The Wicked Baron

She gave a gurgle of laughter. ‘How I have missed your teasing! We have been abroad for so long, and everyone there was so serious.’ She tucked her hand in his arm. ‘Come, we have not seen you since Paris. One can never say everything properly in a letter, so you must tell me all you have been doing and then we will arrange for you to accompany me to Bond Street.’

‘Surely that is your husband’s duty.’

She waved one gloved hand. ‘Alas, James has no eye for colour.’

Luke began to back away. ‘I regret, Adele, that I have a great many engagements—’

‘Nonsense, you cannot be too busy to take me shopping.’

He cast a despairing look at James, who merely laughed.

‘No use appealing to me, Luke. I’ve come to town for my own amusement. You are always at your ease with the ladies, you will enjoy yourself!’

Chapter Three

Lady Broxted emerged from the milliner’s shop and stopped, blinking in the sunlight. ‘Well, Carlotta, where shall we go now?’

Following her aunt out on to the flag way, Carlotta gave a little sigh. ‘Must we go anywhere else, Aunt? We have bought so many gloves and shoes and hats that I dare not think what my uncle will say.’

‘Tush, child, what should he say? Broxted knows how it is in town. One’s gloves soon become soiled and the dirty streets quite ruin one’s shoes.’

‘And the bonnets, ma’am?’ asked Carlotta, regarding the hatboxes carried by a wooden-faced footman.

‘One can never have too many hats,’ opined Lady Broxted firmly. ‘Now, let us go in here, for, having seen how well you look in green, I am determined that you shall have a new silk dress for the evenings.’

‘Pray, ma’am, do not go in,’ begged Carlotta. ‘I have been sized up, measured and pulled this way and that until I am quite exhausted with it—’ She broke off, realising that Lady Broxted was not listening.

Following her aunt’s intent gaze, she saw Mrs Adele Ainslowe approaching. However, when she observed Adele’s escort she was aware of a sudden feeling of breathlessness—her heart seemed to be fighting to escape her body.

‘Dear me,’ muttered Lady Broxted, ‘how did she persuade Darvell to come shopping with her? Mrs Ainslowe, Lord Darvell, how do you do?’

Adele stopped and gave them her wide smile. ‘Good day to you, Lady Broxted, and this must be your pretty niece that everyone is talking of. Pray won’t you introduce us? I heard that you were at the Prices’ assembly, Miss Rivington,’ she continued once this office had been performed. ‘I am ashamed to admit that James and I came in very late, and there was not time to meet everyone.’

Carlotta answered as best she could. She was very much aware of Luke standing behind his sister-in-law. She was also a little overawed by Mrs Ainslowe’s vivacity. She had thought her very good-natured when she had first seen her and now, at such close proximity, her impression was confirmed; she could see the humour twinkling in her green eyes. Adele was looking past her, taking in the parcels piled up in the arms of Lady Broxted’s hapless footmen.

‘So,’ she continued, ‘we are on the same errand, I collect. We have been shopping all morning. Poor Darvell is quite out of patience with me. Tell me, is that little Frenchwoman still trading at the end of the street? Madame Beaufaire, the milliner. I was always able to find something I liked there, but last Season she was talking of returning to Paris, now the war is over.’

‘Yes, yes, Madame Beaufaire is still there,’ replied Lady Broxted, adding with a triumphant little smile, ‘we have just purchased a new bonnet of leghorn straw from her for Carlotta…’

Mrs Ainslowe laughed gaily. ‘Then you will be all the rage, my dear, and we shall all be looking daggers at you when you wear it! But this is your first time in London, is it not, Miss Rivington? Tell me how you find Bond Street.’

‘Exhausting,’ Lady Broxted answered before Carlotta could speak. ‘My poor niece is crying quits before we have completed even one side of the street, which is a great shame, because I did so want to visit the silk mercers of Covent Garden.’

Carlotta gave a rueful smile. ‘I am sure one soon grows accustomed, but it is all so new to me. You must forgive me; my senses are quite overcome by so many shops, so many wonderful things displayed. I am very much afraid that if I have to make one more purchase, I shall be completely undone.’

‘Well, then, I have the very thing,’ cried Mrs Ainslowe. ‘We shall change partners. Lady Broxted and I will finish our shopping together while Darvell escorts Miss Rivington back to Berkeley Square.’

‘Oh, no, ma’am!’ cried Carlotta, appalled. ‘Truly I am not tired, I was merely funning.’

Luke bent a frowning look upon his sister-in-law. ‘Pray, Adele, do not be so overbearing.’

She gave him a mischievous smile, but turned to address Carlotta. ‘My dear Miss Rivington, I can see that you are quite done up. You must accept this opportunity to rest. Let Darvell take you home; he dislikes shopping as much as you and has been wishing himself elsewhere for the past hour. Your aunt and I can enjoy ourselves for a while longer, then we shall follow you. What do you say, Lady Broxted?’

‘You are looking a little tired, Carlotta.’

‘No, really, I couldn’t leave you, Aunt—’

Mrs Ainslowe raised her hand. ‘Do not think we are putting ourselves out for you, Miss Rivington. This arrangement will suit us all. And you need not fear any impropriety; one of Lady Broxted’s footmen shall walk behind you.’

‘Well, if Lord Darvell does not object to taking my niece home…’

Carlotta could see that her aunt was weakening. ‘No, really, I could not impose upon Lord Darvell!’

She was ignored. Lord Darvell was bowing.

‘Nothing would give me greater pleasure, ma’am.’ He spoke with studied indifference and Carlotta cringed. ‘Well, Miss Rivington, shall we leave these ladies to their hedonistic pursuits?’

She was trapped. There was nothing she could say that would not sound churlish and ungrateful.

‘There, now!’ cried Mrs Ainslowe, beaming. ‘Take good care of her, Luke. Tell James I shall send for the carriage later to collect me from Broxted House.’

The two parties went their separate ways. Carlotta stared ahead of her. At Malberry she had wanted nothing more than to be alone with Luke but here, even with Lady Broxted’s footman walking a few paces behind, she felt very tense. It was as though she was walking beside a wild beast. A tiger, perhaps, that might pounce on her at any moment. However, when he spoke, Luke’s tone was perfectly polite.

‘My new sister is a minx,’ he remarked. ‘She likes to organise everyone her own way. I must apologise for her.’

‘Not at all,’ murmured Carlotta cautiously. ‘I like her; she is very…very refreshing.’

He laughed. ‘When you have known her a little longer, you will call her exhausting. She has so much energy to expend on her friends, especially when it comes to matchmaking. Tell Adele your requirements, Miss Rivington, and she will have you fixed up with a rich husband before you can blink an eye.’

Hellfire! Luke swore under his breath. What had made him say that? He had been surprised at the lightness of spirit he felt at the prospect of having Carlotta to himself for the short walk to Berkeley Square. She looked so pretty with that straw bonnet framing her face, the dark brown ribbons matching her eyes. He wanted to put their quarrel behind them, but his joking remark had come too soon. He sensed her drawing away from him.

‘I beg your pardon, I—’

She waved her hand, saying airily, ‘Pray do not apologise, my lord, it is an excellent notion. I am sure Mrs Ainslowe must know all the most eligible gentlemen in town. And she will not be shocked by my ambition—after all, your brother married her for her fortune, did he not?’

Luke ground his teeth. ‘I’ll have you know that James is very much in love with his wife!’

‘I am sure he is,’ came the honey-sweet reply. ‘But I’d wager the fortune does not detract from their happiness. Perhaps we could ask him, for he is even now approaching us.’

‘We shall do no such thing,’ he retorted as James hailed them from across the street.

‘Luke, well met!’

James tossed a coin to the crossing sweeper and came up to them, a look of enquiry upon his features. Luke performed the introduction almost reluctantly and Carlotta held out her hand.

‘Mr Ainslowe, how do you do, sir? I was speaking to your wife but ten minutes since.’

Luke glanced down at the little figure beside him. She was smiling shyly up at James, showing no sign of the scheming minx he knew her to be. James, damn him, was beaming back at her, obviously enchanted.