Read How to Beguile a Beauty Online
Authors: Kasey Michaels
“But you'll stand by him.”
Tanner looked at her. She hadn't framed her words as a question. “Yes, I will. Even thoughâno, especially because the old hurts don't seem so far beneath Justin's own surface now that he's returned to England. He may have been teasing with you, but the wounds of his failed marriage and the consequences seem to have served to jade his opinion toward women.”
“Or perhaps served to undermine his faith in his own judgment when it comes to women,” Lydia said, causing Tanner to look at her sharply.
“Justin Wilde? Unsure of himself? I wouldn't think that possible.”
“âDoubts are more cruel than the worst of truths,'”
Lydia said quietly. “After making what he has admitted to you was a terrible mistake on the part of his heart so many years ago, how can he now trust his own judgment?”
Tanner turned his pair of bays into Grosvenor Square, wishing he hadn't chosen to desert the park so soon, for now he had no excuse to continue this unsettling conversation. “Molière again. And, again, from
Le Misanthrope
. He needs a friend, doesn't he? For all his appearance of being so secure and confident.”
“He has a friend,” Lydia said, putting her gloved hand on Tanner's arm. “And I know from personal experience that you make a very good friend.”
Tanner thanked her, feeling as if he'd just heard a death knell. Another quote, this one not from Molière, slid into his head. Something about friendship being love without wingsâ¦
Dearest Nicole,
You've been gone less than a day, and yet I find I have so many things I wish to tell you. At the moment, I should be dressing for Lady Chalfont's ball, but you know I will put off that chore as long as possible in any event, as I find I loathe little in life, but balls definitely are near the top of that short list.
You'd be so proud of me. I had a tantrum today, nearly in the middle of Hyde Park during the Promenade (such a sad crush of mostly sad people). I believe I startled Tanner with my outburst, perhaps as much as I startled myself, but I will confess I get so weary of being coddled. Not that you have ever coddled me! I shall miss your forthrightness, so I have decided I must be forthright myself, for myself. After all, I am a Daughtry. Surely there must be fiery blood somewhere inside me? To that end, this afternoon I informed Tanner that I would rather he not feel obligated to me because of some promise to Captain Fitzgerald.
He seemed taken by surprise to think I should know that. I didn't tell him about the captain's last letter to me, the one Tanner himself unwittingly delivered that fateful day last spring. Perhaps one day I will. Suffice it for now that he knows I consider him a friend, and that I wish he would do me the same honor, rather than as the burden of a promise.
Oh, but there's more! I met the most interesting man today, one Baron Justin Wilde. He has a Tragic Past, as you would certainly term it, and he seems to joke of it, even as his eyes clearly reveal his pain. Meeting him so soon after my tantrum, I fear I may have been more than a bit forward with the man, but he didn't seem to be appalled by my amazingly blunt speech. Indeed, if you can imagine the thing, I made him smile. The Baron is a friend of Tanner's, and we will see him again this evening at Lady Chalfont's. It's lovely to have something to look forward to besides sitting with my back against the wall, watching everyone else dance, offering up prayers no one will ask me to participate. You know something, Nicole? I just realized I perhaps do not fade into the wallpaper so much as I might intimidate the gentlemen who mistake my shyness and boredom for aloofness and haughty ways. My goodness, but that's a thought to ponder!
I hope that by the time this letter reaches you, you are happily settled at Basingstoke, and am
confident you have already charmed everyone there. I will save this letter until tomorrow, at which time I will report to you the happenings of this evening, as I know you will worry otherwise, and I promise I shall do my best to enjoy myself.
L
YDIA READ WHAT
she had written, frowned over the last line, and then crossed it out. Taking up her pen once more, she wrote:
And I know I will enjoy myself, most especially if there are swans.
Yes, that was better. If her evening was at all remarkable her letter would run to at least two sheets. But her brother was a duke, and he would frank her for the postage. How delightful! She had always been careful to keep her letters short, or to cross her lines in an attempt at economy, even if that made her letters difficult for the recipient to read. Well, that was just another silly, sensible habit she would dispense with as of today. This rather momentous day.
She slipped the page into the drawer of her dressing table before examining her reflection in the mirror. She liked what Sarah had done to her hair, sweeping it all severely back from her forehead and then massing long curls behind her left ear. When she moved, the shining blond curls tickled at her shoulder, making her feel veryâ¦female.
She looked most closely at her eyes, wondering if others could see sadness in them, as she had done when she'd looked into Baron Wilde's eyes. Nicole would say
they'd both been disappointed in love, although for quite different reasons.
“But at least you were not
betrayed
by love,” she told her reflection. “You have happy memories no one can take from you. You were not exiled from your own country for eight terrible years, so that you have become jaded or distrusting.”
She propped her elbow on the dressing table and rested her chin on her palm, continuing to examine her reflection until she'd come to a decision. “And you are going to stop feeling sorry for yourself
right now.
There are many worse things in life than having been loved, than having family and friends who care for you and wish you to be happy.”
“My lady? Were you wanting something? I've finished pressing off your gown.”
Lydia turned away from the mirror. “Oh, no, Sarah, I didn't want anything. I'm afraid you caught me out scolding myself.” She got to her feet, smoothing down her silken undergarments. “And doesn't that gown look nice. You've done a wonderful job with the crimping iron.”
Sarah curtsied. “Thank you, my lady, I do try. Only burned myself the once this time. Her Grace said to tell you that His Grace the Duke of Malvern is waiting on you downstairs in the drawing room. Such a well set up gentleman, my lady. I've always favored the blond ones. What a pair the two of you make, if you don't mind my saying so.”
Lydia became at once uneasy. Had she somehow
betrayed her feelings to her maid? And if she had, who else knew? She really had to be more careful. After all, the man was going to marry his cousin. “The duke is my friend, Sarah.”
“Yes, miss, he certainly is. But mayhap he wants to be more than a friend? Not that it's my place to say so, but Maisie and I just happened to be looking out the front window from the attics as you went off with His Grace this afternoon, and he had quite the spring in his step, Maisie said, if you take m'meaning. Now if you'll just duck yourself down and lift up your arms, my lady, we'll have this gown on you without so much as mussing a hair on your head. Ah, that's the trick. And are you sure you wouldn't be wanting just a quick whisper of a touch from the rouge pot?”
Lydia emerged from the yards of palest blue watered silk, about to tell the maid that she would rather not color her cheeks. She would have liked to ask what Maisie had meant by Tanner having a spring in his step, but she was certain that wasn't a proper question.
“Ah, never mind, my lady,” the maid said, motioning for Lydia to turn around so that she could do up the covered buttons. “You've got lovely color now, all on your own. And why would that be, I wonder? There you are, all done. Now I'll just fetch your wrap whilst you tug on these gloves, and you'll be all nice and tight.”
Lydia smiled weakly as Sarah skipped off to the dressing room, and then quickly returned to the dressing table, bending forward to check her reflection one more time. Goodness. Her cheeks
were
rather flushed,
weren't they? And were her eyes brighter? All because Tanner supposedly had a spring in his step?
She leaned in closer, and suddenly realized that the neckline of her gownâlovely with its fluted and crimped flounce that ran completely around the neckline and the off-the-shoulder designâwas rather lower than she'd remembered it the day of her final fitting in Bond Street. A good two inches lower, in fact.
How could the seamstress have made such aâbut wait! Hadn't Nicole taken the woman to one side for a private chat that day? And then winked at her twin and told her that she was sure the watered silk would be quite the stunner?
“If I lean forward too far, it most certainly will be,” Lydia said, holding her hand to her neckline as she leaned forward, stood back, leaned forward once more, this time without pressing a hand to her bodice. Her eyes went as wide as saucers. “Oh, dear Lord, IâSarah?
Sarah!”
The maid reappeared with a fringed ivory cashmere shawl threaded through with silver draped over her arm. “My lady?”
“Sarah, I need to change my gown. The bodice is all wrong. It doesn't fit.”
Sarah tipped her head to one side, running her gaze up and down Lydia's length. “It doesn't? I'd say it fits you a treat, my lady. Besides, Lady Nicole made sure that all of your party gowns wereâwell, she's a good sister to you, my lady, and that's a fact.”
The door to the hallway opened and Charlotte entered, carrying a dark blue velvet case. “Tanner's waiting, Lydia, but I just remembered that Nicole had asked me to be certain to please lend you my sapphires if you were to wear theâ
oh, my.
”
Sarah curtsied, beaming. “Yes, Your Grace. Just as I was telling her. Fits her a treat, don't it?”
“A treat? Yes, I can see where that word comes first to mind,” Charlotte said rather tongue-in-cheek, approaching Lydia and then walking fully around her. “You may go, Sarah, thank you.”
“Oh, but I want her toâ”
“Lydia, let her go. You look beautiful. You
are
beautiful.”
Would nobody listen to her? Couldn't they see what she saw? “I'mâ¦I'm
hanging out,
just like Mama!”
Charlotte giggled. “Darling, your mama would sacrifice an entire herd of goats to look like you do tonight. But, yes, the resemblance is rather startling. And Helen Daughtry was, and still is, an extraordinarily beautiful woman. Your beauty, however, is more refined. Which doesn't mean that you should hide it.”
“I don't think it means that I should
flaunt
âdo you really think the gown is, well,
proper?
”
Charlotte opened the velvet case and withdrew a stunning diamond and sapphire necklace. “Proper is perhaps not the word I'd use. Not precisely, no. I would rather say the gown is stunning. Interesting. Even captivating. Everything that you are, Lydia, whether you wish to acknowledge that fact or not. Now, turn around
and bend your knees, so I can clasp this piece around your neck. You won't feel half so naked once it's on.”
Lydia did as she was bid, albeit reluctantly. She was just so
used
to doing what other people said. But then she rallied, and stood straight once more. “You said it, Charlotte. You said
naked.
And that's how I feel. And from what Sarah was grinning and mumbling about, I'm woefully certain Nicole has had all of my gowns altered this way. The mischief that lives in that girl's head!”
âI'm sure she had all the best of intentions.”
Lydia very nearly snorted. “Yes, the best of intentions. That's what she said she had when we were seven, and she decided to save our shared maid the trouble of trimming my bangs. Granted, I was silly enough to believe she knew what she was doing. I had to wear caps for a
month.
What is it about my sister and scissors?”
“I wouldn't know. Just bend your knees again, sweetheart, and let us see if the necklace makes you feel lessâthat is, more finished.”
Lydia felt the weight of the necklace and looked down to see that the largest sapphire, completely surrounded by diamonds and fashioned as a drop, now slid rather interestingly between the cleavage exposed by the neckline of the gown. As if that could make up for that same, truly outrageous neckline.
Charlotte nudged her toward the full-length mirror that stood in one corner of the room. “There,” she said rather smugly, “now how do you feel? Because you
look wonderful. There are earrings as well, but I think they'd be too much for such a young, unmarried woman. Besides, look at your eyes, Lydia. They're so blue they look like twin ponds on a clear, sunlight day. Dazzling. When Rafe sees you I'll have to hold him back or else he'll confine you to your room, even though you're well within the bounds of propriety. Tanner, on the other hand, will be most appreciative, I'm sure.”
Lydia opened her mouth to ask if Tanner would be appreciative because men were basically lecherous, but quickly decided that neither Charlotte nor Rafe would allow her within fifty yards of a lechâ¦or fifty inches from Grosvenor Square if either of them thought the gown too outrageous.
“I do feelâ¦rather nice,” she admitted finally. “And moreâ¦confident, if that doesn't sound silly.”
“It doesn't. Now come along, Tanner is waiting. Along with his cousin, who seems a very lovely young woman, if prone to talking so much I wouldn't be surprised to see that Rafe's ears have quite fallen off his head by the time we get down to the drawing room.”
“She's pretty, isn't she? Jasmine Harburton, I mean. The cousin.”
“I would say beautiful, but a man sees such things differently. I'll have to ask Rafe's opinion, once his ears stop ringing,” Charlotte said with a smile. “Don't forget your gloves.”
Lydia wanted to take one more peek at her reflection, as she still wasn't quite sure who she had been looking
at, but tamped down the urge, for it seemed indulgent, and perhaps even vain. She picked up her elbow-length gloves, pulling them on as she followed Charlotte toward the stairs, working the soft white kid over each finger, wondering idly why fashion had decreed that a female's circulation be all but cut off in the pursuit of fashion.
She was just smoothing the kid over her left thumb when they reached the bottom of the stairs and she heard a sharp intake of breath and an awe-filled “Coo⦔ coming from one of the footmen.
Perhaps Nicole had been more right than Lydia would have guessed.
Buoyed by the footman's involuntary flattery, she entered the drawing room, her confident step carrying her along very well, thank you, until she saw the faintly incredulous expression come and go on Tanner's face as he stood at the mantelpiece, staring at her.
She resisted the urge to cross her hands over her bosom, and turned her attention to the dark-haired beauty just then getting to her feet so that she could curtsey to the newcomers.
Tanner stepped forward to make the introductions.
“I cannot tell you, Lady Lydia, how honored I am to make your acquaintance,” Jasmine said the moment the introductions were completed. “How delightful it will be to have company once we are through that depressingly long line waiting for our hostess to vet us, and we're set loose into the ballroom like so many prisoners freed from the confines of their cells, only to find that they are now only in a larger prison, which is how
I see ballrooms, and waiting to be rescued from the wallflowers by some gentleman who then assumes we are so flattered by his attention that, of course, we will want nothing more than to listen to him
brag
about himself and his prospects or even the cut of his waistcoat for the length of the dance. Don't you think?”