Temporary Mistress

Chapter Sixteen

ON MONDAY, under Molly's watchful eye and with the help of her maid, Isabella dressed for her drive with the Marquis of Lonsdale. She wore a simple muslin gown, tucked and pleated with green ribands, a short riding jacket of bottle-green wool completing the ensemble. Calling for her driving gloves, she set a small turban of striped silk on the back of her head while her maid went to fetch the gloves. Turning to Molly, she lightly asked, "Will this do? For one must show well, mustn't one?"

"You'll show very well indeed. Everyone in the park will take note."

"Which is the point, is it not-to see and be seen," Isabella observed. "In yet another gown, on the arm of yet another man."

Isabella was deluged with suitors and callers, the drawing room thronged with hopeful men whenever she was at home. "Are you becoming weary of the scene?" Molly gently asked, hearing the discontent in Isabella's voice. "You need but say it and we'll fold up our tent."

Isabella looked at her friend and smiled. "I'd be fainthearted to cry off so soon."

"Perhaps you should be more selective. Accept only a few invitations."

Isabella made a small moue. "At the moment, I feel a great need for distraction"-her smile was brittle-"and amusement."

"Perhaps not with the marquis, however. He's a bit of a rogue," Molly warned, "and deep in debt. I should have said something before. I almost wish you might cry off today."

"And so I might if I'd not agreed to this in order to spite Dermott." The marquis for all his lack of money was a great favorite of the ladies. "Not that Dermott will take note anyway. He's probably entertaining some lady, as usual." And who better than she to understand his allure?

"Not Mrs. Compton in any event, Mercer reports."

"And how would Mercer know?"

"Because I told him to keep watch on Dermott for me."

"Then, tell me, where has he disappeared?" With the exception of the duchess's musicale, he'd been absent from society since her ball.

"Are you sure you want to know?"

Isabella grimaced. "Another woman, I suppose."

"Dermott doesn't like to be alone."

"A convenient excuse. Who is it this time?" Even as she asked, she didn't know if she really wished to hear.

"Helene Kristos. An actress at Covent Garden."

"He's been with her all this time?" How it hurt to think of him with someone else.

"So I've been told. That will be all, Hannah," she added as the maid handed Isabella her green pigskin gloves. Molly waited until the maid left the room and then said, "They're friends of sorts. Dermott helped Helene when her husband died two years ago. Her child was only a month old, and to all accounts she nearly went mad from grief."

"How did Dermott know her?"

"How does any young rake know the actresses at the Garden?"

"Is their relationship platonic, then?"

Molly hesitated.

"Never mind. How naive of me to even ask."

"It was at first, but…"

"Of course. How could she resist? How could he resist when he never does."

"Dermott was faithful to his wife. That I know. But before and after his marriage, well…" She shrugged. "He's always been pursued; it would be rare for a man to refuse everyone."

"And there's so many."

"I'm sorry," Molly quietly said. "I know how painful this is, but the truth often is… and-what purpose would be served to deceive oneself?"

"I understand." Isabella adjusted the gloves on her fingers.

"I wish I could sugarcoat the facts. He seemed to look on you very differently, and I confess I was hoping…"

Isabella smiled ruefully. "So you have impractical dreams too. It's reassuring. I thought, perhaps, only I wished for the moon."

There was a rap on the bedroom door.

"I think my chariot awaits," Isabella said with a forced dan.

"Don't go if you don't wish to. I'll have Homie give your excuses."

"Nonsense," Isabella briskly said, "I feel the need for some fresh air. It might help to blow away the gossamer dreams from my brain."

"Take care with Lonsdale. He has a private side to him that isn't very savory."

"Are you warning me off? He's accepted at all the best functions."

"He's a marquis after all. And regardless the state of his finances and his bachelor vices, he has a title and looks. But he does need to marry for money."

"As do a great number of my admirers. I'm not so innocent that I think my allure is strictly the shape of my ankle or the color of my eyes."

Molly smiled. "You have a good head on your shoulders."

"I well understand the point of the season. The men are looking for wealth to marry as much as the women are. And if a title goes with the bargain, so much the better. But I have no intention of marrying anyone. In the foreseeable future-perhaps never. I dislike the notion of being married for my money."

"In that case, Lonsdale will be disappointed."

Isabella grinned. "Better him than me." And with a wave she left the room and descended the staircase to see Lonsdale's smart phaeton and team.

He was waiting in the drawing room, standing at the window, facing the street. He turned when she entered the room. "You look very fine today-as usual, I should add." The marquis's smile was charming as he walked toward her.

"Thank you. It looks as though the weather is cooperating for our drive."

"I ordered the sun to shine particularly for you." He offered his arm to her.

"How pleasant." Isabella placed her hand on his arm and smiled up at him. "A man of authority."

"Do you like men of authority?" His drawl matched his quirked grin as they moved toward the door to the entrance hall.

"Only when they're ordering the weather for me."

"Not in other things?" His gaze was amused.

He was very handsome, Isabella thought, in an ordinary way, very fair, like a young Apollo, with a well-formed athletic body and superb blue eyes. "Never in other things," she softly affirmed. "I fear I'm sadly self-indulgent."

The doors opened as if by unseen hands, and they moved into the entrance hall.

"Aren't we all," he agreed. "And to that purpose, I thought you might like to see a bit of the country today."

"That sounds very refreshing. Although my aunt expects me back in good time to dress for my evening engagement."

"I'll see that you don't miss your evening's pleasures," he quietly said.

The marquis helped her up onto the high-perched seat of his phaeton and then jumped up beside her. After releasing his grip on the horses, the groom leaped into place on the back of the vehicle and with a crack of the whip, they were off.

The weather was indeed fine, sunny and warm, with a light breeze that caressed their faces as they bowled through the streets of the City.

"I'll drive out and you can drive back," the marquis offered, weaving through traffic like a top hand.

"After the hectic pace of the past week, I'm content to simply sit and enjoy the scenery." Isabella clung to the seat, swaying with the speed of the carriage and the rhythm of the horses. Lonsdale's team were coal black and gleaming, brushed to a glossy shine, the matched pair prime and fleet of foot. Before long, they were well along Kings Road on their way south. The City gave way to pasture and field and an occasional cluster of buildings. Until they reached the village of Chelsea, no longer so much on the outskirts as it once had been. With the City spreading in every direction, what had been a country village not so long ago was now a retreat for those needing rustication or a bit of bucolic repose.

The marquis drove up to an inn, brought his horses to a stop, and tossed his reins to his groom. "I thought we'd take some refreshment here-a lemonade or tea if you wish. The parlor is quite clean, I'm told, and the proprietress makes a caramel shortbread that's worth the drive from the City."

"I was tempted by the lemonade, but caramel shortbread too. How can I refuse?"

In moments she'd been helped down from the phaeton and was being escorted inside the Grey Goose. But rather than entering the front parlor, where several patrons sat, the marquis continued through the center hallway to the back of the inn, where he turned to insert a key into a door.

"What is this?" Isabella looked around at the well-kept garden out back, at the quiet hallway through which they'd walked, the sound of customers in the public rooms only faintly heard.

"I bespoke a private parlor." Turning the key, he opened the door, and before he could turn back to her, Isabella caught a glimpse of not a private parlor, but an apartment. A well-decorated room quite out of place in the rustic inn. With two top hats on an elegant console table.

That shouldn't be there.

She glanced back to the inn entrance but saw no one. And when she swiveled around again, Lonsdale was reaching for her.

Isabella screamed, and he lunged at her, but she'd already pivoted and begun to run. As she raced down the hall, Molly's warning rang through her brain: He has a private side… a private side…

She could hear his footsteps pounding behind her, and grateful for her low-heeled slippers, and propelled by terror, she flew down the corridor, her scream rising to the low-hung ceiling and ricocheting back, the fearful sound filling the narrow corridor.

If he thought to capture her, she wasn't going to make it easy, she decided, raising her voice in a shrieking crescendo.

Isabella had no illusions about men like Lonsdale, who needed money to survive. She just hadn't thought he'd be so precipitous or blunt in his offensive. Naive her. And then she heard her uncle's voice shouting behind her, and a chill stabbed through her heart.

"Catch the strumpet! She stole my purse! The trollop stole my purse!"

The outside door was only feet away, and if ever she needed incentive to save herself, her uncle's voice served that purpose. Lifting up her skirts, she sprinted through the door, veered to the right, and flew down the street, crying for help.

This wasn't the time for politesse or manners. She quickly scanned the shocked faces of the people past whom she raced, debating whether any would help her, trying to gauge those most likely to lend her aid.

But her pursuers were calling her thief in loud accents as they chased her down the street, and she wasn't sure she'd have time to explain her situation to any passerby before Lonsdale and her uncle carted her off.

And with her uncle involved, she understood the nature of her fate.

Spying a village church in the distance, she sheered to the left and leaped out onto the street, wanting to make herself as visible as possible in the center of the road, hoping to gain the sanctuary of the church. Not that any ethical considerations would deter either Lonsdale or her uncle, but with luck the minister might be inside.

Surely a man of God would take time to listen to her.

She was midway to her destination, her throat parched from screaming, her breath coming in great gasps, her lungs burning, when a yellow phaeton came racing down the road.

She frantically waved her arms, but the vehicle didn't slow and, terror-stricken, she watched it hurtle toward her. Thinking her life was surely over, she jumped to one side just as the galloping horses were pulled up in a rearing, plunging stop. A cloud of dust rose up around her, the squeal of horses, male curses, a woman's voice, a child's, resounding through the haze.

And as she stood quaking from her near-death experience, a tall, shadowy outline of a man loomed through the dusky murk, the figure emerging with full clarity a second later.

"What the hell do you think you're-" Dermott's words died away.

"It's my uncle," Isabella blurted out, relief pouring over her. "They're right behind me."

"Get in the carriage," Dermott ordered, and raced away.

The dust had begun to settle enough for Isabella to distinguish the outlines of the phaeton. When she reached the side of the vehicle, she found a woman and young boy gazing down at her.

"I'm so pleased you're not hurt," the woman said with feeling.

"Dermott… that is-he said I should… join you." Embarrassed at the situation, nonetheless, Isabella needed Dermott's protection.

"Of course. Tommy, come sit on my lap." The woman helped her son onto her lap as she moved over. And once Isabella was seated, she introduced herself. "I'm Helene Kristos, and this is my son, Tommy. Say hello to the lady, dear."

"We almost wun wight over you!" the young boy exclaimed, his dark eyes bright with excitement.

"I know. Thank heaven the horses stopped in time."

The dark-haired young boy who bore a disturbing likeness to Dermott grinned. "Dermott holler loud."

"I shouldn't have been in the middle of the road, but-" Isabella didn't care to elaborate on the complicated story. "By the way, I'm Isabella Leslie," she added, smiling at the mother and child, thinking how beautiful Dermott's lover was, small, exquisite with enormous dark eyes, Gypsy eyes. A rush of sadness overwhelmed her.

"You're Dermott's friend," Helene noted, smiling back. "He's talked of you."

"He has?" Even while she understood how unrealistic her expectations, her heart leaped with hope.

"Incessantly. Tell her, Tommy. Who has Dermott been talking about?"

"Hith horthes."

"And what lady?"

"Bad wady."

Helene laughed. "No, no, not her. The one who has hair of gold and a smile like-"

"A pwinthess?"

"That's the one."

"Is-bella." He stumbled over the pronunciation.

"Really?" Suddenly Lonsdale and her uncle, her recent terror, pragmatic considerations, dropped away before the joyful onslaught.

"They're gone. Lonsdale's phaeton's gone." Dermott's voice was gruff as he strode toward the carriage. "Not a sign of the bastards anywhere." Swinging up into the driver's seat, he glared at Isabella. "What the hell did you think you were doing, coming this far with bloody Lonsdale."

"Dermott," Helene chided.

"Forgive me, Helene," he said with a strained courtesy. "But this isn't any of your business. Answer me, dammit." He gazed at Isabella with fury in his eyes.

"I thought we were going for a ride in the country. I thought we were stopping for a lemonade. And while I thank you profusely for saving me, I don't think that gives you any right to become a tyrant."

"Lonsdale's a blackguard."

"He's accepted everywhere in society."

"I'm not arguing about this. You shouldn't have gone out with him."

"I appreciate your advice," Isabella tersely replied.

"Damn right you'd better."

Even little Tommy recognized the anger in Dermott's tone, and he stared at him wide-eyed; he'd never heard Dermott speak in such a voice.

"I'll drive you back to the City." It wasn't a statement; it was an order, curt and chill, uncompromising.

"Thank you very much," Isabella tautly said. She had no choice, and they both knew it.

The drive to Helene's cottage passed in silence, even Tommy's normal loquaciousness curtailed by the look on Dermott's face. After he helped Helene and Tommy down and spoke briefly to them, Dermott returned to the carriage and without comment snapped the reins. The horses jumped off.

Grim-faced on their journey back to London, he didn't speak.

After several tense miles, Isabella finally said, "I do thank you, Dermott. Very much. You must know how grateful I am."

"When I think of what Lonsdale might have done," he murmured, his jaw clenching in anger, the tick evident as she gazed up at him.

"Helene is very lovely. And Tommy is darling." They both had their jealousies.

"Don't change the subject."

"You're old friends, I understand."

He turned to her, a modicum of shock in his gaze. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I understand how you feel about Lonsdale."

"How can you possibly know how I feel about Lonsdale?"

"Because you've been berating me since you first saw me."

"You did a stupid thing."

"I don't see how it concerns you."

"You don't?"

"No. Tell me."

He chewed on his lip for a moment and then turned his attention to the road.

She wanted him to say he cared; she wanted him to admit to jealousy. She wanted what she couldn't have, she quickly realized, for when he looked back at her, his gaze was shuttered. "I wouldn't suggest you take long drives with anyone. Lonsdale is one of the less scrupulous, but any of your admirers might be interested in compromising you. For your money. Just a word of advice."

"Thank you. I'll keep it in mind. Now tell me about Helene."

"There's nothing to tell. When her husband died, she needed help and I helped her. I like Tommy, so I spend some time with them occasionally."

"You're not lovers?"

"I don't see that it's any of your business."

"You are lovers."

"Does it matter?"

"Not on any practical level."

"Good."

He was silent for the rest of the journey, and she didn't have the heart to talk. Not after such a deliberate indication of his feelings on independence. It was clear he wasn't interested in a relationship other than on his terms. Which meant a casual sexual liaison without strings or attachment.

And she'd die of sadness, sharing him with a host of other women.

He escorted her into the house and spoke to Molly as though she weren't present, as though she were a young child who needed a strong hand and stronger discipline. And when he left, he barely took leave of Isabella. He only nodded.

"I'm so sorry you had to be terrorized by Lonsdale " Molly commiserated, helping Isabella off with her jacket. "I blame myself for letting you go."

"No one's to blame but Lonsdale and my relatives. Damn them all." Isabella paced to the windows of the small back parlor where Molly had been eating an early supper. "They won't give up."

"Could you have them arrested?"

"Not likely." Isabella gazed out on the pristine green of the small lawn. "It's my word against theirs, and I'm considerably outnumbered."

"Then, I'm going to insist you have a bodyguard. If you had taken one with you today, none of this would have happened."

Isabella turned back to her friend. "I didn't think I'd ever say this, but you're right. Regardless of the lack of privacy, I don't dare be out alone."

"I know the perfect man. Joe Thurlow has given up the fight game. His best friend was killed in a match last year, and he lost all interest in the sport. He works for me from time to time. I know he's available."

Isabella came to sit down at the table with Molly. "Another thing." A small frown creased her brow. "Would you mind terribly," she slowly said, conscious she might be causing hurt, "that is-would it matter to you if I decided to retreat from society?"

Molly scrutinized her. "Because of Lonsdale?"

"No." Isabella traced a pattern on the tablecloth with her finger. "Because I don't wish to see Dermott." She looked up. "It's cowardly, I know, but seeing him today with that pretty actress and her child was awful." She slowly inhaled, as though a calming breath would help ease the pain. "And he told me in no uncertain terms on the ride back to the City that he had no wish to change the pattern of his life."

"I'm sorry," Molly murmured. "I don't know how to offer you comfort. If it's any excuse, the death of his wife and son was so deep a blow, I'm not sure he'll ever recover from it. He feels a terrible guilt for taking them along on campaign. I never told you the whole story, but his family was massacred when their camp was overrun by enemies while he and a troop were out on a scouting mission. He found his wife and son on his return; they were dreadfully mutilated."

Isabella's face had gone pale. "How awful," she whispered.

"He shouldn't have given in to his wife's pleas to accompany him, he shouldn't have left them, he says. He blames himself entirely. He couldn't bear to stay in India; the reminders were too stark, so he came home to England. But he couldn't escape his memories, and his dissipation serves to drug his senses, obliterate his nightmares." She softly sighed. "I though you were different. He treated you with a normalcy that gave me hope. He kept you beyond his usual boredom limits, took you to Richmond." She shrugged. "I thought he might have forgotten."

"I think he did for a time."

"He loved his wife and son deeply."

"So it seems," Isabella quietly murmured. "I'm going to leave the City." Her voice was suddenly brisk. "I should be safe enough on my country estate with a bodyguard. I need to retreat from my memories too."

"I hate to see you go, but I understand. Although, it might be wise to have Joe bring along his brother. They could spell each other in the course of the day."

"The way I feel right now, so recently saved from my uncle's clutches, you may hire a troop of bodyguards for me if you wish. Tomorrow, I intend to go to the bank and see to my affairs, and perhaps the next day check the warehouses and docks. After that, I'll retreat to Tavora House and begin forgetting Dermott."

"How strange life is," Molly observed. "Under normal circumstances, we would have never met. Under normal circumstances, you and Dermott would have never crossed paths. And now we're caught up in a tangled net of impossible hopes and evil deeds while the ton whirls around us, inured to all but their frantic search for pleasure."

"I for one am about to extricate myself from the net, from the ton, from any frantic search for anything. I have a life to return to, a business to run, simple pleasures that once offered me happiness."

"I'll send Lord Moira a note of explanation. Just in case you should ever wish to resume the social whirl." Molly smiled. "He's an old friend; he'll understand."

"How optimistic you are." Isabella found it possible to smile back, and pleased with her lightening mood as she contemplated a return to her familiar environs, she added, "Who knows, maybe Dermott will give up his profligate life, be transformed into a white knight, ride up to my country house, and carry me away."

Molly laughed. "Send me a message directly that occurs. I very much want to believe in miracles."

"In the meantime," Isabella noted, "I shall busy myself with more mundane activities. Like seeing to my money."

"See to anything you wish now that you have protection from your relatives. I'll summon Joe and you may discuss your needs with him."

Dermott had his own activities to see to. After leaving Molly's, he proceeded to find his friend Lord Devon, who agreed to be his second. Protocol required the challenge for a duel be given by the seconds, so the two men went together to search out Lonsdale. They began with his home, although Dermott hardly expected to find him there. The marquis was more likely to be found at his gambling clubs or vice-ridden haunts. Since Dermott knew them all, they drove from one to the other, making inquiries, asking questions, bribing retainers where necessary, scouring the City to find the man and exact revenge.

They finally tracked him down at a Covent Garden coffee house that also served as a tavern and brothel. Lonsdale was in the back room, gambling with a table of rogues and rakes, all the men well into their cups.

"Can you stand, Lonsdale?" Dermott growled, filling the doorway like an avenging angel.

The marquis's gaze languidly came up, raking Dermott with a drunken glance. "Don't know, Bathurst." He shrugged. "Probably not, come to think of it."

"Make sure you can by tomorrow morning."

"Will you accept a challenge from Lord Bathurst?" Devon asked, playing his part.

"This is about the Leslie piece?" Lonsdale drawled, his heavy-lidded gaze insolent.

"Mention her name again, and I'll kill you where you sit."

"Not armed, Bathurst. Shame."

"Maybe I don't give a damn."

"Bad form, Bathurst." The marquis winked at him. "Think of your fine reputation for honor on the dueling field."

"Fuck you, Lonsdale."

"You must want her more than I do." The marquis surveyed his companions with a smirk. "Wouldn't think a cunt was worth dying for."

Dermott gritted his teeth, tempted to shoot him where he sat but not capable of such cold-blooded murder. "I'll see that you're at Morgan's field at six tomorrow morning," he grimly said, "and you'll find out if it is or not." His glance swept the group at the table. "One of you should be sober enough to remember. Remind him. Six tomorrow, and if he doesn't appear, I'll come and kill him wherever he is."

"She must be damned good in bed," Lonsdale murmured.

"I'll shut your vulgar mouth tomorrow," Dermott growled, and turning abruptly, he walked away, Devon beside him.

"It must be love," one of the men mocked, "for Bathurst to fight over a woman."

"I'd say she's a hot piece he doesn't want to share."

"She's a hot, rich piece," Lonsdale murmured. "Incentive to kill the bastard tomorrow. I could use her money and cunt."