Treacherous Temptations(37)

“Is it really me, Jenny?” she asked.

“Aye, miss. It only took the right finery and colors to bring out yer natural beauty. Lord Hadley is sure to take notice,” she added with a cheeky grin.

“I don’t care what he thinks,” Mary retorted.

Jenny gave her a dubious look. “Is that so, miss? When only yesterday afternoon—

“Yesterday was a grave mistake, Jenny. I never should have gone with him.”

Jenny’s brow wrinkled. “But I thought you were quite taken with his lordship.”

“Taken in would be a more apt description. I was deluded by his handsome face and fine manners when he’s naught but a scoundrel.” Mary picked up her fan and waved it in front of her heated face.

“Is that the way o’ it?” Jenny grinned. “But aren’t they all rogues? At least the ones any girl would really want.”

“Jenny!” Mary reproached.

“But it’s true! Why do you think all the town ladies are flocking to see the Beggar’s Opera if not for the likes of the highwayman MacHeath?”

“But that’s just romantic nonsense, not real life,” Mary argued.

“Mayhap, miss, but I’d as lief give my heart to a so-called scoundrel like Lord Hadley, than enter a marriage bed with any of Sir Richard’s kind!” The maid’s shudder echoed Mary’s own feelings.

“But I won’t wed a man I can’t trust, Jenny. Lord Hadley would probably squander every penny of my inheritance, and he would never be true to a wife.”

“But Miss Molly how can you know any man would?” Jenny asked. “Men be different from women that way.”

“Do you really accept that, Jenny? That all men are faithless? That they have a lesser capacity for love and fidelity?”

“Mayhap there be some,” Jenny answered. “But it’s not the general way of it, especially amongst the quality.”

Mary wondered if that was true. Lady Blanchard had told her that all men take mistresses. Perhaps her expectations were unrealistic.

“Still, miss,” Jenny added, “my lord doesn’t seem the type what would mistreat a wife.”

Mary’s throat tightened. “I need more than that, Jenny. While I don’t expect love, I still desire respect and fidelity.”

“Then you’ll just settle for whatever gent Sir Richard chooses for ye?”

Mary despised the notion of the mercenary marriage Sir Richard would arrange, one in which her husband would reap all the benefits, but she was far more afraid of one that would only cause her heartache.

“I think it would be far wiser for me to wed a respectable gentleman I cared nothing about, than one whom I might fall in love with only to prove himself a philandering scoundrel,” Mary replied. “Regardless of what he would have me believe, Lord Hadley doesn’t really care a whit for me!”

“Nay, miss. I think you misapprehend. A man like him would ne’er confess tender feelings, but I seen the hungry way he looks at you…and the way you look back at him.”

While he had made professions of desire for her, desire was not love. As soon as he had his fill of her, he would only seek out another lover. No, Mary knew her heart could not bear it, but as much as she wanted to despise him, she knew she was still hopelessly infatuated.

“That only proves what a great fool I am,” Mary sighed with despair. “Don’t you see, Jenny? He’d only break my heart. Lord Hadley does not reciprocate my feelings. He only seeks my fortune and my person. He even confessed as much.”

“Did he now? And why would he do that if he was a rogue who wished only to deceive ye?”

“I don’t know!” Mary cried. “He’s baffling. And in all the time we’ve spent together I still feel I know nothing about him.”

“Mayhap he’s skittish,” Jenny said.

“What do you mean?”

“Just that men don’t give their trust first like a woman does.”

Mary gave her a puzzled frowned. “What do you mean by first, Jenny?”

“Men often act their feelings rather than speaking them like women do. They feel the act of love different from women. Me Mum told me long ago, ‘Jenny lass, the best way to gain anything from a man is to first see that he’s well fed.’ I think that might include his trust too, miss.”

“Food? I don’t follow you at all.”

“There be more than one kind of appetite, Miss Molly,” Jenny said with a smile.

“Jenny! How can you say such things?”

“It’s just the plain truth, miss. A man is most easily swayed by a woman after he’s been well pleased by her.”

“This is true? You’ve been with a man?” Mary asked.

Jenny flushed. “Ye won’t dismiss me if I tell you?”

“Nay, Jenny, but I caution you to take great care.”

“It’s only happened twice. The first was a comely lad, a stable groom back in Leicester, but he showed an ill-temper in drink, so I knew he weren’t for me.”

“And the second?”

“Pray don’t’ think badly of me, miss but ‘twas…’tis…his lordship’s man, James.”

“Lord Hadley’s valet? Is that why the coach was delayed today?”