[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Heath. Or if he did, he d never said so. "Use her friend the countess, and make sure
Juliette knows you ve slept with her."
Jonathan looked doubtful. "I might lose her completely if I sleep with her friend,"
"You might," Lucien agreed. "But you ll certainly lose her now."
"Perhaps I ought to seduce her daughter," Jonathan said, and gave Lucien a lift of
one brow.
"And perhaps I d be forced to call you out."
"Ah!" Jonathan smiled. "Careful, Lucien, that you do not fall yourself."
"No," he said comfortably. "I fell early and raw, and learned my lesson well. My
heart was mortally wounded. What no longer exists cannot be engaged."
He paused, thinking of Anna in those days nearly ten years ago. He d been sure
he would die of the pain and turmoil and embarrassment. "Hard to imagine being so
young again." Then with a sort of honor he wasn t aware he possessed, he said, "It was,
in fact, Lady Heath, who so wounded me. Perhaps you d be well advised to beware."
"What does not exist cannot be engaged," Jonathan echoed. He lifted his cup.
"And what is engaged cannot be misplaced. Countess Heath is an attractive woman, but
she is not Juliette."
"No." He suddenly remembered the passionate embrace he d glimpsed in the
library. "Forgive me for saying so, Jonathan, but I happened to pass by the library
yesterday eve, It did not seem you were, er, having trouble with Juliette at that moment.
In fact, neither of you reappeared all evening, as I recall. That would suggest some
harmony."
Jonathan lowered his head, staring into the bottom of his tankard with a grim
expression. "It is complicated." He had the grace to look abashed. "God, I wonder if
anyone else saw us."
"As it happens, Madeline did." He remembered her expression, the flush on her
forehead and chin as well as her cheeks, the limpid look of her eyes. It had undone him a
little. "We did not linger."
Jonathan said nothing.
They let the subject go and turned to a friendly game of dice. By the time they
were ready to return, it was late afternoon. Lucien s headache was gone for another day,
and the rigidness of Jonathan s mouth had eased. Lucien thought his friend might be a
little drunk.
When they rode back to Whitethorn, long gold sunlight slanted through the trees;
highlighting the destruction the storm had wrought the boarded windows and broken
plants and mangled greenhouse. Lucien had a sudden thought. "You say they haven t the
funds to maintain Whitethorn?"
"No, they don t."
Lucien smiled. "I ve a wicked thought, then. Let me find my man and send him to
the village for some men to work for me, for her." He clapped his friend on the back. "If I
fix her greenhouse, leaving her funds to fix the rest, she ll be happily in my debt."
"Yes."
"I amaze even myself at times," Lucien said unabashedly. He leaped up the front
steps cheerily, and at the top, caught a wisp of sound. He paused.
From the open French doors to the music room came the sound of a violin. A
Marais composition Lucien had never much liked. It was insincere, lacking real emotion.
And yet, whoever it was on the violin certainly played with vigor if not expertise. He
winced as she missed a finger placement, making a flat where none was intended. "It s
not flat," he muttered under his breath. And yet, the violinist went on happily, oblivious
to the missed note.
"Oh, there you are!" The pair of countesses the Peacock Countesses, Madeline
called them, much to his amusement appeared at the doors. It was Juliette greeting
them, a swallowed-canary look about her. "We were just wondering where you d got to."
"Why, Lucien," Anna said, holding out her hand, "what a magnificent man you ve
become." A hard glitter lit her dark eyes.
"And how old you ve grown," he said, ignoring her to bend over Juliette s hand.
At the last moment, he turned it over and pressed his mouth to her palm instead, and
lingered. If she was not to interfere with his seduction of Madeline, she had to believe her
seduction of him was working. When he straightened, he let his eyes wash over her
bosom appreciatively, lingeringly, then he gave her his practiced and most devilish smile.
Jonathan, into the breach, grabbed Anna s forgotten hand. "Forgive his manners,
my lady," he said, bending with a courtly gesture as elegant as Lucien s was practiced.
Lucien didn t miss the way Juliette s eyes darted toward her lover. A flash of
anxiousness whisked over her face and was gone. "Come, let s all have tea, shall we?"
She led them into the vast, marbled foyer. Through a gilded door to the music
room, Lucien saw a figure silhouetted against the light, slim and simple Madeline. As
he watched, she bent into the instrument, still earnestly playing with an inexactitude that
made him wince and plucked his heart all at once. It took all he had to resist the lure of
going into that room, taking that instrument from her A dulcet voice spoke into his ear.
"A pity it isn t a composition of yours, my dear," Anna said. "But you don t do that
anymore, do you?"
Before he could turn, violence in his chest, she laughed lightly. She wandered
toward the veranda, waving her fan lazily, casting him an amused glance over her
shoulder.
He held her gaze steadily, furiously. No verbal answer was required.
In the music room, Madeline missed her note again. Lucien turned on his heel and
bolted up the stairs. Anna s derisive laughter floated after him.
Chapter Nine
She like Fate can wound a Lover
Goddess like, too, can Recover;
She can Kill, or save from dying,
The Transported Soul is flying."
Thomas D Urfey
The workmen started arriving midmorning the next day. Madeline was gathering
shredded tree limbs and rose branches when the first group arrived, three men she
recognized from the village, with a wagon piled high with supplies.
The front man gave her a note. "Milord bade me gi it to ye," he said, and shifted
on his feet restlessly. Small pox scars ravaged his face, but his eyes were clear and there
was no smell of gin on him.
Madeline broke the seal on the note.
My dear Madeline,
I knew you would not accept such an offering from me directly, so I made
arrangements from afar. These men are here to do your bidding, and I ve arranged to be
billed for any costs they incur. I ve ordered them to begin with the house windows and
move to the rest as they are able.
You are under no circumstances to misread my gesture as a measure of coercion.
You must know the money is of no consequence to me and I so dislike seeing you suffer
and worry; consider this a gift from a friend only and freely accept it in the spirit it was
given.
I expect I will return to Whitethorn within a fortnight and we might then discuss
our other plans. Until then, I remain,
Your ever faithful
and affectionate,
Charles Devon, Marquess of Beauchamp
Madeline looked at the workmen. "I m very sorry, but I cannot pay you. You ll
have to go back and take the supplies with you."
The headman looked over his shoulder. "Milord already paid us for a fortnight.
All three of us, and enough for lunch, too, so ye needn t worry about new mouths to
feed."
"Is that so." The expression was less a question than an admission of surprise. She
took a breath. "Well, then, I expect I shall have to show you what needs doing."
She d no sooner got them going on removing the shattered glass in the dining
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]