“Does going to a soirée with someone automatically mean you’re involved with them?”

“With that pair of gentlemen?” Helena said. “Yes.”

Well, so she was, or would be, or couldn’t be, Daisy thought. She raised her head and went out the door. It was time to find out which of those fates hers would be.

But Geoff wasn’t downstairs waiting for her. Only Leland, looking cool and self-possessed, and incredibly attractive in his severe black and white evening clothes.

“The earl had some last-minute business to take care of,” Leland said. “He said he’d meet us there. So, ladies, I’m a very lucky man because I’m your sole escort tonight. Unless, of course, the idea appalls. Then I’ll simply go hang myself in some convenient dark corner.”

Helena laughed.

Daisy frowned. Did that mean Geoff had second thoughts? Maybe it meant he had to go somewhere to get that family heirloom so he could give it to her when she said yes. She frowned, wondering if that was what she would answer.

“Mrs. Tanner is obviously of two minds about it,” she heard Leland say.

“No,” she said, raising her head. “Thank you, we’re grateful to you.”

He bowed. “Thank you for that,” he said. “Now, ladies, let’s go dazzle them.”


Daisy hesitated only at the last minute. They stood in the doorway, looking into a crowded ballroom, waiting for the butler to announce them. She held her breath.

“Don’t worry,” Leland said at her ear. “If they seem stiff when they look at you, it’s only because they’re afraid-of me. I can rake up old coals they’d rather not be roasted with. And so I told them. Courage.”

Daisy nodded. When she heard her name announced, she stepped forward. She couldn’t go more than two steps. Because she was swarmed.

“That’s the only word I can use!” she told Leland an hour later, when he took her into the courtyard out back of the town house so she could breathe. “Swarmed. ‘Oh, Mrs. Tanner, do you remember me?’ ” she quoted, laughing. “And, ‘Dear Mrs. Tanner, how good to see you again!’ when I don’t remember ever seeing them in the first place. What did you threaten them with? What crime could they have committed that was so bad that they’d grovel-yes, grovel to get my attention? You’d have to beat me with chains to get me to do that, and I don’t think I would even then!”

She subsided to giggles and sank down to sit on the wide marble lip of an ornamental fishpond. “Oh, Lord! How could I have taken them seriously?” Her face grew grave. She looked up at him. “I know you threatened them. But I was a convicted criminal; surely they can’t forget that.”

Leland sat next to her. “They don’t forget it, but they excuse it. Anyone would. Your crime was being a good daughter. Your punishment far exceeded the crime. It was a travesty of justice.”

She shrugged. “Maybe. But people are hanged every day for less. I was lucky. I didn’t stay in Newgate long, and I lived to get to Botany Bay. The only unlucky thing was having to marry Tanner.”

“Geoff said he was a brute; Daffyd agreed,” Leland said softly, conversationally, not wanting to break her mood when she was in such a confiding frame of mind. “What else? I know it’s not my place to ask. But you could answer, if only because it might make you feel better, and I do want to know.”

“Why?” she asked, turning her head to look at him, all traces of her hilarity gone.

“Because I like you,” he said simply.

He sat so close to her, she could feel the warmth of his hard thigh at her side through her thin gown. They were far enough away from the other guests to be alone, and yet not so far as to provoke a scandal. They could be seen, but only in silhouette. It was a cool, azure night; the moon was full and the sky free of clouds. The sounds of the party were in the background; the burbling of the fountain that fed the fishpond was the loudest thing they heard. It was curiously intimate, while being public. They could speak freely and not be overheard.

“Do you like me?” she asked. “Maybe you do. All right, I’ll tell you. Why not? What did Tanner do? What he could, and that was a lot. He didn’t like me much. But he didn’t like anyone much. He did like having a woman and other men envying him for it. What else? I used to count up his virtues when I was feeling particularly blue, so I could get through another day.

“On the good side,” she said, holding up one gloved hand and counting off on her fingers. “He wasn’t a bad-looking man. I suppose it would have been worse if he looked disgusting. But he didn’t. He was a little heavyset, to be sure, but men can carry extra weight. He was ginger-haired and had blue eyes. He wasn’t a beau, but he wasn’t ugly. That’s a point in his favor, I suppose. He saved me from having to accommodate a lot of men; he told me that all the time. He did legally marry me, which I suppose he didn’t have to do. And he became rich.

“On the bad side,” she said, holding up her other hand. “He had a terrible temper, little learning, and no use for more. He had no talent for conversation, at least with women. He never read, though I think he could, and he didn’t like to bathe. He cheated at cards, and hit people who couldn’t hit back. When he drank he got meaner, and he drank a lot. He ate with his fingers, and spit wherever he chose. He couldn’t have children; he hinted as much once when he was drunk and had the sobbing staggers-you know, when you drink so much you think everything’s a misery? Lucky for me he forgot the next morning; he’d never forgive me knowing he couldn’t father a brat. Although that might be one on the good side, I never decided. And I’ve run out of fingers.”

She folded her hands in her lap and looked at them. “I hated him, pure and simple,” she said in a harsh whisper. “The best day in our marriage was the day they came to tell me he was dead, gone over his horse’s head and landed on his neck, breaking it. I cried. Because I was so glad. I lived in fear of him every minute of every hour of every year. I was his wife and his slave, and there was no way I could get even. So I celebrated when he died. Surely that’s a sin.”

Leland took one of her hands. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Only that?”

“What more can I say? I’m really sorry. You deserved better. You’ll have it in future, if you remember that Tanner was an exceptionally bad man, and most men aren’t remotely like him.”

“So you think I can’t be happy in future without a man?” she asked haughtily, snatching her hand from his.

“Don’t you think that? Isn’t that why you came back to England? Or would you prefer to live alone?”

“You still want to know if I’m trying to snare Geoff,” she said angrily, bounding to her feet.

He rose slowly and caught her hand. “Do you still know?” he asked.

She stared up at him.

“Geoff’s not your father, and he’s not Tanner. He’s a warmhearted, gentle man. Are you looking for that? If so, fine. But if you’re not sure… Daisy,” he said suddenly, “you should be sure. That’s all I can say.”

“But that’s not all you will say,” she said bitterly.

“Of course not,” he said with a tilted smile. “You know me well. But why should it matter to you?”

She hesitated.

“Daisy Tanner,” he said quietly, in a slow soft voice, his gaze locked on hers, “what I’d like to do now is take you in my arms and kiss you senseless. Not with violence, but with slow pleasure. I’d like to kiss you and hear you ask me to do it again. Not for my pride, but because I’d want to, again and again. I’d like to make love to you, with you knowing that you could stop it at any time you wished. I’d like to show you that you wouldn’t want to.

“Unfortunately,” he said in his normal dry, mocking tones, “we can be seen from the house, and if we were seen embracing it would be a scandal. Pray do not get a mote in your eye, or we’ll find ourselves affianced. I don’t want to force you to anything. But know this,” he said in a softer voice, “you wouldn’t run from me. That, I promise.”

“You’re very sure of yourself,” she said with a shaky laugh.

“No, of you,” he said. “You’ve bottled up too much for too long. You were meant for pleasure, and somehow, somewhere, you know it. Think of that when you think of your future, Daisy. That’s all I ask. For your sake, and for the earl’s.”

“And yours,” she said flatly.

“Of course,” he said.

Chapter Fourteen

Daisy didn’t sleep well. Or rather, she thought bitterly when she woke, she slept too well in imaginary arms. She wondered how something that could feel so good in her dreams could make her shiver with fright when she woke and remembered it.

Pest of a man! she thought as she dressed. To intrude in her dreams the way he did in her life. What was he, after all? Take away that seductive voice, and all you’d have would be a tall, thin man with too many airs. No, she admitted, you’d also have those compelling blue eyes, that warm mouth, and that crooked smile. And that sudden wit, and slow drawl that made you think he’d never say anything important, until you found yourself helplessly laughing at the funny side of the truth he’d just shown you.

He also seemed to know things she’d rather not know about herself. And worst of all, just when everything was going right for a change, he’d come along and put a kink in her plans.

“You’re not seeing the earl today?” Helena asked in surprise, when Daisy told her the plans for the day.

“No,” Daisy said.

She turned her head to see how the short plumes on the side of her new hat curled against her cheek. “Isn’t this dashing? Red feathers! I hope it doesn’t rain. The hat cost a fortune. I could have had three whole peacocks for that price, and yet these look like dyed chicken feathers to me. Oh well, whatever they are, they look darling, especially with this new gown, don’t they?”