The sound of Mary’s voice outside the coach snapped them both back to reality. Danielle hastily smoothed her hair and moved back to the opposite seat just before the coach door was wrenched open and Mary’s smiling face was framed by the harsh sunlight streaming into the vehicle from behind her.
“Good news!” Mary announced, as Cade, who looked positively delectable with slightly mussed hair, helped her into the coach.
“You found a perfume?” Danielle asked as her friend slid into the seat next to her. Danielle steadfastly kept her gaze from Cade. She couldn’t look at him. The man had told her kissing him would be different. Mon dieu, that was an understatement.
“No,” Mary replied. “But I know which one I shall purchase.”
“Which?” Danielle asked, self-consciously pushing the pins into her coiffure to ensure they remained tidy.
“The bergamot scent at the first shop. The one on the corner.”
“Ah, excellent choice,” Cade chimed in. Danielle dared a glance at him. He looked perfectly put together and unaffected. So that was that how rakes did things. Passionately kissing a woman one minute and completely unaffected the next. She, however, was never going to be the same. Nom de dieu she’d had no idea kissing could be like that.
“Did you smell it, Mr. Cavendish?” Mary asked.
“No, but I’ve always been partial to bergamot.” He grinned at the maid and called to the groomsman who remained by the open door. “Back to LaFont’s, if you please.”
“Very well, sir,” the groomsman replied.
Soon the coach was parked in front of the small shop. Cade alighted first, then turned to help Mary down. As he was helping Danielle, a shrill female voice sounded behind them from the bustle of the crowd on the street. “Cade Cavendish, is that you?”
Cade turned one shade paler, gave Danielle an apologetic look, and turned just as a gorgeous—if gaudily dressed—woman came stamping toward him. “Amanda?” he asked in a dismayed tone.
Danielle’s eyebrow shot up at his use of the woman’s Christian name.
“Of course it’s Amanda.” The woman wore rouge on her cheeks and pink paint on her pouty, full lips. She was tall, blond, and looked as if she were Venus and had just walked off the shell.
“Who’s this?” Amanda demanded, waving her hand at Danielle and Mary simultaneously, as if they were one person.
“Friends of mine,” Cade replied. “Allow me to introduce Miss Danielle LaCrosse and Miss Mary Hartfield.” He turned to them. “Ladies, this is Miss Amanda…”
Amanda’s gorgeous face crumpled in a fierce scowl. “Jones!” she announced.
“Of course. Jones. Amanda Jones.”
Danielle tried to greet the woman but she completely ignored Danielle and continued in a rush of words. “Cade, if you were still in town, why didn’t you tell me?” Another pretty pout appeared on her lips.
Danielle and Mary exchanged disapproving glances.
“My apologies. I’ve been busy,” Cade replied.
“Busy with these ladies?” she asked, a skeptical note in her voice. She leaned up and whispered in Cade’s ear loud enough for the others to hear. “I’ve missed you. We might have been having fun all this time.”
Fun? Danielle blinked. Oh, good heavens, she was actually standing in the middle of the street being introduced to one of Cade’s light-o’-loves. How entirely inappropriate. Not to mention awkward. It was all Danielle could do to keep from taking a step back and curling her lip in disgust.
Instead she clenched her jaw and said, “We’ll just go inside.” She nodded toward the perfumery, desperate to be anywhere but there.
“Yes!” Mary agreed a bit too loudly.
Danielle grabbed Mary’s hand, flung a “Nice to meet you, Miss Jones,” toward the woman, and took off toward the door of the shop.
Once inside, Mary flew away to find her bergamot while Danielle hid behind the curtains near the front window and peered outside to watch Cade and Miss Jones. The woman was clearly perturbed about something. What was this? More secrets from the man? Tempted by his charm and his looks, Danielle had forgotten herself when she’d decided to kiss him. She’d forgotten he was a mark and she was a spy. When his mouth had captured hers, she’d been a woman and he a man and nothing else had mattered.
Watching him out the window with his lover, for surely that’s what Miss Jones was, Danielle realized the reason he knew how to kiss like that was because he’d had a great deal of practice. He was a full-blown, undeniable rake. Danielle would do well to remember it. No more kissing. She needed to discover his secrets and one of them was standing in the street with him, wearing a yellow day dress so tight in the décolletage, Danielle was almost embarrassed for the woman. Almost, although jealousy, not embarrassment, seemed to be her predominate emotion. Mon dieu. Jealous over a rake? Such a bad idea.
“Here it is,” Mary called from behind her, pulling Danielle’s attention back to the reason she’d left the house this afternoon.
She hurried over to her friend, who stood with a tiny glass vial in her hand. Mary had taken off the stopper and was busily sniffing the perfume. She held it up for Danielle to sample, too.
“It’s perfect,” Danielle declared. She had also decided to buy a new vial of perfume. An orchid scent that she’d found while shopping here earlier with Mary. Lady Daphne had been kind enough to increase her wages after her first week, declaring she’d already done a better job than the erstwhile Miss Anderson. The increase was enough to purchase the perfume and ensure all her mother’s medical bills were paid for the week.
Danielle had already pushed her coins to the proprietor and Mary was fishing the last of her monies out of her small change purse to pay when Cade strolled in. He strode over to the women, an inscrutable look on his face.
“Absolutely not,” he declared when he saw the money on the counter.
Mary blinked at Cade, confused.
“I cannot allow you to purchase this perfume,” he said. “I shall purchase it for you. For you both.”
Mary blushed scarlet. “Oh, no. Mr. Cavendish. I could never—”
“Absolutely not,” Danielle snapped.
It would be a gross impropriety for Cade to purchase such intimate gifts for unmarried ladies. That didn’t dissuade him one bit.
“My nieces,” Cade declared to the shopkeeper before pulling a purse from his coat pocket and tossing the necessary bills onto the counter.
“Thank you,” the shopkeeper said. If the woman had any doubts that Mary and Danielle were his nieces she mercifully kept them to herself. “I’ll just go fetch your change.”
While the shopkeeper was gone, Mary and Danielle stared at Cade in wonder. “Mr. Cavendish, I cannot allow—” Mary began.
“Please, Miss Hartfield. It will bring me great pleasure. Don’t speak another word about it.”
Mary seemed as if she were about to argue more, but Danielle put her hand on the girl’s arm. She was interested in something far more eyebrow-raising than whether Cade paid for a couple of vials of perfume. She’d seen the contents of his purse and the man was tres rich!