Musical or operatic parody wasn’t his favorite form of entertainment, but clearly it was hers. He soon found himself watching her half the time and not the production. Because Clarissa even threw herself into being a spectator. She laughed, she frowned, she made droll commentaries on everything.
He’d never seen anyone get so much pleasure from a simple theater performance. While her mother was busy waving to other patrons, whispering in her daughter’s ear, and looking for the opera glasses she’d dropped, Clarissa sat rapt, an incandescent joy on her face as she watched what happened on the stage. He only wished he could capture that expression.
By the time the intermezzo came, he was almost loath to see the first piece end. But he had little chance to ask her opinion of the performance before the box door burst open, and they were swamped with visitors.
Unsurprisingly, none of them were there for him. A few of Lady Margrave’s cronies wanted to compare notes with the dowager countess, but most of the visitors were young heirs of titled gentlemen who’d come to flirt with Clarissa. So Edwin stood back and observed the scene, hoping to learn which of their tactics garnered the best response from her.
He told himself he only wanted to see what he could use in courting other women. But the truth was more complicated. He wanted to figure Clarissa out. She was like one of those intricate clockwork beauties at Meeks’s Mechanical Museum. He just had to know what made her tick.
Not that he could tell. She treated the young gentlemen like gamboling pups for her to tease and toy with, but never let too close.
Was that her game? To draw men in, then keep them away? Had she been playing that game with him the other night? Or was it something about all men that kept her on her guard?
Just as he felt he was circling some great discovery about her character, Major Wilkins showed up to join her group of fawning admirers.
Devil take it. After Clarissa had mentioned the man’s “ogling” her breasts, Edwin had asked the members at St. George’s some discreet questions about Wilkins. According to them, as the youngest son of a nearly penniless duke, he was the slyest form of fortune hunter, hiding his poverty behind his title. His father had sired a passel of sons, which meant there was little money left for the youngest. Which was probably why Wilkins had his eye on Clarissa and her fortune.
“That is a most fetching gown, Lady Clarissa.” The arse’s gaze dipped down, and Edwin felt an unreasonable urge to pummel the man.
Especially when Clarissa snapped open her fan and began to flutter it, effectively hiding her bosom from the major’s gaze.
“As always, Lady Clarissa has very good taste,” Edwin said coldly.
“She does indeed,” Wilkins said with a bit of a leer.
That did it. Time to use what else he’d learned about the bastard. “So, sir,” Edwin said bluntly, “is it true that you were recently asked to leave your regiment?”
“Oh, Lord,” Clarissa muttered.
The major flushed. “It wasn’t as simple as all that.”
“It sounded simple to me. I heard you were caught in behavior unbecoming a gentleman. Something about your trying to elope with a general’s daughter?”
As the pups sat there snickering, Wilkins drew himself up. “That is a scandalous lie!”
Edwin’s gaze narrowed. “Are you calling me a liar, sir?”
Wilkins looked suddenly as if he’d rather be anywhere but there. “No. I’m merely saying you’ve been misinformed.”
“Deuce take it, someone has been misinforming people again,” one of the pups chimed in. “You’d best nip that in the bud, Wilkins. Your father might hear of it and cut you off.”
“I heard he’s already done that,” one of his compatriots said. “But perhaps I was misinformed.”
The pups erupted into laughter, which the major didn’t apparently find the least amusing, for he glowered at them all.
Gathering his wounded dignity about him, he nodded to Clarissa. “I believe I shall return when you aren’t so plagued with visitors, madam.” Then he shot Edwin a daggered glance before leaving the box.
The pups continued their fun after he was gone. “He’s headed off to find that dastardly misinformer.”
“I thought he was a scandalous liar?”
“Clearly he’s neither, since the ‘lie’ sent the major off with his tail between his legs. What is that saying about fire and smoke?”
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire?”
“No, where there’s smoking, there’s fire, and the major was smoking, to be sure.”
“You see what you started?” Clarissa complained to Edwin.
“Don’t blame me if your friends are idiots,” he shot back.
“Hey!” one of the pups said in mock outrage. “I am not an idiot. I am a fool.”
“At least you’re not a misinformer,” another said, and they split their sides laughing.
“Oh, you gentlemen are too awful,” Lady Margrave said, tittering along with them, as did her cronies. “The poor major. And he does have such a fondness for my daughter, too.”
“A fondness for her fortune, you mean,” Edwin said sharply, not in the mood to endure Lady Margrave’s lack of perception.