Mistletoe & Michaelmas (2 page)

“Good.” Mr. Lentz gave her what could only be termed as a nod of approval. He lifted an unidentifiable piece of turtle from his bowl. “Now, if only the meal was as charming as the company you're surrounded by.”

“I'd say they're equivalent,” she quipped, garnering the most handsome smile she'd ever seen.

***

Aaron released a deep breath and studied his soup one final moment before the footmen would recollect his bowl. What was it about this young lady that intrigued him so?

All too soon dinner was over and the drawing room buzzed with guests chatting and mingling. As much as Aaron's body fought against him, he managed to detach himself from Daphne's skirts and allow her to have some time in the company of her cousins, Hope and Grace.

Though his body was a room apart from her, his eyes were a different matter. No matter where he looked, she somehow caught his attention. Her long, red evening gown. Her perfectly coiffed hair that he'd have no reservations about taking down and running his fingers through, were they alone—and married—of course. Her porcelain face. Her plush red lips... There was always something about her that managed to catch his attention and hold it longer than was polite.

As the clock struck ten and some of the mamas began whisking their unmarried daughters off to their rooms, Aaron made his way over to the brightest diamond in the room: Miss Daphne Cavanaugh.

“I hope you enjoyed your evening,” he said.

“I did. And you?”

“Very much.” Aaron ran his hand through his hair and racked his brain for something witty to say. Nothing came to mind.

Daphne's delicate hand landed on his forearm. “Goodnight, Mr. Lentz.”

Instinctively, Aaron covered her hand with his then leaned near her ear, her soft blonde hair brushing against his lips. “Goodnight, Miss Cavanaugh. I'll see you on the morrow.”

Chapter Three

December 20, 1816

After a full (sleepless) night to think about it, Aaron still couldn't say why, but there was something about this slip of a young lady that called to him like a beacon to a lost ship in the dead of night.

Ever since Miss Cavanaugh descended her carriage, he was drawn to her. He ran his hands through his hair, then scrubbed his fingers over his face.
No.
Love was a dangerous game. A game he'd once gambled at and had lost
everything
. He'd vowed never to do that again and yet, here he was following this young lady around as if she contained the very air he needed to breathe. This needed to stop. Now.

Well, not now, but today.

Yes, today,
he committed to himself as he made his way down the hall to the library. Before breakfast he'd received a missive, presumably from the duke, instructing Aaron to meet him in the library at ten o'clock. The old codger had added a subscript to the bottom of the missive that ten o'clock meant ten o'clock, not two ticks past ten and not two ticks before ten. Aaron shook his head. Gads, the man was precise. All the more reason to leave today. An image of the lovely Daphne formed in his mind, complete with porcelain cheeks with a small flag of red in the center of each. He smiled—then grimaced. He did not need to be thinking of her. He straightened his blue coat and steeled his resolve. Likely the duke wanted to talk to him about his plans for who he'd be arranging to marry whom. Aaron would agree to perform the ceremony. That was fine. Aaron would do that. He'd show up when he was needed to perform the ceremonies and the rest of the time he'd be at home where his heart would be safe.

Aaron checked his pocket watch and hastened his step. He'd hate to be late for his meeting with Danby. Just outside the open door, he came to an abrupt halt.

Inside the library was a card table with three people seated around it: Lord and Lady Worthe and the beautiful Miss Daphne. Aaron couldn't be certain, but the way she looked sitting in front of the window with the sun illuminating her made her the most majestic being he'd ever seen. He drew in a deep, calming breath, then said, “Am I late?”

***

A whirlwind of emotions swirled within Daphne at the sound of
his
voice. She'd dreamt of him the whole night and if it were possible in the light of day he was even more handsome than he'd been in her dreams.

“No. You're right on time, Mr. Lentz.” Jane waved him over. “Come on in.”

Mr. Lentz strolled into the room and made his way to the card table they'd set up. “Don't you need a fourth player for whist?”

“Last time I played we did,” Gareth said, clapping Mr. Lentz on the shoulder. “Which means you're right on time.”

“But the duke wanted to play a game of whist with us,” Daphne blurted. It was true. The duke had sent Gareth a note this morning asking for them to meet him in the library for a game of whist.

“I doubt he'll show,” Mr. Lentz drawled.

“And if he does, I'll give him my seat,” Gareth said easily, passing all the cards to Daphne.

Jane and Daphne exchanged a look and Mr. Lentz lowered himself into the empty chair across from Daphne.

“I'd be delighted to join your game.” Mr. Lentz scooted his chair to the table. “I'd hate to leave a damsel in distress.”

“I'm not in distress,” Daphne said quickly, her voice terribly uneven even to her own ears.

Mr. Lentz flickered a glance down to where Daphne was still trying to get all the haphazard cards organized in her small hands so she could shuffle them. She'd never been good at shuffling cards, but that didn't make her a damsel in distress, did it? She picked up the cards and half of them fell from the middle. Apparently, it did.

Forcing a smile that wobbled more than a carriage on a deeply rutted road, Daphne extended the cards to Mr. Lentz.

Slowly, almost thoughtfully, Mr. Lentz took the cards from her hands and shuffled them, then handed them back to her for her to deal.

Just as Daphne had dealt everyone their final card, a faint scratch from the door drew their attention. Dawson, the butler, emerged, holding a silver slaver. He wordlessly walked across the room. “Lord Worthe.”

Gareth retrieved the parchment in the middle of the slaver and read it to himself. “Thank you, Dawson,” he said, tucking the missive into his breast pocket. “Mr. Lentz, can I trust you?” His tone and expression gave nothing away.

Daphne's eyes darted back and forth from Gareth to Mr. Lentz. What was going on?

Mr. Lentz nodded. “I am a vicar after all.”

Gareth half-scoffed, half-laughed. “You've been a male longer than you've been a vicar.”

“Indeed,” Mr. Lentz agreed.

Gareth cleared his throat. “As it would happen, Jane and I need to take our leave. Mr. Lentz, Daphne.”

“Oh,” Daphne started, “then I—”

“Need to show Mr. Lentz one of your card tricks,” Gareth cut in.

“But Jane's my chaperone,” Daphne pointed out, blushing.

Jane's curious and perhaps slightly hesitant eyes darted back and forth between Daphne and Mr. Lentz. “I think as long as the door stays open…”

“Then perhaps we should shut it on our way out,” Gareth muttered quietly.

“Gareth,” Jane chastised. “If the two of you would like to stay and play cards, I'm sure it'll be all right. We're visiting family in the country and all.” She bit her lip. “Perhaps, I'll send Thea in.”

Then with that, Gareth gripped the back of Jane's chair and they were gone.

“He's shameless,” Daphne murmured as soon as Gareth and Jane were out of earshot. She highly doubted that Thea would be making an appearance, either. But there was no reason to voice that assumption.

“Which do you find more shameless, the duke or the earl?” Mr. Lentz wondered, mindlessly shuffling the cards.

“It's hard to say. They're both deplorable.”  She held her hand out for the deck.

He handed the cards to her, his ungloved fingers lightly brushing across the bare skin of her wrist just at the top of her glove, but beneath her lacy cuff. That feather light touch burned her skin as if it had been a branding iron that had touched her. Swallowing, she held the deck in one hand and reached for all of the other cards on the table. She stacked them on top of the deck. They'd all be shuffled and dealt and kept face down so they were just as good as still all shuffled.

“Have you ever heard of the four valiant kings?” she asked as she quickly looked through the deck of cards and pulled out the four kings and the black jack of spades. She'd always thought he looked devious.

“I presume you're not talking about Henry the Eighth, James the First, Louis the Fourteenth, and our current monarch, King George the Fourth?”

“We can call them that, if you'd like.” Holding the slim stack of cards she'd separated out from the deck, she set the remaining deck of cards face down on the table and carefully straightened it. Satisfied, she fanned out the cards she'd kept in her hands, revealing one jack and four kings. She turned the cards around so Mr. Lentz could see them, too. “Long, long ago, kings and knights were considered the bravest and most powerful in any land. Far and wide their names were known and wherever they traveled the people cheered and chanted their names! But for one knight named Simkin the Dashing —” she collapsed her small stack of fanned out cards and slammed them on top of the big deck— “it wasn't enough.

“See Simkin the Dashing, quite strong and dashing though he be, wanted more.”

“More?”

“More!” Daphne confirmed. “More money. More love from the people.” She placed her fingers on the top card. “More swooning young ladies.” At his chuckle, she grinned. “So when all the kings across the continent came together for a great feast, Simkin the Dashing ran off to rally with the other knights, or jacks in our case, to steal the kings' queens and overtake their kingdoms!” she exclaimed as she took the top card and shoved it somewhere in the middle of the deck.

“Mighty ambitious knight,” Mr. Lentz murmured.

“Yes, but do not forget he
was
dashing,” she reminded him, wagging her finger at him playfully.

Inclining his chin a good three inches past what could possibly be comfortable, Aaron gripped the top of his coat just under the lapels and gave it a quick tug. “Not as dashing as I am, I'd wager.”

“Oh no, he couldn't have been,” she agreed with a giggle. “Are you on the hunt for more swooning young ladies?”

“No,” he said slowly. “Just one.”

Daphne's blood rushed through her veins and thundered in her ears. Was she the
one
he was speaking of? Excitement overtook her and she took a deep breath. No, surely not, they'd only just met. “Am I a dalliance, then?”

Mr. Lentz choked and his expression sobered. “No.” His voice sounded just as rough as hers had. “Perhaps we'd better get back to Simkin the Dashing and his plans of debauchery…” He trailed off and it sounded oddly as he said something about discussing Simkin's depraved ambitions was safer than discussing his own genuine ones.

Daphne bit her lip and the blood thundered in her ears anew. Except this time it didn't send a thrill of excitement through her body as it had earlier. Instead, it was a wave of mortification at having just ruined any favorable thoughts he might have had toward her. She nearly snorted.
Why did that even matter?
She wasn't going to marry him. Especially now that she'd all but accused him of being a debaucher of innocents. “Don't you have somewhere else you need to be?” She did: anywhere but there.

Mr. Lentz folded his arms across his chest and shook his head. “No. Not until I find out what happens to Simkin the Dashing.”

“He didn't survive,” she said flatly. “The kings found him and ordered him a punishment worthy of any such immoral and devious man: drawn and quartered.”

Aaron winced. “Bloodthirsty wench.”

“Didn't you know all of my sex are bloodthirsty,” she teased, reaching for the deck.

Aaron's hand covered hers. “I don't believe they all are.” He gave her hand a slight squeeze. “Now that I know how the tale ends, I'm curious to know how Simkin is caught.”

Daphne sighed. “I don't think—”

“Sometimes that happens to me, too,” he cut in with a quick grin. “I shouldn't have said what I said so soon. So let's call this even, shall we?”

“So soon?”

The corners of his eyes crinkled and he sent his left shoulder up in a lopsided shrug. “Your trick, Miss Daphne.”

“Right, my trick—” she licked her lips— “your hand.”

Mr. Lentz removed his hand from hers, but not before running the tips of his fingers over her knuckles.

Daphne cleared her throat. “When word of Simkin's betrayal reached the kings—”

“Who were feasting on turtle soup.”

“And enjoying it far more than we,” Daphne added. “They were furious and four of them who had somehow learned the secret of reincarnation, or perhaps knew how to travel through time, decided to go after Simkin and capture him.”

Daphne picked up the top card. “King Louis the Fourteenth, decided to search the lowlands.” She shoved it in toward the bottom of the deck, then picked up the next card on top. “King James, decided to ride to the middle of the continent.” She pushed that card in the middle of the deck and picked up another from the top. “King George the Fourth grumbled about it since he
is
the reigning monarch, after all, but eventually agreed to ride fifty miles from his palace.” She pushed that card back into the deck near the top. “And King Henry the Eighth. Well, he was too ill to actually ride, so he stayed at the palace to wait for their return.

“With three such strong and skilled kings on his trail, Simkin was soon captured and brought to the palace where King Henry the eighth was waiting! King Henry ordered the alarms to be sounded and messengers be sent out to find the other kings.” Vaguely aware her voice was getting louder and she was adding more emphasis than was really necessary, she continued on. “One by one the other three kings returned until they were outside the closed doors to the gate that surrounded the palace where they were made to knock on the door...” Using her knuckle, she gave three gentle taps top of the deck, then one by one, overturned the top five cards to reveal the four kings and the scoundrel jack Simkin the Dashing.

Aaron clapped his hands together twice. “Impressive.”

Daphne wasn't sure if he really was impressed or just saying that. Nor could she bring herself to ask him. “Do you know any tricks?”

“None that are nice.”

“The one where you send them all to the floor?” At his nod, she scrunched up her nose. “My father taught me that trick.”

“But not to shuffle?”

She took a slim stack of cards from the front of the deck and moved them to the back. She used her forefinger and her middle finger to grab up about an inch worth of cards from the middle and systematically dropped a few in the front of the deck and a few in the back. “Perhaps he thought it would make my husband happy that I couldn't gamble away his money like my mother did.”