Always a Temptress (36 page)
Read Always a Temptress Online
Authors: Eileen Dreyer
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Historical, #General
And there was no escape. So she did what cornered animals do. She turned to face the threat.
And there he was, one of the most beautiful men God had ever created. A true aristocrat with his butter-blond hair, clear blue eyes, and hawkish Armiston nose, he stood a slim inch below six feet. His corbeau coat and oyster silk smalls were only a bit dandified, with a silver marcella waistcoat, half a dozen fobs, and a ruby glinting from his finger. He was bestowing an impish smile on the duchess, who seemed delighted by it.
Olivia had once thought that his handsome looks reflected a kind soul. She would never make that mistake again.
“Dear Gervaise.” Lady Kate was laughing up at him. “How thoughtful to persist in your delusion that I am a fragile flower.”
His grin was disarming, his laugh like music. “Been thoroughly put in my place, haven't I? Daresay you'll ignore my heartfelt wish to safeguard your looks, and then where will you be when they're gone?”
Lady Kate laughed again and held out her hand to him. “Doing it up much too brown, Gervaise. You know full well that I'm content simply being outrageous. I'll leave you to hold the torch for natural perfection.”
Gervaise bent over Lady Kate's hand, but suddenly he wasn't looking at her. He had just caught sight of Olivia.
She was probably the only one who caught the quickly shuttered surprise in his eyes. The glint of triumph. She wanted to laugh. Here she'd been hiding herself from judgmental mamas, when there had been a viper in the room all along.
“It seems I arrived just in time,” he said, straightening with a delighted smile as he shot his cuffs. “As quickly as this place is emptying, I might have missed you all. I know Miss Fairchild, of course, Kate, but who is this?”
“Make your bows to Mrs. Olivia Grace, Gervaise,” Lady Kate said. “Olivia, this is Mr. Gervaise Armiston. He is about to take me over to the door so I can see off our brave soldiers. I have no brave soldiers of my own. Only Gervaise.”
Gervaise chuckled good-naturedly and extended an arm. “I also live to serve, Kate,” he protested. “It's just that I only serve you.” Giving Olivia a quick bow, he nodded. “Mrs. Grace.”
Olivia swallowed against rising bile. “Mr. Armiston.”
Lady Kate rested a slim white hand on his midnight sleeve. “Excellent. Come, Gervaise. Let us now go and remind our soldiers what they fight for. Grace, Olivia…tomorrow.”
The duchess had barely turned away before Olivia's legs gave out from under her, and she sat down hard.
“Olivia?” Grace Fairchild asked, her face creased in concern. “Are you all right?”
Olivia looked up, trying desperately to quell her nausea. Suddenly, from the streets below, military drums shattered the night. Trumpets blared, and the Duchess of Richmond rushed about the ballroom, urging the men not to leave until after dinner had been served.
“Just another hour!” she pleaded.
Officers lined up at the doors to get a farewell kiss from the lovely Duchess of Murther. Some girls wept, while others swept off to dinner with the remaining men. And in the corner where the chaperones sat, Olivia's world collapsed.
Her hands wouldn't stop shaking. She had to warn Georgie. She had to warn them all.
She couldn't. Any contact with them would lead Gervaise right back to them, and that would prove fatal.
Just as it had before.
Oh, Jamie.
Grace touched her shoulder. “Olivia?”
Olivia jumped. “Oh… ,” she said, trying so hard to smile as she climbed to still-unsteady legs. “I'm fine. I suppose it's time to go.”
“You're sure you're all right? You're pale.”
“Just the news.” Gathering her shawl, she avoided Grace's sharp gaze. Pasting on a false smile, she turned. “I wish I were more like Lady Kate. Look how she's making all the men laugh.”
Grace looked to where the duchess was lifting on her toes to kiss a hotly blushing boy in rifleman green. “Lady Kate is amazing, isn't she?”
“She's a
disgrace,
” one of the nearby women hissed.
Several other heads nodded enthusiastically.
“Glass houses,” snapped a regal older woman at the end of the row.
Everyone looked over at her, but the woman ignored them. Reticule and shawl in hand, she rose imperiously to her feet. She was a tall woman, with exceptional posture and a proud face beneath thick, snowy hair. She'd taken only two steps, though, before she caught her toe and pitched forward, almost landing on her nose. Olivia jumped to help, but Grace was already there.
“Dear Lady Bea,” she said, steadying the elegant woman. “Do have a care.”
The older woman patted her cheek. “Ah, for the last Samaritan, my child. For the last Samaritan.”
“That's
good,
Lady Bea.”
“Indeed it is,” the older woman agreed. Grace smiled as if she knew what the woman meant and ushered her on her way.
“Lady Kate's companion,” Grace confided as they passed.
“Mrs. Grace!” Mrs. Bottomly screeched. She was bearing down on them like a particularly skinny elephant with her calves in tow. “We are leaving.”
Peacock feathers bobbing, Mrs. Bottomly herded her hopefuls toward the door. Olivia had no choice but to follow. Lady Kate waved as Olivia passed and then hugged a burly dragoon. Olivia saw that Gervaise wasn't with the duchess anymore and instinctively knew where he would be. She almost turned back for the safety of the ballroom.
He was waiting for her, of course. Olivia had made it only a few steps into the hot night when he stepped out of the crowd.
“I've missed you, Livvie,” he said, reaching out a hand. “You'll see me, won't you?”
Not a request. An order wrapped in etiquette. Olivia couldn't prevent the sick cold or trembling that beset her.
She could hold her ground, though. She could face him eye-to-eye. The days of downcast eyes and prayed-for escape were long over. “Why, no, Gervaise,” she said just as amiably. “I won't.”
And before he could respond, she swept down the steps and into the chaotic night.
Where authors give you the inside scoop!
Dear Reader,
The first time I ever saw an Adirondack lake I was twenty-three years old and madly in love. My boyfriend’s grandparents had built their “camp” in the 1940s, and he’d often told me that it was his favorite place in the world. (“Camp” is Adirondack lingo for a house on a lake. If it’s really big, like the Vanderbilts’ summer home on Raquette Lake, people sometimes throw the word “great” in front of it.)
I can still remember my first glimpse of the blue lake, the sandy beach, the wooden docks jutting into it, the colorful sails of the boats that floated by. It was love at first sight. My mind was blown by the beauty all around me.
Of course, since I’m a writer, my brain immediately began spinning off into storyland. What if two kids grew up together in this small lake town and were high-school sweethearts? What if one of them left the other behind for bright lights/big city? And what would their reunion look like ten years later?
Fast-forward fifteen years from that first sight of an Adirondack lake, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to introduce my Emerald Lake series to you! After thinking she had left the small town—and the girl she had once been—behind forever, Andi Powell must return to help run Lake Yarns, her family’s knitting store on Main Street. Of course everyone in town gets involved in a love story that she’s convinced herself is better left forgotten. But with the help of the Monday night knitting group, Nate’s sister, Andi’s mother and grandmother, and an old circus carousel in the middle of the town green, Andi just might find the love she’s always deserved in the arms of the one man who has waited his entire life for her.
I hope you fall as much in love with the beauty and people of Emerald Lake as I did.
Happy reading,
P.S. That boyfriend is now my husband (Guess where we honeymooned? Yes, the lake!), and four years ago we bit the bullet and became the proud owners of our very own Adirondack camp. Now, just in case you’re tempted to throw the word “great” around, you should know that our log cabin is a hundred years old…and pretty much original. Except for the plumbing. Thankfully, we have that!
Dear Reader,
In HEARTSTRINGS AND DIAMOND RINGS (on sale now), Alison Carter has been stuck in the dating world for years, and she’s getting a little disillusioned. In personal ads, she’s discovered that “athletic” means the guy has a highly developed right bicep from opening and closing the refrigerator door; and that a man is “tall, dark, and handsome” only in a room full of ugly albino dwarves. But what about those other descriptions in personal ads? What do they
really
mean?
“Aspiring actor”: Uses Aussie accent to pick up chicks
“Educated”: Watches
Jeopardy!
“Emotionally sound”: Or so his latest psychiatrist says
“Enjoys fine dining”: Goes inside instead of using the drive-through
“Friendship first”: As long as “friendship” includes sex
“Good listener”: Has nothing intelligent to say
“Likes to cuddle”: Mommy issues
“Looking for soulmate”: Or just someone to have sex with
“Loyal”: Stalker
“Old fashioned”: Wants you barefoot and pregnant
“Passionate”: About beer, football, and Hooters waitresses
“Romantic”: Isn’t nearly as ugly by candlelight
“Spiritual”: Drives by a church on his way to happy hour
“Stable”: Heavily medicated
“Young at heart”: And one foot in the grave
“Witty”: Quotes dialogue from
Animal House
Alison finally decides enough is enough. She’s going to hire a matchmaker, who will find out the truth about a man
before
she goes out with him. What she doesn’t expect to find is a matchmaking
man—
one who really
is
tall, dark, and handsome! And suddenly Mr. Right just might be right under her nose…
I hope you’ll enjoy HEARTSTRINGS AND DIAMOND RINGS!
Happy reading!
Dear Reader,
I love to write the love story of two people who have known each other a long time. I love it even more when they’re now enemies. First of all, I don’t have to spend time introducing them to each other. They already have a history and common experiences. They speak in a kind of shorthand that sets them apart from the people around them. Emotions are already more complex. And then I get to mix in the added spice that comes from two people who spit and claw each time they see each other. Well, if you’ve read the first two books in my Drake’s Rakes series, you know that Lady Kate Seaton and Major Sir Harry Lidge are definitely spitting and clawing. In ALWAYS A TEMPTRESS, we finally find out why. And we get to see if they will ever resolve their differences and finally admit that they still passionately love each other.
Happy reading!
Dear Reader,
St. Andrews University, alma mater of Prince William and Princess Kate, was Scotland’s first university, and it figures significantly in HIGHLAND HERO, the second book in my Scottish Knights trilogy, as well as in its predecessor, HIGHLAND MASTER (Forever, February 2011). The heroes of all three books in the trilogy met as students of Walter Traill, Bishop of St. Andrews, in the late fourteenth century. All three are skilled warriors and knights of the realm.
Sir Ivor Mackintosh of HIGHLAND HERO—besides being handsome, daring, and a man of legendary temper—is Scotland’s finest archer, just as Fin Cameron of HIGHLAND MASTER is one of the country’s finest swordsmen. Both men are also survivors of the Great Clan Battle of Perth, in which the Mackintoshes of Clan Chattan fought champions of Clan Cameron. In other words, these two heroes fought on opposing sides of that great trial by combat.
Nevertheless, thanks to Bishop Traill, they are closer than most brothers.
Because Traill’s students came from noble families all over Scotland, any number of whom might be feuding or actively engaged in clan warfare, the peace-loving Traill insisted that his students keep their identities secret and use simple names within the St. Andrews community. They were on their honor to not probe into each other’s antecedents, so they knew little if anything about their friends’ backgrounds while studying academics and knightly skills together. Despite that constraint, Traill also taught them the value of trust and close friendships.
The St. Andrews Brotherhood in my Scottish Knights series is fictional but plausible, in that the historic Bishop Traill strongly supported King Robert III and Queen Annabella Drummond while the King’s younger brother, the Duke of Albany, was actively trying to seize control of the country. Traill also provided protection at St. Andrews for the King’s younger son, James (later James I of Scotland), conveyed him there in secrecy, and wielded sufficient power to curb Albany when necessary.
We don’t know how Traill and the King arranged for the prince, age seven in 1402, to travel across Scotland from the west coast to St. Andrews Castle. But that sort of mystery stimulates any author’s gray cells.
So, in HIGHLAND HERO, when the villainous Albany makes clear his determination to rule Scotland no matter what, Traill sends for Sir Ivor to transport young Jamie to St. Andrews. Sir Ivor’s able if sometimes trying assistant in this endeavor is the Queen’s niece, Lady Marsaili Drummond-Cargill, who has reasons of her own to elude Albany’s clutches but does not approve of temperamental men or men who assume she will do their bidding without at least
some
discussion.
Traill’s successor, Bishop Henry Wardlaw (also in HIGHLAND HERO), founded William’s and Kate’s university in 1410, expanding on Traill’s long tradition of education, believing as Traill had that education was one of the Church’s primary duties. Besides being Scotland’s first university, St. Andrews was also the first university in Scotland to admit women (1892)—and it admitted them on exactly the same terms as men. Lady Marsaili would have approved of that!
Suas Alba!
