Restoration Series - A Scoundrel's Kiss Part 18

"I am only a girl from the country, sir, as was so kindly noted the first time we met. I can hardly be expected to voice my opinion in such company. You would all ridicule me."

"Not I!" Foz cried immediately, while Richard bowed with a surprisingly elegant flourish. "You must forgive my behavior that night, Lady Arabella. I fear, like many men, I do not respond well to criticism."

"I recall she thought your play immoral," Neville reminded him.

"I write only what the audience prefers," Richard said, his voice intimately low as he slyly insinuated himself next to Arabella. "Tell me, now that you have been longer in London, do you still think it so very bad?"

Neville knew that tone of voice, and if Richard knew what was good for him, he would cease to use it, or by G.o.d, Neville would challenge him to a duel, friend or not.

"Oh, yes," she replied brightly. "It was terrible."

Neville nearly choked as he fought not to laugh at Richard's stunned expression. Foz looked scandalized, while Lady Lippet clearly did not know whether to smile or frown.

"At least the lack of honor and loyalty in the characters was terrible-and that is the pity of it," Arabella explained. "You waste your talents on such frippery. I think, if you were to put your mind to it, you could write something truly splendid and immortal."

"Splendid and immortal?" Neville scoffed. "What, is he Jonson? Or Shakespeare?"

"I said you would ridicule me."

"Zounds, she did, too!" Foz cried. "For shame, Neville!"

Richard Blythe said nothing; he simply turned on his heel and strode away.

"You've insulted him," Neville observed.Arabella was not extremely sorry. She was, in fact, rather glad to see him go, for she did not doubt that friends like Richard Blythe had contributed to the change in Neville. If Neville had met other men in London, might he not be different? Might he not have remained as he was?

"You would have done better to keep your Puritan opinions to yourself," Neville said.

"What would you know of Puritans?" she said, challenging him. "He asked for my opinion, and against my better judgement, I gave it."

"Puritans would have us spend the days on our knees in prayerful contemplation of our many sins,"

Neville countered, "although how they can find the time to sin, I do not know."

"I suppose a person of your vast sophistication would not deign to speak with one and ask."

"She has you there, Neville!" Lord Cheddersby chuckled with evident delight. "You, speak with a Puritan!"

Lady Lippet giggled, too. In a woman of her years, that was not a pleasant sight.

Neville glanced over his shoulder. She followed his gaze and saw his father talking to the king, who petted his dogs and nodded. "The time has come to rescue His Majesty. If Lady Arabella will be so good as to accompany me, I'm store she will find a gentle way to disengage my father."

Thinking of Neville's effect on the earl, Arabella said, "Perhaps I should go alone, my lord."

"Although my father will be loath to see me, I think the annoyance of my presence may be necessary to provoke him to leave. Therefore, I suggest that we go together."

"Yes, Arabella, go," Lady Lippet agreed. "I would have some private conversation with Lord Cheddersby."

Lord Cheddersby looked as if he would prefer to refuse; nevertheless, he nodded, and together they went toward one of the benches at the far end of the penthouse.

As she watched them go, Arabella reflected that Lord Cheddersby was unmarried, he was rich, he was a n.o.bleman-in short, he was indeed everything Lord Ba.r.r.s.etts.h.i.+re required in a candidate for her hand.

Interrupting that disturbing thought, Neville took her hand and placed it on his arm. "Come, my dear, let us intervene before my father gets himself thrown into the Tower for treason."

Chapter 13.

As they walked toward the king and Lord Ba.r.r.s.etts.h.i.+re, Neville gave Arabella a wry, sidelong glance.

"Perhaps if you were to intercede, you could save my opinionated father from such a fate, no matter what he said."She frowned. "I have no influence with the king."

"I have no doubt you could be very influential, if you chose to be."

"I do not."

Did she mean she did not think she could be or that she might but did not wish to exert that influence?

"Lady Castlemaine is very influential."

"You would know better than I what that person is capable of," she said with a peevishness he was both glad and sorry to see.

Glad because she did not seem at all eager to wield the kind of power that might tempt a moral woman to become the mistress of a powerful man; sorry because she was still obviously under the impression that he and Lady Castlemaine had an intimate relations.h.i.+p.

"Lady Castlemaine has been the bane of her husband's life, and he was a friend of mine. I am pleased you have no wish to emulate her in any way."

"And I wish everyone would stop comparing us!"

He inclined his head. "I shall never do so again. Nevertheless, do not underestimate yourself. You bested poor old Richard, who will probably spend the next fortnight growling like a bear at anyone who dares to say a word to him."

"If I have succeeded in upsetting your friend," she replied, trying not to be so aware of the sinewy muscle beneath her fingers and not to be jealous of a woman no better than a harlot, "I have no doubt that he will soon recover."

"Thank heavens he is not a Puritan, or he would be despondent for days with the burden of sin your would place upon him."

"I put no burden on him. He does that himself, and I think you should not speak of what you do not know."

Neville halted and turned to face her. "I do know something of the Puritans' beliefs and have read many of their pamphlets. For instance, this fellow John Milton has some very interesting views, although I suspect he cannot find many other Puritans who agree with his favorable opinion on the subject of divorce."

Milton favored divorce? No wonder her father had banned his works from the house and declared that the writer's near-blindness was a judgment from G.o.d.

"I simply cannot accept the heavy toll Puritans would exact for the many things they consider sinful,"

Neville continued. "We are all made of flesh, not some celestial matter."

"Yes, we are," she replied, "but that does not mean we should not attempt to subdue our baser animal natures."

"I will not condemn myself because I enjoy the flesh G.o.d gave me."

"G.o.d also gave you an immortal soul, my lord. Would you risk that for a few fleeting moments of pleasure?"

He took hold of her hand and again placed it on his arm. She wondered if tennis explained hisunexpected strength. "I would risk many things for the pleasure of some people's company," he said.

His fingertips subtly caressed her knuckles, just as they had her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Her body reacted just as if he were stroking her, with heat and throbbing, powerful desire.

Wis.h.i.+ng she had worn gloves-although even that scant protection would perhaps not have made any difference-she swallowed hard as his dark-eyed gaze grew more intense. "Do not try to kiss me again!"

she warned.

She meant what she said about subduing one's baser nature, and she was determined to do just that, no matter how he spoke or looked at her or what his fingers were doing. After all, although she suspected he was a better man than his father gave him credit for, she still lacked undeniable evidence.

Indeed, given his behavior when he was alone with her, she should be of the same mind as the earl.

Neville's lips turned up at the corners. "Kiss you in front of all these people? My dear young woman, what do you take me for?"

The king caught sight of them and called out, "Ah, Lady Arabella! Farrington!"

Grateful for the interruption, Arabella hurried to the king and her guardian. She was pleased to note that the king did not seem annoyed. Perhaps Lord Ba.r.r.s.etts.h.i.+re was capable of diplomacy, after all.

"Your Majesty, my lord," she said, pausing.

The king continued to smile, apparently not noticing or choosing not to notice that the earl's expression when he regarded his son was decidedly hostile.

Was Lord Ba.r.r.s.etts.h.i.+re's reaction to Neville justified or not? How could she find out?

A stout man in fine clothing appeared at the entrance to the court, and the king waved at him.

"Here comes Lord Clarendon full of the affairs of state," Charles observed, turning to leave. "Farewell, and thank you for your thoughtful advice, my lord of Ba.r.r.s.etts.h.i.+re. We shall muse upon it. Come!" he called to his dogs, and trailed by his spaniels and their keeper, he hurried off toward Lord Clarendon.

"Well, Father, you have not been arrested," Neville noted dryly. "Since you have not and therefore do not require my a.s.sistance, I shall go."

"Of course I haven't been arrested!" the earl replied scornfully. "Why should I be? And yes, go. Go to your degenerate friends."

Arabella watched Neville's broad shoulders as he sauntered away until the earl spoke again. "Arrested? I knew he was a fool, but is he mad?"

"He feared you would be... indelicate," Arabella explained, "and the king would take offence."

"His Majesty was very interested in what I had to say," the earl grumbled, pulling his goatee thoughtfully.

"Indeed, I begin to believe I may have misjudged the fellow."

Arabella wished the man before her could be so open-minded about his son.

Neville strode into the coffeehouse, barely pausing to toss his hat onto a peg. As he had suspected, Richard was in the corner, staring into his steaming mug, oblivious to everyone around him.He barely looked up when Neville threw his leg over the bench to join him. "A pox on you, Richard!"

That got the playwright's notice.

"What are you thinking about so studiously?" Neville demanded.

"A new play."

"Liar!"

Richard's expression hardened. "You had better have a good, if misguided, reason for that last remark."

"You are scheming of a way to seduce her."

"Who?"

"Don't treat me like an idiot! Arabella-and she didn't even like your play!"

"That would be an idiotic reason for me to ignore a beautiful woman. But calm yourself, Neville-"

"I am calm!"

Richard smirked before he responded, "I would no more think of seducing her than I would my own sister."

Neville eyed him dubiously.

"I think your father is right," Richard said with apparent sincerity. "Lady Arabella Martin is a genuinely good and virtuous woman. Instead of seducing her, why don't you tell him the truth?"

"I have explained this to you before. He won't believe me. He'll think I'm trying to lie my way into his good graces."

"Then get the bankers to go with you."

"He won't believe anybody where I'm concerned. Even if he did, he would surely insist upon taking charge of his own affairs. The result would be disaster."

"Be that as it may, I cannot countenance your using Lady Arabella in this way."

"Perhaps my plans have changed. Perhaps I would prefer to offer my hand in marriage."

"Your father would never agree, and frankly, I think he would be right."

"What?"

"She is too good for you-and for me, too."

"By G.o.d, Richard, don't you dare play the hypocrite for me! You want her-and her inheritance, too, no doubt, as well as what is rightfully mine."

"I don't want money as badly as that."

"No? You seem to have conveniently forgotten that this has been the theme of countless conversations between us-how all you need is money, and then you can return to the bucolic paradise of which you were unjustly robbed.""I would never seduce a woman for money."

"But to satisfy your own selfish desires you would. 'I only write what the audience prefers,' " he mimicked mockingly. "Meanwhile, you were staring down her dress!"

"Your mind is a cesspool," Richard growled, rising from the bench.