Page 11 of Tempting Harriet
“No.” Her eyes widened in shock and her cheeks flamed.
“It would not be at all shameful,” he said. “Women more than men, I believe, feel the need for the security of marriage. And London during the Season is the great marriagemart. Your experiences of last evening and this afternoonmust both have shown you that you are all the rage, as thesaying goes.”
“How foolish,” she said with a laugh.
“But it is true,” he said. “You will not lack for partners and escorts morning, afternoon, or evening for the rest ofthe Season, Harriet. It is a confident prediction I make. Youwill not lack for suitors, either. What do you look for?Handsome features and figure? A steady character?Wealth? Youth? Age? You will have your choice.”
And may the man who takes her fancy fry in the hottest pit of hell, he thought uncharitably.
“None of those things,” she said. He smiled, knowing that she was intensely embarrassed and knowing thereforethat she had indeed come in search of Wingham’s successor. “I am not looking for a husband.”
“For a lover, then?” he asked for the sheer joy of seeing the expected color flood her cheeks again. “Is that what youhave come for, Harriet? Anaffaire de coeur?That is nothing to be ashamed of, either. Your husband has been gonefor longer than a year.”
He knew he was being unpardonably outrageous. He even wondered suddenly if the ailing Lord Wingham hadbeen able to consummate their marriage. Perhaps it was avirgin he was teasing. He thought she was not going to answer. He was surprised and a little alarmed to see her lowerlip tremble. He had hit a nerve that he had had no intentionof even touching.
“I miss him,” she said almost in a whisper.
Well, at least one of his unasked questions had been answered. She and Wingham had had a sexual relationship. One that she missed. He eased his horses to a halt andturned to her.
“I am sorry.” he said. “I did not mean to hurt you.”
“You did not.” She directed her eyes at his neckcloth. “I do not know why you danced with me or brought me driving,your grace, especially when you knew that I would havehad another escort even if you had not asked. But I thinkyou should not have done either. I think you should be withLady Phyllis Reeder or someone else eligible to be yourbride.”
“You know very well why, Harriet,” he said. When her eyes slipped even lower, he set one hand beneath her chinand raised her face. “For the same reason that you grantedme that set and accepted this invitation.” He kissed her,parting his lips over hers so that he could both feel and tasteher. Her own lips tightened and then trembled and thenpushed back against his own. He felt instantly as if someone had lit a fire all around them, heating the air and cutting off their supply of oxygen. He lifted his head andreleased her chin.
“That is why,” he said. “You have lost none of your charms in six years, my little blusher. Quite the contrary.”
“Take me home,” she said. But there was none of the indignation in her voice that he might have expected, only a calm dignity.
Ah, Harriet!
“Yes,” he said. “I think I had better. Talk to me. Discuss the weather.”
She did not do so. They returned to Sir Clive Forbes’s in silence. It was not an angry silence or even a particularlyuncomfortable one. Just a silence that acknowledged thefact that that brief kiss had spoken volumes that both ofthem needed time alone to digest and interpret.
He lifted her to the ground from the high perch of her seat when they arrived, noting the tininess of her waist andher soft femininity. “Harriet,” he said.
But she was smiling and extending a hand to him. “Thank you, your grace,” she said. “That was very pleasantindeed. You are very kind.”
Ah. She had raised a stone wall between them. He took his cue from her and bowed over her hand before raising itto his lips. “My pleasure, ma’am,” he said. “I was, I believe, the envy of every other gentleman in the park this afternoon.”
She turned without a smile or a blush and entered the house. He stood with pursed lips, staring ruefully at thedoor, which a servant had closed behind her. She was right.That must be the end of it. The end of something that hadnever really begun.
Every day brought its dizzying array of activities. Mornings were spent with Susan. Harriet played with her and read to her indoors and took her out to play in the park or tofeed the swans on the Serpentine or to view the Tower ofLondon and other sights suitable for the enjoyment of ayoung child. Life would be very dreary without the existence of her daughter, she often thought, and she oftengazed at her in vain for signs of Godfrey. But Susan was allher mother, even to the golden-blond hair and the greeneyes, as Godfrey had always maintained with great prideand delight. But though she could not see him in their child,she cherished the most dear gift of all they had been able togive each other.
Sometimes she went shopping with Amanda or to exchange her books at the library. Occasionally Lady Beaconswood, who insisted on being called Julia, called, and once it was established that they both liked the outdoors,they sometimes went together to the park with their children—with Julia’s five-year-old daughter and three-year-old son and with Susan.
“I have done my duty marvelously well,” Julia said with a laugh on the first occasion when they took the childrenout. “A son and a daughter though in the wrong order andnow another for insurance if it is a boy, though Daniel wasvery cross with himself when I broke the news that I wasenceinteagain. He is of the opinion that wives should beforced to perform that particular duty no more than twice intheir lives—even if the first two are girls. He affects to believe all the business about getting heirs to be so much nonsense. Was Lord Wingham disappointed not to have ason?”
“Oh, no,” Harriet said. “He wanted a daughter so badly that I was terrified of giving birth to a son. And he wantedher to look just like me.”
“He certainly had his wish,” Julia said. “I do wish Annabel would grow out of the habit of bossing James. Justlook at her. It is a good thing Daniel is not here. He would frown and then tell me how much she resembles me. Hedisliked me heartily when we were both children, youknow. I was what might be described as a hoyden. AndDaniel would tell you that I understate the case.” Shelaughed and hurried forward as quickly as she could considering her bulk to scold her daughter and encourage hermild-natured son to stand up for himself.
The afternoons were spent out visiting with Amanda or being visited or in company with one of the surprisingnumber of gentlemen who were showing an interest in her.Mr. Kershaw proposed marriage to her after knowing herfor one week and was gently refused. Sir Philip Graftonhinted at the idea that they might come to some mutuallysatisfying arrangement that did not include marriage andwas more firmly rejected. The other gentlemen showedvarying degrees of ardor. Some showed no more than acomforting pleasure in her company. But after a couple ofweeks Harriet could count six gentlemen, if she includedSir Henry Newman, who was older than Godfrey wouldhave been, whom she could probably lead toward thoughtsof matrimony if she so chose. It was all very flattering andvery pleasant. Very dizzying, in fact for a woman who remembered what it had felt like to be Harriet Pope.
Almost every evening brought its outing—to a ball or a party or rout, to a concert or the theater or opera, to a pleasure garden. She almost forgot what it was like to spend aquiet evening at home with a book or her embroidery. Fortunately most evening social functions began late enoughthat she could get Susan ready for bed herself and play withher for a while and read her a bedtime story.
She saw the Duke of Tenby frequently. He never went out of his way to avoid her. Indeed, sometimes he made apoint of strolling up to her at a party or riding up to her inthe park to exchange a few pleasantries, often discussingthe weather with a mocking gleam in his eyes. It was becoming an accepted fact among members of thetonthat hewas choosing himself a bride at long last and that that bridewas very likely to be Lady Phyllis Reeder. He danced withher once at every ball and with almost no one else, droveher in the park occasionally, escorted her once to the theater. It seemed that he was set on doing his duty to his family and rank. His grandmother would be happy.
