A Lady of Persuasion (The Wanton Dairymaid Trilogy #3)(6)

“I’m an unmarried woman with a reputation to guard, and you are clearly the worst sort of rake.” She touched a hand to the lone ornament she wore: a slender gold pendant in the shape of a cross. “I have everything to fear from you.”

“Have you been reading that nonsense in The Prattler?” Toby rose to his feet. “My dear, don’t believe everything you read in the papers. You ought to thank me for whisking you out of that ballroom and rescuing you from your partner—now there’s a true scoundrel. That Grayson’s the one you ought to fear.”

“But…” She shook her head, her black curls inky against the gleaming marble. “Why should I fear my own brother?”

“Your …” He stepped back, stared at her. “Your brother.”

“Yes, my brother.”

Toby returned to a crouch before her. He braced his hands on the bench, one on either side of her skirts, and stared hard into those dark, solemn eyes. “Tell me your name.”

“Miss Isabel Grayson. I thought everyone knew. True, we’ve only just arrived from Tortola, but the gossip …” Toby bent his head, and her tone sharpened. “Are you laughing?”

When his shoulders stopped shaking, he wiped a tear from the corner of his eyes. What an ass he was, congratulating himself on his revenge. Drawing a lady’s eye from her own brother, what a triumph. “Miss Isabel Grayson. Good God,” he said, laughter quaking his chest anew.

“Have you any idea who I am?”

She lifted her eyebrows. “Other than a baronet? No.”

“I’m Sir Toby Aldridge.”

He waited for recognition to dawn in her eyes. He waited in vain.

“Sir Toby Aldridge,” he repeated. Still nothing but blank indifference. “Did Sophia—Did Lady Grayson never speak of me?”

“Never. Should she have?”

Toby flinched inwardly. How quickly she’d forgotten him. “No, I suppose there is no real reason she should. And you don’t read The Prattler? ”

She shook her head. “I abhor it. I despise rumor and innuendo, though it seems these people think of little else.” She waved toward the ballroom—another of those expansive, impassioned gestures. “These are the leaders of government and society, yet they seem hopelessly shallow. Children starve in the streets, free men live in chains—but their attention is absorbed with illicit liaisons, marital disputes…”

“Broken engagements,” Toby added bitterly. “Elopements.”

“Yes, precisely.”

“Revolting, isn’t it?” He clucked his tongue. “Insupportable. I’m quite weary of scandal myself.”

She perked with enthusiasm, a pretty flush warming her complexion. “Do you know, I’ve been in London over a month. I’ve attended dinners and card parties, my brother’s fête, and this ball. I’ve heard ever so many words from these people’s mouths, and all of it scandal and nonsense.”

“And this disappoints you.”

“Of course!” There went her vowels again, lilting and stretching. “It seems no one has any ideas or opinions worth the breath to speak them aloud.”

“But you, Miss Grayson? Something tells me you are full to bursting with ideas and opinions. Not only worth your breath to speak them aloud, but worth the silence of others, to be heard.”

“Oh.” Her lashes trembled. “Truly?”

Such wonderment in her voice, as if he’d divined the very key to her soul. No, he’d done nothing so impressive. He’d merely paraphrased what he knew to be every girl’s desire: someone willing to listen.

Toby was a very good listener.

“Believe me, I come from a family rife with opinionated females.” He felt himself sinking back into those wide, dark eyes, and there he perceived an inner depth to rival her fathomless gaze. Not every girl had that. “I know an intelligent, principled woman when I meet with one.”

Blushing deeper, she looked away. God, she truly was beautiful.

“Feeling feverish and faint again?” he teased. “I know I am.”

A smile pulled at the corner of her mouth.

“Oh, no. Don’t smile. You’ll kill me. I stop breathing when you smile.” Those sensuous lips curved wide, and all teasing aside, Toby’s heart gave his lungs a deflating kick. The irony did not escape him that here sat the sole lady in London who had no knowledge of his recent jilting, nor his outrageous reputation. The only lady who would not regard him as her entrée into the scandal sheets, or a delicious brush with infamy. With her, he could simply be his old, carefree self.

He hadn’t realized, until this moment, how much he’d missed that. Just one more thing Grayson had stolen from him. How the same parents had produced both that scoundrel and this angel, Toby couldn’t comprehend.

A thought struck him. Smacked him, really, with all the force of a brick. Of course. This was Grayson’s sister. If he wanted an opportunity to exact revenge, well then …

Here she sat.

Good God, he could—

“You could what?” she asked.

Had he said that aloud? Damn. “I could …”

I could seduce you. I could take your virtue. I could live up to my infamous reputation and make you a public scandal. I could refuse to marry you and leave you heartbroken and ruined, with no prospects. I could take all your brother’s hopes for your future and dash them just as thoroughly as he destroyed my own.