A Hint of Seduction (32 page)

Then he’d be considered a man without honor. What a hell of a mess. He’d allowed himself to be caught up in the moment and the challenge. He wouldn’t lose anything to Westerland.

Especially Catherine.

What was he going to do? The race had already appeared in the wager book at White’s. Men had already started betting on the outcome. His friends had money on the race.

He had to think of something. There had to be a way he could get out of this damnable race with his honor still intact and Catherine his.

Twenty

“As distance shows a horse’s strength, so time reveals a man’s heart.” The wager book at White’s is filling up quickly as another race has been planned between the Earl of Chatwin and the Marquis of Westerland. But this time it is not money these two gentlemen seek to win. They are racing for the honor of pursuing the hand of Miss Reynolds.

Lord Truefitt
Society’s Daily Column

C
ATHERINE HEARD
V
ICKIE
calling her name before she burst through Catherine’s bedroom door waving a sheet of newspaper in her hand.

“You won’t believe this,” Victoria said as she plopped down on top of Catherine’s bed and fell back, spreading her arms wide, laughing.

Catherine rose from the stool in front of her dresser and looked at her sister as if she were crazy. “What on earth has happened?”

“This!” she exclaimed as she rose to a sitting position on the bed. “It’s absolutely delicious. Lord Chatwin and the Marquis will be having another race, and you’ll never guess what the prize is.”

“Prize. It’s usually money that they race for, isn’t it?”

“Mostly, but this time, my dear,
you
are the reward!” She laughed again. “Oh, nothing could be more wonderful than this.”

Catherine felt a pounding in her head. “What are you talking about? They can’t race for my hand. Let me see that.”

Victoria handed over the paper, and Catherine quickly read Lord Truefitt’s column. This was outrageous. She read it again thinking it couldn’t possibly be true, but it was. And Vickie was smiling like a cat that had just eaten a bird!

“Oh, no,” Catherine whispered earnestly. “How could John do this to me?”

Catherine’s mind went wild with thoughts. How could he do this after the way he helped her find her grandfather, after the way he’d touched her so intimately he reached her soul. She loved him deeply. How could he hurt her so? She had to remember he didn’t love her. She could accept that, but she didn’t want to believe he would be willing to give her up in a horse race.

Vickie kicked her feet happily as she sat on the edge of the bed and said, “Why are you looking so distraught, Catherine? This is the most wonderful news.”

“For whom?” Catherine asked as her hands closed into fists, crumpling the paper, feeling anger, hurt, and stinging disappointment. “Certainly not me. What is wrong with you, Vickie? How can you think this is good news? I’m not a prize to be won.”

“I will admit that when I first read it, I thought, how can they do this to me?”

“You?”

“Yes, me.” She stood up and walked over to the dressing table and looked in the mirror. “After all the work I’ve put into matchmaking for you. I couldn’t believe they decided to take it upon themselves to settle your fate without my participation.”

Vickie was unbelievable.

She turned back to Catherine. “But after thinking about it, I realized that I’ve played Lord Chatwin’s and Lord Westerland’s game so well that I’ve outmaneuvered both of them. I knew this must be Lord Chatwin’s doing. The Marquis is not smart enough to think of something as delicious as this.”

Vickie continued to talk, but Catherine turned away and stopped listening. There was a ringing in her ears and a heaviness in her heart. All she could think was how could John have done this to her? She thought she knew him, but she didn’t know him at all.

After their secretive outing yesterday they had talked, laughed, and danced last night at a party with no awkwardness between them. If he didn’t want to pursue her, why didn’t he just tell her? Why go to this elaborate scheme of horse racing?

Did he think this would be the best way to say good-bye without having to come right out and tell her? John could just see to it that he lost this race, and then he would be honor bound to stop pursuing her.

Her heart broke.

“But then I thought this is the best thing that could have happened to you,” Victoria was saying. “The attention this will attract will be the biggest event this Season, maybe the biggest event since they outlawed dueling.”

“Vickie, this is unacceptable.”

“No, no, my dear. Everyone will think I had something to do with this, and it will be evidence of my matchmaking skills. Mamas all over London will want to seek my skills, and after I have you safely betrothed, I can take my time and choose only the best clients.”

Catherine strained to understand Victoria. “This is about me. Not you. I don’t want anyone racing for the right to pursue me. I won’t allow it,” she finished firmly.

Victoria looked confused. “But what do you mean? This will be a legal race between two titled gentlemen. You have no say in it.”

“Watch me,” she said, firmly knowing she had to do something but not knowing what to do. “If they race, I won’t have anything to do with either of them.”

“Of course you will,” Victoria said as calmly as if they were talking about the weather. “There aren’t that many eligible titled gentlemen. You certainly didn’t win over Lord Dugdale. But we don’t need to worry about that now. You will have to accept the pursuit of the winner. Because that is what will be best for you. Now finish dressing. There will be much discussion about this at the parties tonight, and we don’t want to miss one delicious moment of it.”

I
T TOOK
C
ATHERINE
the rest of the afternoon alone in her room, but she finally came up with a plan of action. She would not just stand around and allow this travesty to happen. Not without having her own say in the matter.

One moment she would think she never wanted to see John again, and the next she couldn’t wait to see him so she could tell him how outrageous this race was. And then at other times her love for him would rise to the surface of her
heart and overflow, and she would think that there had to be a reasonable explanation for why he was doing this.

Perhaps he’d been coerced some way. Maybe the Marquis had called him a coward. Many things had entered her thoughts, but John was the only one who knew the answer.

The first party of the evening that she and Victoria attended was a nightmare for Catherine but a celebrated affair for Victoria who readily accepted accolades for Catherine’s popularity.

Catherine was ill suited for such acclaim. Some of the young ladies looked at Catherine with disdain while others swarmed around her to ask questions about how she felt about the two most handsome bachelors in London racing to win pursuit of her hand. Catherine detested every minute of it and excused herself from the crowds as often as she could.

There were only two people she wanted to talk to.

And as soon as she and Victoria walked into the second party of the evening, Catherine saw one of them. She made a hasty exit from her sister and followed Lady Lynette to the retiring room that had been set aside for the ladies.

Catherine waited outside the door for Lynette and when she came out asked, “Lynette, might I have a word alone with you?”

“Yes, Catherine,” Lynette said with excitement in her expression and her voice. “I’ve been looking for you all evening. I’m dying to find out what you think about the horse race for the pursuit of your hand. Let’s find a place where we can have privacy.”

They walked down the corridor, peeking into rooms until they found a cupboard that was lighted but empty.

They slipped inside, and as soon as the door was closed, Lynette said, “Now tell me how it feels to be the most sought-after young lady in London.”

Catherine took a deep breath and answered, “Absolutely terrible.”

“What? Why? You have an earl and a marquis wanting your hand.”

“No, they don’t want me, they each want to win over the other. I will not be their prize, and I need your help to accomplish that.”

Lynette looked puzzled. “What can I do?”

“I’ve decided that I’m going to join Lord Chatwin and the Marquis in the race. I’m going to beat both of them, and then not have anything to do with either of them ever again.”

“What!” Lynette exclaimed. “You can’t do that. They’ll never let you be a part of it. It’s a gentleman’s race.”

“What are they going to do to me? Will they forcibly remove me from the starting point?”

“I don’t know. They might.”

“I think not.”

“But even if they let you join them, how could you win? You don’t have a horse, do you?”

“No. Not a very good one, but I’ll hire the best horse I can find. Someone with a winning horse will come to my aid. I’m an excellent rider and I know how to make an animal give his best. I will join this race and prove to them what a ridiculous idea it is that they’ve come up with.”

Lynette’s eyes glimmered in the glow of the lamplight. “I don’t believe this. It is just too delectable for words. Let me see, how shall I start Lord Truefitt’s column… . ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink,’ or perhaps I should start with ‘When a horse comes to the edge, it’s too late to draw rein.’ ” Suddenly Lynette stopped and clamped her mouth shut. Her green eyes widened with fear. “Oh, dear, what did I just say?”

Catherine was aghast. “I think you just told me you’re Lord Truefitt.”

“No, no I didn’t say that.” She opened her reticule and pulled out a handkerchief and delicately dabbed at her forehead with a trembling hand. “No, I might have misspoken and implied it, but I never said I was Lord Truefitt.” She looked up at Catherine with horror glowing in her green eyes. “Did I?”

“Lynette, it’s all right. I am your friend. I will never discuss this conversation with anyone.”

Lynette remained quiet.

Catherine laid a comforting hand on Lynette’s gloved arm. “I have trusted you with my information, and now you must trust me to keep your secret. You have my word I will.”

“I’m not really Lord Truefitt, but I know who she is. I work for her.”

Catherine smiled. “I love it that Lord Truefitt isn’t even a man. How ingenious of the lady, whoever she is, to write under a man’s name.”

Suddenly Lynette giggled a wonderful, feminine-sounding laugh that Catherine wouldn’t have thought Lynette capable of because of her large frame and loud voice.

Catherine laughed with her.

“I’ve said way too much,” Lynette said after their laughter. “I will get her in trouble and me, too. We’ll both lose our jobs if anyone discovers who we are. You understand that, don’t you?”

“I understand and no one will hear it from me. Even my sister thought it was Lord Chatwin who told Lord Truefitt the truth about what happened to us in the park that morning I rode his horse. I let her assume that and didn’t tell her it was me who told you. Your secret is safe with me.”

“Thank you. You are a dear friend.”