Mary Brendan - The Virtuous Courtesan

She suspected he must eventually agree to her suggestion. There was too much at stake to reject a reasonable plan just because she’d been the one to voice it. If he wanted to puff up his ego by quibbling and driving a hard bargain, she was not about to indulge him.

‘Why will you not agree?’ she taunted him. ‘Do you not want to return to Mr Pratt’s office and tell him you can comply with the terms of your inheritance?’

‘I would be delighted to do just that,’ Gavin drawled. ‘I imagine my bank would also rejoice at the news that they can give up hounding me for loan repayments.’

Sarah was suddenly assailed by a memory of her papa skulking behind drawn curtains when heavily in debt to the bank and in regular receipt of threatening missives. ‘Very well,’ she said calmly. ‘I can tell you are not swayed by that offer. I am prepared to accept a lesser sum of forty pounds per annum just so we might both go home.’

A chuckle grazed Gavin’s throat. ‘I take it you don’t play cards?’

‘I do, but not very well. What made you say that?’ she asked sharply, sensitive to being mocked.

‘You have not mastered the art of bluffing, my dear,’ he explained softly. ‘You’ve disclosed your hand far too soon.’

He was laughing at her. Bright spots of colour burned in her cheeks. ‘This is a matter of some gravity, not a silly game,’ she snapped. ‘I would sooner be direct and honest. I can only hope you might be too.’

Gavin bowed his head in humble acknowledgement of being chastised, but humour was still slanting his mouth. ‘In my world, Miss Marchant, gambling is a matter of some gravity and not a silly game. And being direct and honest when the stakes are high is foolish.’

‘And that, sir, is a helpful insight into your character, for which I thank you,’ Sarah retorted primly. ‘It is also another reason for me to want to speedily conclude our business. You may then return to your world and your sophisticated friends in London and leave me in peace.’

That acerbic comment drew to an end Gavin’s comfortably lounging stance. A lithe movement freed his person from planked wood. He strolled closer, his thorough appraisal bringing more blood to sting her cheeks. ‘For a woman who has spent all her adult life as a harlot, you can appear a mite too sanctimonious, my dear.’ Gavin watched as the scarlet stain spread, marring her flawless complexion. ‘It seems Edward took too many liberties with you,’ he continued in a sensual tone. ‘As I see it, the worst by far was forcing false piety down your throat.’

A small hand flew to Sarah’s neck as though that part of her anatomy was under assault. ‘How dare you!’ she finally gasped. ‘How dare you speak to me like that.’ She gritted through small pearly teeth, ‘Your brother always treated me with respect. He was a decent man. He was kind.’

‘Kind?’ Gavin echoed sardonically. ‘Was it kind of him to leave you to the tender mercy of a brother he’d slander as a reprobate?’

Sarah visibly winced at that. She had asked herself the same question many times since she’d bolted from the solicitor’s office. If Edward had cared even a little for her, it was indeed hard to understand why he would put her future security in the hands of a man he’d described as a rake and a wastrel.

‘Why do you think he did that?’ Gavin asked abruptly.

‘I’m sure he…I don’t know…Edward was gravely ill,’ she stuttered out, aware she was under intense scrutiny from narrowed blue eyes. ‘The smallpox left him often delirious.’

‘His doctor and his lawyer deemed him of sound mind to the very end. He was compos mentis when he dictated his instructions to Joseph Pratt. He knew what he was about.’

Sarah twirled agitatedly on the spot. ‘What does it matter now?’ Her small hands gestured hopelessness. ‘Edward has gone and taken with him the reason we must endure this madness.’ She pressed her brow with slender fingers as though she might smooth out the furrows there. ‘Oh, how I wish that he were still here,’ she whispered almost to herself.

‘I’m sure you do.’ Gavin’s laugh was as mordant as had been his tone. ‘A few months ago he was a healthy man in his prime. It must be galling having your meal ticket whipped away so unexpectedly.’

‘I wish he were here because I miss him,’ she enunciated icily, yet the grain of truth in his sarcasm made her voice quiver. Her main concern was how she would go on now Edward had left her with nothing of her own. She tilted her chin to glare at the stranger who held sway over her life. ‘And my feelings for your brother are private and none of your concern.’

‘Unfortunately my brother has seen fit to make your very existence my concern.’ It was a reminder issued in a voice of silky steel.

It had the effect of immediately goading Sarah into retaliation. ‘Well, you may fret no longer that I will be a burden of unwanted responsibility.’ A tiny part of her mind acknowledged that she was about to act rashly. Still she could not prevent the words erupting. ‘I would sooner face penury than accept your charity.’

‘I’m relieved to hear it,’ Gavin said ironically. ‘Charity is not at all what I have in mind for you, Miss Marchant. I intend you earn your keep.’

Swiftly Sarah settled her bonnet back on her head and tied the strings with unsteady fingers. Blood thundered at her temples, making her feel she might faint as she readied herself to leave. She could tell it was late afternoon as the sun was low and soon Mr Bloom would be closed for business. She must purchase laudanum from the apothecary before heading back home. But it was the unspoken question hovering between them that was really prompting her to speed away.

Several times since their encounter in Mr Pratt’s office Sarah’s mind had glanced away from an unpalatable truth. A virile man—and especially, as in this case an infamous womaniser—was unlikely to turn down the opportunity to bed a young woman passed on to him for that purpose. When one took into account that the fellow was required to pay for her board and lodging, the idea that he might do so simply from the goodness of his heart seemed ludicrous.

But Gavin’s furious reaction on hearing of Edward’s wishes had encouraged Sarah to hope they might find a less sordid solution to this conundrum. From the start Gavin Stone had seemed to her to be his own man and not a character to take easily to his brother manipulating him from the grave. But she could no longer deny that the fire in his eyes was generated as much by lust as anger. He might not like her, he might mock and scorn her and call her a harlot, but none of it would stop him wanting to sleep with her. And she was his for the taking…or so he thought…

‘Good day to you, sir,’ she said with admirable aplomb and attempted to stride past him.

‘Are you about to run away again like a spoiled child because you cannot get your own way?’ Gavin had stepped to block her path, but it was his comment, not his person, that brought her to a halt.

Her blonde head swayed back on her slender neck and she attacked him with fierce tawny eyes. ‘I am not running away,’ she informed him clearly. ‘I am going because I refuse to participate in more pointless wrangling over Edward’s will.’ She sucked in a calming breath. ‘You have rejected my very reasonable compromise, and so be it. For now it seems wise to part company and see if a solution can be found tomorrow. Perhaps by then a little of the hostility between us might have evaporated.’ There was a brief pause before she added, ‘Good day to you, sir.’

‘I’m encouraged that you think there is yet hope for us, Miss Marchant.’

Sarah dodged past him and, when sure she was in no danger of being restrained, swished about to look back at him. ‘And I’m encouraged, sir, that you did not immediately act petulantly and say you would be miles away in London tomorrow.’ She hesitated at his silence and took a step closer to him again. She was now in a more logical frame of mind. The thought that he might return home had rendered her more anxious than annoyed. ‘Are you going straight back to London?’ she demanded to know.