Then she realized that she was still wearing the spectacles she had borrowed from Mrs. Egan to enhance her appearance as a proper companion for today’s interviews. She reached up very quickly, plucked the eyeglasses from her nose and blinked a couple of times to refocus her vision.
She could see the man in the shadows quite clearly now, but that did not do much to alter her initial impression. If anything it only heightened her feelings of wariness and excitement.
“Dear me,” Mrs. Willis said quickly. “I had quite forgotten you were standing there, sir. I beg your pardon. Allow me to introduce Miss Elenora Lodge. Miss Lodge, the Earl of St. Merryn.”
St. Merryn inclined his head ever so slightly. “A pleasure, Miss Lodge.”
No one would ever label him handsome, Elenora thought. The power, control and harsh intelligence that stamped his features left no room for elegance, refinement or traditional masculine beauty.
His hair was a deep shade of brown. Unfathomable smoky green eyes watched her from some concealed lair deep inside. He had the bold nose, high cheekbones and distinctive jaw that one associated with creatures that survived on their hunting skills.
She realized with a start that she was allowing her imagination to get the better of her. It had been a very long day.
She pulled herself together and made her curtsy. “My lord.”
“It would seem that we might be of service to each other, Miss Lodge,” he said. His gaze never wavered from her face. “You are in need of a position. I have a distant relative, the widow of a cousin on my father’s side, who is staying with me for the Season. I require a companion for her. I am prepared to pay you triple your usual fees.”
Triple her usual fees.
She was suddenly a little breathless. Steady now, she thought. Whatever else she did, she must maintain an air of dignified calm. She had a feeling that if St. Merryn detected any indication that she suffered from delicate or easily excitable nerves, he would withdraw his offer.
Raising her chin, she gave him what she hoped was a coolly polite smile. “I am prepared to discuss the position, sir.”
She heard Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis murmur between themselves, but she paid no attention. She was too busy watching the satisfaction that glittered briefly in the earl’s enigmatic eyes.
“There is a bit more to the post than the duties that are generally expected of a paid companion,” St. Merryn said very deliberately.
She recalled the old adage about things sounding too good to be true and steeled herself
“For some reason, I am not surprised to hear that,” she said dryly. “Perhaps you would be so good as to explain?”
“Of course.” St. Merryn switched his attention to Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis. “I would prefer to have this conversation in private with Miss Lodge, if you two ladies do not mind.” He paused a beat and smiled faintly. “The situation involves a family matter. I’m sure you comprehend.”
“Certainly,” Mrs. Goodhew said. She seemed relieved to have the excuse to exit the room. “Mrs. Willis?”
Mrs. Willis was already on her feet. “After you, Mrs. Goodhew.”
The two women stepped smartly around their desks and crossed the room. They closed the door very firmly behind them.
A heavy silence descended. Elenora did not like the feel of impending dread that accompanied it.
Some of her initial excitement faded. It was replaced with wariness. Her palms tingled with a strange chill. She sensed the weight of the heavy fog pressing at the windows. It was so thick that she could not see the buildings across the narrow street. Was it just her imagination that made the room seem suddenly very small and intensely intimate?
St. Merryn walked deliberately across the office and came to a halt in front of one of the windows. He meditated for a while on the featureless mist that shrouded the narrow street. She knew that he was debating just how much to tell her.
“I may as well come straight out with it, Miss Lodge,” he said after a moment. “What I told Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis was not the full truth. I am not in need of a companion for my relative, although she is, indeed, staying in my house.”
“I see. ‘What do you require, sir?”
“A fiancée.”
Elenora closed her eyes in despair. Just when she had begun to believe that the nature of the potential employers in the files of Goodhew & Willis could not get any worse, she was confronted with a madman.
“Miss Lodge?” St. Merryn’s voice cracked like a whip across the room. “Are you all right?”
Jolted, she opened her eyes and summoned what she hoped was a soothing smile. “Of course, my lord. I am perfectly all right. Now then, perhaps there is someone who should be summoned?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“A family member or a personal servant, perhaps?” She hesitated delicately. “Or an attendant?”
The poor sent their insane relatives to the horrors of the hospital known as Bedlam. But among the wealthy, it was customary to secure an afflicted family member in a private asylum. She wondered when St. Merryn had escaped and whether anyone had noticed yet that he was missing from his locked cell.
“An attendant?” St. Merryn’s expression hardened. “What the devil are you talking about?”
“It is rather bleak and gloomy outside, is it not?” she said gently. “One can easily become lost in a fog like this.” Especially if one’s mind is also filled with strange vapors and visions, she added silently. “But I’m certain that there is someone who will come and guide you home. If you could just let Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis know where to send a message .
Understanding and then icy amusement lit St. Merryn’s eyes. “You think I’m mad, don’t you?”
“No such thing, my lord. I was merely trying to be helpful.” She took a cautious step back toward the door. “But if there should happen to be a tiny problem here, I am confident that Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis will be able to deal with it.”
Concluding that it would not be wise to turn her back on a lunatic, she groped awkwardly behind herself, searching for the doorknob.
“No doubt.” His smile was wry and fleeting. “I’ll wager those two are capable of dealing with just about anything, including a deranged client. But, as it happens, Miss Lodge, I am not mad.” He shrugged. “At least, I do not believe that I am. If you will take your hand off that doorknob, I will attempt to explain.”
She did not move.
He raised his brows slightly. “I promise you, I will make it worth your while.”
“In the financial sense?”
His mouth tilted a little at one corner. “Is there any other sense?”
Not as far as she was concerned, she thought. In her current predicament, she could not afford to overlook any reasonable offer of employment. The shimmering dream of a new future for herself that she had created out of thin air that long, lonely night six months before, had proved far more difficult to achieve in real life than she had ever imagined. Money was the sticking point. She needed this post.
St. Merryn might be mad, but he did not appear to be a depraved rakehell or a drunkard as had been the case with two of her potential employers that afternoon.
In point of fact, she thought, he was starting to sound more and more like a man who understood how to conduct a business negotiation. She admired that quality in a gentleman.
And he was most certainly not on his deathbed, either, as the third potential client that day had been. Quite the contrary, there was a disconcerting, intensely intriguing air of masculine vitality about him that stirred her in a way she could not describe. He was not handsome, at least not in the manner in which Jeremy Clyde had been. But the whispers of awareness lifting the little hairs on the nape of her neck were oddly stimulating.
Reluctantly, she released the doorknob. She stayed where she was, however, within inches of escape. A successful paid companion learned to be prepared for the unexpected.
“Very well, sir. I am listening.”
St. Merryn moved to the front of Mrs. Goodhew’s desk, leaned back against it and stretched his arms out to the sides. The position pulled his excellently cut coat snugly across his strong shoulders. It also allowed her to notice that he had a broad chest, flat stomach and lean hips. There was nothing thin or soft or weak about him.
“I have come to London for a few weeks this Season for the sole purpose of conducting some rather complicated business affairs. I will not bore you with the details, but the long and short of it is that I intend to form a consortium of investors. The project requires secrecy and privacy. If you know anything about Society, you will be aware that both conditions are extremely difficult to achieve. The Polite World lives on a steady diet of gossip and rumor.”
She allowed herself to relax slightly. Perhaps he was not mad after all.
“Pray continue, sir.”
“Unfortunately, given my current situation and a certain incident that occurred a year ago, I believe it will be somewhat difficult for me to go about my business without a great deal of annoying interference unless I am seen to be quite clearly off the marriage mart.”
She cleared her throat. “Your situation?” she asked as delicately as possible.
He raised one brow. “I have a title, several rather nice estates and a substantial fortune. And I am not married.”
“How nice for you,” she murmured.
He looked briefly amused. “Sarcasm is not generally considered a desirable quality in a paid companion, but given the fact that I am just as desperate as you are, I am prepared to overlook it on this occasion.”
She blushed. “My apologies, sir. It has been a somewhat trying day.”
“I assure you, mine was equally unpleasant.”
It was time to get back to the subject at hand, she decided. “Yes, well I do see that your situation makes you an extremely interesting commodity in certain social circles.”
“And no doubt quite boring in other circles.”
She had to work to hold back a smile. His wry, self-deprecating humor caught her by surprise.
St. Merryn did not appear to notice her startled amusement. He drummed his fingertips in a single staccato pattern on the desk. “But that is neither here nor there. As I was saying, my situation is further complicated by the fact that last Season, I was engaged for a time to a young lady who eventually eloped with another man.”
That information took her aback more than somewhat. “Never say so.”
He gave her an impatient look. “There are any number of people who would be happy to tell you that the young lady in question had a narrow escape.”
“Hmm.”
“What the devil does that mean?”
“Nothing really. It just struck me that perhaps you are the one who had the narrow escape, sir. I had a similar escape myself, six months ago.”
Cold curiosity gleamed in his eyes. “Indeed? And would that explain why you find yourself applying for a post as a paid companion today?”
“In part.” She swept out a hand. “But given what I now know about my former fiancé, I can tell you in all truth that I would rather be looking for a new post this afternoon than married to a liar and a deceiver.”
“I see.”
“But enough of my personal life, sir. The thing is, I do, indeed, understand your dilemma. When word reaches Polite Circles that you are in town, it will be assumed that you have come back to try your luck again on the marriage mart. You will be viewed as so much fresh, raw meat by the matchmaking lionesses of the ton.”
“I could not have put it more succinctly myself And that, Miss Lodge, is why I need a lady who can pose convincingly as my fiancée. It is really very simple.”
“It is?” she asked warily.
“Certainly. As I said, although I am here to conduct some extremely private business, Society will assume I have come back to shop for another bride. I do not want to find myself tripping over every young chit who has been brought to town to find a husband this Season. If I am perceived to be securely engaged to be married, the huntresses of Society will be forced to focus their attentions on other game.”
She sincerely doubted that St. Merryn’s scheme would prove to be the least bit simple. But who was she to argue with him?
“It sounds a very cunning plan, my lord,” she said politely. “I wish you the very best of luck with it.”
“I can see that you do not think for a moment that it will be successful.”
She sighed. “Far be it from me to remind you that many a man in your situation has underestimated the cleverness and determination of a mother who is intent on securing a good catch for her daughter.”
“I assure you, madam, that I have the greatest respect for the female of the species. Hence my plan to parade a fraudulent fiancée in front of Society for the next few weeks. Now then, will you accept the post that I am offering?”
“Sir, do not mistake me, I am not at all opposed to accepting the position. Indeed, I believe that I would quite enjoy it.”
That comment clearly intrigued him. “Why do you say that?”
“My grandmother was a very fine actress who gave up the stage to marry my grandfather,” she explained. “I have been told that I resemble her to a striking degree. I have often wondered if I got a measure of her talent, as well as her looks. Acting the role of your fiancée would no doubt prove interesting, even challenging.”
“I see. Well, then-”
She held up a hand. “But we must be realistic, sir. The truth is, as much as I would like to tread the boards, as it were, and as desperately as I want those excellent wages you offered, the fact is that it would be extremely difficult for me to masquerade as your intended bride.”
His jaw tightened with impatience. “Why is that?”
Where to begin? she wondered.
She moved a hand down her skirts to indicate her dull, gray gown. “For starters, I lack a proper wardrobe.”
He gave her a long, considering look that took her in from head to toe. She felt like a prize mare up for auction at Tattersall’s.
“Do not concern yourself with the problem of your wardrobe,” St. Merryn said. “I never expected that a woman who was applying for a position as a paid companion would possess the sort of gowns needed for this charade.”