not with good grace, I might add. He’d still be complaining if the doctor hadn’t given him a draught so he’d sleep.”

“I’ll postpone leaving in the morning, as I’d planned,” Daffyd said. “I’ll stay on, too, if you don’t mind. At least until I’m sure he’s better.”

“Do that, and he’ll rage himself into that fever we don’t want to see,” the earl said. “In fact, he mentioned it to me just now. ‘Send Daffy on his way,’ he said. ‘I’ll be fine.’ ”

“He’d say that if his head was cut off and on a pike,” Daffyd grumbled.

“If he could, yes,” the earl agreed. “He’s a remarkable man. He dresses like a dandy and carries on like a fop, but he’s pure steel beneath. He fences, rides like a demon, and spars with the Gentleman himself,” he told Daisy. “You wouldn’t know it from his conversation. He even worked with the government in secret when Napoleon was marching toward Paris again; dangerous work, too. Did you know that?”

“Aye,” Daffyd said. “What’s more, the little emperor has no hard feelings. Rumor says Lee’s visited him on Saint Helena since.”

The earl smiled. “The man could talk rings around anyone.”

“He’s a master of flattery, even I can see that,” Daisy admitted.

“It’s more than that,” Daffyd said. “He never says what he doesn’t mean.”

The earl shook his head. “Let’s not go on like this, it sounds like we’re at a wake. Lee’s very much alive, and I hope to keep him that way. So,” he said seriously. “Time to get down to nasty details. Do you think the knifing was an accident? A cutpurse who got frightened when Leland lunged at him? Or do you suspect something else?”

Daisy frowned, Helena looked surprised, but Daffyd nodded approval.

“Good question,” he said. “Could have been a mistake: The fellow was trying a simple slice and run, and that don’t make for accuracy. And Lee’s big and he was going at him like a charging war-horse. He could have just frightened the filching cove so much he struck out and cut by accident. I don’t know. Now, I do know we’re a pack of old lags, so we always have crime on our minds. If it was something else, was Lee the mark, or one of us? We’d be fools not to think about it.”

He stared at Daisy. “No one’s angry at me at the moment, that I know of. Anyone mad at you, Daisy? I’m not saying it was you the cove was after; think of the risks he took when he knifed Lee. If he’d nabbed a purse and thrown it away before he got caught, he might have got clean away. Even if he was caught with it, he’d have got off light if your purse was light, too. And ladies don’t carry too much lolly. But flashing a blade at a gent? Everyone knows it’s the nubbing cheat for attempted murder, if the victim’s a gent. Did he mean it or not? Was he just a rattle pate, or a murderer? We’ve got to think of everything.”

“Too right,” Daisy said. She saw Helena’s expression, and translated for her. “Pickpockets have to be careful they don’t nick too much money, or they’d be hanged if caught. And it’s certain hanging for trying to kill the gentry. We don’t know if the bloke was out for money or blood. Was he such a fool that he tried to stab anyone who might catch him? Or was he sent to do murder?”

She looked thoughtful. “As for me having any enemies… I’ve got some who are vexed with me, true. But they’re all back in Botany Bay, and far as I know none of them mad enough to be after my head. It was my hand they wanted. Although I think I see them everywhere, I’ve never really seen them anywhere.”

“Did Tanner have any relatives who disputed his will?” the earl asked.

Daisy made a sour face. “He had no kin, or so he said. That’s why he took a job in the Antipodes. And he had no will. He couldn’t write. The judge gave everything to me, because I was all there was. And I think, because the judge knew Tanner, he thought I deserved it.”

“And you, Geoff?” Daffyd asked. “Anyone angry with you these days?”

“The man who hated me is in his tomb, Daffyd. I don’t know of any others. But I’ll think on. I’ll also send word to some of our old friends who did settle here in London and ask them. And I’ll call in Bow Street. I’ll have to ask Lee, too,” he added unhappily. “But not today.”

“Don’t worry,” Daffyd said. “If I know my man, he’s already dreaming on it. He doesn’t miss much. In the meanwhile, it’s late. I’ll see the ladies back to their hotel. While I’m out I’ll get some old friends to watch their rooms tonight. Never fear,” he told Daisy.

“I don’t,” she said simply. “I’ve got my own blade up my sleeve. I didn’t think to flash it tonight, because it happened too fast. I’ve got a barker, too. I should have brought it with me, but I thought it was safe in London.”

“A barker?” Helena asked, frowning.

“A pistol,” the earl translated.

Helena gasped.

Daisy turned and rounded on her, her eyes flaming. “Yes, I carry a pistol, Mrs. Masters. I learned in a hard school. Lessons for living, they were, and they served me well because here I stand, don’t I? If it distresses you, then we’ll just have to part company.”

“I didn’t mean that,” Helena said, eyes wide.

“Aye, I know.” Daisy sighed. “Don’t pay attention to me, Helena. I’m tired and angry, but not at you. See how anger works? Likely it was a cull who got too excited and panicked who cut the viscount. He looked like murder on wheels when he came at the cove,” she told the earl. “But even if it wasn’t that, I’m ready. Who knows what enemies a person can make just by breathing? Tanner had dozens who wanted him dead, so I learned from him. He always went armed, hand and foot. And you, Helena?” she asked suddenly, “anyone mad at you?”

“My friends are all in the countryside,” Helena said nervously. “And I’ve no enemies. At least, so I think.”

“There it is,” Daisy said impatiently. “So. What time can we come back tomorrow?”

The earl and Daffyd stood looking at her, the earl with a slight smile, Daffyd with a wide grin.

“Heart of oak, no fainting or wailing, and no retreating,” Daffyd said with approval. “That’s the daisy, all right! You know what? I think all girls should go to Botany Bay instead of finishing school.”

The laughter that greeted this made Daisy feel better. But nevertheless, she looked into the shadows when she left the earl’s house a little while later.

Daisy was up early the next morning, even though she had not slept much, or well. That, she thought, was Leland Grant’s fault. She had gotten into bed and thought about his wound, wondered at his stoicism, and then, in the small hours, worried about his survival. He was such a cool, sardonic man, it was difficult to picture him helpless. And he was young and strong. But she’d seen death come to young and healthy people too many times. And so every time she’d closed her eyes, she’d thought of the possibility of seeing his knowing blue eyes closed forever. She’d only drifted off to sleep at last by promising herself she’d see him in the morning.

The man was an enigma; she was both attracted and distracted by him. But whatever he was, he’d offered his life for hers, and she didn’t forget a debt. At least, that’s what she told herself when she’d realized how upset she was by the attack on him, and how much he dominated her thoughts.

She dressed in shades of pink today, from her bonnet to her walking dress, colors carefully chosen to brighten a sickroom. She’d also bought a bag of sweets and a book the bookseller promised her was all the rage with the gentry these days.

She and Helena got to the earl’s house just in time to see Daffyd leaving it. He’d only had time to say good-bye to Geoff and tell Daisy that Leland was feeling better before he left London. That reassured Daisy. She knew that as much as he wanted to get home to his wife, he wouldn’t have gone if his half brother was in danger.

She picked up the hem of her skirt to go up the stairs when Helena stopped her with a light touch on the arm.

“A lady can’t visit a gentleman in his bedchamber unless they are related, however ill he may be,” Helena said apologetically.

“You hold with that, Geoff?” Daisy asked the earl, tapping a toe on the floor of his marble hall.

He bit back a smile. She looked ready to explode, her patience clearly held by a thread. He looked at her companion.

“I was hired to keep Mrs. Tanner company as well as to tell her how things were done in London,” Helena said helplessly. “I can’t approve what I know Society would not.”

Daisy looked mulish. “I know what’s proper but I can’t and won’t desert a friend in need. The viscount got cut trying to help me, didn’t he? Fine thanks if I let him rot away alone upstairs without so much as a thank you, because ‘a lady doesn’t go into a fellow’s bedchamber unless they’re related!’ I keep telling you-I’m not a lady! And if I were, I wouldn’t want to be that kind of one. Anyway, if he’s in bed with a knife wound in his chest, and I’m fit as a fiddle, I don’t see how he could compromise me! If he even wanted to, that is,” she added.

“Anyone would want to compromise you, Daisy,” the earl said gallantly. “Though I doubt even Lee’s up to it this morning. He’s not exactly rotting away upstairs, by the way. He’s well attended and is doing fine, but yesterday took a lot out of him and the doctor’s draught slowed him further. He’s no danger to anyone but himself, if he insists on doing too much.”

“What say you, Mrs. Masters?” he asked Helena. “Daisy clearly will have her way. I don’t want her climbing in the window. Why not agree and look the other way-metaphorically, that is. I won’t tell if you don’t.”

Helena frowned. “But the servants…”

“Don’t gossip, they’re loyal to me, to a man and woman,” the earl said. “I trust them implicitly.” He saw her hesitation, and took pity. The woman obviously had morals and didn’t want to take her salary if she couldn’t provide what she’d promised.

“If Geoff thinks it’s all right, then, certainly, so do I,” Daisy announced.

Helena saw the fond look on the earl’s face as he looked at Daisy. “Very well,” she said with resignation, “What can I say?”

They went up the stairs, into the long hallway, and finally paused outside an oaken door.

The earl eased the door open. “Lee?” he called, “are you ready for company?”

“I was from the moment I heard they were here,” Leland’s voice said. “I’m decently dressed and delighted to receive them. Show them in, if you please.”

Daisy followed the earl in, but had eyes only for the man in the huge bed. Leland was lying down, propped up on pillows, but otherwise she’d never have guessed he was in any way hurt. He wore a maroon dressing gown over a white shirt and gray breeches, and if it weren’t for the fact that he wore morocco slippers instead of boots, he needed only a neck cloth to look ready for a stroll down the street.

It was true he was pale, but that only made his eyes look bluer, as he looked at her. She caught her breath as she met that calm regard. “Welcome,” he said, “I’d bow, but my bandages are so tight, I might sever my body at the waist, and I think I’ve treated you to enough gore already. Thank you for coming; I’m glad the sight of my blood didn’t put you off me forever. How are you this morning? I love your gown, Mrs. Tanner; the color brightens my day.”

It hardly needed brightening, Daisy thought. The drapes had been pulled back from the windows and the room was flooded with morning light. It was a handsomely appointed room, with rich carpets and ornate furniture. Her nostrils twitched. There was no stale, medicinal smell of a sickroom here; instead the room bore a slight familiar and delicious scent of soap and warm sandalwood.

“I got you a book and some sweets,” she said, ignoring his compliment. “But it looks like you don’t need for anything.”

“Oh, but I do,” he said. “I needed company desperately. Not that Geoff isn’t delightful, but he’s woefully short on gossip.”

“Well, so am I,” Daisy said, as she took a chair the earl moved to the side of the bed. “All I can tell you is that it’s a beautiful day.”

“Then let’s make some gossip,” Leland said with a tilted grin.

“I’m only here because they promised me you couldn’t,” she said.

She heard Helena take in a breath, and the earl laugh. Daisy smiled as she realized how much easier it was to talk with the viscount when he was safely confined to his bed.

He laughed. “They can’t promise what they don’t control, Mrs. Tanner. But never fear! I’m on my best behavior. That’s not difficult this morning. Did you know I creak when I move, like Prinny in his corset? Very distracting. But you, Mrs. Tanner, tempt me most awfully. And speaking of distractions, Helena, I see you’re wearing the gown Mrs. Tanner told me about. I’m so pleased. You look splendid in it. Not that the lavender didn’t suit you, but you glow in saffron, just as Mrs. Tanner promised.”

As Helena smiled and thanked him, Daisy tilted her head to the side. So it was “Helena” so soon, and no correction offered, even when her companion was such a monster of propriety? And four “Mrs. Tanners” in a row? She doubted it was an accident. A glance at the light dancing in the viscount’s dark blue eyes told her it wasn’t.

“You can call me Daisy,” she told him grudgingly. “Save yourself some breath that way, and I guess you need it today.”

He put one hand on his heart. “I’m moved almost to tears. Thank you, Daisy. Is that your given Christian name, by the way?”

Daisy’s face flushed. “My father always called me that, so everyone else did, too. But I was given the name Deidre. He thought it was too formal for”-“a little redheaded sprite” was what her father had said all those years ago, but that she wouldn’t share-“a little girl. Daisy suits me, though. I don’t think I’d even answer to Deidre if I heard it.”

“ ‘Deidre of the sorrows,’ ” Leland quoted thoughtfully. “Yes, I can see it doesn’t fit a little sprite like you. Have I said something wrong?” he asked when he saw her start.

“No, it’s just that was what he said. Anyway,” she said, trying to collect herself, “sometimes a name you get by accident is the one you keep. Funny, that. Even my father forgot Daisy wasn’t my name. Years later, I asked if the fact that it wasn’t my real name on my marriage lines made them invalid, but the magistrate said no, since everyone knew me as Daisy.” She sighed with remembered regret. “Well, it was a long shot, but I tried. So it seems if you use a name long enough, it’s yours to keep.”

Leland watched her, seeing how bleak memory brought sorrow to her face. “Why, yes,” he said. “In many ways. If I suddenly turned to nothing but acts of charity and repaired to a monastery, I’d still be called a rake. Not that I plan to do that!” he said in mock horror, to make her smile again. “My injury didn’t frighten me that much. I’d need to be struck by an axe, not a knife, for that kind of repentance.”

She smiled at him as his lips quirked in a real smile, too. Their eyes met in acknowledgment of the joke. It was a curiously intimate moment for Daisy. She liked the feeling she was sharing something amusing with another person who understood; she hadn’t done that since she was a girl and had shared secret jests with her best friend. When she realized that a second later, her eyes widened.

What was it about this man? He wasn’t handsome, not by half. But she found herself increasingly appreciating his arresting, angular looks. She’d passed so many years in a place where females were in the minority that she’d thought she’d met every kind of male. But she’d never met one like him, so full of manners and yet also filled with mirth and clever wickedness. He spoke as lightly as he moved and seemed to take nothing seriously except fashion. And yet he was strong and virile.

He was a novelty. She thought that might be it, entirely. At least she hoped so. In time, after meeting more fellows like the viscount, she might come to regard him with fondness, not the disturbing mixture of pleasure and alarm she felt whenever she met his gaze. As now, when she felt like squirming because of how he was watching her with rueful amusement and yet with sympathy.

He looked away, releasing her. “Any new ideas about my assailant?” he asked the earl.

“No. And you?”

“None,” Leland said. “I pride myself on my enemies. After all, it isn’t only one’s friends that are the measure of a man. My enemies are superior, too.” When they stopped laughing, he added, “At least my enemies are outspoken and would never hire anyone to do their dirty work. The more I think of it, the more I think it was an accident. London’s full of thieves; they can’t all be expert. But Daisy,” he added, meeting her eyes again with a steady, serious gaze, “you be careful, at least until we’re sure.”

“I’m prepared,” she said, holding up her chin.

“I’ll bet you are,” he said. “But I don’t want to see you tested. Now, I should be ready for a public viewing by the end of the week. Shall it be at the theater or a party? Or a ball? I’ve invitations to a delightful ball; it will be a mad crush. I haven’t sent in my card yet.”

Daisy considered it. She wanted to go anywhere the earl could, to find out if she’d fit into his world.

She just wasn’t sure if she was ready for such a big test. It wasn’t a matter of suitable gowns. Because if she found she was a total scandal, she’d have to leave Geoff, with regrets. She wanted him as her husband but it wasn’t fair to saddle him with a wife who could never be accepted. She knew too well how it felt to be an outsider, and wouldn’t wish it on anyone she liked.

“But surely you aren’t ready to dance,” the earl protested.

“No, but I never am,” Leland said. “I do it only to be obliging, but I don’t care to caper, I’m just not cut out for it. I look like a scarecrow in the wind if I join a country dance, and like I’ve also got a broomstick up my breeches if I try a minuet. Excuse me,” he said, with a look at Helena, seeing she was trying to suppress her laughter. “I’ll try to be more sensible of my guests’ tender ears, ma’am.

“Still, I could dance by then, if I wished,” he added. “And if not, then surely flirting won’t use up my strength, and that’s what I do best. Another benefit is that I’ll be such a sensation after my mishap that we can slip Daisy into any fashionable party without anyone looking at her with undue scrutiny. They’d be too busy goggling at me. Would you mind not being the belle of the ball?” he asked Daisy.

She could swear he’d read her mind. “No,” she said, with relief, “not at all.”

“I’m not sure the doctor will let you,” the earl told him. “But if you want to try, we have to leave you now, so you can be up to it. The doctor said rest, and that’s what you’ll get until his next visit.”

“Alas!” Leland said, sinking back on his pillows. “You’re not going to let any more lovely ladies come up to my bedchamber? That might kill me. But I will survive, if only because I’ll be readying myself for Saturday evening. Save a waltz for me, Daisy, will you?”

His voice asked for more than a waltz; his eyes did, too. She found herself unable to say yes, because of the sudden vision of herself in his arms. How could she resolve her uneasy feelings about him if she got that close to him?

“I haven’t danced in years,” she said truthfully.

He waved a hand. “You’ll remember when you hear the music. And I’m infinitely patient. So?”

“Thank you, yes. I’d like that,” she lied.

He grinned, and she knew that he knew that, too.

Leland lay back and closed his eyes after Daisy left, seeing the red of his inner eyelids in the sunlight, and the red-gold of her hair in his mind’s eye; feeling the warmth of the sun on his face, imagining the warmth of her body next to his. He didn’t know if he’d ever feel that in reality, because for some reason he’d frightened her today. He didn’t know why.

He had the reputation of a rake, that was true.

But why should she fear that? Especially coming from where she’d been? After all, with all he was, he was a gentleman. She had to know he’d never force her to do anything. In fact, he wasn’t sure he was that much of a libertine; it was only that he’d gotten the name and it amused him to keep it. Many gentlemen had just as many lovers, but he was more open about it than most; he’d concede that.

The truth was that he loved to love. The joy of a woman’s body was a miracle in which he could always forget himself, and that was no small miracle in itself. He liked more than their bodies; he numbered women, even though many were unobtainable, among his friends. Unlike other men he knew, he didn’t believe a person’s body shaped her mind, at least not entirely. Yet he’d never loved the way poets said a man could: once and forever and with a burning desire that was more than passion. Since he hadn’t, he didn’t know if he could. But the game of love, flirtation and challenge, acceptance and pleasure, always delighted him.

He didn’t know whether Daisy Tanner knew she’d been flirting with him. She’d done it beautifully, though, until he’d frightened her. That surprised him. Did she have a guilty secret? Did that have something to do with why she was wary of him and making a dead set for Geoff?

It was important, for Geoff’s sake, that he find out. He laughed aloud.

“My lord?” his valet, who had been cleaning the room, asked. “Are you all right?”

He opened his eyes. “Nothing,” he said. “It’s nothing. I laughed because I was so amused by lies I was telling myself. It must be the effect of the medicine the good doctor gave me for pain. I tell you what, give me some more to make me sleep. I have to be ready to dance.”