Wicked Nights With a Proper Lady(12)
“I’m not surprised to hear the rumor,” Lady Carleton started. “Lord Barrington has taken a liking to you, my dear Miss Camden. Perhaps something will come of his attentions this time.”
“I’m afraid your rumor source has exaggerated the facts. I think most members of society forget that Lord Barrington and I have a prior acquaintance.”
“I, however, do not. To this day I question why he didn’t offer marriage when he seemed smitten with you all those years ago.”
Genny couldn’t hold back the sound of humor that escaped her in the form of a snort. “We were both so young. And, I admit, we developed a friendship. But a tendre? Hardly.”
“Yet that friendship did not hold up over the years. One would wonder what type of bond you shared.”
The countess could not be suspicious after all these years. She and Leo had been incredibly discreet.
“We come from much different circles. It is no wonder our friendship could not hold up when I went to live with my great-aunt as a companion,” Genny said.
“But now you are back in society, making the necessary rounds with your cousin.” Lady Carleton leaned against the balustrade and stared out on her darkened garden. “It might do you well to reacquaint yourself with his lordship.”
“We will always remain friends, my lady.”
Very distant friends if she could help it. Lord Barrington was a complication she did not want or need at present.
* * *
Leo looked around the parlor as the butler took his and Tristan’s hats. His gaze skimmed over the company present, searching for one person in particular.
He looked forward to spending more time with Miss Camden. This afternoon, he’d come close to asking her and her cousin if he could purchase them an ice and take a stroll through Hyde Park. Not only would the suggestion have been presumptuous, it reeked of actual courtship, which he doubted Miss Camden would appreciate. Honorable was not what he would call his intentions where both ladies were concerned.
Regardless, he had plans tonight that involved segregating the current lady of his desires from everyone present. He didn’t precisely have a reason for wanting to do so other than a desire to be alone with her.
Who was he fooling besides himself? What wasn’t honorable about courting a lady he enjoyed spending time with? Well, there was the small fact that he was aiding his friend in a false courtship of Lady Charlotte. He’d have to figure out the right and wrong of it another time.
Finally, he laid eyes upon her among a throng of ladies and a couple of gentlemen—all of his acquaintance.
Carleton approached Leo and Tristan as they entered the parlor. They’d agreed to come to this party on the grounds of discussing their mutual interest in the sugar imports act. All three owned land in Barbados. All three of them would be forced to either sell their plantations or risk losing any money generated from their sugar business in the Caribbean.
“So glad you could make it. My wife is pleased that you agreed to even out our numbers for dinner.” Carleton took Tristan’s hand with fondness and then Leo’s. Lord Carleton had been a close friend to Tristan and Leo’s fathers.
“We’re glad for the wonderful company,” Tristan said to the older man. “Besides, when will a better time arise to strategize our next move? The party tonight makes everything more convenient.”
Leo did not miss the stressed enunciation on “everything.”
“Shall we mingle to even out those numbers you spoke of?” Leo gestured to the room all the while eyeing the gaggle of women at the center.
Miss Camden wore a less unappealing navy-colored dress this evening. Still drab, but prettier than the one she’d worn to the duchess’s ball. He had to wonder if she owned anything that complemented her shapely figure.
She avoided his gaze, so he stared at her cousin, suspecting she’d be quick to include him in whatever conversation they were currently immersed.
She did not disappoint.
“How do you fare this evening, my lords?” Lady Charlotte gave Tristan a smile that revealed dimpled cheeks.
“Well, my lady,” Tristan answered. “I daresay, with the luck I’ve had in spending time with you two nights in a row, I should test my hand at the craps table before the night is through.”
Lady Charlotte blushed for all in the company to see.
Well played, Leo thought.
Miss Camden chose that inappropriate and outrageously flirtatious comment to intervene. “Perhaps,” she said, a coy smile tilting her lips, “we should all try our hands at cards since we seem to bring about such luck.”
“You must know, Lady Hargrove,” Lady Carleton said when everyone around them seemed wide-eyed and agog at Genny’s open rejoinder. “That Lord Barrington and Miss Camden go back a number of years. I do believe they met at my house party four summers past.”
“You are correct,” Leo responded, giving her a flash of mischief in his slow smile.
“It was an interesting time.” Lady Carlton laughed. “So much happened at that house party. There was that matter with a young woman and another of the unattached guests.” Everyone’s focus was naturally on Lady Carleton as she gave them this old bit of gossip. Audience captive, she continued, “Of course it was so long ago that none of it is worth hashing over now.”
There was an undercurrent of significance to her tone that Leo didn’t fail to notice. Was it directed at both him and Miss Camden? He couldn’t be sure. He suspected Genny thought the same thing because she did not raise her eyes to his.
“Yes,” Genny said, “it was an age ago. And let it be a lesson to the young ladies that you can never put your eggs in too many baskets. I had two suitors at that house party.”
He didn’t fail to notice she neglected to include him in that number. He was slightly hurt by that fact. It wasn’t as though he could gainsay her. He’d never made his intentions clear where she was concerned. It surprised him how much he regretted that now.
“Then why ever did you not marry?” Charlotte asked.
“Not every man is worth marrying, darling. Besides, we learned over the course of the party how ill suited we were. I am happy to report that both gentlemen are now happily settled.”
“A shame you didn’t meet someone else,” Ariel said.
“I don’t regret my decision to remain unattached. I hate to think what would have happened to my great-aunt had I not been there to offer my companionship to her before coming to Charlotte. I have no regrets.”
“None?” Lady Carleton asked, her tone disbelieving.
“None,” Genny assured everyone present.
Interesting. Leo wondered if the “no regrets” extended to the time they’d spent together.
The countess’s husband came around, took his lady wife’s arm, and announced dinner. They all filed out of the drawing room and into the dining room. Leo wasn’t far behind Genny; not that she paid him any mind; she was busy chattering with Lady Hargrove.
* * *
“Just like old times, I see.” Genny gestured to the nameplates at the table that lacked proper order. No one sat by rank at a Carleton party; everyone was treated as an equal. “You’ll have to suffer my company for the evening, Lord Barrington.”
She looked at him from beneath her lashes, quite satisfied with everything turning in her favor. On the other side of her was Castleigh’s nameplate.
It seemed that Charlotte was allocated to the opposite side of the table, next to Lord Chester, a distant relation to the host. Lord Chester was a man of indeterminate age with a jovial laugh and he sported a shock of white frizzy hair that matched his long gray beard. To Charlotte’s left was Mr. Torrance, who was a scholar and poet.
Genny looked back to Leo and clasped her hands together. “Lady Luck is on my side this evening. Lord Castleigh to my left, as he should be,” she added under her breath. “Though it would be equally satisfying to put you in that position, Lord Barrington.”
The way Leo tilted his head and looked at her full of raw intention had her breath freezing in her lungs.
“I’d enjoy playing your devil, Miss Camden,” he responded, equally as private as her comment had been. “I have always thought it better the devil you know than to invite a new one into your midst.” He leaned in close to her ear. “And though you cast the marquess so, I am a far greater threat to your virtue, my dear.”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” How she managed to keep her voice cool and calm when she felt rather parched by his insinuation was quite a miracle. How could anyone be aroused by mere banter?
“Let me share a secret with you, Miss Camden. Once you have had your first taste of ambrosia”—Leo waved the footman away when he came to pull her chair out and instead did it himself—“you cannot so easily resist its allure again.”
He flicked out her napkin, placed it over his bent arm, and gave her a deep bow. “I am ever your servant, madam.”
As Genny sat, she hissed, “Ever the ass.” A shame she didn’t have a better retort, but the man knew how to fluster her.
With a chuckle, Leo placed the napkin in her lap. Lest she feel the urge to further insult him, Genny turned from him and focused on Castleigh, in the hope that she could better understand his character before dinner concluded. She would like to understand where his desire stemmed from in his obvious attempt to court Charlotte.