Julia Justiss (20 page)

With a growl, Adam paced to the sideboard, poured himself a generous glass of port and downed the whole.

Though he sincerely hoped her altercation tonight had terrified Miss Lambarth as much as it had him, he couldn’t count on it. It was imperative that he make sure she understood the excellent reasons that required she not indulge in any further such nighttime excursions. But with her already abed, he could think of no way to make that happen. Not tonight.

Groaning, he dropped into the chair behind his desk and put his head in his hands. Somehow he was going to have to devise a way to speak privately with her tomorrow. Though seeing her alone in daylight was not
much safer than accosting her here, in the room where she’d first inspired him with this life-complicating passion, it was unthinkable that he include anyone else in the meeting.

Even as he regretted that fact, a heated, guilty awareness pulsed in his veins at knowing that for a time tomorrow, he would have her all to himself again.

A
FTER SLEEPING BUT LITTLE
, and badly, Adam returned to his library early the next morning. The imperative to talk privately with Miss Lambarth weighed on him—but he’d still not figured out how to bring that about without involving or alarming Charis or Bellemere. He supposed he could wait until this evening after the ladies went out to try to catch Miss Lambarth reading in the library…unless she slipped out first for another tour about London. No, he didn’t wish to chance that.

Before he could decide how best to proceed, a knock sounded at the door. Anticipation flashed through him—but Miss Lambarth was most unlikely to seek him out. Shaking off the thought, he bid the supplicant enter.

To his surprise, Dickon entered the library and begged for a few minutes to discuss a matter of utmost urgency.

Adam suspected he knew quite well what urgent matter Dickon felt compelled to discuss. “What is amiss, Dickon?”

After studying Adam’s stern face for a moment, the boy said, “Miss Helena, she can get a body to do things he don’t really want to do, you know?”

Did he ever! “Continue.”

“She caught me sneaking in after midnight one night. Well, the short of it is, she told me she’d been feeling stifled, getting to go nowheres but to them lady meetings, always with other folks, never out on her own. She threatened to tell Nell on me unless…unless I promised to take her exploring with me. So last night I—I did.”

Releasing some of his pent-up frustration, Adam barked, “Are you out of your mind, boy?”

“I never wanted to! And she didn’t go togged out like a female neither, but in boy’s clothes. Can make her voice sound just like one of my mates, she can.” Dickon chuckled. “Even Lord Blanchard didn’t recognize her.”

“Thanks be to God! I ought to have you transported.”

“I didn’t let her talk me into taking her to a brothel, much as she wheedled me! And I did come tell you, when sure enough nobody would have found out otherwise.” He looked up at Adam, his eyes appealing. “Miss Helena wouldn’t listen to me if I begged her to stop, but you could order her to stay home, couldn’t you?”

Dropping his gaze, he added with a sigh, “I expect you’ll want to turn me off, and I can’t hardly blame you. But I figured you had to know.”

Adam waited, but Dickon said no more. He had to admire the boy’s loyalty in protecting his mistress by revealing only the bare fact of her transgression and omitting the more damning—and dangerous—matter of the man who’d accosted her.

A shudder passed through Adam at the memory. Decided it was better not to let Dickon know he’d seen them by questioning him about the incident, he tipped the boy’s chin up. “Master Dickon, a lad who knows the difference between what is important and what is not is a valuable employee I should not wish to lose. I will keep your secret—but I suggest in future you confine your wanderings to more suitable hours. You may go.”

“Aye, sir!” Dickon bowed, looking much relieved. “You’ll talk to Miss Helena?”

“If you please, ask her to join me immediately.”

Dickon sighed again. “When she learns I’ve scarpered on her, she’s like to can me herself. But I’ll fetch her right quick.” With another bow, he left.

Adam let out a long breath. Bless Dickon, both for his honesty and for providing Adam with the perfect means to summon Helena discreetly. Though when he did confront the wretched girl, she would probably reply that no one had specifically instructed her that she was not to wander about the city after midnight in boy’s clothing.

Lady Darnell would have palpitations.

He hoped he would be convincing enough to persuade her never to do so again. Though he wasn’t about to confess so to Dickon, he was certain that attempting to
order
her to refrain would be a waste of breath.

A few moments later another knock sounded. He closed his eyes, letting the surge of heightened sensation that telegraphed her presence roll over him as she entered.

She made him a deep curtsey. “What have I done now, that you must needs summon me?”

Garbed in a gown of teal-green, every dark curl in place, she looked lovely enough to steal his breath, the very picture of a young lady of quality. It seemed impossible that a few hours ago she had wrestled with a miscreant in a dark London alley.

Shaking his head, he said, “What do you think?”

She put a finger to her cheek and appeared to consider the question. “Was it that I told Lady Jersey yesterday, after she’d commented on my having so many admirers despite my distaste for marriage, that Society is like a great cat? Speak sweetly and try to lure him to you and he disdains to approach, but ignore him and he jumps into your lap.”

Despite the urgency of what he needed to discuss with her, Adam laughed. “Anything else on your conscience?”

“Is it because I gave Viscount Framingham’s wandering hands a smack at the musicale two nights ago?”

“He did what?” Adam straightened, instantly incensed. “I shall have to break every one of his fingers.”

“You may spare Freddie’s fingers,” Helena replied with a chuckle. “I scratched him so hard he bled on his blue satin breeches. I doubt he’ll trouble me again.”

“I’m relieved to hear it.” Tamping down his anger over Framingham’s lecherous advances, Adam made himself focus on the more serious matter at hand. “The event that concerns me occurred…rather late last evening.”

He wasn’t sure how she would respond to his probing. To his relief—since he didn’t want to put her
immediately on the defensive by announcing he’d seen her—she gave him a sheepish glance. “I suppose Dickon talked to you? I thought he was wearing a guilty look this morning. He told me over and over last night what a fright I’d given him.”

“He wasn’t the only one! I saw you, too.”

Her chin jerked up and her eyes widened. “
You
saw me? Where?”

“Outside White’s…holding a horse for a gentleman who was talking with Lord Blanchard.”

To his gratification, a flush stained her cheeks. “Oh, my. Well, I suppose I can only be glad you did not drag me off by my heels on the spot.”

“Believe me, I was sorely tempted to do just that! But I didn’t dare risk creating a disturbance that would have drawn attention to you.”

“I suppose I must thank you for your restraint. Shall I now wait quietly while you berate me?”

“If I thought railing at you would be effective, I’d give you the jobation of the century! Especially after having followed you home.”

But though her cheeks flamed redder, she merely said, “I should congratulate you on your skill. You are obviously better at stealth than I.”

Incensed that she still would not acknowledge the seriousness or folly of her escapade, Adam jumped up from his chair and exploded. “If you weren’t terrified out of ten year’s growth when that ruffian accosted you, you should have been! I assure you I was!”

Too agitated to sit back down, he started to pace the room, looking back at her as he spoke. “Hel—Miss
Lambarth, surely you must realize what you did was incredibly dangerous! What if that man had been joined by others? What if he—or someone else—had discovered you were a female, out in the dead of night with only a small boy to defend you?” His words pouring out in a furious rush that gave her no time to reply, he continued, “Even setting aside the peril of it, how do you think Bellemere would feel if someone whispered to her that they’d seen you roaming the London streets in boy’s dress?” Shuddering at the hysterical scene that would inevitably result from such a disclosure, he demanded, “How
could
you do such a thing?”

In a silence broken only by the ticking of the mantel clock, they stared at each other. “I’m certainly glad you don’t intend to lecture me,” Miss Lambarth said at last.

But before he could erupt again, she waved him to silence. “It wasn’t wise—I see that now,” she admitted.

“Why run such a risk? Dickon mumbled something about you feeling ‘stifled,’ but you must know you are free to go out whenever you wish, with a proper escort. Whatever possessed you to creep about in the dead of night?”

She knotted her hands and gazed down at them. “You know that my father kept me…close confined. You probably don’t know that I eventually found a way to escape every prison he devised. I taught myself to pick locks and discovered every exit through Lambarth’s walls. After I’d been locked in for the night, I would leave the castle and walk about the grounds. Or visit Mad Sally, an old medicine woman who lived
in the woods and was my only friend after Mama left. I should have gone as mad as she was reputed to be if I hadn’t had her to talk with. So you see, wandering about at night is quite natural for me.”

Adam had to admire her indomitable spirit even as he deplored the circumstances that had compelled her to escape her own home. “But you have many friends here.”

“Acquaintances merely, most of them more interested in my fortune than my character. Besides, I’ve spent so much of my life alone that to be always among a crowd of people makes me feel—closed in. Here, I may ride or visit only with an entourage. Sometimes I…I simply must be outdoors, alone and free to move about on my own.”

“Surely you see how perilous it is to do so here.”

She nodded. “I didn’t realize just how perilous until last night. I now acknowledge there are good reasons for the rules that prevent girls from going out unaccompanied. Which I imagine you will now forbid me to do.”

“I haven’t that right. But I will most earnestly implore you not to do so, for your own safety and the peace of mind of all who care about you.”

“That is a pledge easily given! I promise I will not do so again. Though,” she added with a sigh, “I’m not sure what I shall do now when I feel hemmed in.”

Her agreement was a huge burden lifted. Uttering a swift prayer of thanks that she had proven so reasonable, he finally felt calm enough to cease his pacing. Waving her to a seat beside him on the sofa, he said,
“Perhaps it is partly London itself that makes you feel caged in—the tall buildings that cut off the horizon, the throngs of people wherever you go. An excursion into the countryside might refresh you—to Hampton Court, perhaps. One can go by boat down the Thames. The gardens will be almost deserted this time of year. And it has a maze. Find the center and you may rest there, breathing in the scent of fresh air and evergreens and feeling you are the only person on earth.”

To his satisfaction, her face lit. “I shall ask Aunt Lillian if we may go.”

“Let me know if she does not care to take you. I…” No, much as he would enjoy escorting her, he must not offer—even if his fiancée could be persuaded to make a party of it, which, Priscilla not being fond of the country, he doubted. “I can arrange an escort. Mr. Dixon or Lord Blanchard would be happy to squire you and Charis.”

Head tilted, she studied him as he spoke. Suddenly self-conscious, he went silent.

To his surprise, Adam found himself feeling, not an intensification of desire, though the nearness of her still hummed in his veins, but an odd…wistfulness. How he would love to row with her down the river, watch her eyes light with pleasure at the extensive gardens, tease her through the maze. Sit with her at the center, content to watch her happiness. Happy to be with her.

Slamming his mind shut to the ramifications of that strange feeling, Adam was fumbling for something else to say when Miss Lambarth smiled—not the breath-stopping siren’s smile, but a tender curve of the lips that
squeezed his chest and made him want to cradle her in his arms.

“You are very kind,” she said. “You will not say anything to Aunt Lillian about my—?”

“Heavens, no! That shall remain our secret.”

“Thank you.” Her serious mood passing, she chuckled. “I promise to try hard not to disturb your peace again.”

He laughed with her, humor hardly easing the ache in his chest. “I believe I’ve heard that pledge before.”

“Never fear! Soon enough, I shall leave for good and disturb you no longer. My lord,” she said, and curtseyed.

After she exited, Adam ran a trembling hand through his dark hair. In Lambarth or in London, the thought of her in peril horrified him. Yet though he deplored her rashness, he could not help but admire her fearlessness. A girl who carried a knife and could use it! Lady Darnell would indeed have palpitations.