Dicing with the Dangerous Lord

chapter Eight

Venetia set the lantern down on an old oak work bench. Contrary to Linwood’s expectation there were no flower pots, no trowels or gardening implements. Only the work bench, a heating stove and a broad day bed, in dark leather, that would not have looked out of place in an upmarket drawing room.

‘No gardening,’ he said.

‘No gardening at all,’ she confirmed with a secret smile. ‘I come here most nights that I am not working, although I have been rather remiss of late...due to other distractions.’

He smiled at that. ‘I have been a little distracted recently myself.’

‘Only a little?’ she asked.

He smiled again. ‘I concede it is very much more than a little.’

She leaned back against the potting bench, watching him. ‘I have never brought anyone here before. Not even Alice.’

The lantern was behind her so that her face was in shadow. The smell of night was in the air all around them—damp and cold and fresh.

‘Then I am honoured, Venetia.’

The silence stretched between them but it felt natural and comfortable.

‘This glasshouse is the reason that I took the house.’ She surveyed the place with obvious tenderness. ‘I think I fell in love with it from the very first moment I saw it.’ She smiled, an inward smile, almost as if she had forgotten he was there. But then she returned her gaze to him. ‘Have you worked it out yet? What I come here to do?’

‘Escape?’ he offered.

She smiled, more fully this time. ‘I suppose there is something of that in it. But there is more. Take another guess.’

‘Learn your lines.’

‘You are not trying, my lord.’

He stepped closer. ‘You truly wish me to guess your secrets?’

The tension and hints of darkness suddenly whispered between them.

She did not answer his question, only told him another truth. ‘Many men have tried. None have succeeded.’

He smiled at the challenge. ‘You have told me that you come here only at night and that it is always alone. There are no books or scripts, no candles or lanterns save the one you have brought to light our path. Therefore, you do not read or learn your lines here. And when I look around the key piece of furniture is a day bed on which you might lie in comfort.’

‘Indeed.’

‘You come here to...’

‘To...?’

Their eyes met and held.

‘To stargaze.’

She gasped her astonishment and then laughed. ‘You are quite correct!’

‘You are a secret astronomer, Miss Fox.’

‘Hardly. I am ill educated, but I like to look at the stars, at their wonder and beauty and brightness.’ She glanced up to the roof as she spoke and he found his gaze following, but all he saw was the reflection of the lantern and their own faces.

He leaned across and closed the lantern shutters, blinding its light, and rendering them in a darkness that was almost complete.

She did not move and neither did he. Just stood motionless and close while their eyes adjusted to the blackness that enveloped them together. And when they looked up again, the glass was not there, only the black velvet of the night sky and the brilliance of the diamond jewels studded within it.

He heard the sudden release of her breath, but whether it was in awe of the stars or that she had been holding it, he did not know.

‘Is it not a wonder?’ she asked with an innocence that was contrary to all of her usual polished sophistication.

‘Indeed it is,’ he said, and he was telling the truth, although it was not the stars to which he was referring. It was a wonder to see her like this. See the real woman beneath the mask she presented to the world. ‘Look over there in the southern part of the sky—that is Pegasus.’

She tilted her head and he felt the brush of her hair against his with the movement and smelled her perfume. ‘I cannot see it.’

‘See the square shape of the four stars at the bottom?’ He pointed.

‘Oh, yes...’ He could hear the smile in her voice. ‘I have looked at those stars all these years and never knew what they were before.’

They stood silent and watching. And then she dropped her gaze to his, as if she were weighing him up, and massaging a hand lightly against the nape of her neck as she did so. ‘There is a more comfortable way to do this.’

He did not need to look at the day bed to know what she meant.

‘To stargaze only,’ she said, her voice the cool impenetrable Miss Fox once more. And then more gently, more honestly, ‘You do understand what I am saying, Linwood, do you not?’

‘Perfectly,’ he replied, sensing the tension and debate within her.

He waited until she was settled upon the day bed before he lay down by her side, taking care not to touch her.

They lay in silence for a while, both looking only at the sky overhead and its myriad of stars.

‘Now I see Pegasus more clearly,’ she said.

‘It is the autumn signpost in the sky.’

‘Named from the mythological winged horse?’

‘The very same—if you have a very good imagination and look at it upside down then you may just see the front of the horse.’

She tilted her head towards him as she stared up into the sky.

‘The star right up there, the small bright one, is the North Star, by which travellers may guide their journeys,’ he said.

‘Ah, so that is the North Star. I thought it was supposed to be the brightest star in the sky.’

‘It is a common misconception. There are many bigger and brighter stars, although not all that we see up there are stars, some are planets.’

‘How interesting. Tell me more.’

‘That little circle of stars beneath the Square of Pegasus is part of Pisces—the two fish. The Circlet of stars represents one of their heads.’

‘Which stars make up Virgo, the Virgin?’

‘Virgo is not visible at this time of year. You will have to wait until spring to see its constellation. But that other group next to Pegasus and Pisces, see there...’ he pointed to the stars ‘...is Aquarius, the water bearer.’ She briefly touched a hand to his, following his gaze.

‘Those five little stars clustered together are known as the Water Jar.’

‘I see.’

He glanced across at her, watching her rapture. ‘I enjoy the night sky, too, Venetia.’

‘So it seems.’ She rolled onto her side to look at him. ‘When I was a little girl I used to look up at the stars through my tiny attic window. I always said that when I grew up I would have a house with a roof made of glass that I could lie in bed and view them all the better.’

‘And you did.’

‘Yes,’ she said softly, and she smiled at him in a way that revealed this was something more important to her than just stargazing. In telling him this, in bringing him here, she was sharing something very private to her, something that seemed to go beyond the game they were playing. She watched him across the small distance of the daybed’s pillow for a few seconds in silence before asking, ‘How did you learn all of this?’

‘At Eton. At Oxford. From my father’s books.’

‘You are a scholar.’

‘No.’

She paused, studying him for a moment in silence before reaching a hand to his face and tracing her fingers against his cheek. ‘You look like your father.’

He clenched his teeth to stopper the bitter reply.

‘I could not help but notice that matters did not sit comfortably between the two of you the day we met him outside Gunter’s. I thought it was because you were with me.’

‘Why should that make a difference?’

She gave a tiny shrug of her shoulders and he saw the way the dark cloth of her cloak shifted to reveal the smooth white skin that lay beneath. ‘Your father is an earl. You are his son. I am an actress.’

‘I am not ashamed of you, Venetia. And who I choose to spend my time with is no business of my father’s.’

‘You sound angry with him.’

‘Sometimes it turns out our fathers are not the great men we grow up believing them to be. We are a disappointment to them, and they to us. Or perhaps yours was different and I speak only with the bitterness of my own experience.’

She glanced away, a sudden uneasiness in her eyes. ‘Matters between me and my father sat as uncomfortably as yours seem to do. He was very far from being a great man, although he thought that he was.’

‘Was?’

‘He is dead.’

‘I am sorry.’

Her eyes studied his and there was the strangest expression in them.

‘And your mother?’ he asked.

‘She died when I was ten years old.’

‘I am saddened by your loss at such a tender age.’

‘It was a long time ago. And I learned very quickly how to stand on my own two feet.’

‘A gentleman country vicar and his lady wife who married beneath her.’

‘You have been making more enquiries about me,’ she teased, lightening the mood.

‘I have.’ He made no pretence at denial. ‘Is it true?’

She laughed and it had a bitter ring to it. ‘Hardly. Fantasy is so much more enticing than the truth, do you not think?’

‘That depends,’ he said. ‘On what lies beyond enticement.’

She lowered her gaze, the sweep of black lashes feathering against the pallor of her cheek.

‘Venetia.’ Her name was soft and smooth as silk upon his lips, the intimacy of it making her remember the feel of those lips upon hers.

‘Linwood...’

‘Not Linwood,’ he said softly and, reaching across, skimmed the pad of his thumb against her cheek in a single caress. ‘My given name is Francis.’

She scanned those dark eyes, feeling the butterflies fluttering madly in her stomach. ‘Given names are for families and close friends, and for lovers.’

‘And what are we, Venetia?’ There was a blunt honesty to the question that seemed to reach within and touch her.

She hesitated to reply, only held his eyes, not with bold seduction and power, but seeing something of the man beneath. ‘I do not know.’ All the madness that was rushing through her blood, the fast hard pound of her heart, the way her body came alive beneath his touch, his kiss. ‘You are not what I expected.’

‘And what was it that you expected?’ he asked softly.

She reached her hands up, cupping them gently against the strong hard lines of his jaw, holding him there. ‘Not this,’ she whispered and placed her mouth against his in soft surrender. ‘Never this.’

She kissed him gently, cautiously, afraid that the kiss would not be all that she remembered and even more afraid that the memory was true. Their lips teased together, touching, tasting, feeling, while their eyes clung together. And then his mouth moved to take hers and she knew that her memory had not played her false. She closed her eyes and gave herself up to the kiss, and to him, yielding to the madness that was thrumming through her veins.

The scent of him, the feel of him, the taste of him, stripped away all of her pretence. He kissed her and the woman that met his kisses with passion and with need was all Venetia. Something in her sparked to life, something real, something that only he could fire. He was in her blood, in her heart, in her mind. She drank him in, revelling in the sensation, sinking into it, opening herself, allowing all her defences to crumble. Venetia had been kissed by men before, but not like this, never like this. It made her forget herself, made her forget who she was, who he was. There was only him, only this moment, only his mouth on hers, wooing and demanding both at once, firing a passion that only he awakened, and the overwhelming need for him.

She kissed him harder, faster, with all the rage of urgency that was surging through her. He pulled her into his arms and her body answered the call of his, cleaving to him, wanting him so much that it hurt. Her mind was spinning, her body quivering beneath the masterful caress of his hands upon her back, her breasts, her waist, her hips. She was breathless, reeling, dizzy with desire. The last thread of sanity dangled dangerously close to breaking. She placed her hands on his chest and broke her mouth free from his.

His eyes were black as the devil’s and just as dangerous. Their gazes clung together, their breaths hard and fast, her breasts brushing his chest with every rise and fall.

‘Do you see?’ she whispered, staring into his eyes. She held him tight, knowing that were she to let go she would fall into this thing that was yawning between them.

‘I do,’ he said. His voice sounded as breathless as hers and he stroked a hand against her hair.

She was not acting. She was not playing a game. This felt more real than any other thing in her life. And much more powerful. She struggled to hold on to the vestiges of control, forcing herself to think of Robert, of Rotherham, and the fact that Linwood had put a bullet through Rotherham’s head. She pulled herself free of him, knowing that all the while he touched her she could not think straight. She felt breathless, shaken, shocked by how much she wanted him. It felt more than physical, it was every aspect of him that drew her to him. And the more she came to know him did not dissuade her as it should, but, in contrast, served only to attract her all the more. It took every ounce of her willpower to draw the veil of Miss Fox over her and stop this before it went too far; all of her years of acting experience to feign a control and calmness she did not feel.

‘I think that is quite enough stargazing for one night, Lord Linwood,’ she said in something of Miss Fox’s cool voice and got to her feet. But there was a breathlessness to her words that she could not completely disguise and inside her chest her heart was racing and her blood was rushing, and every part of her longed for every part of him. And Linwood looked at her with those dark dangerous eyes as if he knew.

* * *

Linwood glanced around the ballroom the next night at the members of the ton who mingled with the demi-monde in this world of fashion and frippery, without seeing them. He was thinking of Venetia and what had passed between them in the glasshouse. She had revealed something of her true self. Although she was a talented actress he had seen enough of her to tell the difference between when she was acting and when she was not. And he did not think that last night had been about acting. Last night there had been a vulnerability to her, an honesty, a degree of trust, in revealing those parts of herself that she kept hidden. She seemed genuinely shocked and confused by the searing attraction that existed between them, as if that had not been a part of the plan, if indeed there was anything of a plan between her and Clandon. The way she had looked at him as she uttered those words, a look that was nothing of artifice but open and real. You are not what I expected. He had thought of it all the night through. She was not what he had expected. None of this was what he had expected. He wondered what she would do were he just to confront her over Clandon, but he knew he could not risk tipping off Rotherham’s son that he was wise to him, not when there was so very much at stake. And so he must play this game every bit as much as her—to control Clandon’s suspicions, and because he was fascinated, and more, by the woman who was Venetia Fox.

‘You are woolgathering, Lord Linwood.’ Venetia’s voice broke his reverie.

‘Caught in the act,’ he replied.

‘In such a calculated gentleman? I do not think so.’ Her lips curved ever so slightly in that small half smile, and her eyes were teasing. The open emotions of last night were gone. She was once more the seductive Miss Fox.

‘I take issue with your estimate as to my character.’

‘You should not.’ She leaned closer as if confiding a secret, and he could smell the bittersweet scent of her perfume with its hints of the exotic and erotic. The scent of it was still upon last night’s tailcoat hanging within his wardrobe. ‘I like calculation in a man.’

‘Really?’ he asked quietly and held her gaze steadily. ‘It did not seem that way last night, Venetia.’

He saw the faintest tinge of colour touch her cheeks and something falter in her eyes before she glanced away.

And when she looked at him again there was an iron resolve in her face. ‘Let us go in to supper.’

He glanced across at the queue that was forming to go in for supper.

She raised an eyebrow. Her eyes were cool, almost challenging, but her mouth was sultry. ‘I had a little private table set up for us in the conservatory.’

‘I am privileged indeed.’

‘More than you realise, Linwood,’ she whispered in a voice that was like the sensuous stroke of silk and let him take her arm.

Together they left the main ballroom and headed into the adjoining conservatory. The doors were not closed and the piano still played, its soft lilt carrying through from the ballroom. Anyone might stroll in, if they so chose, but the plants and bushes and trailing vines, some of which were made of silk, lent the room a private secluded air, even if it was all of an illusion. And amidst all of the plants, by the side of a small fountain from which water ran in a lulling trickle, a small, round cast-iron table had been set for two. A large silver ice bucket sat in a stand by its side and contained within was a bottle of champagne. In the middle of the table, beside a silver casting of cockerel, was an opened bottle of claret.

She took her seat and only when she was settled did he take his. A footman appeared and poured first her champagne and then his, before disappearing as silently as he had arrived.

He ignored the champagne and lifted the claret, pouring two half-glasses and offering one to her.

She accepted with a smile, a genuine smile of amusement this time.

‘Why do you order champagne, Venetia, when you do not drink it?’

‘You are very observant. No one else ever notices.’

‘Another part of the illusion?’

‘One cannot have an actress who does not drink champagne.’

‘Imagine the scandal if you were to demand tea instead.’

She laughed and he smiled, and the initial awkwardness of their meeting was gone, replaced with the affinity that was growing between them.

‘A toast to new friends,’ she said and held up her glass.

‘To new friends,’ he echoed and they chinked their two glasses in a touch, the fine crystal glasses lingering together too long before finally parting. Their eyes met across the table and held as they each drank the claret.

A footman’s approach interrupted the moment. Linwood saw the fleeting expression of horror that crossed Venetia’s face at the servant’s whispered words. But then it was reined under her usual smooth control once more. The footman faded.

She got to her feet.

And he to his.

‘I am afraid I must leave you for this evening, my lord. My presence is required elsewhere.’

‘Bad news?’

‘Yes.’ She did not elaborate. She held out her hand for him to kiss and he took it in his own as if that was what he meant to do. But he did not kiss it.

‘Let me come with you.’ No matter how transient it had been, he had seen that look of horror and he felt a genuine concern at what might have caused it. He wondered if Clandon was blackmailing her.

She smiled and shook her head, withdrawing her hand and turning away to leave as she did so. ‘Thank you for your offer, but I must refuse.’

He said nothing more. Just stood there as she began to walk away. Three steps, three soft wiggles of those hips and then she stopped, hesitated for a moment as if thinking, before glancing back at him.

‘It is a matter of some discretion. A...secret,’ she said.

‘I am good at secrets.’

‘You are,’ she admitted.

The silence stretched between them. Still she did not walk away.

Finally she relented. ‘I would be glad of your company, Linwood.’

He felt a stab of both satisfaction and relief at her words.

Their leaving together when the night was so young did not go unnoticed. There were whispers and stares, but if Venetia was conscious of them she did not show it. She did not hurry across the ballroom, but he could sense her focus, her purpose, and he admired how smoothly and quickly she dealt with those who would have delayed her. Then they were out in the hallway, the footman delivering her cloak, which Linwood slid into place, and out of the door and into her waiting carriage.

The coachman seemed to know where to go even though she had not issued him with any instructions. The door closed behind them and they were off at a brisk pace, heading in the opposite direction to that which would lead them to the house in which Venetia Fox had made her home.