Always a Maiden (The Belles of Beak Street #5)(19)

Lord Farringate had moved on. “My sister and daughter will accompany us on a drive this afternoon.”

Was that an invitation? The back of her neck tightened.

“If you are amenable,” he offered diffidently as if her answer was a foregone conclusion.

“I would very much like to go for a drive,” she answered as she was supposed to. “If my mother will allow me.”

“Of course you must go,” said her mother in the lull of the conversation with the ladies. Both of whom glanced her direction, the elder with an encouraging smile, the younger with a startled look and then suddenly downcast eyes. They probably hadn’t been paying any mind to the other conversation in the room.

Susanah would have ten thousand times wished to go shopping or to her room on bread and water instead. “Then it is settled.” She smiled or probably simpered—she didn’t know which she did. “I will look forward to it.”

The butler entered with the salver again.

After pulling up the single card, her mother shot her a glance. “Of course we will receive Lord Hull. Do bring him up.”

Her mother was likely thinking, Susanah had two potential suitors in one day. The only reason for announcing Lord Hull’s name was so that Lord Farringate would think she was not without other potential offers. But that wasn’t why Lord Hull was here. Oh, she had danced with him on occasion, but he’d never shown her any particular notice in spite of her efforts to engage him. He had probably remembered where he’d seen her embroidered slippers. Cold flashed through her veins.

Their task accomplished and fifteen minutes expired, Lord Farringate and his females rose to take their leave. Susanah drew on every ounce of her training to face Lord Hull without betraying anything.



*

Evan smiled as Lady Susanah exited her house furtively, barely pulling the door shut, before grabbing his arm and tugging him down the street. “I heard someone.”

When they were some hundred feet away, safely ensconced in a shadow, he whispered, “Do you want to lock the door?”

“I dare not.”

“Do you want me to lock the door?” he asked.

She looked up at him. “I cannot get caught, no matter what.”

She put her hand to her cheek, which made him wonder at her gesture. He gathered her in and led her to his carriage, safely out of sight around the corner. Then again, she seemed far more animated when they were alone than she did when they were in public. It was as though she was always concealing her true nature.

“Give me the key. I won’t have your parents or their belongings at risk because of our escapades.” No telling what it would do to her if her parents were murdered in their sleep. Although murder wasn’t terribly likely, but robbery might very well be. Housebreakers hid in the shadows waiting for an opportunity like an unlocked door or open window to strike.

“But what if you are caught?”

“If a servant opens the door, I’ll pretend I’m drunk and I have the wrong house. Either way, the door will get locked.”

She handed him the brass key, and he walked back to her home and locked it without incident. Returning to the carriage he found her huddled in a shadowed corner.

“What is the matter?” he asked.

She straightened and cast a glance out into the dark night. Was she regretting their clandestine meetings?

Her mouth tightened, but after a second of rolling along, she said, “Lord Hull suspects I was with you at the masquerade.”

Evan nodded. “He doesn’t know. I told him he was mad to think you would ever behave improperly.”

When the man had confronted him at Brooks two days after the masquerade, Evan had put him off with a laugh and a protest. He’d told him Lady Susanah was too high in the instep to ever be seen with him, let alone sink to a low enough level to attend a Cyprian’s ball. But, no, he wasn’t going to share the identity of his newest inamorata. It made him think, though, privacy might be a much better option for their meetings than a public event.

“But he suspects.” She plucked at her skirt. An oddly endearing gesture, she would never permit herself in public. “He could ruin me.”

He put his hand over hers stilling her fretting. “Not with mere suspicion. And I doubt he would. He’s not a bad sort.”

She turned her hand over and clasped his. “When he asked about my slippers, I told him, that a great many people have coveted things I wear and imitate them. So even if I had a similar pair of slippers, he most certainly didn’t see mine.” She paused and her chin dipped. “My mother said I was rude to him.”

“When was this?” Evan asked, his chest tightening, yet at the same time, he stared at her hand wrapped inside his. It was such a trusting gesture from a woman who rarely trusted enough to show any emotion.

“The day after. He called on me.”

“I see.” He didn’t want to tell her that she hadn’t entirely convinced Lord Hull, not since he’d questioned Evan after that. On the other hand, seeing Lady Susanah in such a risqué environment could have just sparked interest in the man, as he’d predicted it would.

Amiable as the man was, Evan’s gut tightened. He didn’t want him calling on Lady Susanah—not that Hull would make her a bad husband. In fact, he’d make her a better husband than Farringate. “I really don’t think he’d set out to ruin you, and he’s not a gossip.”