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She’d managed to silence him. He stared at her in astonishment. “Tawdry?” he choked.
“Young girls are always attracted to rakes,” Annelise stated in practical tones she was far from feeling. “Which is why wiser heads rule attachments of this sort. If her father doesn’t realize how unsuitable you are I’ll make certain he’s informed of it. You’ll have to look elsewhere for your fortune.”
She didn’t like that gleam in his eyes. Beautiful eyes, tinged with green and gold, and sly like a cat’s. “I don’t know of any other heiresses who’ve chosen to arrive in London this season,” Montcalm said. “Unless you’re possessed of a tidy income, dragon—”
“I haven’t a penny.”
“Too bad. I could have enjoyed making you eat your words,” he murmured in a voice far too affectionate. He reached up and flicked the lace cap surrounding her face like a nun’s wimple. “And what the devil is this? You weren’t wearing it in the park this afternoon.”
“I wasn’t wearing anything at all in the park this afternoon.” The moment the words were out of her mouth she could have bit them back, but he did no more than raise an eyebrow. “That is, I ran out without a hat or cloak. I am a lady of a certain age and this lace cap denotes my position…”
He ripped it off her head and sent it sailing over the side of the terrace. She watched it drop to the ground with mixed feelings. It was made of very fine lace. It made her feel eighty years old, and she was not yet thirty. “Exactly what color is your hair, dragon?”
Enough was enough. “Gray,” she snapped, yanking her arm from his. He still didn’t release her. She took a deep, calming breath, picturing herself as a starched and disapproving governess. “Mr. Montcalm, you have no interest in what color my hair is or whether or not I have a fortune. I am certain you have an innate sense of who is worthy prey for your schemes, and I hardly qualify. I realize I frustrated your plans for the evening, and while I can’t apologize, you can surely see that this is getting us nowhere. Please let go of me and I’ll return to the party.”
There was an absolute stillness about his face that made her stomach tighten nervously. He was an astonishingly handsome man—there was no doubt of that whatsoever. With his high cheekbones, exotic green eyes and soft, beguiling lips, it was little wonder that he managed to enthrall an impressionable young thing like Hetty Chipple. Indeed, if Annelise were ten years younger and just a little more foolish she might be distracted, at least momentarily, by the laugh lines around his eyes, by the way he looked at a woman, which doubtless had to be dispensed to all women in his vicinity because he could hardly be looking at her in any particular way, could he? He had nothing to gain.
“Ah, dragon,” he murmured. “You underestimate yourself. You do your best to convince the world that you’re a stiff old maid, when I doubt you’re much older than me.”
“I beg your pardon! I’m twenty-nine!” she said, goaded. Deliberately, she realized belatedly.
“Not such a great age after all. Then think of me as a wise elder, dispensing advice. Don’t enter into battles you can’t win. You’re outmanned and outgunned when it comes to Hetty Chipple. I will have her. I don’t care what lengths I have to go to in order to marry her, but I’ve never been one to be squeamish. I’m afraid I can be quite ruthless.”
She believed him and her own sense of certainty began to falter. She had never been a coward or a quitter, but this was starting to look like a fight she might lose. And indeed, what business was it of hers? Josiah Chipple wanted his child to marry well, but he wasn’t thinking in terms of her happiness, only social success. And while Christian was a rake, he was from a family as old as hers, and would be a viscount before long. All she had to do was persuade Josiah that it would do and she could cease to worry. Cease to have anything to do with this difficult man except to nod politely when he visited his fiancée. Whether she’d be called upon to help guide her through a lavish society wedding was something she didn’t care to consider. Someone else could come in and restrain Mr. Chipple’s more exuberant lack of taste.
“Do you love her?” she asked, feeling a small amount of hope.
“Good God, woman, of course not!” he said, clearly appalled. “I don’t believe in love. At the best there’s affection and a certain carnal compatibility, but that hardly equals love. Do I strike you as some sort of romantic poet? I’m much too hardheaded for that.”
“She needs to be loved,” Annelise said in a small voice.
He stared down at her. “Does she indeed?” he said after a moment. “Maybe she just needs to be kissed.”
She didn’t even have time to let the words register. He hadn’t released her arm, so it was a simple enough matter for him to sweep her unsuspecting body against his, pushing her farther into the shadows of the terrace, up against the cool stone wall, and kiss her.
Sheer astonishment kept her motionless, but then, he didn’t appear to expect much participation from her. He still kept his iron grip on her arm, but his other hand cupped her chin gently as he pressed his lips against hers, the cool kid gloves strangely enticing against her face. But nothing as strange as the unexpected softness of his lips, brushing against hers, kissing with slow delicacy that left her in a trance, unable to move. Her eyes fluttered closed as she floated.
“Lesson one,” he whispered against her lips. “Now time for lesson two.” And he tilted her chin down, so that her mouth opened beneath his, and he kissed her that way, a deep, intimate kiss that should only be shared by lovers. She could feel her entire body react in shameful, unexpected ways, and she reached up her hands to try to push him away, but she was uncharacteristically weak, and she closed her eyes, letting her head drop back and allowing him to kiss her in the shadows of the moonlit terrace.
He was the one who broke the kiss. He was the one who looked down at her, suddenly breathless, but with the moon behind him she couldn’t see his expression—she could only see the bright glitter of his eyes. “You’re an eager pupil, dragon,” he said softly.
“What’s lesson three?” she asked in a strangled voice.
“You’re not ready for that, love. I trust I’ll be around when you are. In the meantime, though, we may as well work on lesson two. You’re not as adept at kissing as Hetty might be, but with a little trial and error…”
This time when she shoved him he fell back, releasing his hold on her arm, moving out of her way so that her escape was clear. She didn’t hesitate, pushing past him, and she would have left without a word if his faint laugh hadn’t followed her.
She stopped at the French doors, whirling around to glare at him. “You ought to be gelded,” she said, as harsh and as coarse an insult as she could come up with in the heat of the moment.
His laugh grew. “Oh, no, my dear. You really wouldn’t like that at all.”
The heat and noise of the ballroom was an assault on her shaken body as she walked back inside, shutting the doors behind her. Shutting him away. She had no idea whether people were staring at her—Montcalm had whisked her away from the party so quickly she didn’t know whether anyone realized she’d disappeared with London’s most notorious rake. At that moment she didn’t particularly care.
She wanted to run, but at the last minute her back stiffened. She had survived many worse things than a stolen kiss on a terrace, and she would certainly survive this. First of all she must find Hetty amidst the dancers.
When she spotted her she breathed a sigh of relief. The young beauty had gone on to another unexceptional partner and was drinking in the admiration and flattery as any seventeen-year-old would.
For the moment she was safe. Annelise slipped from the ballroom to one of the retiring rooms, sinking down in front of a mirror to fiddle with her hair. The slight breeze on the terrace had loosened its strict knot, probably aided by Montcalm’s random destruction of her lace cap, and as she tried to smooth it back into submission Lavinia Worthington sank down beside her.
“You’re looking very well, Miss Kempton,” she said, eyeing her far too closely. “I’m pleased that you decided to rejoin society.”
Lavinia had always had an acid tongue, quite often used at Annelise’s expense, referring to her as the Giant, and Madame Timbertrees. Annelise tried to summon a cool smile but her mouth felt stiff, strange.
“And obviously you’re pleased, as well,” Lavinia continued without waiting for an answer. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d be the kind for clandestine flirtations, but perhaps I was wrong about you.”
“Clandestine flirtations?” Oh, God, had Lavinia seen her dancing off with her former lover? The very thought made her physically ill. “Why should you think that?”
“I have eyes in my head, Annelise. I may call you that, mayn’t I? You’ve just been thoroughly kissed—any fool could see it. The reddened, slightly swollen lips, the dazed expression in your eyes. Have I missed something? Are you engaged?”
Annelise surveyed her reflection with horrified fascination. Yes, she looked well kissed. And she’d been very well kissed indeed. Not that she had a great deal to compare it to—she’d never been kissed before. Not once. Starting with someone who was undoubtedly exceedingly skilled in the art of kissing was going to make her far too difficult to please in the future.
Start and stop, she reminded herself. He only kissed her to shock and fluster her, and he wasn’t about to repeat the mistake. “I’m not engaged, Lavinia. I’m past the age of marriage—I enjoy a life of peaceful pleasures and the occasional delights of society.”
“Then who kissed you?”
It was almost too tempting to tell her, Lavinia who was still pining for Montcalm five years after he ended their relationship. But temptation was something Annelise tended to resist, and she was going to have to stiffen her resolve still further, if Montcalm continued.
“No one at all,” she said. “You’re imagining things. I’m afraid I’m not the sort to attract admirers.”
“Not even your eligible host?”
For a moment Annelise had no idea what she was talking about. And then she realized with astonishment that Lavinia was concerned she’d been kissed by Chipple, not the rakehell. She wanted to laugh in relief, but her wisdom kept her silent.
“Mr. Chipple holds absolutely no interest for me,” she said, trying to ignore the deliciously well-kissed feeling that still lingered. “Feel free to pursue him yourself, Lavinia. It was a great pleasure to see you again.” And she made her exit before Lavinia could summon another word.
After all the unfortunate tricks fate had played on her during this first day in the Chipple household, it must have decided she deserved some relief. Mr. Chipple and the relatively cheerful-looking Hetty were in sight, obviously searching for her.
“There you are, Miss Kempton,” Josiah said in a voice loud enough to be heard in several rooms. “We’ve been looking for you. Time to go home, don’t you think? My little girl needs her beauty sleep.”
Hetty didn’t look any too pleased at the notion, but she’d clearly enjoyed herself dancing so she wasn’t as ill tempered as usual. “Where did you disappear to?” she demanded. “Last I saw, you were trying to get rid of Christian.”
“And I did. I pushed him over the balcony. He should trouble you no more.”
Hetty’s china blue eyes widened in gullible horror, but Josiah simply chuckled. “She’s teasing you, puss. You’re not going to throw yourself away on the first man who offers. Come now, Hetty, get your mind back onto important things. Were there any young gentlemen who caught your fancy?”
“Perhaps this conversation could wait until we’re in the carriage,” Annelise suggested softly, all too aware of the curious stares around them.
“This conversation can wait until the Thames freezes over,” Hetty snapped. “Come along.” She swept out the door, rather like she was the teacher and Annelise the recalcitrant pupil.
In fact, there were areas where Hetty was clearly far more experienced. Areas that Annelise had no interest in exploring any further.
And Miss Hetty Chipple was going to have to learn that kissing dangerous men could lead to nothing but trouble. Any self-respecting female would never let a man take that kind of advantage of her.
Unless that self-respecting female was addled enough to go out onto a darkened terrace with a man, engage in a battle of wits and then do nothing when she was thoroughly, lengthily kissed.
Oh my God, thought Annelise. Which one of us is the real fool?
By the time Christian Montcalm and his coterie of friends found themselves walking down the street past Lady Bellwhite’s house a light mist had fallen. Crosby was complaining, as usual, and one of the others was suggesting a scenario at the Rakehells’ Club that sounded only vaguely entertaining, when Christian halted. He was wearing a short dress sword, seemingly more for show than protection, and he unsheathed it and scooped a sodden piece of fabric from the street. He glanced up. The doors to the terrace were open now, and the music filtered down, and a faint smile curved his lips.
“What’s that disgusting thing?” Crosby demanded. “Since when do you pick filthy rags up from the sidewalk?”
“When they’re a souvenir, Crosby.” He didn’t care to explain himself, but Crosby was at the point in his nightly imbibing when he was most persistent and annoying. Christian concentrated instead on the scrap of lace in his hand. He’d thrown it farther than he thought—he would have expected it would end up stuck in the trees that surrounded the Bellwhites’ house.
But instead it had shown up at his very feet, and even in its sodden condition he’d known exactly what it was. It was a sign. Of what, he had no idea, but he expected the future to prove interesting.
Anything to alleviate the tedium of his life.
The lace was very fine, delicate, and he stretched it out in his hand for a moment. A net to catch a dragon, he thought. And he tucked it into the inner pocket of his coat, eliciting shrieks of protest from Crosby.
“You’ll ruin your clothes, demme!” he said.
“If we spend the rest of the evening doing as Godfrey suggests I expect they’ll be in far worse shape,” he murmured. “And if the coat is ruined I can always buy another.”
“Not on your credit.”
“Crosby, you are being astonishingly ill bred tonight. Behave yourself or go find other, less discerning people to annoy.”
Crosby’s face darkened with embarrassment or anger, Montcalm didn’t know. Or care. And then Crosby laughed. “It’s hers, isn’t it? You dog.”
He was startled enough to jerk his head around. “I beg your pardon, Crosby.”
“Miss Chipple. She must be quite besotted with you, to be so indiscreet.”
Montcalm smiled, unaccountably relieved. “What can I say? Miss Chipple was as obliging as always.”
“Wonder if she’ll be as obliging with the rest of us, once you’re married,” Godfrey said wistfully.
“Better to wonder how obliging I’m likely to be.” The silken threat in Christian’s voice was unmistakable.
“You’ve always shared in the past,” Godfrey said, aggrieved.
Christian closed his eyes for a moment, summoning up the image of impish Hetty Chipple, with her sweet, rosebud mouth and her insatiable appetite for chaste kisses. But it wasn’t Hetty who appeared in his mind—it was the still-nameless dragon, staring at him in shock after he’d kissed her. A shock he hadn’t been entirely immune to.
“Things change,” he said out loud. “It’s one thing to share a willing whore—”
“Or unwilling,” Crosby added with a snicker.
“—But another thing when it comes to my wife. Once she’s given me a couple of healthy sons she can do whatever she pleases, as long as she’s discreet and careful.”
“And if she’s not?” Godfrey demanded.
“Then I’ll simply have to make sure she understands the rules,” Christian replied gently, striding down the rain-damp streets of London, his coterie following behind him.
5
There was no reason for Annelise to be quite so exhausted. She’d only danced once, and despite the stimulating encounter on the terrace had arrived home not far past midnight. She retired immediately, making it clear that Hetty should do the same, and she was undressed and in bed within half an hour.
It was a very nice bed, already warmed, with a fire blazing in the fireplace. Mr. Chipple’s love of bright colors hadn’t penetrated this far, and the room was a soft, soothing shade of rose. She should have fallen asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.
Should have. Even a steady-tempered, practical woman of twenty-nine would be understandably rattled by her first kiss. More so because it wasn’t offered by an eager young man or an importunate suitor. She’d been kissed, quite thoroughly, by a man she despised, a man who called her “dragon” and mocked her and had wicked, nefarious plans for the innocent, though admittedly annoying, Miss Hetty Chipple.
Thank heavens those wicked plans had nothing to do with her, other than it being her duty to thwart them. As far as she knew she’d managed to keep her wits about her when he kissed her—she hadn’t kissed him back, or put her arms around him. She’d simply held still, like a virgin martyr at the stake, while the flames licked deliciously around her…
She rolled over in the bed, punching the pillow. It was shameful, yet, but in the end probably entirely normal. After all, it was human instinct to mate, and natural to enjoy kisses and caresses, wasn’t it? Not that he’d caressed her. Or touched her inappropriately. Except with his mouth. No man should have that lovely a mouth—it was unfair to susceptible women everywhere. Not that she susceptible, of course. And even if she were, she was far too practical to imagine that she was anything but an annoyance and hindrance to Christian Montcalm. Like a cat with a helpless little mouse, he enjoyed playing with her, batting at her, while he waited for more important prey.
She threw back the covers, far too hot on a chilly spring night. She should read something. Something boring and familiar to put her to sleep, and that had nothing to do with kisses. She could go for Caesar in the original Latin, but that might be a little too punitive. Maybe some nice treatise on land management.
Actually that might be more interesting than she might expect. As she watched her father’s last remaining property fall into rack and ruin she could only think of small things that could be done to salvage its value. The proper rotation of crops. Improvements to the surrounding tenant homes. Proper breeding of livestock for the maximum results when it—
No, she wasn’t going to think about breeding. Or about the ramshackle old house and estate that were gone forever, sold off to repay some of her father’s huge debts. It was gone, and her only hope was to eventually find a small cottage in the country where she could live out her days in peace. With spaniels and cats, since she wasn’t going to have children.
A chill swept over her, and she dived back under the covers. It was a cold, dismal night, she thought, huddling deeper into the warm blanket. She was thinking like a woman of fifty, not one who hadn’t even reached thirty. Not that she expected romance or marriage, or even had any interest in them. She’d learned to be self-sufficient. The only offers she’d be likely to attract would be widowers needing someone to keep rein on their children. She’d rather be a paid governess than be rewarded for her efforts by sharing a bed with some portly, ill-tempered man…
And why was she thinking of sharing a bed with any man at all? The Chipples were generous with their allotment of pillows, and she pulled one over her head, to shut out the light, shut out the thoughts that were plaguing her. Too much wine, she told herself, though she’d barely had a glass. Too much imagination—her besetting sin.
By tomorrow things would be in proper perspective. Montcalm’s evil machinations would be clear, she would warn Mr. Chipple just how unsuitable he was, and with any luck he would no longer be allowed anywhere near Hetty. Then Annelise could hold her head high and forget all about the Unfortunate Incident on Lady Bellwhite’s Terrace.
If only she could sleep.
When she awoke it was well past her usual time of rising, though the house seemed relatively still. The sun had risen, though the shutters were still closed against the light, and she slid out of bed to push them aside. It was a bright, sunny day, early enough that few people were out, and even the park looked empty. Most people waited until a more social hour—eleven or so, to make their grand promenade, to see and be seen. It hadn’t been far off that hour when Annelise had been forced to go chasing after Hetty, and she wondered absently where her charge’s rooms were. And whether they could be equipped with a lock.
She was already dressed when she heard the shriek, and while it sounded far from disastrous she bolted out of her room without her shoes on, wondering whether the nefarious rake had managed to sneak into the house. Or whether it was a more literal snake.
It was neither. It was easy enough to find Hetty’s room—it was at the far end of the hall, the door was open and, while the excited shrieks had calmed, Miss Hetty was still in an obvious state.
Annelise halted in the open doorway, giving her a moment to take in the full splendor of Hetty’s bower.
It looked as if a pink sugarplum had exploded, covering the room with dripping pink icing. The entire place was awash with pink lace and satin—from the bed coverings to the chairs to the discarded clothing that some maid had neglected to take care of. Hetty had probably banned her from the room.
The entire effect was that of a bordello for fairies. And then she caught the scent of roses, and realized what had excited Hetty’s attention: pink roses, masses of them, overblown and gaudy, perfuming the room like a flower shop.
Apparently Miss Hetty was so delighted with the offering that she was inclined to be welcoming. “Aren’t they gorgeous?” she demanded of Annelise. “He must have bought every pink rose in town!”
“There certainly are a lot of them,” she agreed, but Hetty was too pleased to notice the reservation in Annelise’s voice.
“Such a darling, extravagant man!” Hetty cooed, looking as if she wanted to embrace the wall of roses against her young bosom. She’d regret it if she did—that strain of roses had particularly nasty thorns, and while the flower seller would have done his best to remove most of them, it was an impossible task, making that type of rose more expensive than any other.
Annelise knew her roses—she missed the rose garden she’d tended so faithfully almost as much as she’d missed her father—and she wondered why Montcalm would have selected them. It could be no one but he—the rose was showy, just a wee bit gauche, and the sheer abundance of them was almost a mockery of a gesture. One that was totally lost on Hetty.
