“Then don’t rush ahead without warning like that.”
“I was trying to avoid having to speak to Lady Foxton. She was giving me a very knowing look. And she’s not the first to do so. That’s one of the things I wanted to discuss with you, Lucas. People are starting to notice our, uh, association.”
“What did you expect? You know as well as I do that if two people dance more than twice together at a ball, someone will wonder if there’s a marriage offer brewing,” Lucas said.
“But we do not dance together.”
“Details. We’ve been paired off at a few routs and that’s enough.” He tipped his hat to another elderly lady, who smiled archly.
“Never mind that. It can’t be helped. I specifically asked to speak to you today because I was afraid I would not get another chance tonight to speak to you privately and I have a few matters I want to clarify.”
“I was afraid of that.”
“There’s no need to adopt the attitude of a martyr. You agreed to our adventuring. In fact, you insisted on accompanying me on our midnight tours. This bargain between us was made at your instigation, Lucas,” Victoria said.
Lucas narrowed his eyes. “I sense a complaint about my performance to date. I’m crushed. Haven’t you enjoyed yourself on the two occasions I risked life and limb to climb your garden wall?”
“Don’t look at me like that. You know very well I found those two occasions this past week quite interesting. But they weren’t what I expected, Lucas.”
“What did you expect to find when you went spying on a man’s world?”
Victoria chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. “I’m not sure, precisely. More adventure, I think. More excitement.”
“Didn’t you get adventure and excitement enough on Wednesday night?”
“The late-night supper at the restaurant was amusing, I’ll admit. At least I found it so until those two young men got sick all over the skirts of their little opera dancers.” Recalling the scene she had witnessed and how it had completely put her off her own food, Victoria made a face.
“I hate to disillusion you, Vicky, but the unfortunate truth is men don’t do very edifying things when they get together late at night and start drinking. How about the excursion to Vauxhall? You liked that, didn’t you?”
“For heaven’s sake, Lucas, you cannot fob me off with trips to Vauxhall. Much too tame. Too respectable. I could have gone there with Annabella or any of my other female acquaintances and no one would have thought it amiss.”
“Be fair. Dressed as a man, you saw a whole different side to the place.”
“You are missing my point, Lucas,” Victoria said firmly. “Deliberately, I think.”
“What is your point?”
“My point is that thus far you have not taken me to any of the places on my list.”
“Ah, yes, the famous list. I was afraid this conference today was going to focus on that damned list.”
“You promised, Lucas. You said you would take me wherever I wanted to go. Instead, you’ve been deliberately trying to give me a disgust with the whole notion of adventuring, haven’t you? Don’t think I can’t see right through your plan. You’ve been hoping that such revolting incidents as that business of witnessing those young men drinking until they became ill and viewing that boxing match at Vauxhall will put me off the entire scheme,” Victoria accused.
“I was only trying to show you what you were getting into without putting you at undue risk in the process. You know you did not care for all the blood at the boxing match.”
“Ah-hah, I knew it. You are trying to fob me off with mild adventures. Well, it won’t work,” Victoria declared. “I demand that you live up to your part of this bargain. Tomorrow night I insist we go to a brothel or a gaming hell.” She brightened, considering the prospect.
“I think I should prefer the latter. Yes, let us go to a real gaming hell.”
“You won’t like it, Vicky.”
“That is for me to judge. Now, do we have an agreement or must I find someone else to take me?”
Lucas smiled and inclined his head to yet another curious middle-aged woman passing in a carriage. Outwardly, he was the picture of polite gallantry, but his voice, when he responded to Victoria’s threat, was suddenly ice cold.
“Do not issue an ultimatum you cannot possibly carry out, Vicky.”
Victoria was learning that when he used that particular tone, it was best to back off and find another path to her goal. It irked her that the man tended to turn utterly implacable when she pushed too hard, but he did have a point. Where was she going to find another companion who would show her the night?
There was, too, another aspect to the situation. She was becoming increasingly enthralled by the farewell kisses Lucas gave her before he departed from her garden after an adventure. There had been two more such embraces since the night they had gone to the fair and Victoria was already anticipating the next occasion when he would take her in his arms.
“Lucas, you seem to be overlooking the fact that I am in charge of this adventuring project. Must I remind you that I am the one who makes the decisions? Now, as to our next venture … Oh damn.” Victoria broke off with a somewhat forced smile as a familiar couple in a curricle pulled abreast of her horse. She looked across into Isabel Rycott’s amused eyes.
Isabel glittered like the small, perfect jewel she was in a rich shade of ruby. Seated next to her, holding the reins, was her current escort, Richard Edgeworth. Victoria had been introduced to him the previous evening and had not been much impressed. In fact, she wondered what Isabel, who could have her pick of men, saw in him.
On the surface there was certainly nothing wrong with the man. Edgeworth was fair-haired and handsome by most standards. He was in his early thirties, but Victoria did not think his looks would last into his forties. There was an unpleasant hint of sullen discontent in his eyes, as if Edgeworth had always felt himself victimized by life. There was, too, a curiously weak, dissolute quality about his mouth that implied a certain lack of inner strength.
Victoria wondered briefly if she was being too hard on the man. She was, after all, starting to use Lucas as her standard of comparison.
“Good afternoon, Vicky, dear,” Isabel said. “So nice to see you again.”
“Your servant, Miss Huntington,” Edgeworth murmured. His gaze slid toward Lucas and away again. “Stonevale.”
“Edgeworth.”
Sensing the coldness between the two men, Victoria glanced at Lucas’s enigmatic face but could read nothing of his thoughts. She turned quickly back to Isabel Rycott. “What a stunning hat, Lady Rycott. You must give me the name of your milliner.”
“I will be happy to do so. She has a shop in Oxford Street. Perhaps we’ll have a moment to chat tonight at Lady Atherton’s small party?”
“I’m afraid I won’t be there,” Victoria said, remembering that she had declined the invitation earlier in the week. She wondered if Lucas had accepted. “I have other plans. Perhaps another time.”
“Perhaps.” Lady Rycott shot Lucas a mysterious smile and signaled to her companion that she wished to move on down the path. To this, Edgeworth gave the reins a small snap, his fine gray gloves giving the gesture an elegant touch.
“You don’t care for Lady Rycott, do you?” Lucas observed casually as their carriage moved out of hearing range.
“And I got the impression you’re not a particular friend of Mr. Edgeworth’s,” Victoria said.
“A small matter of a gaming debt, I’m afraid.”
Victoria slid him a sidelong glance. “You played cards with him?”
“Only once. The man cheats.”
Victoria was horrified. “Edgeworth is a cheat? How astonishing. Why is he still allowed to play in the clubs?”
Lucas watched the carriage roll out of sight behind a crop of trees. “Because he’s never been caught. He is quite good at it.”
“What happened the night you played with him?” Victoria asked, her interest p
iqued.
Lucas grinned briefly. “Halfway through the game, after losing rather heavily, I somehow managed to drop the entire deck of cards on the floor. Naturally a new pack had to be fetched immediately.”
“An unmarked deck. How very clever of you.” Victoria was delighted. “And Edgeworth started losing?”
“Yes. Heavily.”
“Excellent. You see, Lucas, that is just the sort of excitement I wish to witness firsthand.”
“There wasn’t much to see. A few cards on the floor. A few glares from Edgeworth. Me mentally on my knees thanking the powers that be that I’d figured out what the devil was going on before I played too deep.”
“There you go, trying to discourage me from exactly the sort of adventure I am anxious to experience.” She frowned. “Was that card game the only time you and Edgeworth have encountered each other?”
“What makes you ask that?”
“I don’t know. Something about the way the two of you reacted to each other a moment ago. I almost had the impression you had known each other for some time. Never mind. To get back to my original subject—”
“Why don’t you like Isabel Rycott?”
Victoria’s jaw tightened. “Is it that obvious?”
Lucas nodded to another couple on the path. “Only to someone who knows you well. And I am getting to know you very well, my dear.”
“I have no real reason to dislike her. She was introduced to me a few weeks ago and immediately claimed a past acquaintanceship with my mother and stepfather,” Victoria explained cautiously.
“Your stepfather was a man named Samuel Whitlock?”
“Yes.”
“You have never spoken much of your family, other than your aunt Cleo,” Lucas pointed out.
“It is not a subject I care to discuss. How did you know my stepfather’s name, Lucas?”
“I believe Jessica Atherton mentioned it.”
“Yes, of course.” Her voice turned brittle.
“Now what’s amiss?” Lucas asked gently.
“Nothing.”
“Vicky, I’m your friend, remember? One of these days I intend to be your lover. You can talk to me.”
She looked around sharply, aware of the heat rising in her cheeks. “Really, Lucas, what a thing to say in public. And neither of us is at all certain about the course of our future relationship. Kindly do not go about presuming too much.”
“You don’t like the idea that I discussed you with Lady Atherton, do you?”
“No, I do not.”
“You don’t much care for her, either?” Lucas asked.
“I do not dislike Jessica Atherton. I have explained once before that she and I do not have a lot in common, but I have nothing against her. Who can have anything against a paragon?” Victoria paused. “How long have you known her, Lucas?”
“Jessica Atherton? Several years. I was acquainted with her before her marriage to Atherton.”
There was more to it than that, Victoria decided, listening to the clipped note in his words. She did not know how to ask for further details, however, so she changed the subject.
“I cannot imagine what Lady Rycott sees in Edgeworth,” Victoria observed. “She probably does not know about his card-playing habits.”
“Probably not.”
“It is certainly convenient being a widow, is it not?” Victoria mused.
That got Lucas’s attention. “What the devil are you on about now?”
“Do you realize that as a widow in command of her own financial affairs, Lady Rycott has considerably more freedom to go about with an escort of her choice than I
“I had not given the matter much thought,” Lucas muttered repressively.
“I have. Considerable thought. As a woman who has never been married, I am far more restricted than Lady Rycott. I must always be conscious of what people will say. I am still at an age when I must have a care for my reputation. But Isabel Rycott can ride in an open carriage with Edgeworth and dance with him tonight and let him take her home after the Athertons’ party, and no one will pay any heed. It’s not fair, Lucas. Not fair at all.”
“Pray don’t take a notion to marry me and then murder me in my bed so that you may enjoy the freedoms of wealthy widowhood.”
Victoria laughed softly. “I would not think of it. Even the prospect of being a free and wealthy widow is not enough of an inducement to lure me into marriage.”
Lucas eyed her thoughtfully. “If our interview is finished, we had best part. We’ve been riding together for some distance and we certainly wouldn’t want anyone to speculate unduly on our association.”
“No, you are quite right.” But for a moment Victoria longed to have the freedom Isabel Rycott did. She was not in the least anxious to say good-bye. “One moment, Lucas. About our next adventure. I really must insist on something a little more exciting than Vauxhall or another restaurant. I shall be waiting in my aunt’s garden tomorrow night after the Chillingsworth party and I shall be expecting to be taken to a gaming hell at the very least.”
Stonevale’s brows rose at her tone of authority. “Your wish is my command, Vicky. But in the meantime, I shall look forward to seeing you this evening when I attend Grimshaw’s lecture.”
Victoria grinned. “Are you really interested in agricultural improvements in Yorkshire?”
“Is that so amusing?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “No. I suppose not.”
Lucas tipped his hat to her. “Be warned, Vicky. You still don’t know everything there is to know about me. Good afternoon.” Before she could respond, he had turned George’s head and was cantering down the path. Victoria stared after him until Annabella Lyndwood called to her from a short distance away. Shaking off an odd emotion she could not identify, Victoria went to greet her friend.
The night after Grimshaw’s lecture Victoria slipped cautiously through the darkened town house and out into the conservatory. Pale moonlight pierced the windows, turning the array of exotic plants into a strange and forbidding world.
Victoria was growing accustomed to the eerie jungle that was the conservatory at night. She hurried down one aisle and let herself out into the garden. The night air was chilled and the grass was damp beneath her booted feet. She hesitated, searching the shadows for Lucas. As usual, she did not spot him until he moved.
Lucas stepped away from the shelter of the wall, a dark and forbidding figure dressed chiefly in black. His Hessians gleamed faintly in the moonlight. His face was in shadow. Victoria caught her breath at the sight of him and anticipation rushed through her veins, leaving her trembling with excitement.
Lucas held out his hand. Smiling in welcome, she put her fingers trustingly into his. As she did so, Lucas tipped up her chin with his other hand and kissed her; a quick, hard, possessive kiss. It was just the sort of kiss she knew she ought to protest but which instead always left her hungering for more. These stolen moments of fleeting, sultry passion were creating a sense of strong frustration within her.
“The carriage I hired for the evening is waiting around the corner,” Lucas said as he dropped lightly down beside her on the street side of the wall. “Hurry. I don’t want anyone to see us near your aunt’s garden.”
“You worry too much, Lucas.” Nevertheless, she made haste to where the dark carriage was waiting and quickly leapt inside.
Lucas was right behind her, taking his weight, as usual, on his right leg as he came through the door. In the dim moonlight she saw him wince as he took the seat across from her. His hand went to his thigh and absently rubbed it.
“Does your leg hurt?” Victoria asked, concerned.
“Let’s just say that I am aware of it occasionally.”
“And this is one of those occasions?”
“Yes. Don’t fret about it, Vicky.”
She bit her lip. “I heard from a friend that you were wounded on the Peninsula. Is it true?”
His eyes met hers in the shadows. “I feel much toward that subjec
t the way you do toward your stepfather.”
“Meaning you don’t discuss it?” she said.
“Precisely.”
“Dear God, Lucas, it must have been terrible for you.”
“I said I do not discuss it.” He stopped massaging his leg. “Now do me a favor and pay attention. You are going to get your heart’s wish this evening. We’re going to a certain establishment that can only be classified as a gaming hell. I do not dare try to get you into one of my clubs. There’s too much chance someone would recognize you, even in your disguise. In any event, I would certainly be obliged to explain you and I can’t.”
A thrill shot through her. “A gaming hell. Lucas, this is wonderful. How exciting. I cannot wait.”
Lucas sighed. “I wish I could share your enthusiasm. Vicky, these places are run with only one object in mind and that is to separate the client from his blunt. To that end there is a great deal of drinking and wenching.”
“Will it be dangerous?” she demanded, growing more excited by the minute.
Lucas gave her a disapproving look. “Things do not often turn violent inside the establishment, largely because it would be bad for business, but there are occasionally problems when one leaves.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It is not unknown for someone who has suffered heavy losses to attempt to recover them with the aid of a knife or pistol. It is also not uncommon for the management to employ a certain type of debt collector who meets one outside in an alley,” he explained.
Victoria’s eyes widened. “Oh.”
“What I am trying to say is that we must take care. I must have your word that you will do exactly as I instruct at all times. We will take absolutely no chances,” Lucas ordered.
“Lucas, you are far too anxious about all this. Try to relax and calm yourself. I assure you, I will behave sensibly.” She smiled brilliantly.
Lucas studied her smile for a moment and groaned. “Something tells me I am going to regret this night.”
“Nonsense. We’ll have a marvelous time.”
“One of these days, Vicky, we really must discuss my end of this bargain.”
She stilled, suddenly very alert. “You said you would be content with whatever I chose to pay.”