Helen Dickson - Seducing Miss Lockwood

He looked so relaxed, sitting there with his arms resting atop his drawn-up knees. And yet, she had the strangest feeling that beneath that relaxed exterior there was a forcefulness, carefully restrained for now, but waiting. If she were to make a wrong move, a mistake of any kind, she felt that he would unleash that force on her. Recollecting herself, she gave herself a hard shake. Now she really was being foolish and fanciful.

As she turned her head away, her attention was caught by a young couple several yards apart eyeing each other with a certain look. Without a word she saw them get up and saunter towards a break in the hedge, come together and disappear through the gap, and a moment later from behind the hedge came a fit of giggling. Juliet glanced at her employer, who had also seen the couple disappear. He was watching and waiting for her reaction with quiet amusement.

‘They are sweethearts, Miss Lockwood,’ he said quietly by way of explanation, smiling broadly at her sudden confusion and the hot flush that sprang to her cheeks.

‘Oh—I see.’

‘You do? Every dinner time, when food and drink have been taken, Mandy Cooper always gives Simon Archer a nod and a wink and he knows what it means. Mandy wants him to take her to the shade and privacy behind the hedge and—’

‘Please don’t go on,’ Juliet gasped quickly, before he could go into detail about what they got up to behind the hedge. He didn’t seem to mind that Simon Archer was only too happy to oblige Mandy Cooper in the harvest field. She lowered her head, grateful for the wide brim of her bonnet hiding her embarrassed confusion. It would never do to let him think he had her at a disadvantage.

Dominic chuckled softly. ‘They are to be married at Christmas,’ he told Juliet, as if this made everything all right.

‘Please don’t go on. It isn’t something I consider funny, even if you do,’ she informed him haughtily.

‘Of course I find it amusing. I’m always entertained by the amorous antics of others.’

‘I expect you would be,’ she retorted sharply before she could stop herself.

Comprehending her meaning, his eyes narrowed. ‘So, Miss Lockwood, my reputation has preceded me.’

‘Yes. Do you deny that you have a certain—reputation, your Grace?’

‘I would do so with alacrity, if I didn’t think the answer would disappoint you,’ he answered, a faint smile playing on his lips. Reaching out he brushed her hair with his fingers. She pulled back in surprise and he laughed, holding a piece of straw that had become entangled. She sighed and met his gaze. ‘At heart I am a true romantic.’

‘Are you suggesting I find anything—remotely interesting about the idea that you are a womaniser, Lord Lansdowne?’ Juliet exclaimed, colouring hotly at the implication that she might find something attractive about the fact that he enjoyed the reputation of a libertine.

He chuckled softly. ‘It’s a talking point, if nothing else. Although it might be difficult for a monumentally respectable young woman like yourself to understand.’

‘I don’t know of any other womanisers, your Grace, so, yes, I do find such behaviour difficult to understand. But I meant no disparagement of your character.’

‘And I would wager that you would not have said that if I were not your employer, Miss Lockwood. I’m sure you would give me a severe dressing down, which some would say I deserve.’

‘Perhaps you do. It’s not for me to say.’

‘How old are you, Miss Lockwood?’

Her eyes locked on his. ‘You know perfectly well how old I am, Lord Lansdowne. It was on my reference when I applied for the position.’

‘Twenty-three, I believe. Not on the shelf yet.’

He grinned and she flushed, uneasy about this inappropriate turn in the conversation.

‘I—I can’t make out the time,’ she said quickly, busying herself with the basket, ‘but I suppose everyone will soon have to begin work. I’ll stay and help Dolly with the basket. We can go back to the house together.’

His gaze shifted from the hedge to her. ‘Not until I’ve heard you laugh again. You should laugh often.’

Juliet shook her head and lowered her eyes, unsure how she felt about the way he was looking at her. She relaxed and managed to smile, finding it hard not to when he spoke to her in that silken voice.

‘I confess I haven’t laughed so much since I was at the Academy—when I was eleven years old.’

When he realised she wasn’t going to elaborate, with his lips twitching with amusement, Dominic said, ‘Since you’re obviously reluctant to share it with me, as a duke and your employer I insist that you do, Miss Lockwood.’

‘Must I?’ she said, laughter not far away. ‘Have you no mercy, your Grace?’

‘None whatsoever—and not when you address me as your Grace.’

‘But it wasn’t that interesting.’

‘I don’t care. Make it up. That’s an order, Miss Lockwood. Pray continue.’

She sighed and sat back on her heels. ‘If you insist.’

‘I do.’

‘Well,’ she murmured, her voice softening as she looked back into her past, ‘at the Academy we had a particularly strict teacher called Miss Murdoch. She was tall and willowy with a pointed face and a pair of extremely penetrating green eyes. Nothing ever escaped her and if any of the girls failed to come up with the correct marks in lessons, she was vicious with a ruler over one’s knuckles.’

‘And what subjects did this monster of a teacher teach?’

‘English, history and music. As you know, my musical talents are sadly lacking, my singing offensive to the ears, but Miss Murdoch would insist that if I tried harder I would get better. She made me play the piano in front of the whole Academy once, which turned out to be a total disaster; instead of blaming herself for making me do it, she blamed me not doing enough practice and gave me such a rattling on my knuckles that I couldn’t have played the piano for a week if I’d wanted to.’

Dominic felt an unexplainable surge of anger at the dreadful Miss Murdoch. ‘What has that to do with laughter, Miss Lockwood? It sounds more like torture to me.’

‘There is a humorous side to the story,’ she said with a breezy smile and waving her hand dismissively, ‘and it wasn’t just me she had it in for. A few of the girls got together and decided to wreak their revenge. We sprinkled itching powder between her sheets one night. The poor woman came out in a dreadful rash and couldn’t stop scratching herself for days,’ she confessed with twinkling eyes.

‘I assume the poor woman never found out the truth?’

‘Oh, no. Never,’ she replied merrily. ‘We would all have been expelled for sure. But I shall never forget the look on her face when she came down to breakfast the next morning. She had the reddest face you ever did see and she had to leave the room because she couldn’t sit still.’

‘And you got your revenge?’

‘Absolutely. But nothing changed. She was still the same sour Miss Murdoch, but we were cheered by it at the time.’

Dominic smiled, but his voice was quiet, seductive, thinking how lovely she was. The light breeze had whipped strands of hair around her face into a frame of soft, feathery curls. ‘After what you have told me, now I know what sadistic cruelties you are capable of, I must remember never to get on the wrong side of you, Miss Lockwood. Next time your revenge may take you beyond itching powder.’

‘Things were different then. I am no longer eleven years old.’

‘So you didn’t make it up?’

‘No. It may surprise you, but I didn’t and at the time it was more hilarious than the telling over ten years later.’

Seeing everyone returning to work, the men picking up their sickles, Dominic hauled himself to his feet and looked down at her. As she tried to get up, her legs stiff because she’d been sitting on them, he reached down and took both of her hands in his, drawing her easily to her feet.