She shrugged, almost beyond caring. “I don’t think he’d try to damage my reputation. For one, my father is a neighbor and close associate. For another, it’s not love Maudling feels for me or he would never have treated me in that shabby manner. He would guard his reputation, I think. He’d not want it known that I deceived him.”
The carriage arrived at the orphanage. Derrick assisted her down. He stood on the pavement, looking down at her, his eyes concerned. “After you have time to think, you might decide against it. If so, send a note to my house.” He raised her hand to his mouth and kissed it, his gaze capturing hers. “If you do not, my carriage will await you tomorrow night at ten. And I promise to have you home before dawn.”
By dawn, she would be forever changed. She would leave her girlhood behind and become a woman. The reality of what she’d set in motion made her shiver but didn’t shake her conviction. This was the only course of action. “Tomorrow night then, Derrick.”
He hardly acted like a passionate rake, she thought uneasily, as she hurried into the house to tell Mary the hansom she’d hired waited in the street.
CHAPTER EIGHT
DERRICK CROSSED HIS ARMS, leaning back against the seat. He’d suffered a powerful urge to put them around Bella earlier when she’d bitten that full bottom lip of hers and stared beseechingly at him with her blue eyes. She was determined, but she was an innocent. Should he have refused her? He’d feared she might seek out some other man who wouldn’t care a goddam about her safety or her reputation—whilst he would shelter her as much as he could.
It might serve her purpose to spend a few hours with him, without necessarily joining him in bed. They could play chess or cards. Derrick gritted his teeth. He could then deliver her home unsullied, if his resolve held out, and he seemed to have little where she was concerned.
Bella was an intelligent young woman who yearned for more from life than was currently being offered her. She enticed him at every glance: the curve of her soft cheek, her wide delphinium-blue eyes, so appealingly candid, and her unawareness of the effect her voluptuous figure had on a man. A goddess. No wonder Maudling was determined to get his hands on her. Not Aphrodite, more Hestia, goddess of the hearth. She should marry and have children of her own.
It could not be him. He wouldn’t be good for her anyway. She’d want his love. She’d already demanded a lot. He doubted himself capable of it. Convinced she’d been sent to haunt his dreams, he shook his head. Bella was unlike any woman he’d ever met. She inspired uncomfortable thoughts of heroism he could not fulfill.
Well, perhaps the mad plan would work. Merely spending the night at his house could have the desired effect. Whatever she decided, he would oblige her, but if it were cards, he would suffer enormous regret. And afterward, he could return to the life he’d lived before he met her. Although the level of satisfaction that life brought him didn’t bare close inspection.
***
A sliver of moon lighted her way as Bella stepped out the front door and pulled the hood of her cloak low over her face. Reaching the street, she drew her evening cloak even closer in the cool air and hurried to the corner, darting out of reach of the golden circles of light cast by the gas lamps. A carriage waited, not his lordship’s brougham but a black vehicle drawn by four horses. But for the shaft of moonlight caressing the glossy paintwork, the carriage might have disappeared into the darkness. As she approached, she saw the window curtains were closed. A groom jumped down from the box. He put down the step and opened the carriage door. She hovered on the threshold, her heart beating fast. Was it Derrick?
She almost cried with relief when he leapt out. With a quick perusal of the empty street, he clasped her hand. “You’ve not changed your mind, Bella?”
“I have not changed my mind.” She couldn’t make out his expression in the dark, but he certainly wasn’t the passionate lover she’d hoped for. Might he find her a nuisance or, worse, an annoyingly forward female? Recalling Maudling’s avaricious smirk, she breathed in sharply and placed a foot on the step.
Derrick’s strong hands clasped her waist and whisked her inside. The door closed. In the dim light, his gaze was inscrutable. Bella pressed herself against the squab with a nervous swallow, her throat parched as the carriage rocked. The groom aboard, the coachman roused the horses, and the carriage rolled forward on the way to Derrick’s home in Portland Square. There was no turning back now.
“You managed to leave the house without being seen?”
She nodded. “The butler had retired. I waited until our footman, Gerald, went down to the kitchen. He has a cup of cocoa around that time.”