A Mistletoe Masquerade. Louise Allen

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СКАЧАТЬ as meek—quite a milksop. Not like some I could mention.’ There was suppressed amusement lurking in those hazel eyes, which was odd. He wondered what—or who—she was thinking of. ‘Of course,’ Daisy added thoughtfully, ‘there is her stepmother to contend with.’

      ‘Indeed?’ Lucas lifted one leg of the breeches and frowned at the knee laces, hoping he looked as though he knew what he was doing. ‘Could I trouble you to pass that small brush at the end, Miss Daisy?’ Partly it was a tactic to keep her there talking, and partly because he enjoyed the sight of her moving about with a grace that must have been instilled along with her lessons with the young ladies. A family by-blow, perhaps? he speculated. ‘Is her stepmother difficult?’

      ‘Terrible. Ghastly, vulgar creature,’ Daisy confided with some relish. ‘Unfortunately Miss Maylin is devoted to her. It is the greatest good fortune, in my opinion, that she did not accompany us here—although poor Miss Maylin is almost prostrated with nerves without her support. She is hopeless in Society. I said to her, Your husband is not going to like it if you insist on your stepmama living with you when you are wed. That upset her, believe me.’

      ‘Husband? She is betrothed, then?’

      ‘Oh, no. But it won’t be long if Lady M has anything to do with it. Of course she’s hoping for a rich man—they need it, that’s for certain.’

      ‘Really?’ Lucas kept his eyes on his task, feigning only casual interest.

      ‘Well, yes, what with the family tendency to—’ She broke off. ‘Listen to me gossiping! That will never do. What must you think of me, Mr Lucas?’

      Schooling his features to hide his impatience with her sudden attack of discretion, Lucas put the brush down and turned with deliberation to face Daisy. She was looking somewhat chastened, an expression that did not seem to fit her confident heart-shaped face.

      ‘Think of you? Why, that you are as charming as you look, Miss Daisy.’ He leant forward. Her eyes widened but she stood her ground. ‘And that you have the most kissable mouth I have yet seen in this house.’

      ‘Oh!’ She planted one hand firmly in the middle of his chest and pushed. ‘Out of my way, Mr Lucas—you are an arrant flirt and I am well served for lingering to gossip.’

      Amused, and too skilled to try and detain her and risk frightening her away from future conversation, Lucas stepped back. ‘Miss Daisy. I look forward to seeing you this evening in the Steward’s Room.’

      ‘The—? Of course—dinner.’ She swept past him, delightful nose in the air. ‘But at opposite ends of the table, Mr Lucas, I am glad to say.’

      Rowan shut the door behind her and leant against it for a moment to catch her breath. For a moment she had thought he was about to steal a kiss. What her father would say if he knew his only child was not only masquerading as an upper servant but was being amorously pursued by a valet, she shuddered to think. In fact she was shuddering now—or rather shivering. And it was chastening to realise that it was from excitement, not revulsion or maidenly horror.

      Getting a grip on herself, she set off for the stairs and found them after only three false turns. At least running up their twisting steepness was an excuse for pink cheeks. One heard about reckless young women who threw their virtue away on handsome footmen. They always appeared to end up pregnant and in disgrace, but perhaps those were only the ones she had heard about, and the stately homes of England were rife with liaisons between upstairs and downstairs.

      Well, she was not going to throw her hat over the windmill for anyone less than the man she was going to marry, so tall, dark, blue-eyed rakish valets were not going to tempt her in the slightest. Then what, pray, her inconvenient inner voice enquired tartly, are you doing, getting all of a do-dad over one wink and an almost-kiss?

      Maidenly modesty, she assured her inner voice sanctimoniously, and was giggling as she let herself into Penny’s bedchamber.

      ‘You’ve been ages,’ Penny remarked. She was sitting up in bed and looked considerably better. ‘Have you been exploring?’

      ‘I’ve been getting a backache trying to remove the mud from this.’ Rowan hung the pelisse in the clothes press. ‘And flirting with Lord Danescroft’s valet.’

      ‘What?’ Penny hopped out of bed, gaping. ‘Truly? The one who winked at you?’

      ‘Well, not the one who was his wife’s lover, that’s for sure. I don’t know what it is about that man—he appears to employ valets of a decidedly amorous disposition. This one—call me Mr Lucas, if you please—crept up behind me in the brushing room and then almost kissed me, after telling me I looked delightful.’

      She perched on the end of the bed and Penny sank down beside her, wide eyed. ‘But I got in some telling remarks. I told him that you were devoted to your stepmother, even though she was quite frightful, and pined because she was not here and would probably expect your future husband to allow her to live with you.’

      ‘Brilliant,’ Penny said admiringly. ‘That should put him off.’

      ‘And then I implied that you were on the catch for a rich husband because the family was much in need of funds, hinted at some scandalous reason why that was so and had a sudden attack of discretion. I stopped at the most intriguing point, trust me. He must think you a family of hardened gamesters at the very least.’

      ‘Wonderful. Much more of that and I will not need to worry about convincing Papa of Lord Danescroft’s unsuitability—he will not consider proposing to me for a minute.’

      ‘I know.’ Rowan permitted herself a moment’s smugness, then caught sight of the clock. ‘Goodness! Look at the time—and we both have to change.’

      ‘Apparently she is devoted to her stepmother.’ Lucas stood back and eyed Will critically, clothes brush in hand. ‘What the devil have you done to that neckcloth?’

      ‘It’s a Waterfall.’

      ‘It’s a mess. Here, let me. Sit down again.’ A minute passed, the silence broken only by the Earl protesting faintly that he was being strangled and Lucas’s crushing remarks on the quality of the starch in the muslin. ‘There.’

      ‘Hmm. I’m not convinced, but I refuse to go through that again. Really? Devoted, you say?’

      ‘By the sound of it she is as much a trial at home as she is in Society. Apparently Miss Penelope will want her to live with her once she is married.’

      ‘Over my dead body. You’ve been very busy.’

      ‘A pleasure, I assure you. Miss Maylin has a most superior Abigail, with a straight little nose, big hazel eyes and a crushing way with flirtation. I am, let me tell you, a libertine.’

      The warmth that he had discerned in Will’s eyes vanished. ‘It is no doubt the general assumption that I employ such men.’

      There was not a great deal to be said to that. Lucas lifted a waistcoat and held it out for Will to shrug into. ‘She also let slip that her mistress is on the hunt for a wealthy match.’

      ‘We knew that.’ Will stuck a cravat pin into the folds of his neckcloth and pushed his watch into the fob pocket.

      ‘But not why the family is in such straits—unless СКАЧАТЬ