Candace Camp - Swept Away

Lord Stonehaven was not there.

Disappointed, she strolled desultorily through the tables, stopping to observe a game now and then. At one of the tables, the name Stonehaven caught her ear, and she stopped short, every nerve alert.

“What?” one of the men at the table was saying, glancing toward one of his companions. “Oh, Stonehaven, yes—no, I haven’t seen him tonight. Odd, he’s been here every night this week, it seems.”

“Yes. I’ve never known him to be so gambling mad.”

Julia turned away, smiling to herself. Gambling mad, was he? She, too, knew that it was not his custom to attend Madame Beauclaire’s or any other establishment that frequently. If he had been coming in every night, she could not help but believe that it had been because he was hoping to find her there. She had, after all, hinted that he could find her there when she had refused to give him her address.

Buoyed by this knowledge, she was able to sit down at one of the gaming tables with a suitably casual air and enter into play. He would come, she knew. Lord Stonehaven was not the sort of man to give up.

It was thirty minutes later that a masculine voice said behind her, “I see you have switched your allegiance. Not dipping too deeply, I hope.”

Julia turned, a smile blazing across her face. He had come!

“Lord Stonehaven.” She realized that she had probably looked too eager to see him. It never did to let a man realize that one was interested in him, and of course he would be bound to think that her broad smile was from pleasure at seeing him, not triumph that he had walked into her web. She schooled her voice to something slightly warmer than indifference. “So you are here again. I had wondered if I would see you tonight.”

“I came in the hopes of finding you here, Miss Nunnelly.”

He flashed his charming smile at her, and Julia’s eyes were drawn to his lips, full and wide against strong white teeth. She had forgotten exactly how handsome he was up close. She moved toward him.

“I hope I am not taking you away from a lucky streak,” he said. “Would you like to stay?”

“What? Oh.” She glanced back at the table, a little surprised to find that she had stepped away from it. “No. I was about to leave. My luck has been uniformly bad this evening.”

“I hope it was not bad luck to run into me again.”

She cast him a sparkling look. “No. I would not say it was bad.”

He looked down at her, and his eyes narrowed briefly. Fear slammed through Julia. His look was…almost suspicious.

“What?” she asked in a falsely light tone. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Oh.” He looked abashed. “I don’t know. I had the oddest sensation for an instant—as if I had seen you before.”

Julia forced herself to smile impishly, although her mouth had gone suddenly dry. “Indeed, sir, I do believe you have seen me before. We met here five nights ago, if I remember correctly.”

He chuckled. “Believe me, I am quite aware of that. No, I meant that you reminded me of someone else. A certain look, the way you tilted your head—but that, of course, is absurd. There is no other woman as beautiful as you.”

His words made her feel as if a tight band were encircling her chest, squeezing hard, but she managed to say, “A pretty compliment, my lord.”

“But heartfelt.” He seemed to dismiss the matter as they strolled out into the hallway. There he stopped and glanced around, then looked back at her. “I find I do not wish to stay here. Would you care to—go somewhere else?”

“I—what do you mean, my lord?” Was he suggesting that they go to his house?

Julia felt suddenly panicky. She realized that in all her thinking about how to lead him on, what to do or say in order to get him to confess, she had not really given any thought as to where it would be accomplished. She had hazily imagined them sitting in a garden or strolling along the street or something of the sort. Where did one go on assignations? She could see that her education was woefully lacking in this area. Going to a gentleman’s house would be unthinkable for a lady, but, of course, it would be entirely different for a woman of loose morals, such as she was pretending to be. That was exactly the sort of compromising position a woman such as that would get into. Still, it seemed to her that things were moving much too fast. She really did not want to be alone with Lord Stonehaven in his home.

“I thought we had agreed to cease all this ‘my lord’ing,” he told her. “My name is Deverel.”

“Yes, of course…Deverel.”

“I hadn’t really thought of where we would go. I simply realized that I would like very much not to play cards tonight. I would much rather spend the evening talking with you.”

“I have no objection to that,” Julia replied a little breathlessly.

“I have a friend whose house is always open to visitors. Actually, it is the house of a…woman of his acquaintance.”

“His mistress,” Julia replied knowledgeably. There were few ladies who did not know that gentlemen frequently made such arrangements.

Stonehaven’s mouth quirked up in a smile. “You are dangerously blunt. Yes. It is the house of his mistress, but he is nearly always there, and many of his friends, as well as her friends, of course.”

“I see.” It was not exactly a bawdy house where women of the night plied their trade, Julia thought, but it must be just a step above that—the house where a man kept his light-o’-love, and he and his friends went to drink and talk and flirt with other women who were equally free with their favors. Julia supposed she ought to be appalled at the thought of going to such a place, but instead she found herself filled with curiosity. She had never actually met a kept woman, let alone been in one’s house.

“Yes,” she continued, flashing him what she hoped was a beckoning look. “That sounds much better than staying here.”

“I am glad you agree.” He was already steering her toward the front door.

The footman fetched her cloak, and Lord Stonehaven draped it around her shoulders, his fingers brushing lightly across her skin. Julia swallowed, trying to ignore the shivery sensation his touch created in her.

They walked out into the quiet night air, and Stonehaven turned to the left. “Shall we walk? It isn’t far.”

“Yes, of course.”

They strolled along, her hand hooked in the bend of his arm. Julia struggled to think of something to say. She had spent all day, it seemed, thinking of things to say and questions to ask to lead him where she wanted to go, but now, none of those carefully planned remarks seemed to fit.

“I had hoped to find you here one of the past few nights,” Stonehaven commented, interrupting her jumbled thoughts.

“I am not quite that eager a gambler.”

“Neither am I. I came each night in the hopes of finding you.”

“Flatterer.” Julia flashed him an arch glance.

“No. ’Tis true. I am quite shameless.”

“A shocking flirt is more like it.”

“You wound me.” He put on an air of mock hurt.

“As if you did not know…”

“’Tis no flirtation to say I have been searching for you every night since we met. Ask any of my friends. They will tell you that I have shirked my social obligations dreadfully. I cried off from going to the opera two nights ago, and yesterday I stayed only fifteen minutes at Lady Abersham’s soiree.”

“All because of me?” She arched a brow. “I suppose it had nothing to do with boredom.”

He chuckled. “Perhaps that did motivate my departure somewhat.”

“Deceiver. I am, in short, a handy excuse.”

“Never that, I assure you. Rather, I think, your absence is the cause of my boredom.”