Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

“ Y our Grace, I’d like you to meet my daughter, Lady Genevieve.”

Seth Carter, Duke of Loxburgh, looked up from his meal into the sharp eyes of a lady in her mid-fifties. She had steel-gray hair and a conniving look on her face, but she smiled when she saw that she had his attention. She moved her chair back ever so slightly so that he could see across her to the young lady on her other side—this, he supposed, was Lady Genevieve.

She was pretty enough, with bright blue eyes and lovely blonde hair, and she hadn’t been the one to disturb him while he was eating and look at him with that scheming expression on her face, so he smiled at her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Genevieve,” he said. “I hope you’re enjoying the party so far. I know I am.”

“The party has only just begun,” Lady Genevieve pointed out. “But yes, I’m enjoying myself, Your Grace. I’ve looked forward to these two weeks for a very long time. It’s my first house party.”

“Well, that is an exciting occasion,” Seth said with a smile. He found that he liked Lady Genevieve, in spite of what he might have thought of her mother.

“You two will have a lot of time to get to know each other better over the next few days,” Lady Genevieve’s mother declared. “But I wanted to help you make a start on things by introducing the two of you now. It seemed only fitting.” She began to rise from her chair. “Perhaps Lady Genevieve and I ought to exchange our seats so that the two of you might speak more closely.”

“Oh, I don’t think there’s any need for that,” Seth said. “We’ll be here for twelve days, after all. Lady Genevieve and I will have all the time in the world to get to know one another, as you yourself said—I apologize, I’m afraid I don't recall your name, my lady.”

“Oh,” Lady Genevieve’s mother said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Lady Dorbury.”

“Ah, yes, I’ve met your husband. Is the earl here tonight?”

“He means to join us later in the week, if he’s able. His business keeps him so occupied.”

“Yes, that’s quite understandable. I’ll look forward to seeing him, however, if he does make it here.”

“Your Grace, will you pass me that bottle?” The voice came from his other side now, taking his attention away from the countess, and he allowed the distraction happily. He picked up the bottle and handed it to the young lady on his left.

She beamed at him, allowing her fingertips to graze his as she accepted it—he was sure she had done that on purpose. “Thank you, Your Grace,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes.

“You’re welcome,” Seth said. He turned back to his meal. He was already beginning to regret having come to this party in the first place. He’d chosen to come, in the end, because the party was being hosted by his closest friend. But perhaps it would have been better to make different social arrangements with the Duke of Harbeck and spare himself having to spend the next two weeks with all these people.

His presence here would certainly satisfy his mother, Priscilla. And though he never liked to disappoint her, he was unafraid to do so when their interests diverged. And he was already beginning to wish that he’d made a different choice.

He knew why his mother had wanted him here. She wanted him to marry. In her eyes, the most important thing was to produce an heir to the dukedom—she saw it as his most solemn responsibility. How many times had she told him that his birth had fulfilled the greatest duty of her own life?

Seth’s parents had been in a marriage of convenience, and had spent the entirety of Seth’s life fighting with one another. They had never even been friends, never mind lovers. Eventually, they had decided that they would permit one another to take lovers outside the marriage, and it had been that way ever since.

No, duty was no reason to marry.

He got to his feet quickly when he had finished his dinner, anxious to put some distance between himself and all the ladies who kept trying to claim his attention. It would be difficult to avoid them for twelve days straight, but perhaps he could get some respite by going out into the garden.

At first, it had seemed like a good idea. He wasn’t the only one who’d had the idea to come out here, but the moon was obscured by clouds and the light on the path was dim. Most of the figures he saw had the appearance of shadows moving around him, and he couldn’t have determined who they were. Maybe that meant no one would be able to identify him either, and that would certainly be a good thing.

That was what he was hoping for when he rounded a corner and came face to face with Lady Genevieve.

“Oh,” he said, taken aback. “Good evening, Lady Genevieve. It’s a pleasure to see you again.”

“The pleasure is entirely mine,” she assured him. She hesitated. “I hope my mother didn’t put you off at dinner with all that talk of the two of us having a lot of time to spend together during this party.”

“Not at all,” he said, though he wasn’t being entirely honest. “I look forward to meeting a lot of people at this party. That’s the beauty of a house party, isn’t it? It gives you plenty of time to get to know people that you might not otherwise have met.”

“Yes, I think that’s right,” Lady Genevieve said with a little laugh.

There was something off about that laugh. She sounded nervous. It made Seth realize that he shouldn’t be standing here and talking to her like this, unchaperoned. Instantly, he felt guilty. Of course his intentions had never been anything but the best, but she had no way of knowing that, and Seth would not have been surprised to learn that his actions had made her feel nervous.

“Good evening, Lady Genevieve,” he said. “I ought to walk on, but it was very nice to run into you again.”

He began to move past her.

But Lady Genevieve caught him by the arm and held him in place. “There’s no need to rush off,” she said, looking up at him.

Seth looked down at her hand on his arm. “What is this about?” he asked. “Why are you holding me here?”

“Only to prevent you from leaving,” She moved closer to him. “I’ll let go of your arm if you promise to stay.”

Seth heard the sound of voices nearby, just around the corner. He stared at Lady Genevieve. He had thought she seemed sweet, but now he wasn’t so sure. Stopping him like this, where they might easily be discovered—what was she thinking? Didn’t she know what it would look like if they were caught?

Or perhaps—perhaps she was counting on it.

He hated to think the worst of people, but he had to consider the possibility that she wanted this scandal. That she was holding him here deliberately, moving this close to him, looking up at him with those wide, innocent eyes, because she knew what people would say if they were seen. Because she felt that if that happened, he might feel compelled to marry her.

His stomach turned. Was that what these two weeks were going to be about? Ladies maneuvering him into compromising situations in order to try to force his hand, to compel him into a marriage?

He pulled away from her. “I must insist that you remove your hand, Lady Genevieve,” he said firmly, stepping back quickly so that there were several feet between the two of them. “This is entirely inappropriate, and I really must be on my way.”

He turned and walked off quickly, breathing a sigh of relief when he had turned a corner and separated himself from her.

He’d barely had a moment to feel that relief, though, before another hand closed around his wrist and pulled him into the bushes.

Seth whirled and found himself face to face with another lady—one he hadn’t spoken to yet. She was slight and curvy, with auburn hair and freckles, wide eyes and full lips, and for a moment he was taken aback by how lovely she was. She was the kind of beauty he might not have noticed if she had been sitting across the table from him, but standing here in the middle of a bush and looking her in the face like this, it was impossible not to see it.

“What are you doing?” he hissed.

“I saw what happened,” she murmured. “Lady Genevieve is still looking for you. I didn’t think you had noticed, but she followed you. If you want to go back out there and deal with her directly, feel free. But it seemed to me as though you might like some assistance in avoiding her.”

“Well, I?—”

The lady held up a hand to stop him, and then pressed a finger to her lips.

“Your Grace?” a voice called. Seth recognized it as Lady Genevieve, and she sounded deeply perturbed. “For goodness’ sake—where have you gone? I only wished to talk with you.”

Seth looked at the lady in front of him. She had released her hold on him as if to say that he could go out there if he wanted to.

He gritted his teeth. He didn’t know what to think. Why would she intervene like this? What did she have to gain? The first thing that came to mind—and it came altogether too easily—was that she might be trying to entrap him into a scandal too. He was going to have to be on his guard about that for the duration of this party. Bad enough that his parents were so desperate to see him married, he thought unhappily. It would be even worse to be forced into it by a lady who had backed him into a corner.

He heard Lady Genevieve’s footsteps move on and knew that it would now be safe to leave the bush. He was about to turn and walk away, but something stopped him. He looked back at the lady who had pulled him into it.

“What’s your name?” he asked her.

“Lavinia.”

He nodded. “I’ll have to remember that,” he said. “Lady Lavinia, who pulls men into bushes against their will.”

She looked as if she had been slapped. “I said you could go if you wanted to. Perhaps you should.”

But he didn’t. There was something about her—something captivating. She was beautiful, and the audacity it had taken to pull him into this bush was nothing short of remarkable. And there could be no denying that she’d saved him from a further confrontation with Lady Genevieve.

But on the other hand—had she only saved him from one scandal to embroil him in another? It would look just as bad—worse, probably—if he was discovered in the bushes with a young lady.

He was going to have to be very careful indeed for the remainder of the house party.