Revenge In Regency Society. Gail Whitiker

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СКАЧАТЬ and quickly retraced her steps. She was almost at the far end of the path when Miss Banks stepped out, her cheeks flushed, her blue eyes wide with apprehension. ‘Lady Annabelle!’

      ‘Miss Banks. Enjoying a few minutes alone in the garden?’ she asked pointedly.

      ‘Yes! That is … no. That is … oh dear.’ The girl looked up and the expression on Anna’s face turned her cheeks an even brighter shade of red. ‘Please tell me Mama didn’t know where I was.’

      ‘She did not, but only because I suggested you were still inside the house,’ Anna said. ‘If she had caught you and your young man out here together, the consequences would have been dire!’

      The girl’s pretty face fell. ‘I know. And I promise I won’t do it again. It’s just that …’

      When she broke off blushing, Anna prayed the silly girl hadn’t done anything irredeemably stupid. ‘It’s just that what?’

      Mercy sighed. ‘He said it would be all right. He told me … he loved me.’

      Of course he had, Anna thought drily. Was a declaration of love not the most common justification for inappropriate behaviour on a young man’s part? ‘Then I take leave to tell you that he had a very poor way of showing it. Has he secured your father’s permission to speak to you?’

      Miss Banks looked even more miserable. ‘We have not even been formally introduced. We first saw one another in Hyde Park a week ago, then again at a masquerade two nights past.’

      ‘At which time he suggested a rendezvous for this evening,’ Anna surmised.

      The girl nodded.

      ‘Then you must not see him again until a formal introduction has been made. Whatever his feelings, asking you to meet him alone in a secluded garden demonstrates the worst kind of judgement,’ Anna said firmly. ‘He must seek a proper introduction and when the time comes to speak of his intentions, he must approach your father and ask permission to call upon you. Please believe me when I say that what he did tonight was not an indication of love, Miss Banks, no matter how much you would like to believe otherwise.’

      The young girl bit her lip. ‘No, I don’t suppose it was. But I did so want to see him again … even if only for a few minutes.’

      ‘A few minutes are more than enough to ruin a lifetime,’ Anna said more gently. ‘You must guard your reputation as fiercely as you would your most precious possession, because right now, it is your most precious possession. Once lost it can never be regained and no one will suffer more for its absence than you. So, no matter what any gentleman says to you, or how sweetly he says it, do not let yourself be tempted into such an indiscretion again.’

      ‘Yes, Lady Annabelle.’

      Anna could see from the expression on Mercy’s face that she had learned her lesson and that the episode would not be repeated. Nor did Anna expect that it would. It wasn’t that Mercy was bad. She was simply young and impetuous, as were so many girls her age.

      As Anna herself had once been.

      ‘And now, we shall return to the house and you will find your mother and endeavour to set her mind at rest,’ she said, leading Mercy back along the gravel path. ‘As for your young man, you are not to look for him again, and, if he seeks you out, you are to tell him you will not speak to him until the two of you have been properly introduced … which I shall endeavour to do later this evening.’

      Miss Banks gasped. ‘You would do that for me?’

      ‘I would, but only if you give me your promise that you will never see …’ Anna paused. ‘What is the officer’s name?’

      ‘Lieutenant Giles Blokker.’

      ‘Fine. That you will not see Lieutenant Blokker again without suitable chaperonage. I may not be around to save you the next time.’

      ‘You have my promise, Lady Annabelle. And thank you! Thank you so very much!’

      Upon returning to the ballroom, Miss Banks did exactly as she had been told. When Lieutenant Blokker tried to approach her, she treated him to a look that would have done her crusty old grandmother proud and then went in search of her mother. The young man looked understandably crushed, but Anna hoped it had taught him a lesson. If he truly cared for Miss Banks, he would do whatever was necessary in order to further the connection in the manner of which society approved. If not, he wasn’t worth having in the first place.

      ‘Do you attempt to save them all from themselves?’ asked an amused masculine voice close to her ear. ‘Or only the ones who don’t know any better?’

      Anna turned her head and found herself looking into the face of a stranger. A very handsome stranger, but a stranger none the less. ‘Were you speaking to me, sir?’

      ‘I was. And pray forgive my boldness, but I happened to be in the garden when you came upon the young lady, and such was my timing that I was privy to most of your conversation with her just now. She is indeed fortunate to have you as her champion.’

      His voice was velvet over steel. Resonant, powerful, the kind of voice that held audiences spellbound and sent impressionable young women swooning. Anna could imagine him reciting Shakespeare on the stage at Drury Lane, or reading love sonnets by Bryon or Wordsworth, those low, sensual tones sparking desire in any young woman’s breast.

      But was their meeting now entirely coincidental? While she thought him too old for Miss Banks and too casual in his addresses to her, the fact he had been in the garden at the same time as they had, and that he just happened to be standing next to her now, left her wondering.

      ‘I only attempt to save the ones I deem worthy of saving,’

      she replied carefully. ‘The rest I leave to their own devices.’

      ‘Just as well,’ the gentleman said. ‘Most people sin for the fun of it and wouldn’t welcome your intervention, no matter how well intentioned. Unlike Miss Banks, whose romantic heart would likely have got the better of her had you not stepped in to save the day.’

      Anna caught an undertone of amusement in his voice and, despite her natural inclination to be wary, found herself smiling back at him. He was certainly an attractive man. His face was long rather than square, his jaw angular, his cheekbones high and well formed. Intelligence gleamed in the depths of those clear grey eyes and his lips, curved upwards in a smile, were firm and disturbingly sensual. His clothes were expensive, his linen impeccable, and while his hair shone black in the light of a thousand candles, the tiny lines at the corners of his eyes put him closer to thirty than twenty.

      No, he definitely wasn’t after Miss Mercy Banks, Anna decided. He could have eaten the silly little chit for dinner and still gone away hungry. But neither was this a casual conversation, of that she was sure. ‘I am undecided as to whether I should be flattered by your comments or offended by them,’ she said. ‘I had no idea my actions were being so closely observed.’

      ‘A gentleman should never make his attentions too obvious, Lady Annabelle. I pride myself on my ability to observe without being observed—a quality necessary to those who involve themselves in the convoluted lives of others. Wouldn’t you agree?’

      Anna’s eyes widened. So, he knew who she was and what she was about. That alone should СКАЧАТЬ