Slightly Shady (18 page)

crisis,"' Anthony said in heartfelt tones. "A mop, eh?" Admiration lit his gaze. "I must say, hers is a resourceful nature." "Her resourceful nature is not the issue here. The point I am trying to make is that she ought never to have put herself into such an untenable position in the first place." "Yes, well, you have often remarked that Mrs. Lake is inclined to be independent-minded." "Independent-minded is a gross understatement. Mrs, Lake is ungovernable, unpredictable, and headstrong. She will not take direction or advice unless it suits her. I never know what she will do next, and she feels no particular need to inform me until it is too late for me to stop her." "From her point of view, you no doubt possess similar faults," Anthony said dryly "Ungovernable. Unpredictable. I have not noticed that you feel any particular need to inform her of your actions until after you have taken them." Tobias felt his jaw lock. "What the devil are you talking about? There is no point in advising her of every move I make in this affair. Knowing her, she would insist on accompanying me whenever I wished to speak with one of my informants, and that would frequently be impossible. I certainly cannot take her with me when I go into establishments such as The Gryphon, and she cannot accompany me into my clubs." "In other words, you do not always inform Mrs. Lake of your actions because you know there is likely to be an argument." "Precisely. An argument with Lavinia is frequently an exercise in futility." "That means that you sometimes emerge the loser." "The lady can be extraordinarily difficult." Anthony said nothing but his brows rose in silent comment. Tobias picked up a pen and tapped it on the blotter. For some reason, he felt obliged to defend himself. "Mrs. Lake very nearly got assaulted this afternoon," he said quietly "I have every right to be in a temper." Anthony contemplated him for a long while and then, to Tobias's amazement, he inclined his head in an understanding manner. "Fear sometimes has that effect on a man, does it not?" Anthony observed. "I do not blame you for your strong feelings on the matter. You will no doubt have nightmares tonight." Tobias said nothing. He was afraid Anthony was right. Lavinia looked up from her notes when Mrs. Chilton ushered Anthony into her study. "Good day to you, sir." He gave her a very proper bow. "Thank you for seeing me, Mrs. Lake. Lavinia managed a welcoming smile and tried not to let him see that she was holding her breath. "You are quite welcome. Please sit down, Mr. Sinclair." "If you don't mind, I would prefer to stand." Anthony's expression was one of resolute determination. "This will be somewhat difficult for me. Indeed, I have never done this before." Her worst fears were confirmed. Lavinia stifled a sigh, put aside her notes, and braced herself to deal with a formal offer for Emeline's hand. "Before you begin, Mr. Sinclair, please let me say that I find you to be a very admirable gentleman." He looked startled by that remark. "Very kind of you to say so, madam." "You have only just passed the one-and-twenty mark, I believe." He frowned. "What does my age have to do with this?" She cleared her throat. "It is quite true that some people are mature beyond their years. That is certainly the case with Emeline. " Anthony's gaze shone with sudden admiration. "Miss Emeline is, indeed, astonishingly clever for a person of any age." "Nevertheless, she is barely eighteen." "Indeed." This was not going well, Lavinia thought. "The thing is, Sir, I would not want Emeline to rush into marriage." Anthony brightened. "I could not agree with you more, Mrs. Lake. Miss Emeline must take her time about the matter. It would be a grave mistake for her to become engaged too quickly. A bright spirit such as hers must not be too quickly extinguished by the constraints of marriage." "We are agreed on that point, Sir." "Miss Emeline must be allowed to set her own pace." "Indeed." Anthony squared his shoulders. "But as much as I admire Miss Emeline and although I have dedicated myself to her happiness-" "I had not realized you had done so." "It is my great pleasure," Anthony assured her. "But as I was saying, I did not call upon you today to speak of her future." The sense of relief Lavinia felt left her almost giddy. It appeared she would not have to find a way to thwart young love after all. She relaxed and smiled at Anthony. "In that case, Mr. Sinclair, what was it you wished to speak to me about?" " Tobias. " Some of her relief evaporated. "What about him?" she asked warily "I am aware that he quarreled with you earlier this afternoon." She moved her hand in a casual gesture. "He lost his temper. What of it? It was hardly the first occasion." Anthony nodded unhappily. "Tobias has always had a tendency to be somewhat brusque, and he has certainly never suffered fools gladly" "I do not consider myself to be a fool, Mr. Sinclair." Horror lit Anthony's eyes. "I never meant to imply any such thing, Mrs. Lake." "Thank you." "What I am trying to say is that there appears to be something in the nature of his association with you that has an unusually provocative effect on his temper." "If you have come here to ask me not to annoy him further, I fear you have wasted your time. I assure you, I do not deliberately set out to irritate him. But as you just noted, there does appear to be something in the nature of our association that has an abrasive effect on him." "Indeed." Anthony paced back and forth in front of the desk. "The thing is, I would not have you judge him too harshly, Mrs. Lake." That gave her pause. "I beg your pardon?" she ventured. "I promise you that beneath his somewhat rough exterior, Tobias is a fine man." Anthony stopped in front of the window. "No one knows that better than L" "I am well aware of your fondness for him." Anthony's mouth twisted. "I wasn't always so fond of him. indeed, back at the beginning when my sister married him, I think I actually hated Tobias for a while." She went quite still. "Why was that?" "Because I knew that Ann had been forced to wed him." "Indeed." She did not want to hear that Tobias had married his wife because he had first made her pregnant, she thought. "She married him for my sake as well as her own, you see. I resented the fact that she felt obliged to sacrifice herself. And for a while I made Tobias the villain of the piece." "I'm afraid I don't understand," Lavinia said. "After our parents died, my sister and I were taken to live with our aunt and uncle. Aunt Elizabeth was not at all pleased to have us. As for Uncle Dalton, he was the vile sort who took advantage of chambermaids and governesses and any other helpless females who were so unfortunate as to cross his path." "I see." "The bastard tried to seduce Ann. She refused his advances but he was very insistent. She avoided him by hiding in my bedchamber at night. We barred the door every evening for over four months. I believe Aunt Elizabeth knew what was happening, because she became determined to see Ann married off. One day Tobias came to visit my uncle on a matter of business," "Mr. March was acquainted with your uncle?" "In those days, Tobias made his living as a man of business. He had a number of different clients. Uncle Dalton had recently become one of them. Aunt Elizabeth used Tobias's visit as an excuse to invite some of the neighbors to join us for dinner and cards. She insisted they spend the night under her roof rather than brave the roads. Ann thought she would be safe with so many people in the house, so she spent the night in her own room." "What happened?" "The long and the short of it is that Aunt Elizabeth arranged for my sister to be found in what she claimed was a compromising position with Tobias." "Good heavens. How on earth did she manage that?"

Anthony stared out into the garden. "Aunt Elizabeth gave Tobias the room next to Ann's. There was an adjoining door. it was locked, of course. But early the next morning my aunt entered Ann's room and unlocked the door. Then she staged a great scene in which she announced to the entire household and her guests that Tobias had obviously entered Ann's bedchamber in the middle of the night and had his way with her." Lavinia was incensed. "But that's utterly ridiculous." Anthony smiled bitterly. "Yes, of course it was. But everyone knew Ann was ruined in the eyes of the neighbors. Aunt Elizabeth insisted upon an offer of marriage. I fully expected Tobias to refuse to be coerced into the arrangement. I was only a boy yet it was very clear to me, even then, that he was not the sort of man who would allow himself to be forced into doing anything he did not wish to do. But to my surprise, he told Ann to pack her trunk." "You're quite right, Mr. Sinclair," Lavinia said gently. "Tobias would not have gone along with your aunt's demands had he not been willing." "The fact that he took Ann away was not the most astonishing thing. The truly astounding thing was that Tobias told me to go and pack also. He rescued both of us that day, although I did not realize it until later." "I see." She thought of how it would have been for a small boy to be taken away by a stranger. "You must have been frightened." Anthony grimaced. "Not for myself. As far as I was concerned, anything was better than living with our relatives. But I was extremely anxious about what Tobias might do to Ann once he had her in his power." "Was Ann afraid of Tobias?" "No. Never." Anthony smiled at some private memory. "He was her knight in bright armor, right from the start. I think she fell in love with him before we were halfway down the drive, certainly before we struck the main road to London." Lavinia propped her chin on her hand. "Perhaps that was one of the reasons why you did not take to Tobias immediately. Until that day, you were first in your sister's affections." Anthony looked bemused for a moment and then he frowned. "You may be correct. I had not considered it from that point of view." "Did Mr. March marry your sister straight off?" "Within the month. He must have fallen in love with her at first sight. How could he not? She was very beautiful, inside and out. She was the gentlest of creatures. Kind, gracious, loving, sweettempered. More of an angel than a woman of flesh and blood, I think. Certainly too good for this world." In short, a woman quite the opposite of me, Lavinia thought. "But Tobias feared that her feelings for him were based only on gratitude and would soon fade," Anthony continued. "I see." "He told Ann she was under no obligation to become his wife, nor did he expect her to play the role of his mistress. But regardless of her decision, he made it clear he would find a way to take care of us." "But she loved him." "Yes." Anthony studied the pattern on the carpet for a moment and then looked up with a bleak, sad smile. "They had less than five years together before she and the babe both died of a fever in childbed. Tobias was left with a thirteen-year-old brotherin-law. " "Losing your sister must have been extraordinarily difficult for you." "Tobias had been very patient with me. By the end of the first year of the marriage, I idolized him." Anthony gripped the back of a chair. "But I went a little mad for a time after Ann died. I blamed him for her death, you see." "I understand." "To this day, it is a wonder to me that he did not send me back to my aunt and uncle at some point during those months after the funerals or, at the very least, ship me off to school. But Tobias tells me it never crossed his mind to get rid of me. He claims he had become accustomed to having me around." Anthony turned back to the window and fell silent, apparently lost in his own recollections. Lavinia blinked several times to get rid of the moisture that was blurring her vision. Finally she abandoned the effort and took a hankie out of the top desk drawer. She dabbed quickly at her eyes and sniffed once or twice. When she had composed herself, she clasped her hands on the desk again and waited. Anthony made no attempt to resume the tale. "Do you mind if I ask a question?" she said after a while. "What is it?" "I have wondered about Mr. March's limp. I am quite certain he had no such difficulty when I met him in Rome." Anthony glanced at her in surprise. "Did he not tell you what happened?" His mouth twisted ruefully. "No, knowing Tobias, he would not have done so. Carlisle lodged a bullet in his leg that night. it was a fight to the death. Tobias barely survived. As it was, he spent several weeks recovering from the effects of his wound. I suspect he will have that limp for a long time, perhaps for the rest of his life." Lavinia stared at him, stunned. "I see," she whispered eventually "I had not realized. Dear heaven. " There was another lengthy silence. "Why are you telling me these things?" she asked eventually. Anthony gave a small start and looked at her. "I wanted you. to understand. " "Understand what?" "Tobias. He is not like other men." "Believe me, I am well aware of that." "It is because he has had to make his own way in the world, you see," Anthony continued earnestly "He lacks a proper polish. " Lavinia smiled. "Something tells me that no amount of polishing would alter Mr. March's character." "What I am trying to explain is that even though his manners are not always what they should be when he is in the company of ladies, he has many excellent qualities." "Pray do not trouble yourself to give me a list of all of Mr. March's outstanding qualities. You will likely bore both of us." "I fear you will not make allowances for his shortness of temper and his occasional lapse of manners." Lavinia flattened her palms on the desk and pushed herself to her feet. "Mr. Sinclair, I assure you that I am quite comfortable with Mr. March's temper and his poor manners." "You are?" "Indeed, sir." She came out from behind the desk to show him to the door. "How could it be otherwise? I myself exhibit those very same character flaws. just ask anyone who knows me well." He had hoped he would change his mind, but she had been in the business too long to expect such a happy event. In her experience, when a gentleman ended a liaison with his mistress, he rarely resumed the affair. The wealthy rakehells of the ton were easily bored, she reflected. They were forever seeking more fashionable denizens of what they liked to call the demimonde. But once in a while a wise man realized he had been too hasty in ending a relationship. Sally smiled with satisfaction and dropped the ticket into the pocket she had sewn inside her cloak. it was a very fine cloak, a gift from him. He had been quite generous with her. He had paid the rent on the pleasant little house where she had been living for the past few months, and he had given her some lovely jewelry. She kept the bracelet and the earrings in a safe place in her bedchamber, knowing full well they were all that stood between her and a return to the brothel in which he had found her. She refused to sell the jewelry to pay the rent. These were her best working years and they would not last long. She intended to spend them industriously. Her goal was to collect a large number of valuable gifts from a number of men. When her looks and. youth were gone, she would use the trinkets to finance a comfortable retirement. She was proud of her businesslike view of her finances. She had struggled hard to get herself off the streets of Covent Garden, where one was obliged to service the customers in carriages or the nearest doorway. Life was very dangerous and often brutally short at that end of the profession. She had worked her way into the relative security of a brothel, and now she had joined the lower ranks of the more fashionable courtesans. The future looked bright. Perhaps she would one day have her own box at the opera the way some of the most glittering members of her profession did. She had begun discreetly shopping around for a new protector in the last day or so, hoping to secure one before the rent came due at the end of the month. But she had promised herself that she would not rush into a new connection, even if refusing to do so meant moving out of the little house. She had known other women who had made the mistake of leaping at the first offer in their haste to keep afloat financially In their desperation, they sometimes agreed to connections with men who proved to be violent or who used them in ways that everyone knew were unnatural. She shuddered when she recalled an acquaintance who had taken up with an earl who forced her to entertain his friends with sexual favors. She hurried down a shadowy aisle, paying little attention to the eerily lit displays on either side. She was here on business. She glanced at a gallows scene and grimaced. Even if she had been in a mood to tour a waxwork museum, this was not the one she would have chosen. In her opinion, these exhibits were all extremely depressing. At the end of the gloomy chamber, she found the cramped, circular staircase. She collected her skirts and the long folds of her cloak and went quickly up the steps. The instructions she had received had been very precise. The heavy door at the top of the staircase was unlocked. It groaned on its iron hinges when she pushed it open. She walked into the dimly lit chamber and glanced around. Although the downstairs displays were not to her taste, she was curious about this room. She had heard that Huggett's boasted a very unique gallery, one that was open only to gentlemen. The sign placed near the entrance was painted in elegant blue and gold. She took a step closer and bent down slightly to read it in the poor light.