Page 18 of A Scandalous Proposition
‘Why not? Perhaps it will cool his ardour.’
‘Florentina!’
‘All right.’ She let out a martyred sigh. ‘What do you suggest I do with it then? Remember, I can’t ask a maid to help me. Just imagine how shocked she’d be if she saw me in your gown, about to creep out of the house in the dead of night.’
‘You won’t require the services of a maid for your hair, or to help you with your gown either. It ties in the front and you can manage them yourself.’
‘A useful variation for a courtesan, I suppose.’ Florentina managed a weak grin.
‘Indeed, and as for your hair, just brush it loose of your braid, let the curls fall naturally wherever they please and then tie it back with this.’ Christine rummaged in a drawer and produced a length of ribbon that exactly matched the scarlet gown. ‘When he looks at you, untie the ribbon and allow your hair to fall about your shoulders.’
Florentina giggled. ‘I can’t do that!’
‘Of course you can. He’ll be enchanted.’ Christine clapped her hands. ‘Now, does the dowager have an engagement this evening?’
‘No, we dine alone at the dower house.’
‘Then partake of some wine. It will help you to relax.’
‘Nothing will help me to relax,’ Florentina insisted mulishly.
‘Florentina?’ The door opened and two small faces peered round it, eyes wide with surprise. ‘Why are you wearing that funny dress?’
Florentina’s concerns about the evening to come evaporated and her face split into a wide grin. ‘What are you two doing up here when you ought to be attending to your duties?’ She bent down to hug her young brother and sister.
‘Ramon saw a strange gig in the stables and we hoped it might be yours,’ explained Sophia in rapid Spanish.
‘Shush, speak English, darling. If you’re to be a proper English lady then you must practice all the time.’
‘Sorry, Florentina, we do try.’
‘They do indeed,’ Christine said. ‘They take their lessons with Susanna every day without fail.’
The children beamed at such praise and Florentina wondered, not for the first time, at their resilience. They’d been through so much. Had been snatched away from everything and everyone that mattered to them, with the exception of Florentina. They were now reduced to undertaking manual work in a brothel, hidden away where there was no danger of their being seen, when they’d been brought up to expect so much more. And yet they never once complained. Florentina sighed. She would soon have to move them from this place. Sophia was now fourteen and becoming lovelier by the day. Careful as they were, it could only be a matter of time before she accidentally caught the eye of one of the gentleman callers. Florentina shuddered, determined that that situation would never arise.
‘Vamos!Wait in the other room and I will be with you directly,’ she said to the children.
Florentina changed back into her ordinary clothes and spent a precious few minutes with her beloved siblings before making her way back to the dower house. The red silk was hidden in a parcel made up for her by Christine, another food parcel intended for a very different location was concealed beneath the gig’s seat. As she drove, Florentina wondered where she would find the courage to go through with her assignation with Lord Fitzroy. Then she thought of Ramon and Sophia, their faces so full of confidence in her ability to keep them safe. She knew then that she would do whatever his lordship required of her with a smile on her lips rather than risk letting them down.
Chapter Five
Adam put Philippa’s extraordinary behaviour to the back of his mind and headed for the ducal apartment. His knock was answered by James’s valet.
‘His grace is most anxious to see you, my lord.’
‘Thank you, Parker.’
Adam followed the man who had faithfully served his brother for years into the palatial rooms his father had once occupied. James was seated in a chair close to the fire and had a rug tucked tightly across his knees, even though the room was over warm. Adam found it difficult to disguise his shocked reaction to his brother’s condition.
At thirty, Adam was fifteen years his brother’s junior, and as a consequence their paths had seldom crossed during their respective childhoods. When Adam was of an age for James to finally acknowledge his existence, his resentment quickly became apparent, preventing any fraternal bond from being established. James envied his brother’s robust health since he himself was slight of build and permanently sickly, precluding any sort of normality during his youth.
When Adam used charm, James used pomposity. Where Adam brought reasoning to an argument, James favoured a dictatorial attitude and fixed opinions. If Adam expressed a preference for something or someone, James took the opposite position as a matter of course. Adam wondered now if he’d only taken Philippa because he supposed her to belong to him.
‘His grace’s condition is remarkably improved of late,’ Parker said quietly in Adam’s ear. ‘Here’s his lordship, your grace,’ he added in a more normal voice.
‘Adam, where the devil have you been? I was told you got here hours ago.’
James turned his head slowly. Adam was encouraged to see that James’s eyes, the same deep grey as his own, were alive with accusation. He was clearly as irascible as ever, which Adam took to be a good sign.
