Bridal Favors - Engaged in Wickedness (19 page)

My God, what a potent woman! He was already reaching for his bank book when reason grabbed hold of him and stopped his hand. Something was very wrong about this situation. As far as he knew, Starkweather would never refuse an honest bill. And this woman was using all her wiles to get him to pay an exorbitant tab.

He looked back at the paper, his mind searching for the elusive clue. What was it he was missing? What...

"My lord?" Her voice was a distraction, a low siren song of seduction. "Your brandy awaits."

"Describe to me this dress," he said by way of stalling. "What does it look like?" He pointed at random to the most expensive single item on the list. A ball gown with pearl buttons.

She frowned. "Truly, my lord? Why ever would you wish to—"

"Humor me," he said as he folded his arms across his chest. Then, to save poor Dribbs, whose arm did appear to be shaking most dreadfully, he motioned to the sideboard. "Set it there, Dribbs. I find that Mrs. Mortimer and I have a bit more to discuss."

Dribbs did as he was told. And while the butler was setting the bottle far out of reach, Robert turned his attention back to the woman across from him.

"Do you know anything of my father, Mrs. Mortimer?" he asked.

The woman shook her head and a tendril of honey fine hair slipped from her chignon to dance about her pert chin. Adorable, he thought.

"I am not acquainted with the Earl of Willington," she said.

"Well, he is a charming fellow. Loves a good bit of brandy, a cigar, and his friends. Some say I resemble him in looks." He gestured to his hair. "Brown hair, broad forehead, and we are nearly the same height."

She nodded, obviously confused by his wandering thoughts. "Then your father must be a handsome man."

He took the compliment as his due. Many thought his entire family had been inappropriately blessed in their looks. "Yes, well, there is something else about my father that everyone knows." He waited a moment for her to ask the obvious question. She did so with a touch of irritation.

"I am simply breathless with wonder, my lord. What could it be that everyone knows?"

"That my father is the greatest gull on earth. Yes, truly, the man could be snookered by a mentally deficient bootblack. In fact, I believe he was, just last year. Bought some magic blacking cloth, I believe. Thought he'd make a fortune with it."

A spark of interest did indeed light in Mrs. Mortimer's eyes. "Magic blacking cloth?"

"Yes. I believe it was cheesecloth soaked in the boy's spit."

She gasped. "You cannot be serious!"

"I most certainly am. My father bought it for a shilling." Then he sighed. "To be fair, the boy had been chewing tobacco and so the cloth was rather thick and black. It did
look
like a blacking cloth."

She laughed. Not a full laugh. Indeed, because she suppressed it, it sounded more like a horse's snort than a lady's laugh.

"That story cannot be true."

"I assure you it is."

Then she tilted her head while her eyes danced in merriment. "I cry foul, my lord. I believe you are lying to me. And I believe I shall prove it to you."

"Really? Pray, how?"

"I shall make a wager with you, my lord. If I can prove that you are lying, then you will pay my bill. If not, then I shall leave without further ado."

He wasn't so sure he wanted her to leave just yet, but he was a gentleman and so he nodded. "Very well. If the bill is honest, then you shall be paid immediately."

She nodded slowly, obviously taking that as the best bargain she could make. "Very well, my lord. You say the story is true, that it happened exactly as you said."

"I do."

"Well, then, I submit to you that either the bootblack was
not
mentally deficient in that he gulled an earl. Or that the earl was aware of the true nature of the magic cloth and was merely being kind to a handicapped boy."

Robert frowned, wondering which could be true. Given that his father had been quite proud of his purchase, he thought it more likely that the bootblack was not nearly as deficient as he claimed. Nor, he supposed, did the boy have an ailing mother and four younger siblings to feed. Thankfully, he did not oversee his father's staff, as the man lived in rooms at his club. So long as the earl kept within his quarterly allowance, Robert didn't care if he purchased a dozen magic blacking cloths.

"Have I won our bargain, my lord?"

He smiled. "Yes, I suppose you have."

"Excellent," she said with a grin. "Then if you would—"

"I said if the bill was honest, Mrs. Mortimer. You have yet to describe this ball gown to me. Unless, of course, there is some reason why you would not."

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course I will describe it."

He smiled and shot her own words right back. "I am simply breathless with wonder."

She grimaced, her nose wrinkling in a delightful manner. "It is blue, my lord, with Belgium lace crisscrossed over the bodice. Shoulders bare, as she will be a married woman by then and can reveal a great deal more than before, and with a shawl of gauze such as will preserve her modesty if she wants or that can be draped in a variety of tantalizing poses should she not."

He blinked. My God, did she think he wished to know of his sister in tantalizing poses? "You are speaking of my baby sister," he said in irritation. "The one who wore pigtails and sported ink stains on her nose."

"No, my lord," she said gently. "I am speaking of your fully grown sister who will be a married woman within a month. And quite possibly increasing soon after that."

He shuddered at that. His baby sister with a babe of her own. He knew it was possible. Probable, even. That is what married women did, was it not? But in his mind, she was still so young.

"It is the way of young girls, you know. They grow up and start families of their own." Then Mrs. Mortimer did something wholly unexpected. She rose in a single lithe movement and crossed to the brandy snifter. Then she poured him a glass, swirling it for him just as it ought to be done, and brought it to him. But she didn't just cross to his side, she set it in his hand, then sank to the floor before him. She looked up at him just as his sister had once done, back when she was still a hoyden running wild throughout the house. And Mrs. Mortimer smiled up at him in exactly the same way.

"Change is hard, especially when it is inevitable. But you should be proud of the woman she has become, my lord. Not fighting the purchase of her trousseau."

He swallowed. She was right. And when she sat like that before him, he could deny her nothing. Except for one thing.

"Mrs. Mortimer," he said as he reached out and stroked her cheek just as he had done with Gwen so many years ago. "I cry foul."

She blinked. "What?"

"Gwen does not have a ball gown such as you describe. It has not been made and you and your bill are false." She made to leap to her feet, but he was faster than she. Within a second, he had clamped a hand down on her arm, preventing her escape. "Oh, do remain right where you are, Mrs. Mortimer. It will no doubt take a few moments for the constable to arrive."

JADE LEE
has two passions (well, except for her family, but that's a given). She loves dreaming up stories and playing racquetball, not always in that order. When her pro-racquetball career ended with a pair of very bad knees, she turned her attention to writing. An author of more than 30 romance novels, she's decided that life can be full of joy without ever getting up from her chair.

A
USA Today
Bestseller, Jade has been scripting love stories since she first picked up a set of paper dolls. Ball gowns and rakish lords caught her attention early (thank you Georgette Heyer), and her fascination with the Regency began. Now an author of more than 30 romance novels, she finally gets to play in the best girl-heaven place of all: a Bridal Salon! In her new series, four women find love as they dress the most beautiful brides in England. Look for the first books in Feb/March 2012 with
Engaged in Wickedness
, an e-book novella, and
Wedded in Scandal
, a Berkley Sensation novel.

And don't forget
KATHY LYONS
! She's Jade's lighter, contemporary half. Kathy writes for Harlequin Blaze. She loves the faster pace of category books and that her humor can really let fly. She leaves the dark, tortured love stories to Jade.

If you're wondering where Katherine Greyle comes in, she's Jade's first persona. Sweet, funny, and with a love of all things regency, Katherine started publishing back in the 1900s. (She won't say how long ago!) But never fear, the romantic soul is the same whether it's Jade, Katherine, or Kathy!

So if you love that special feeling when two people just fit, then email her through her website
www.jadeleeauthor.com
. She's also on social media at Facebook -
JadeLeeBooks
and Twitter –
JadeLeeAuthor
.

Page forward for a list of titles by Jade Lee

and her two other "halves"

Kathy Lyons and Katherine Greyle

Other Titles by

Jade Lee

Devil's Bargain

Seduced By Crimson

The Dragon Earl

Wicked Surrender

Wicked Seduction

~

Bridal Favors Series

~~~***~~~

Engaged in Wickedness
, a novella

Wedded in Scandal

Engaged in Passion,
a novella

Wedded in Sin

~

Tigress Series

(in series order)

~~~***~~~

White Tigress

Hungry Tigress

Desperate Tigress

Burning Tigress

Cornered Tigress

Tempted Tigress

~

Blaze

~~~***~~~

The Tao of Sex

Getting Physical

The Concubine

~

Fantasy

~~~***~~~

Dragonborn

Dragonbound

Also available as an eBook bundle

~

Anthologies

~~~***~~~

Shards of Crimson

Winter Heat

~

Novellas

~~~***~~~

Kung Fu Shoes

~

Short Story

~~~***~~~

The Time

~

Titles by Jade Lee writing as

Kathy Lyons