13


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Supper was an endless affair. Seated at the head of the long mahogany table, Aunt Gabby sat smiling and laughing with her guests. Still a lovely woman in the glow of the candles burning in the silver candelabra, Gabriella was in rare form tonight, charming the men as she always did, regaling them with tales of her travels as a young girl visiting Paris. By the end of the evening, she had even managed a few rare smiles from Caleb.

Major Sutton entertained them with stories of the war, though he was careful not to say anything inappropriate in the presence of ladies. Caleb was mostly quiet, his gaze finding hers time and again throughout the lengthy evening.

She was glad when the men retired for brandy and cigars and she was finally able to slip away. While Aunt Gabby went upstairs to refresh herself, Vermillion quietly made her way out to the garden. A warm wind ruffled the leaves and an owl hooted somewhere in the distance. The sky was nearly black and bright stars glittered overhead. It was an evening much like the last night she had spent with Caleb.

Thinking about that night seemed to conjure him out of the shadows. How he managed to appear so soundlessly she wasn't really sure. He had always moved with a sort of quiet grace and he did so now, stepping out of the darkness just a few feet away from where she sat.

"I saw you come out here," he said. "I've been hoping to get you alone since I arrived. We need to talk, Lee."

She came up off the wrought-iron bench, anger warring with hurt, disappointment, and feelings of betrayal. "My name is Vermillion and there is nothing to talk about. I don't even know you. Therefore there is nothing to say." She meant to walk past him, but Caleb caught her arm.

"My name is Caleb Tanner. I'm twenty-eight years old. My father is the Earl of Selhurst. My mother, God rest her soul, died when I was born. I have three brothers, Lucas, Christian, and Ethan. I joined the army eight years ago. I've served in the Netherlands, India, and also in Spain. Currently, I'm on special assignment to General Wellesley. Now you know who I am. As I said, we need to talk."

Instead of a reply, she ignored him and simply started walking.

"Running away isn't going to change what happened."

She stopped and turned to face him. "I am not running away. I am leaving, as I find present company fatiguing in the extreme. Now if you will excuse me…"

Apparently he wouldn't, since he stepped into the path in front of her, blocking her escape. "I would have told you the truth if I could have. I was under orders from my superior, Colonel Cox, making that impossible."

"What about the other, Caleb? Was making love to me part of your assignment, too?"

Caleb stiffened a little and she noticed the way the gold buttons glittered on his scarlet coat. "I apologize for what happened between us. I wanted you. It's as simple as that. Perhaps it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't been pretending to be something you were not."

Her chin went up. "Need I remind you—I wasn't the only one pretending?"

"As I said, it was necessary at the time."

She tilted her head back and looked him straight in the face. "Why did you come back here?"

Caleb's eyes remained locked with hers, but there was something in them. She wished she knew what it was.

"Because I wanted to explain. I was hoping I could make you understand." In the light of the torches he looked impossibly handsome and her heart continued its ridiculously uncomfortable patter.

"Fine. So now you've explained and I understand and you can leave." She tried to brush past him, but he caught her arm and turned her once more to face him.

"And I wanted you to know that if there were… consequences… to what happened between us, I would not shirk my duties."

Her lips tightened. She jerked free of his hold and settled a hand on her hip. "And just what, exactly, does that mean?"

"It means I would accept my responsibilities. I would provide for you and the child."

She laughed. It rang with bitterness through the garden. "I have plenty of money, Caleb. I don't need any of yours. If there is a babe, I am perfectly capable of caring for it myself."

"The child would be mine as well, Lee. I would want him to know his father."

It was a worry she had considered in regard to choosing a protector. An image of Caleb in that role popped into her head, but she ruthlessly forced it away.

"Then I shall be happy to keep you informed. However, I don't believe you need worry on that account." She flushed, unwilling to discuss her monthly curses with a man who was still a virtual stranger. "In the meantime, I suppose this is farewell. Good night, Captain Tanner. Have a pleasant journey back to London or Spain or wherever it is you are going."

She pushed against his chest, trying to shove him out of her way, but she might as well have been trying to move a block of stone.

"Eventually, I'll be returning to Spain. Not yet. And as for my immediate departure from Parklands, your aunt has been kind enough to invite Major Sutton and me to the weeklong house party she is giving. I believe the festivities begin on the morrow and end with the celebration of your nineteenth birthday."

For the first time, her aplomb deserted her and a knot of dread tightened in the pit of her stomach. "Surely you… you don't intend to be here for that."

His eyes went dark and his smile turned feral. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Lee stood frozen as Caleb caught her hand and brought it mockingly to his lips. He pressed a soft kiss against her fingers and a little tendril of heat curled in the bottom of her stomach.

"So you see, sweeting, for now it is adieu and not farewell."

Lee said nothing. She was thinking about the heat of his mouth against her hand and trying not to remember the way it had felt when he had kissed her.

"It's getting late," he said. "Unless you wish me to do exactly what you are thinking, I believe it's time I escorted you back inside."

She flushed as he offered her his arm, as if he had done it a thousand times—as if it were his right. Anger dissolved her embarrassment and stiffened her spine.

"Go to bloody hell, Captain Tanner."

This time she shoved hard enough to catch him off balance and he took a step backward, barely able to stop himself from toppling into the shrubbery. Blue silk rustled against the legs of his navy blue breeches as she brushed past him. She wasn't ready to forgive him, not yet. If she did, she might wind up back in his bed and she wasn't about to let that happen. Not with her birthday only a week away.

Slippers crunching on the gravel path, she cast a last glance over her shoulder. She thought she caught a glint of amusement and what might have been determination in Caleb's dark eyes before he turned and walked away.


"So how did it go?" Major Sutton rode beside him on the trip back to London. It was late, well past midnight. Ever the gracious hostess, Gabriella Durant had invited them to spend the night, but the journey wasn't overly long and they needed to pack the appropriate clothing for their return. Caleb felt a shot of satisfaction that he had managed an invitation—or at least Sutton had. A big four-poster bed in a guest room upstairs would be far more comfortable than the bunk he had slept on in the stables.

He flicked a glance at the major, who had so expertly won the Durant woman's confidence. "I thought the day went extremely well, considering…"

One of Sutton's black eyebrows went up. "Considering that you've obviously bedded the younger of the women. I don't imagine Vermillion was particularly happy to discover your deception."

Caleb's mouth barely curved. "You might say that." He didn't confirm or deny the major's assumption, but one of Sutton's talents was reading people and apparently he had seen enough looks passing between them to believe they had been intimately involved. "I think if she'd had a gun, she would have shot me."

"Yes, well, better to discover one's lover is not a groom but the son of an earl, than the other way round."

Caleb made no reply. He wasn't all that certain Lee would agree.

"At any rate, we've gained the access we need. What you do with the girl from now on is your business, but I would suggest if you can find your way back into her bed, you should do so. It would certainly better our chances of gaining information."

He smiled and Caleb caught a flash of white teeth in the darkness. "Besides, she is a fetching little baggage. My God, the girl has breasts like ripe melons. I thought on several occasions tonight they were going to spill out the top of that dress. I daresay I was hard beneath the table for the better part of the evening."

Caleb's gloved hand fisted on his horse's reins. He drew the animal to a halt in the middle of the lane. "I realize you're my superior, Major Sutton, but when it comes to Vermillion, I suggest you keep your thoughts to yourself There is a line, sir, and you have just crossed it."

Sutton eyed him in the darkness. "I see."

"I don't think you do. The girl is not the woman she appears. In truth, until I took her innocence, she was a virgin."

"That's impossible."

"I wouldn't have believed it either, but I can tell you with all certainty that it is exactly the truth."

"But why would she pretend—"

"She has her reasons. They have to do with being a Durant and the loyalty she feels to her aunt. Whether they are valid or not is another matter."

"Interesting…" Sutton nudged his horse forward and they started riding again along the lane. "On the other hand, thanks to you, Vermillion is now exactly what she has always seemed. All in all, I don't suppose it matters which man among us was the first."