Page 1 of A Talent for Temptation
One
Mrs. Meriel Vyse hurried down the stairs of the Fulkham town house in a most unladylike manner. If she could complete this task for her brother-in-law, Gregory Vyse, the Baron Fulkham, before midnight, perhaps—
“Madam?” their butler, Nunley, said, giving her velvet ball gown a once-over. “His lordship’s mother told me you’re attending an exhibit at Somerset House while she’s playing cards with her friends down the street.”
Blast, she’d forgotten to tell the servants about the change in plans. “I had intended to, yes.” She jerked on her gloves. “Until Lord High-and-Mighty Undersecretary to the Office for War and the Colonies decided that since he had to be at some secret meeting until the wee hours of the morning, I had all the time in the world to trundle off to a ball and assess some foreign princess for him.”
Nunley’s lips twitched as if he badly wanted to comment.
“What?” she demanded. “I know what you’re thinking, so you might as well just say it.”
“It is not my place—”
“Oh, don’t play that game with me, Nunley. You and I have been through too much to stand on ceremony now.”
He huffed out a breath. “Madam, I amtryingto improve my skills as a butler for the day when the master ascends to the cabinet. And one of those skills involves not blurting out the first thing that comes into my head.”
“You’re right, Nunley. I’m sorry.” The last person she should be snapping at was him. “Still, you needn’t be discreet withme. I rely on you for your frank opinions.”
He softened. “As you wish, madam. If you must know, my opinion is that since you were looking forward to the exhibit, you should perhaps, just this once, refuse to do as his lordship asks.”
“Nunley! It is most unlike you to suggest such a thing.” And decidedlynotwhat she’d assumed he was thinking. “I can’t refuse Gregory. I owe him too much. Both of us do.”
“And you have repaid him for it repeatedly in the past four years.”
“Not enough.” She shook her head. “Never enough.”
“I believe Lieutenant Vyse would have said otherwise.”
“Possibly.” And Nunley would certainly know. Before he’d come to work for Gregory, he’d been a sergeant under John. He probably knew as much, or more, about her late husband as she did.
And an awful lot about her, too. Like the fact that she craved a normal life free of schemes and spying and subterfuge, something that Gregory didn’t seem to realize. Something she was too much of a coward to tell him.
She sighed. “In any case, he’s merely asking me to attend a ball. What woman could reasonably complain about that?”
Though Nunley raised an eyebrow, he dutifully helped her on with her blue velvet cloak. “I called for the carriage before you came down, but we shall have to inform the coachman of the change in direction.”
“Of course,” she said dully. Nunley was right—shehadbeen looking forward to the exhibit. Or rather, to her tryst.
As if Nunley had read her mind, he said, “What about your young man? You said he’d be going to the exhibit as well.”
She winced. “Quinn Raines is not my ‘young man.’ ” At nearly thirty, he wasn’t even all that young. And at twenty-seven, neither was she. “He’s a friend, nothing more.” When Nunley narrowed his gaze on her, she rolled her eyes. “All right, he is more of a . . . flirtation.”
“A suitor.”
Nunley could be entirely too perceptive sometimes. “I should never have told you about him,” she complained. “And you’re sure Gregory hasn’t guessed that I spend time with Mr. Raines?” Which was the only reason she’d involved Nunley—so he could keep an ear out for what Gregory knew.
“I’m sure. But you should tell his lordship yourself.”
“I can’t. If he knew I was engaged in a flirtation that will go nowhere, he wouldn’t approve. His sister-in-law must behave above reproach, or how can he rise in politics?”
“Why must your ‘flirtation’ go nowhere? Why not just marry your young man?”
She stared out the window. “Because we’re from different worlds. His mother is the daughter of a Spanish count, for pity’s sake! You can well imagine whatshe’dthink to hear the truth about me.”
“She might not care. And if Mr. Raines cares that much, he’s not the man for you anyway.”
Meriel was afraid to find out how much he cared. Because Quinn was the wealthy scion of the prominent Raines banking family, while she . . .
