Page 62 of More or Less a Countess
“Never mind Lord Derrick. He hasn’t a thing to do with this.” Violet sucked in a quick breath, gathered her wits, and turned to Finn. “Lord Dare has been courting me for the past few weeks—utterly respectably, I might add. Perhaps a kiss in a dim library isn’t quite as unobjectionable asyoumight like, Finn, but it’s hardly a scandal, and anyway, I know you did worse when you were courting Iris.”
“Violet!” Iris shot a nervous look at Lady Chase, and her face went bright red. “Hush, will you?”
“Iris!” Lady Chase made a helpless gesture with her hands, then sagged against the settee. “Hyacinth, fetch my smelling salts at once. Oh, what have I done to deserve such a wayward pack of chits for granddaughters?”
Iris hurried to their grandmother’s side to soothe her while Hyacinth dug in Lady Chase’s reticule for her smelling salts, but Finn remained where he was, his puzzled gaze fixed on Violet. “Courting you? No, Violet, there must be more to it than that.”
Violet darted a glance at Lord Dare, but his frozen expression offered no encouragement. “There is more. Lord Dare was introduced to Hyacinth at Lord and Lady Derrick’s dinner party several weeks ago. He and I weren’t introduced, but we nevertheless had a brief conversation at the end of that evening, after Hyacinth left. He met us each separately, you see, and he confused one of us for the other, as so often happens with fashionable gentlemen.”
She was unable to resist this last little dig, which really was unforgiveable of her since this entire disaster of a courtship was all her fault, but the petty part of her whispered none of this would have happened if Lord Dare had been paying the least bit of attention.
“For pity’s sake, Nicholas,” Lady Westcott said in exasperation. “You couldn’t tell one young lady from the other? I was under the impression I’d raised a gentleman.”
“Well, look at the two of them, would you?” Lord Dare waved a hand from Hyacinth to Violet. “If it weren’t for their eyes, they’d be indistinguishable from each other.”
Lady Chase had fallen into a determined half-swoon against the settee, but she raised her head at this and fixed Lord Dare with a sharp look. “What do you mean, Lord Dare? They both have their mother’s identical dark blue eyes.”
“No, they don’t. That is, they’ve both got dark blue eyes, butthatMiss Somerset,”—he pointed at Hyacinth, who froze when every eye turned toward her.—“Her eyes are soft and gentle, whereasthisMiss Somerset’s eyes are…” He still had Violet by the shoulders, and he looked down into her eyes. “Well, one only has to look into her eyes to see she’ll cause no end of trouble.”
A curious look drifted over Lady Chase’s face as she considered this. “How remarkable,” she murmured, her shrewd gaze fixed on Violet and Lord Dare. “I believe you’re right, my lord.”
“Let me see if I understand you.” Finn, who was still dissatisfied with this explanation, gave Violet his sternest, most Marquess-like look. “Lord Dare has been courting you for two weeks, thinking you were Hyacinth?”
“Yes. I—it was wrong of me, I know. I never intended to let it get so far, but I…well, I beg your pardon, Lord Dare, though I know an apology isn’t enough to excuse me.”
“No, it isnotenough, miss.” Hyacinth was fanning Lady Chase, but the old woman slapped her hand away and struggled upright against the settee. “What reason could you have to trick Lord Dare with such an egregious falsehood?”
Violet, Iris, and Hyacinth glanced guiltily at each other, but it was Lord Dare who answered. “Her book, my lady. She wanted to take some sketches, but several of them took her to parts of London that are unacceptable for proper young ladies.” He shot Violet an accusing look. “I happened along just at the right time to serve as an escort.”
As soon as Lord Dare uttered the word “book,” Lady Chase’s face began to redden with anger, and by the time he’d finished, her better judgment had fallen victim to her temper. “That bookagain! I don’t even know why I bothered to ask, sincethat bookis invariably the reason behind all of Violet’s most reprehensible behavior.”
“What book?” Lady Westcott glanced from one Somerset sister to the next. “What’s it about?”
“Oh, it’s terribly clever, Lady Westcott. It’s calledA Treatise on London for Bluestockings. Or is it ‘for Adventuresses’ now, Violet?” Iris shot Violet a questioning look. “She keeps adding chapters to it, you see, and so the title keeps changing.”
Lord Dare let out a grim laugh. “You’re quite right, Lady Huntington. In fact, I suspect she added another chapter just recently, all about how to arouse a gentleman into attempting a seduction. Miss Somerset is quite protective of her book—she doesn’t like anyone to read it—but I’ll have to insist on reading that chapter. She can hardly refuse, since she wouldn’t have been able to write it at all if she hadn’t had my help.”
An appalled silence followed this statement, then a small, choked sound escaped Violet’s lips, but her whimper was drowned out by Lady Chase’s piercing shriek. “A gentleman’s arousal! Oh, dear God, Violet. You’re ruined!”
“No, I’m not! Of course I’m not!” Violet’s frantic gaze swept the room to find every mouth dropped open in horror, and she stumbled into a breathless explanation before panic rendered her incoherent. “At one point I considered adding a chapter about resisting a rake’s seduction, but I didn’t—”
“But you didn’t resist, did you, Miss Somerset?”
Violet gaped at Lord Dare, but he only stared back at her, his face wiped of all expression. “I—I’m not…we didn’t…”
She groped for the back of a settee with a trembling hand as the room tilted crazily.
Dear God, she was going to swoon.Again.
Lord Dare leapt toward her as she began to sway, but before he could touch her Lady Westcott grasped her hand and tugged Violet down beside her onto the settee. She didn’t spare Violet a glance, however. Her gaze was fixed on Lord Huntington, her face white.
“Have you compromised my sister-in-law, Dare?” Finn’s voice was low and calm, but it swelled with such stark menace a shudder ran down Violet’s spine.
But Lord Dare never flinched. He met Finn’s gaze head on. “Yes.”
Finn didn’t move, but every inch of his body went rigid, and the air around him snapped and hummed with suppressed fury. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow morning at dawn.”
Violet’s heart dropped to her stomach with a sudden, sickening lurch. “No!”
