Elizabeth Boyle (52 page)

Downstairs the musicians were tuning up their instruments.

A group quite popular for their lively sets, Sophia promised. They would play all night if requested.

But not even the master’s expert instructions had left her with any sense of timing and rhythm for dancing. One note always sounded like another to her and timing her steps to the beat was more a matter of luck than of a good ear.

Well, she sighed, tonight would be her final test, a test she was out to fail so miserably, Lord Dryden would have no choice other than to find another Adelaide.

While in the back of her mind, she worried about her elder brother’s safety in the mercurial world of Napoleon’s court, especially if Sophia’s role in the English Foreign Office were revealed, Lily knew Sophia had sent him a warning note.

Lucien was no fool and would see to it he had an escape route out of Paris, if necessary.

“There you are, my dear,” Adam said, quite smoothly. When he got to her side, he whispered softly to her, “And I see that you have decided to continue your charade to the bitter end.”

She smiled, looking down at her dress. She and Celeste had worked all afternoon to alter one of her bombazine dresses. Sophia had specifically instructed her to wear one of her new dresses, and thus she had.

Well, they’d given the old dress a new life. So it could be called a new dress, Lily reasoned. They’d added black lace to the neckline so it covered her up to her neck. Then they’d capped the long sleeves and added a band of black lace around the hemline. She’d pulled her hair back as severely as she’d dared without pulling it out from the roots. It made her face look pinched and pained. Atop her head went her black lace cap. Their final touch was the rice powder Celeste had been mixing with a dash of saffron to give her complexion a sallow, yellow color that made her appear ill.

“Well, there, my dear, don’t you look just … perfect,” he said, his eyebrows raised in mock horror.

Lily smiled at his feigned gallantry. “Thank you, Adam. You’re turning into quite the Corinthian.”

And he was. Giles had taken him to the best tailor in Bath and the wealthy young Virginian had spared no expense in remaking himself into a youthful and dashing country gentleman.

“And you would too if you would only avail yourself of your trunks, which I brought out here so I would never be forced to see you dressed in those wretched weeds ever again.”

“I won’t be wearing them for much longer, I promise.”

“Good,” he said. “Then will you trust me enough to tell me what is going on?”

She twisted the ring on her finger, the garnet on the bumblebee winking at her. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, she just didn’t want him to know anything more than necessary.

“After tonight, there will be no more of these secrets between us, understood,” he said, before placing a gallant kiss on her fingertips.

“Ah, the happy couple,” Webb said, joining them on the landing, his languid voice startling her.

She flinched. If she was celebrating her near victory over Lord Dryden and his unwanted plans, it was this Dryden who left her feeling like anything but celebrating.

With each of her failures, she could feel Webb’s cool censure on her back. She didn’t have to know what he said each night to his father behind the closed door of Giles’s study, she could see it in his face when he rejoined the ladies in the salon.

And rid of her I mean to be.

Those words, spoken so long ago, still brought a wave of embarrassment over her, chilling her heart with their cold cruelty.

That Webb still saw her as that gangly creature he’d so heartily disavowed to Lady Marston, had given her pause more than once during the fortnight.

She’d locked Webb Dryden out of her heart that day so long ago, but his kiss in the garden, like a long-lost key newly found, had opened her tightly closed memories of first love, treasured dreams, and adolescent self-doubt.

And like Pandora, it had unleashed all those unwanted emotions.

Well, after tonight, she wouldn’t have either problem— not her unwanted daydreams nor Webb’s constant vigilance.

As if on cue, Webb clapped Adam heartily on the back. “There’s the lucky bridegroom. Where is your dear mother, Adam?”

Adam cocked one eyebrow and looked at the unwanted hand perched on his shoulder with all the cool disdain of his noble French ancestors. “She is just finishing dressing. I know she is most anxious to dance a set with you, Webb.”

Webb flinched before he turned a critical eye on Lily. “You’ve really outdone yourself tonight, Lily. Can that be one of your new dresses?”

She ignored his smug expression. “How kind of you to say so, Webb. But I’m afraid this is just the same old dress I’ve been wearing for most of my visit. My maid and I were able to make some lovely alterations to it, more appropriate for a party.” She didn’t need him to tell her she looked ridiculous, she already knew that, but in a few hours, once his father declared her unfit and they’d left Byrnewood, she’d leave this disguise behind forever.

Judging from Webb’s frown, she’d obviously succeeded, not that it didn’t dent her feminine heart to have him looking at her as if he found the experience distasteful. It was bad enough the room was already filling with the neighborhood’s prettiest young misses, each of them dewy and fresh in their fashionable muslins and pastel silks.

Once down the stairs, she’d look like an old crow settled among a flock of sweet singing canaries.

But it was only for one more night, she told herself. One more night, then she’d be once again free to live her own life.

He leaned back, studying her anew. “If you say so. For a moment there I thought you looked almost festive. It is after all a celebration to announce your
engagement
. At least that was what I thought I overheard your sister telling Lady Larkhall not two minutes ago.”

Adam nodded at this, his cool assurance taking Lily aback. Announce their engagement? They’d agreed not to! Once announced it would be a terrible scandal to back out. She looked back at Adam, a sly smile pulling the corners of his mouth.

He meant to trap her with her lie. He meant to announce this false engagement and force her hand.

“I would have thought,” Webb continued, “that mourning and such a happy event would be rather a contradiction.”

“There isn’t going to be any announcement,” she said through clenched teeth.

Both men looked askance at her, as if she’d just become a recalcitrant child. Each with their own motives.

Before Lily could put a stop to either of them, Sophia and Giles arrived at the bottom of the stairs. Her sister smiled up at her, though Lily could see the disapproval crinkling the corners of her eyes. After all, there were half a dozen new dresses upstairs, which the frantic dressmaker and her assistants had been sewing since their arrival, that were more appropriate for a party.

Far be it, though, for Sophia to make a scene in public and instruct her to go change.

Besides, it was too late. Sophia and Webb weren’t the only ones staring up at Lily and her outlandish costume.

As if sensing the need to overshadow Lily’s latest
faux pas
, Sophia smiled brightly. “Lily, Adam, there you are. Come along. Giles wants to make the announcement so we can start the dancing.”

With Webb leading the way, Lily started to back away. She was willing to do many things to make herself look the complete fool, but announcing an engagement was akin to sealing her fate.

Adam took her hand and placed it on his arm, pulling her down the stairs.

“We decided not to announce our engagement,” she whispered to him, a smile plastered on her face.

“I changed my mind.” He paused for a moment. “Someone needs to watch over you and keep you out of whatever mischief you’ve found yourself in with these Drydens. Hardly sporting of them to use you like this. Once you’re my wife, there’ll be no more of this blackmail. You can put aside these ridiculous clothes and blundering manners and act like the lady I know you are.”

Lily ground her teeth. “No one is blackmailing me, except you.”

Webb turned around.

Lily could only guess as to how much he had heard.

“What is this?” he asked. “Dissention from the bride-to-be?”

Lily smiled sweetly. “Of course not. Whatever makes you think so?”

He shrugged. “Oh, nothing in particular.” He continued down the stairs.

Lily focused on the steely grace of Webb’s shoulders as he strolled forward, moving like a great regal cat.

She hadn’t missed how he looked in his evening clothes. His coat of black encased his shoulders and back in form-fitting elegance.

Since that night she couldn’t forget the sensation of running her hands over his body. Try as she might, and she had, she didn’t want the traitorous memories of being held by Webb to steal away her resolve. Or the memories of how his lips claimed hers, the breathless rush of passion and desire as his hand had moved beneath her cloak and . .

Lost in her own wayward thoughts, she ran straight into those shoulders, and even as she tried to right herself, she went stumbling headlong into an arriving duchess.

Much to her chagrin, it was Webb’s strong hands that righted her and his sensual mouth that whispered into her ear, “Careful, little hoyden. It may look to the rest of the guests like you are trying to get away from your beloved betrothed.”

Before she could give him the heated response that sprung to her lips, he turned and flashed the scowling duchess one of his most charming smiles.

The dimpled lady immediately blushed, to which he bowed low, and when he rose he held out his arm to her. Without another look in Lily’s direction, Webb paraded into the ballroom.

As the crowd cut a path for the venerable society maven and her handsome escort, Lily watched two misses, no doubt just out of the schoolroom and entering society, sigh with delight as he glanced in their direction.

“Well, that worked out well,” Sophia said. “Lily, please be more careful.” Her sister took her husband’s arm, while Giles shot Lily an apologetic smile before leading his wife into the ballroom.

“Sophia, I’d prefer not to announce my engagement tonight,” Lily told her sister.

Her sister patted her arm and looked up at Adam. “Bridal nerves. You were so right, Adam.” Sophia smiled at her. “Once Giles makes the announcement you’ll settle right down.”

They continued for about two more steps before Lily panicked, scooting and skittering backward on the marble floor like it had suddenly turned to ice. “I don’t like this,” she said. “I’ll not be forced into a marriage—”

Giles stood in front of them, blocking them from the view of most of the guests crowding Byrnewood’s grand ballroom, though Lily spied Webb standing solicitously behind the chair where the duchess had planted her imperious backside.

His quizzical glance landed first on Adam and then on her.

She couldn’t let him see her panic, her reluctance. But how could she let Giles announce an engagement she didn’t want?

Her betrothal to the wrong man. She shook her head. She was starting to wonder if there was a right man for her.

Giles’s booming voice held everyone’s attention and Lily could feel the anticipation in the room building as he continued. “And it is with the greatest pleasure that the marchioness and I wish to introduce all of you to …”

“Adam,” Lily whispered furiously into his ear. “I’ll never forgive you for this!”

“Yes, you will. Once we’re married. You’ll see. Everything will be in order then.”

She thought about his reasons for forcing her hand.

Blackmail … her charade … her outlandish behavior .. . blundering manners.

She turned and gave her betrothed a wane smile. She just hoped he’d forgive her for what she was about to do.

“Oh, Lord Dryden, how will you ever forgive us? It pains me to think this is my sister,” Sophia said as she and Giles approached Lord Dryden and Webb, who stood off to the side of the dancing. Her hostess smile glowed as if nothing were amiss.

But beside Webb, Lord Dryden flinched as Lily once again trod on her dancing partner and sent the entire set of dancers scrambling out of their places to escape her blundering path.

While Sophia’s face continued to hold a sunny expression, her words were anything but elated. “I’m just as shocked as you are that Lily hasn’t lived up to your expectations, my lord.”

Webb knew it must be killing his sire to see one of his plans go awry, for they so rarely did. But the evening had turned out to be a rather enlightening one for Webb and he wasn’t about to give in to pessimism just yet. “Your sister has truly outdone even my expectations this evening.” He glanced over at Sophia. “No offense meant, my lady.”

“None taken,” Sophia said with a sigh of resignation. “I didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. I never thought of Lily as that much different from me. Perhaps it is just this engagement that is making her edgy.”

“Edgy?” Giles laughed. “I’m starting to think your sister is working for the French.”

“Lily, a double agent?” Lord Dryden laughed. “Lord help the French.”

Giles tipped his head and stared across the ballroom. “Speaking of Mr. Saint-Jean, who is that woman he’s been spending so much time with this evening? She looks vaguely familiar.”

Lord Dryden huffed. “She should. That is the Countess Allen. She’s rumored to be an agent for the Americans, though I haven’t been able to find any proof. She was born in Boston and married Lord Allen during the Colonial War.”

“Don’t look at me,” Sophia said. “I didn’t invite the woman. But I haven’t got time to worry about that now, Lily just toppled Lord and Lady Lewis. How anyone can be so graceless on the dance floor is beyond me. I must make our apologies immediately.”

As she hurried off to make amends, Webb took a deep breath. Lily’s plaintiff words rang in his ears.

I’ve done all this to protect you, to protect both of us.

He glanced again at the countess and Adam, and the final piece fell into place.

“Well, this does put a new light on our plans,” his father muttered. “Lily will never do.”