She was silent for a moment, but Lucas noticed that her fingers trembled ever so slightly as she reached up absently to touch a broad leaf that draped over her shoulder. “You were right last night, my lord. I would dearly love a companion to share my evening adventures. Someone I can trust to keep his silence, someone who can take me into the sort of places I cannot go alone or even with friends such as Annabella Lyndwood and her brother. I admit that what you offered in the garden last night is very tempting. What worries me most is that you seem to be aware of just how tempting I find it.”
“You hesitate because you are not certain you can take what I offer and get away without paying for it. Is that the problem, Victoria?”
She nodded, her mouth curving wryly. “You are quite correct, my lord. You have gone straight to the heart of the matter. I am not at all certain you will remain satisfied with whatever payment I choose to bestow.”
Lucas drew a long breath and folded his arms across his chest. “The problem, it would seem, is mine. As long as I am satisfied with the bargain, why should you worry?”
“Because, quite frankly, my lord, I do not see you remaining content with a few stolen kisses taken in the garden, and I promise you that is all you will get from me by way of payment. There. Have I made myself perfectly clear?”
“Perfectly.”
She waited for him to argue, and when he politely examined the unusual cacti instead, she lost a measure of her self-control, just as Lucas had known she would. The lady was swimming far out of her depth and she did not yet realize it.
“There will be no talk of marriage?” she demanded.
“None.” He tested the spine of another of the curious cactus plants and found it as sharp as the first. “But I feel compelled to warn you that my guarantee not to speak of marriage does not mean I will not do my best to lure you into my arms. You are right, Victoria. I would like more than a few stolen kisses from you.”
“You are far too bold, my lord.”
“I see no need to dance around the truth. You know what I want in exchange for my companionship at midnight.”
“Then the price is too high. I will never pay it,” she said.
“I said you would know the price I seek, I did not say I will force you to pay it.” He looked at her, enjoying the storm of emotion and curiosity that lit her eyes. “You need have no fear of me, Victoria. You have my word of honor I will not force your surrender.”
“Pray, do not use that word again,” she said through her teeth.
Lucas shrugged. “Surrender? Very well. Use whatever word you wish to describe my goal, but do not deceive yourself about the nature of that goal.”
Her mouth pursed with strong disapproval. “Your goal, my lord, is a most dishonorable one.”
“You leave me little choice. You have forbidden me to speak of a more honorable one.”
“It seems to me you agreed very quickly not to speak of it,” she pointed out tartly. She toyed thoughtfully with the leaf that hung over her shoulder. “One would almost think, my lord, that you are not interested in marriage, after all.”
“Not every man is, Victoria. Why should a sane man rush to sacrifice his freedom if he can claim the woman he wants without giving her his name?” he pointed out dryly.
“Assuming he can claim her without doing so.”
Lucas grinned. “It happens all the time. Surely you have been out in the world long enough to know that, Victoria.”
“I know it.” She sighed, sounding exasperated. “Don’t misunderstand me. I am well aware that most men do not go into marriage out of a feeling of love. They generally go into it out of necessity, either to ensure themselves of an heir or to get their hands on a fortune or both.”
“I have always found love to be a very vague and totally insufficient reason for doing much of anything.”
She studied him through narrowed lashes. “You sound very cynical, my lord, but I suppose that is only to be expected from a man who is proposing to try for what is nothing more than a sordid, scandalous affair.”
Lucas shook his head ruefully. “I fear you are confused, Victoria. You forbid me to talk of the honorable estate of marriage and then in the same breath accuse me of being cynical when I speak of having an affair with you.”
Victoria bit off what sounded like a very unladylike oath. “You are right,” she conceded. “It’s this business of being an heiress that confuses matters. Annabella tells me I am extremely skittish on the subject; too wary by half.”
Lucas smiled gently, taking pity on her obvious dilemma. “Always looking for danger in the nearest hedge?”
“I suppose so,” Victoria said.
“Not a bad policy, all things considered.”
“It has certainly been a very practical policy for me,” Victoria acknowledged.
“Because it has seen you safely into spinsterhood?”
“Beast.” But her mouth curved back into an amused smile. “You are quite right, however. I am a spinster and glad of it. Furthermore I intend to keep things that way.”
Lucas’s attention wandered from the cacti to a spectacular yellow-gold bloom he did not recognize. The flower, touched here and there with deep purple, flared like a crown from the green stalk that held it. He moved toward it, drawn by the shade of gold which reminded him of Victoria’s eyes. He cupped the regal bloom in one hand and studied it. “After what happened between us in the garden last night, you will never convince me that you intend to live your entire life without exploring your own passions, Victoria You are too much like this flower, lush and sweet and full of passionate promise.”
She grinned. “Really, my lord, you needn’t get carried away by a flower. I understand your background is in the military world, not the literary one.”
“Sometimes a man can learn more of life when he is surrounded by death than he can from all the poetry of the ancients. Even if you did manage to ignore your womanly passions for the rest of your days, I doubt that you could ignore your own intellectual curiosity.”
“Curiosity. You think you can talk me into an illicit affair by appealing to my intellectual curiosity? How very original.”
“It makes perfect sense to me. Any woman who can work up an admiration for beetles and cacti must certainly entertain a few scientific questions concerning her own physical nature.” He inclined his head in a small, elegant bow. “I offer myself to you in the interest of intellectual inquiry, Miss Huntington. I’m hoping you will not be able to refuse.”
Outraged, Victoria stared at him for a few tense seconds and then the mirth appeared in her eyes. In a moment she was laughing so hard she had to grab a post for support.
Lucas watched her, his hand still cupping the yellow-gold bloom. He was fascinated by her wholehearted amusement. She did not giggle in that annoying way young woman so often did, as if trying to imitate tinkling bells and rippling brooks. Victoria’s laughter was full of life and warmth. It made him want to pull her into his arms and kiss her until he converted the humor in her into the passion he had tasted last night.
He could do it, Lucas thought. He knew from the way she had responded in the garden that he could make her feel desire. And he would use that knowledge, along with her quest for adventure, to seduce her. In the end she would be powerless to resist him. As he had told her in the garden, she would not easily find another man who could offer the bait he was holding out.
And once he had her locked safely in his arms, it would be only a short step to marriage. Victoria might speak daringly of engaging in an illicit liaison, but he knew that she would find it difficult to actually conduct an affair that threatened her aunt’s as well as her own position in Society. She was, after all, a young woman of excellent breeding and she knew both the rules and the risks that governed the world in which she lived.
Society required that young women of her background save their illicit affairs until after they were wed and had given their husbands an heir. After that, many wives felt free to pursue t
heir own romantic interests so long as they were discreet. Their husbands, who generally kept mistresses before and after marriage, did the same, not always so discreetly.
But as Lucas watched Victoria’s laughter fade slowly back into a glowing smile, it struck him quite forcefully that he did not intend to let his unsuspecting future bride trod the usual social path from altar to marriage bed to a string of discreet affairs.
He had always known that he would never be one of those men who overlooked his wife’s infidelities. It was not in his nature to share the woman he considered his own. But the possessiveness he felt was far beyond what he had expected to feel toward the woman who would one day bear his name.
Once she was his, Lucas decided, Victoria would remain his and his alone. Social conventions be hanged. He was not going to share this half-wild, unpredictable creature with any man.
“My lord, you are impossible. Utterly impossible.” Victoria wiped the moisture from her eyes and shook her head, still grinning. “Imagine offering yourself in the spirit of intellectual inquiry. How very altruistic. How very noble. You are far too generous.”
“I shall do what it takes to win you.”
“And just how am I to be won, my lord?”
“With adventure and excitement and passion. I will give you all of those things, Victoria.”
She looked at him, her decision in her eyes. “I will pick and choose among them, taking only as much of any of them as I wish and paying for them as I wish.”
He inclined his head in acquiescence, quietly satisfied with the victory. “That is your prerogative.”
She hesitated and then impulsively took one step forward, reaching out to touch his sleeve. “Lucas, do you mean it when you say you want me, just me, not my money?”
He lifted a hand to stroke the fine line of her jaw. “I want you.”
“I cannot promise you anything,” she said with grave honesty. “I enjoyed your kisses last night, but that is as far as it should go and we both know it.”
He covered her fingers as they lay on his sleeve. “I understand. Don’t concern yourself with promises now. Together we will find out just how far this liaison of ours will go.”
She did not move for a moment. She just stood there gazing up at him with a barely suppressed longing that made him want to pull her into his arms. It was not the promise of either passion or reckless excitement he saw in her beautiful amber eyes now, but something else, something sweet and vulnerable, an altogether heart-wrenching look of hopeful expectation.
“If you’re very sure this is what you want, if you’re sure this will be enough,” Victoria said, “then I accept your offer to be my midnight companion.”
Lucas exhaled deeply. “Then the bargain is sealed.” He leaned down and brushed his mouth lightly across hers. She trembled at the touch and Lucas wanted simultaneously to soothe her and pull her down onto the tile floor and make passionate love to her. Before he could deal with the conflicting emotions, she was slipping out of reach and thrusting a small piece of paper into his hand.
“What’s this?” he asked, frowning at the elegant writing on the paper. “A gaming hell? A brothel? A race meeting? A gentlemen’s club?”
“Those are the first items on my list,” she informed him.
“What list?” Then it hit him. He had seriously underestimated his opponent, a mistake he rarely made. “Bloody hell. You expect me to take you to a gaming hell and a brothel? Good God, Vicky, be reasonable. A nighttime visit to a fair or the dark walks of Vauxhall Gardens is one thing. It is quite another matter to sneak you into a brothel or take you to a gaming hell. You cannot be serious.”
“You are wrong, my lord. I am very serious,” Victoria said, unyielding.
He looked at her and saw that she was. “Damn it, Vicky. This wasn’t quite what I had in mind.”
Victoria dismissed the protest. “Thursday night would be an excellent time for our next adventure. I will no doubt see you at the Kinsleys’ ball earlier in the evening and we can make our final plans. In the meantime—”
Cleo Nettleship’s voice broke into Victoria’s instructions. “Vicky, dear, are you still out there? Don’t get too carried away or you will bore Lord Stonevale. Not everyone enjoys an extended tour of the conservatory, you know.”
Lucas turned to see Lady Nettleship standing in the doorway, beaming at him. “I assure you, madam, I have never been less bored in my life.”
“One rarely is around Victoria.”
Lucas glanced at Victoria’s satisfied expression and then he looked once more at the yellow-gold bloom he had been examining earlier. “Before we leave the conservatory, Miss Huntington, I would appreciate it if you would tell me the name of this strange plant.”
“Strelitzia reginae. Everyone was thrilled when the first one flowered at Kew. Aunt Cleo and I were very fortunate to have this one bloom, too. Magnificent, isn’t it?” Victoria said excitedly.
Lucas looked at her. She was glowing with life in her yellow-gold gown. Her amber eyes were brilliant. “Yes,” he said. “Magnificent.”
5
One week later Victoria put on her new yellow-trimmed brown riding habit, adjusted the dashing little military-style hat with its yellow feather at a rakish angle over one eye, and called for her favorite horse and groom. It was five o’clock and nearly everyone would be riding in the park.
Everyone today had better include the Earl of Stonevale. Last night, during the five minutes she’d had with him at the Bannerbrook rout, Victoria had given him very strict instructions to put in an appearance. She had a few things to say to him.
The problem in dealing with Lucas, Victoria had discovered, was that although he appeared unfailingly obedient when it came to receiving her instructions, he had a nasty habit of carrying them out in his own way. Enough was enough.
Cleo was crossing the hall into the library when Victoria came down the stairs. She peered at her niece in mild astonishment. “Going riding this afternoon, my dear?”
“Yes, I am. I feel in need of a little exercise.” Victoria paused briefly to kiss Cleo’s cheek before hurrying toward the door. “Don’t worry, I shall be home in plenty of time to dress for Grimshaw’s little lecture on recent agricultural improvements in Yorkshire.”
“Excellent.” Cleo smiled benignly. “I am quite looking forward to it and so is Lucas.”
Victoria halted on the threshold and whirled around. “I beg your pardon?”
“I merely said I was quite looking forward to Grimshaw’s lecture.”
“You said Lucas was looking forward to it.”
“Oh, yes, I did, didn’t I? And so he is. Told me so himself. Well, it’s only natural he’d be interested, isn’t it? His estates are, after all, somewhere in Yorkshire, I believe. I invited him on Wednesday when I was showing him my new dahlia plants. I must say the earl seems to be developing more than a passing interest in horticulture and related matters,” Cleo remarked.
Yes, the earl did seem to be developing more than a passing interest in the subject, Victoria thought grimly, adjusting her small hat with a quick yank. Lately, in fact, his interest in matters of horticulture and agriculture had begun to border on the keen. She was beginning to feel she was running a poor second to such fascinating topics as methods of manuring and crop rotation.
For a man who only a week ago had seemed bent on seduction, he had certainly veered off course recently. Victoria did not know whether to be incensed or relieved.
A few minutes later she entered the park at a brisk trot, her groom following discreetly behind her on a pony. The public trails were thronged with elegantly attired riders, curricles, and small, open carriages. At this time of day the social world went into the park to see and be seen, not to actually ride for pleasure or exercise. That sort of riding was done in the early-morning hours.
Victoria automatically smiled and greeted her myriad acquaintances while keeping an eagle eye out for Lucas. She was beginning to think he had deliberately avoided
the meeting altogether and was wondering what his excuse would be, when he materialized at her elbow on a spectacular chestnut. For a moment she forgot her annoyance.
“What an excellent animal, Lucas. He’s beautiful.”
Lucas smiled faintly. “Thank you. I’m rather fond of old George, myself. We’ve been through a lot together, haven’t we, George?”
Victoria wrinkled her nose. “Did you name him after the king?”
“No. I named him George because George seemed a simple enough name for me to remember.”
“No one’s likely to forget a horse like that, regardless of his name. Have you any colts by him?” Victoria asked.
“Not yet, but George has big plans for the future.” At this, she grinned. “I see. You expect him to sire a dynasty?”
“Why not? The male of the species has certain obligations when he bears the sort of bloodlines old George here bears. We men do what we must, don’t we, old boy?” He patted the stallion’s neck and the horse ducked his head and blew through his nose.
Victoria’s grin faded. She was sorry she had raised the topic of dynasty founding. Lucas occasionally made an oblique reference to the little matter of his future obligations to his name and title and she had discovered she preferred to avoid the subject. The idea of the present Earl of Stonevale someday taking a wife and getting himself an heir was becoming strangely unpalatable.
“Well, he’s a lovely animal, but that is not what I wish to discuss with you, Lucas,” she said quickly.
“I regret to hear that. I enjoy talking about horses.” Lucas nodded politely toward a middle-aged man and woman in a handsome carriage. They smiled back and glanced pointedly at Victoria.
Victoria summoned up a regal smile for Lord Foxton and his lady and urged her horse to a slightly faster pace. Lucas and George promptly fell behind. She glanced back over her shoulder and scowled.
“Really, Lucas, do stop dawdling. I told you I specifically wish to speak to you today.”