Page 20 of Defying the Earl
It seemed to Nathan as though the entire household were holding their breath awaiting his reaction, to be honest. Although that sounded even more fanciful than heart stuttering. He was obviously losing his mind. He had never had a poetical inclination before. This wager business was taking a greater toll on him than he ever could have imagined.
“Doesn’t the girl look exceptionally well?” Aunt Frampton demanded of him when he didn’t offer a compliment.
“Very well,” he replied lamely, causing a cackle of laughter to erupt from his usually dour aunt.
“Damned by faint praise,” she commented but allowed him to retreat.
“Thank you, Lady Frampton,” Beatrice thanked her prettily and Nathan admired her manners despite her obvious preening under the attention. He didn’t suppose the young woman had much occasion to pamper and flatter herself. He should have made a greater effort. He resolved to do so.
“You do look lovely, Lady Beatrice,” he finally murmured as he handed her up into his curricle.
“Thank you, my lord. And thank you for bringing a slightly less death-defying carriage today.”
Nate chuckled. “Are you still nervous of this one?” he asked, incredulous. “Surely not.”
He could feel her fidget even as he was lifting her into the seat as though she were somehow dismissing her feelings or waving them away. “I just don’t get out driving much, my lord,” she excused. “I haven’t even been riding in years despite the fact that the Ladies always insist that I must have a riding habit. In fact, we just ordered a new one, isn’t that the most ridiculous thing?”
Nathan blinked at her as he stepped back. He hadn’t been prepared for the rush of attraction he felt as he was so near her. She was babbling. The Lady Beatrice he thought he knew would never babble. Was she nervous? What a novel concept. What would she have to be nervous about?
“Why have you not been riding?” he asked, addressing the obvious rather than the strange sensation swirling within him as he settled next to her on the small seat.
His question prompted a somewhat withering stare from her. “What would I ride, my lord? It isn’t as though the Ladies keep a well-stocked stable.”
Nathan opened his mouth as though to object but then shut it with an inaudible snap. She wasn’t wrong. Why would his auntshave a stable full of horses? Except as a means of transportation for their companion. But he doubted they wanted their companion off traipsing through parks when she was supposed to be keeping them company.
“Have I greatly inconvenienced them by taking you out again today?” He spoke the thought aloud without conscious thought.
“Not yet,” Beatrice replied with a light laugh. “They are finding the entire situation diverting to be quite frank.”
“You sound slightly disgruntled by their amusement.”
Her intelligent gaze, which she turned on him, was filled with shock over his words. “While I might be their companion, I don’t particularly appreciate being the source of anyone’s amusement, my lord.”
“I suppose I can see the fine difference,” Nate agreed, placating her. He caught the movement of her eyes rolling from the corner of his own even as he watched where he was directing the horses. He coughed to cover his awkwardness. “Did you want to go back to the same park or would you rather drive out of Town and take tea at an inn?”
“Isn’t the point of this excursion to be seen?” Beatrice asked, sounding puzzled but not rejecting his suggestion.
“It is, but I suspect at this time of the day we would be seen by enough people on our way out of Town, and it would be a singular enough sort of excursion, that people would talk.”
“Of course, they would talk,” she exclaimed before laughter claimed her. “Of course, they’d talk,” she repeated softly. “You are quite wily, aren’t you, my lord?” She sounded breathless, almost admiring. “Have you done this sort of thing before?”
“What sort? Courting? Surely, you’d have heard if I had.”
“I might not since I don’t run in your circles,” she reminded him, needlessly. Nate didn’t think he had circles. And surely, if he did, she would be in them, at least to a certain degree, considering her association with his aunts. Before he could argue with her, though, she answered his question in an unexpected and unwelcome way. “I meant this sort of subterfuge. We are trying to convince Society of something that isn’t true. And you appear to be good at it. It made me wonder if you’ve done this before.”
How was he supposed to answer that? His work for the Home Office wasn’t exactly a secret, especially not now that it was a thing of the past. He also hadn’t really participated in subterfuge. At least not very often. Mostly he conducted investigations and negotiations. But he had enough experience to have at least a rudimentary understanding of human behaviour. And he knew that gossip could be fuelled. But that was more from his years skirting High Society. Nathan was fully aware that if a couple people saw him drive away from the bustle of the city with Lady Beatrice at his side, that might be more cause for talk than if they were to turn up in Hyde Park two afternoons in a row.
Either way, he didn’t think he could stomach the stares in the Park for a second afternoon, nor did he wish to encounter either Robertson or Douglas, his two seeming friends who had gotten him into this mess from the beginning, so he hoped his plan worked. If it didn’t, he would take her for a drive for a third afternoon. Or he would invite the very worst gossips he could think of to the supper his aunt had bade him plan.
“It is rather exhausting, is it not?”
“Subterfuge or courtship?” he asked with a laugh even as he realized she hadn’t really agreed to his plan.
“Both, I suppose. But I was thinking about courting. All these excursions. If one were to continue for very long, it sounds quite tiresome.”
Nathan laughed. It was not at all what he would have expected.
“Debutantes sleep until noon to compensate for their activities, I suppose.” He shouldn’t have been surprised by her snort of derision.
