Читать книгу An Earl In Want Of A Wife - Laura Martin, Laura Martin - Страница 12

Chapter Five

Lizzie slowly felt herself relaxing. She didn’t know what game Daniel was playing, but she’d decided she was having none of it. She was going to be courteous and polite, but she would not allow him to kiss her again. That would be madness.

Walking along, her hand in the crook of his arm, Lizzie felt almost content. He was attentive and seemed to want to listen to what she had to say. Lizzie could almost convince herself she was having a good time. Just as long as he didn’t look at her intensely with his piercing blue eyes and shift towards her, Lizzie knew she could keep up a mundane conversation. She tried not to think what would happen if he attempted to kiss her again. She liked to think she was a strong young woman who knew her own mind, but twice she’d been utterly seduced by his kiss and she wasn’t sure how she would resist if he turned to her again.

Luckily they were out in public, in full view of the world. He wouldn’t try anything whilst they were strolling through the park. Then Lizzie wondered if she could rely on that. For some reason he had decided to court her and she doubted it was because he found her wildly irresistible. Even if their meeting the night before hadn’t been engineered, Lizzie thought there was something driving Daniel today and her first guess was her dowry. Or at least Amelia’s dowry. She sighed. This was all getting to be a bit of a mess and she’d only been out in society for one day. She wished Amelia would return and sort it all out, but she hadn’t heard from her cousin since they’d disembarked the ship from India together, her cousin hopping into the first carriage she’d seen on the London dockside, and she doubted Amelia would make an appearance anytime soon. She would just have to deal with this debacle herself.

She felt a bit sorry for the earl. Not that he was the sort of man who invited pity, but he was thinking he was courting an heiress with a substantial dowry, where instead he was wasting his time on a penniless orphan. She wondered whether he would switch his affections to Amelia when she returned, and found herself feeling more than a little put out at the thought.

They stopped walking as they reached the Serpentine and Daniel led her over to a bench.

‘Sometimes I come here to think,’ Daniel said quietly.

Lizzie regarded their surroundings with surprise. There was no denying Hyde Park was beautiful with its myriad of waterways and copses of trees, but Daniel hadn’t exactly picked the most secluded spot for his contemplations. They were sitting on a bench right next to the Serpentine, in a place where all the children gathered to feed the ducks. In the early-afternoon sunshine the children were whooping and shouting in delight as they threw bread to the obliging creatures.

She glanced sideways and saw him looking wistfully at a group of small boys out with their nanny. One of the boys was only about three or four years old and tottered after his older siblings, trying to keep up with their games.

Lizzie wondered momentarily whether this was all part of his plan, to bring her to Hyde Park and let her see how much he liked children, but then she dismissed the idea. She could tell this wasn’t all engineered. This truly was where he came to sit and think about the world.

‘I guess it’s because I miss the countryside when I’m in London,’ Daniel said with a shrug.

‘Do you spend much time here?’

He shook his head. ‘I prefer the country to be honest, but I find myself in London more and more.’

Lizzie wondered what his country estate was like. She’d left England before her third birthday and hadn’t been back since. Her home was the dry heat and lush green valleys near Bombay, but she doubted the English countryside was anything like that.

‘But enough about me,’ Daniel said with a grin, ‘I want to know more about you.’

Lizzie shrugged and looked down at her hands. ‘I’m sure you know the basics.’

‘I don’t want to know the basics,’ Daniel said, leaning in closer, ‘I want to know something the rest of society doesn’t. Something that the masses will never know when they talk about you.’

His smile was infectious and Lizzie felt herself beginning to properly enjoy herself. She rather suspected the earl was known to be flirtatious in nature, but right now she didn’t care. She was sitting on a bench with a handsome man, enjoying herself.

Lizzie thought for a moment, wanting to select something suitably vague for the earl so there was no chance he would work out she wasn’t who she claimed to be.

‘When I was twelve I was bitten by a crocodile.’

Daniel burst out laughing. ‘You’re joking?’

Lizzie shook her head.

‘Well, you must be the only débutante that can make that claim. Truly unique. Now you have to tell me more, I’m intrigued.’

‘I was walking down by the river near our home. As usual, I had my head in a book and wasn’t really looking where I was going.’ Lizzie shuddered as she remembered the moment she’d realised she had stumbled into the path of a rather large crocodile. ‘For about thirty seconds it just looked at me with those terrifying little eyes and then it lunged.’

She had thought she was about to die.

‘Luckily it was just a warning shot, a quick nip and then the crocodile backed off. I had some pretty deep teeth marks, but I didn’t lose my foot as many do.’

‘Even without an entire leg you would still light up any ballroom. In fact...’ Daniel paused, raised his hand close to his eye and positioned it so it obscured one leg from his view ‘...being the first one-legged débutante would probably make you the most interesting person to have graced society for decades.’

‘Your turn,’ Lizzie said. She was really beginning to warm to Daniel. She knew she shouldn’t allow him to flirt with her quite so openly, but it was nice being the centre of someone’s attention.

‘An interesting fact about me,’ Daniel mused.

‘Something hardly anyone else knows.’

‘I’ve been shot.’

Lizzie’s eyes widened and she quickly glanced over his body, wondering where exactly he had been shot. She felt a little distracted by his broad shoulders and muscular arms, but quickly pulled herself together.

‘You have to tell me more,’ she said.

‘It was a duel. I was second for a good friend of mine. We were young and foolish at the time.’

‘And someone shot you?’ Lizzie asked, thoroughly intrigued.

‘It’s nowhere near as glamorous as it sounds.’ Daniel leaned in closer and dropped his voice. ‘In fact, it’s really rather painful.’

Daniel edged closer to her and Lizzie didn’t protest. Sitting here by the Serpentine with Daniel felt right somehow, as if this was what her entire life had been leading up to.

‘The man who was aiming at my friend had terrible eyesight, he might as well have closed his eyes and fired. The shot missed its intended target and clipped me instead.’

Daniel must have seen how Lizzie’s eyes were roving over his body, trying to figure out where he had been hit.

‘When we’re somewhere less public I’ll show you the scar.’

Lizzie’s eyes widened and for a moment she hoped it was somewhere on his chest or abdomen. She desperately wanted to peel back his crisp white shirt and run her fingers over the muscles beneath. At the thought of doing something so intimate she felt the blood rush to her cheeks and she coughed to try to cover her embarrassment.

‘Now it’s your turn again,’ Daniel said with a smile that Lizzie knew would set any woman’s heart racing.

Suddenly there was a shout and a commotion over by the Serpentine. Immediately Daniel was on his feet, rushing towards the water, with Lizzie following quickly behind.

The small boy they’d been watching only minutes before had tumbled into the murky waters and was now thrashing about. It was obvious he couldn’t swim and it was too deep for him to touch the bottom. His petrified nanny was trying to reach him from the bank, but his thrashing was just causing him to get further and further away.

Lizzie watched as Daniel shrugged off his jacket, kicked off his boots and jumped into the dirty water. He touched the bottom easily, the water coming up to his waist, and he quickly waded out to where the boy was thrashing. Firmly he grabbed him and lifted him clear of the water, saying something soothing that Lizzie couldn’t quite hear. She was reminded of their first meeting when she had almost been trampled by his horse and the way he’d soothed the petrified beast then.

Daniel’s words must have done the trick as the boy calmed down and allowed himself to be carried to the bank and back into his nanny’s arms.

Lizzie could only look on as Daniel pulled himself out of the water, clothes stuck to his muscular legs and torso. His shirt was almost see-through and it outlined the contours of his chest and abdomen in quite a scandalous way. Lizzie felt the heat rising in her body and forced herself to look away, worried that otherwise she would become mesmerised. He smiled at her and shrugged, as if this kind of thing happened every day, then turned his attention back to the boy. Quickly he checked he wasn’t injured and then left him to be hustled home by his nanny.

‘That was remarkable,’ Lizzie said as Daniel made his way back towards her.

‘I couldn’t just sit by and let him drown.’

Lizzie shook her head in agreement but knew that not many gentlemen would actually jump into the Serpentine to rescue a strange boy.

‘You must be frozen.’

Daniel shrugged again, but Lizzie could tell the wet clothes were making him uncomfortable already.

‘Perhaps we could begin to head back,’ he suggested.

Lizzie nodded, motioned to the maid who was sitting a couple of benches away, and they started to walk back through the park.

‘I won’t take your arm,’ Daniel said with a smile.

Lizzie found herself smiling back. There was something quite irresistible about the man walking next to her. He might have an agenda and he might be pursuing her for all the wrong reasons, but she couldn’t quite find it in herself to dislike him.

They walked in a companionable silence back through the park for a few minutes, gaining odd looks from other members of society who were out taking their afternoon strolls. Daniel nodded in greeting to many but didn’t stop to engage them in conversation. Lizzie supposed he must be feeling rather cold now. Even in the pleasant afternoon sunshine walking around dripping wet couldn’t be very good for your health.

‘I’m sorry we’ve had to cut our outing short,’ Daniel said, looking down at Lizzie with a smile.

Despite all her reservations Lizzie was sorry, too. She’d been enjoying herself. She’d almost been able to forget it wasn’t she that Daniel was really courting, but Amelia. She’d enjoyed his lively conversation and she’d enjoyed the small insights he’d given her into his life.

‘Maybe we could do this again sometime soon,’ he suggested.

Lizzie found herself nodding, even though she knew she shouldn’t encourage him. It would be so much easier if she never saw him again, if he disappeared from her life and she never had to reveal that she wasn’t Amelia Eastway, but her penniless cousin. Even though she knew this Lizzie found herself agreeing with him.

‘That would be lovely.’

She glanced up at his face and found him smiling at her, and just for a second she thought she saw a flicker of desire. She almost laughed. No matter what had happened in the Prestons’ garden she knew Daniel didn’t really desire her. She’d seen the quick way he’d dismissed her on their first meeting and she knew she wasn’t the sort of woman men fantasised about.

‘Please don’t feel you have to escort me home,’ Lizzie said as they neared the edge of the park. ‘You must get back to your house and get out of those wet things.’

Daniel considered a moment, as if weighing up his gentlemanly duty against his discomfort.

‘Only if you promise to let me call on you again tomorrow,’ he said with a devilish smile.

‘People will talk,’ Lizzie warned him.

‘People will always talk. By this evening there’ll be ten different versions of what happened down by the Serpentine, each more ludicrous than the last.’

Lizzie knew it was true. Already half of society would know that she had spent the afternoon with the Earl of Burwell. She cringed a little. This would make it all that much worse when she had to reveal her true identity to the world.

‘Either you agree to my calling on you tomorrow, or I’ll insist on walking you home now. You’ll be responsible if I catch a fever and spend weeks delirious and at death’s door.’ He said it with a grin on his face and Lizzie knew she wasn’t going to be able to resist.

‘I would very much welcome you calling on me tomorrow, my lord.’

‘I told you to call me Daniel.’

‘Daniel.’ Lizzie uttered his name quietly, nothing more than a whisper between her lips. It seemed too intimate, too informal, but she felt a wicked little chill down her spine as she said it.

‘And I shall call you Amelia,’ he murmured in her ear.

It was enough to force Lizzie back to reality. For a moment she’d allowed herself to live the fantasy, to believe that it was her Daniel wanted, but just the mention of Amelia’s name made all those dreams come crashing down.

She pulled away slightly but forced herself to smile, even though she feared it would look like a grimace on her face.

Daniel looked at her intently for a few seconds, then turned away, as if he sensed she needed a moment of privacy to compose herself.

‘Lord Burwell, whatever has happened to you?’

Lizzie turned to see an attractive young woman gliding towards them. The newcomer looked Lizzie up and down and then turned her full attention to Daniel.

‘Mrs Winter,’ Daniel said. ‘I took a little dip in the Serpentine.’

Lizzie recognised the woman and realised she must have been at the Prestons’ ball the night before.

‘You must look after yourself, Lord Burwell, you would be sorely missed if anything were to happen to you.’

Lizzie didn’t miss the suggestion that Mrs Winter would be the one missing him.

‘Please excuse us, Mrs Winter, Lord Burwell needs to get out of these wet clothes,’ Lizzie said. Immediately she knew she had made a mistake. The older woman turned to her and gave her an icy glare, before catching herself and replacing the expression with a sweet smile.

‘Of course. Take care, my lord. And if you catch a cold and need someone to nurse you back to health, don’t hesitate to ask.’

Daniel said farewell and they continued on, Lizzie feeling rather inferior to the attractive Mrs Winter. They were just nearing the entrance of the park when Lizzie noticed Daniel freeze beside her. One moment he was walking along, seeming like the carefree peer of the realm he’d been all morning, the next he was just frozen. She stopped beside him and waited for him to move. Five seconds passed, then ten. She followed his gaze, trying to figure out what was going on.

His eyes were fixed on a young woman and a small boy about thirty feet away. The woman was pulling the boy along behind her impatiently and the boy was dragging his feet.

‘Daniel?’ Lizzie asked, wondering what exactly about the scene had caused him to turn so white.

He didn’t answer, didn’t even acknowledge that she’d spoken. To Lizzie it seemed as though he was so lost in his own world that he hadn’t even heard her.

The woman and boy were drawing closer and Lizzie wondered whether there would be some sort of confrontation.

Lizzie knew the exact moment the woman noticed them. Daniel stiffened beside her, his eyes met this woman’s and his expression deepened into a frown. The woman stopped in her tracks and looked at them for a few seconds, before smiling sweetly and continuing on her way. Daniel followed them with his eyes for a long minute until they disappeared out of view.

No one had uttered a single word during the confrontation, but Lizzie felt as though she’d just witnessed something monumental.

‘Daniel?’ she repeated.

This time she got a response. Daniel took her elbow in his hand and guided her quickly from the park. He didn’t say a single word to her and Lizzie felt too stunned by this sudden change in character that she didn’t know what to say herself.

They exited the park and walked briskly down the street, Lizzie having to stumble to keep up with Daniel in his frenzied state.

‘Who was that?’ she managed to ask as they reached the corner.

He didn’t answer her, didn’t even acknowledge that she’d asked him a question.

‘Daniel?’

‘Will you be able to find your way home from here?’ he asked stiffly.

Lizzie nodded, stunned at the change in the man who could laugh off ruining his clothes jumping into the Serpentine, but would not even look at her after this latest confrontation.

‘I will call on you tomorrow.’

Again Lizzie nodded, unsure what else she could say. Open-mouthed, she watched as he hailed a passing hackney carriage and jumped in. He didn’t even look at her as it pulled away, let alone bid her goodbye. She stood there motionless for a good minute after the carriage had pulled away, unsure what had just happened. Daniel had changed completely and it had been just as he’d seen that woman.

Shaken and confused Lizzie roused herself and began the walk home, wondering whether tomorrow she would get any answers from him.