Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord by Sara MacLean (12)

Lesson Number Four

Enlist allies.

Wooing your gentleman is waging a war. You will need superior strategy, time-tested tactics, and a trusted company of men (or women) to ensure victory. Strategic alliances will be necessary—nay, critical to your success! Consider friends, family, servants, and others who might help to bring you together. Do not discount the power of a willing host or hostess; a true gentleman will never ignore a hint to waltz, and it is a small step from a waltz in a ballroom to a walk in the gardens … And from gardens filled with strains from a ball, chapel and aisle are no distance at all!

Pearls and Pelisses
June 1823

There was something rather calming about his discovery of Minerva House.

She wouldn’t have expected it to be so … She would have expected to be panicked, or to feel compelled to deny what he had seen—to scoff at his discovery and move on as if nothing had changed.

But what she felt when he’d looked her right in the eye and, as though he were announcing the weather, proclaimed his knowledge … it was more akin to relief than to panic. She was tired of hiding from him … of waiting for him to discover their secret in one way or another. In hindsight, it had been silly of her to imagine that she could keep the truth from him.

“You’ve a female butler, female footmen, and a female stable boy.”

She stood at his words, removing her gloves, which were ruined from the plaster she had been cleaning. “I’ve a female stable master.”

He ignored the correction. “You’ve a houseful of women.”

“Not entirely.”

“How many, entirely?”

She paused. “All but one.”

He turned away from her. She noticed the scar on his cheek, white and stark with frustration. She watched his hands cup the back of his neck as he looked up at the ceiling. “Your brother.”

“The earl.” It seemed imperative that she underscore the title.

“The ten-year-old earl.”

“What does it matter? He is still the earl!”

“It means there is no one to protect you!” The words shook the room, surprising Isabel with their power. All at once, she was angry. Angry at the truth of the words. Angry at the universe. Angry at this man—who had known her for less than three days—and his insistence that she must be protected. That she could not care for herself. For her brother. For her girls.

“You think I do not understand the straits in which we are? You think I do not see the risks we take? You think that if there were another way, I would not have found it?” Tears came fast and furious. “I never asked for your help, Lord Nicholas. I never asked you to protect me.”

He met her gaze, frustration flaring in his blue eyes. “I know, Isabel. You wouldn’t dare ask me for help. You are too afraid of revealing your weakness.”

“Perhaps I do not ask you for help because too often it is men from whom we need protection. Did you consider that?”

She immediately regretted the words, which fell between them like a stone.

He did not deserve them. He was not like those other men. She knew that.

Even as she knew he was infinitely more dangerous.

“I am sorry.”

He searched her eyes for a long moment. “It was easy enough to discover that they were female, but who are they? Why are they here? ”

She shook her head. “You cannot really believe that I would tell you that.”

“Are they criminals? ”

“Some of them? I’m sure you would think so.” She knew she wasn’t being fair. But she could not stop herself. She was transfixed by the movement of his hands, clenching and unclenching slowly. “Some are just girls who needed an escape.”

“If you are harboring criminals, Isabel, you could go to gaol.”

She did not answer.

“People may come looking for them. That is why you keep them secret.”

He was putting it all together, but she would not give him the pleasure of acknowledging the truth.

“The marbles. Your concern about finances. It isn’t just for James. It is for them.”

“I never denied that I needed the money for more than James’s school.”

“No. You merely omitted the whole truth.”

“It is not your truth to bear.”

“It seems I bear it nonetheless.”

“I never asked you to do so.”

He did not respond, instead turning back to the window, looking out over the wet, stormy land beyond. She could see only the scarred half of his face, the white line stark in the gray morning light, whiter still for his stony silence. He stood there for long minutes, unspeaking, until Isabel thought she might go mad from it. Finally, he spoke. “You can trust me.”

Trust. What a lovely word.

There was something about this man, about his strength, about the way character virtually seeped from him, about the way he looked at her with patience and honesty and promise, that made her desperate to believe him. That made her want to place her faith, her trust, her girls, her house … everything she had … in his grasp and ask him to help her.

But she couldn’t.

She knew better.

Oh, certainly he thought he could help them. He thought he could be their protector. Certainly the idea appeased some kind of masculine desire within … but she had seen what happened when men with pretty words and strong arms grew bored of their surroundings. Of the needs of the women in their lives. She had watched as her father had deserted her mother, leaving her with nothing but a crumbling estate and a broken heart.

If she leaned on him now, she would not survive it when he left.

“You have brought me into your world, Isabel, like it or not. I deserve to know.”

There was no room to trust him. No matter how badly she wanted to do so. No matter how much his strength and his certainty—and his kisses—beckoned to her.

This man was more dangerous than legions of men like her father.

She shook her head.

“So you will not tell me.”

She held her ground. “No.”

“You do not trust me.”

I want to!

“I—I cannot.”

Something flared in his eyes—something dangerous—and Isabel wished she had not said the words.

He took a step closer to her, his voice low and dark. “I will find out on my own, you realize. I am an excellent hunter.”

She did not doubt it. But she would not let him see that. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. This is not a collection of marbles. You cannot expect them to simply open up and tell you all.”

One side of his mouth kicked up. “They would not be the first women to do so.”

She did not like thinking about other women opening up to him. She remained silent.

“So it’s to be like that, is it … Izzy? ”

There was something in the sound of her childhood nickname that made her feel laid bare. She did not like it. Not one bit. She squared her shoulders. “So it would seem.”

“Excellent. Then let the hunt begin.”

“This makes everything easier, doesn’t it?”

“The girls will certainly be happy that they do not have to be so careful around him.”

Isabel looked from Gwen to Jane, certain that the pair had lost their minds. “I don’t think you understand. This is not a good thing. Lord Nicholas knows that we are hiding a houseful of women. He knows that Minerva House exists. This is not good.”

She removed a sheaf of papers and an inkpot from a small kitchen drawer and sat at the large table in the center of the room. “I’ve got to find space for you all. I’m moving you from Townsend Park until all is settled. I’m sure I can find half a dozen households willing to take in a girl or two.”

Silence fell at Isabel’s words, only the sound of the nib of her pen scratching across the paper in the room. Gwen and Jane looked to each other, then to Kate, urging her to speak. “Isabel … perhaps you should reconsider such a drastic action.”

“It’s not drastic at all. It’s the only intelligent course of action. Lord Nicholas knows that we’ve a household of women and it is only a matter of time before he discovers just how you all came to be here. Then what? Do you think that Margaret would take a girl or two?”

“Margaret used to live here. Of course she’d take some of the girls in. But is it necessary? Why not just wait for the marbles to be sold and move everyone?”

Isabel shook her head. “It’s too late for that.”

“You cannot believe that Lord Nicholas would reveal our location,” Kate said in disbelief.

“I can, indeed, believe it,” Isabel argued, not lifting her gaze from the paper in front of her. “Why would he side with us?”

“No,” Kate said, “I cannot believe it.”

“It’s nonsense!” Gwen agreed. “It is clear that he is a good man …”

Isabel stopped writing to stare at Gwen. “How could you know that? You haven’t even met him!”

“Well, I’ve seen him. And heard him with you. Between that and his willingness to help us, that seems enough.”

Isabel blinked. “It seems nothing of the sort.”

“I think that what Gwen is trying to say is that he seems like a good sort of man,” Jane said cautiously. “After all, he came out to value your marbles on nothing but a random invitation. Such a level of generosity is rarely nefarious.”

“Such a level of generosity is nearly always nefarious! Why, he could be anybody! He could be …” Isabel paused, searching for the very worst possible identity. The girls looked on as she struggled, smiles tugging at their lips.

“Yes? “ Jane prompted.

“He could be a procurer of women!” Isabel announced, one finger in the air to punctuate her words. “A whoremonger!”

Jane groaned.

Kate rolled her eyes. “He’s not a procurer, Isabel. He’s a man who happens to be interested in helping us. And we just so happen to be in need of some help.”

“He also happens to be one of London’s Lords to Land, don’t forget,” Gwen added.

“And that,” Kate agreed.

Isabel groaned then. “Oh, how I wish I’d never heard of that ridiculous magazine. Then I wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with!” She looked from one girl to the next, each looking more sheepish than the last. “My God. You think I should be pursuing him.”

“Perhaps you could try following one of the lessons. Number three, maybe? “ Gwen was hopeful.

“Wooing Lord Nicholas St. John is not a reasonable solution to this problem!”

Jane spoke then. “For heaven’s sake, Isabel. You’ve a generous, wealthy gentleman—”

“Handsome, too,” Gwen interjected.

“Fine. A generous, wealthy, handsome gentleman who seems to want to be kind and helpful to you—despite your attempts to dissuade him of such—and who just so happens to have taken an interest in our situation, which, I might add, is precisely the kind of situation that could well be solved by a wealthy gentleman’s interest. As far as I can tell, wooing St. John is the very best solution to our problems.”

“Not to mention that you haven’t much choice anymore, Isabel,” Kate said. “If you’re going to keep Minerva House solvent and secret, this is your best chance.”

Isabel looked from her butler to her stable master and back again. “I thought neither of you wanted a thing to do with this silly magazine and its silly rules!”

They at least both had the grace to look sheepish.

“That was before it seemed to be our best bet of keeping a roof over our heads,” Jane said.

Isabel scowled. “He is a wealthy gentleman who happens to be acquainted with the lion’s share of London! What if he knows your father, Kate? Or the man from whom you stole, Jane?”

Kate shook her head, rejecting the threat. “First, I highly doubt that your handsome lord knew my brute of a father. And, second, I think that if this all goes in the direction we’re expecting it to go, I won’t have anything to worry about.”

Isabel’s gaze narrowed. “He is not my handsome anything.”

“That’s not what Gwen says,” Kate teased, setting Jane and Gwen snickering.

Isabel considered throttling the lot of them. Why couldn’t they take this seriously? How could they not take this seriously? It was for their safety that Minerva House had been so carefully protected for so long. It was for them that Isabel had worked to keep their location and their identity so quiet.

Kate spoke first. “Isabel. We know you have spent a large part of your life attempting to keep us safe. You’ve given us more than safety—you’ve given us courage—and faith in ourselves and in the world. We are not discarding your feelings—but you must realize that it would take more than one man knowing—”

“Two men,” Isabel corrected.

“—more than two men knowing about Minerva House’s … unique character … to bring us down.”

“Not much more.”

“We shan’t leave you,” Kate said.

“You shall.” Isabel was not interested in debating the point.

Kate stiffened. “Well, I cannot speak for the rest of them, but I’m not leaving you.”

The words were straight and true, and Isabel met Kate’s green gaze across the table. Kate had been the youngest girl ever to arrive at Minerva House. She’d been barely fourteen when she’d marched up the wide, stone manor steps, mangy dog by her side, and knocked on the door, proud as could be.

Isabel had opened the door that morning, and one look at the defiant set of Kate’s jaw had convinced her that the girl should stay.

Five years later, Kate was an invaluable addition to Minerva House. It was her strength that gave the girls their courage. It was her work ethic that set the tone for the rest. None of the girls were more loyal than Kate—jaw set now the way it had been when she was fourteen—who would walk through fire to save any one of them.

Isabel put down her pen.

“Now,” said Kate, “why don’t you tell us what you really think of this Lord Nicholas? ”

The question echoed around them as Isabel looked down at the scarred table around which they were gathered. She traced a particularly deep gash in the wood, wondering absently where it had come from as she considered the answer to Kate’s weighted question. “I—”

What did she think of him?

Truthfully, he’d done nothing to warrant her mistrust.

Nothing but saving her life twice, agreeing to value her marbles, befriending her brother, and offering to keep them all safe.

And then he’d kissed her.

Indeed, in three days he’d done more to warrant her trust than any other man had done in all her twenty-four years. She sighed.

She did not know what to think.

“I suppose I rather like him.”

Isabel was saved from having to elaborate on her statement by the arrival of Rock and Lara, laughing and stumbling into the kitchen from outdoors. Lara was wrapped in Rock’s immense cloak, and she removed it as Rock closed the door firmly behind them, shutting out the wind and rain that threatened never to relent.

Looking around the room, Lara registered the seriousness of the other women.

“What has happened?”

Jane answered, “Lord Nicholas has discovered Minerva House.”

Lara pushed her hair back from her face, wringing the rainwater from its sodden strands. “How?”

“He’s known since yesterday,” Rock said, removing his hat.

Isabel supposed she should have been surprised, but she wasn’t. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t invited them here …”

Lara shook her head. “No, Isabel. If you hadn’t invited them here, we wouldn’t have any chance of saving Minerva House.”

“He wants to know everything,” Isabel said.

“And? What shall you do?” Lara asked.

“I don’t know.”

“She’s decided she likes him,” Kate announced.

“Kate!” Isabel blushed, looking at Rock, who did his best to ignore the announcement.

“But that’s wonderful!” Lara said, breathy excitement in her voice. “The rain makes it ever so much easier to catch him!”

Rock coughed then, and Isabel had the distinct impression that he wanted to disappear. “I have not decided to catch him,” she assured him.

“I did not ask,” he said, half smiling.

Isabel cringed.

Silence fell, and she wondered if everyone in the room thought her a fool. She’d never been so uncertain of her actions before. She did not like this newfound doubt that came with men.

“If I may?” Rock spoke then, and had Isabel not been so caught up in her own thoughts, she would have been amused by his tentative tone.

She waved one hand idly in the air, pointedly. “By all means. No one else seems to mind interjecting an opinion.”

“I assume that he did not take your secrecy well.”

“That is correct. In fact, he threatened to seek out the truth himself.” Isabel took a biscuit from the plate. “I do not understand why he cannot leave well enough alone.”

Rock gave a little laugh. “Nick has never been able to leave well enough alone. Particularly when it comes to beautiful women.” Isabel started to protest, but he pressed on. “He is irritated because you will not share your secrets. If he does not know them, he cannot protect them.”

“How do I know he’ll protect them?”

He pulled back as if he had received a physical blow. “Did you suggest such to him? ”

She hedged. “I may have.”

“Well. I don’t imagine he responded well to that.”

“No.”

“There are few things I know with certainty, Lady Isabel. But this is one of them: If Lord Nicholas St. John vows to fight on your side, so he shall.”

She was immediately chagrined. “I did not …”

“It sounds as though you did, Isabel,” Lara said. “Mr. Durukhan, would you like some tea? ”

Rock turned to Lara, giving her his undivided attention. “I should very much like some tea, Miss Caldwell. Thank you.”

Isabel watched as Lara poured a cup of tea for Rock, peering up from her task with a soft smile. When he matched it, Isabel felt something flare in her chest. A longing for such a moment—filled with sweetness. There was something quite enticing about the obvious tentative interest between the two.

The moment was gone in an instant, and Rock had returned his attention to Isabel. “You must, of course, do what you think is best for your home and your staff, Lady Isabel. But you would do well to remember that Nick is a great ally. And he understands the seriousness of secrets. He would not like me saying so, but he is not without several of his own.”

Isabel was not surprised by the words. There was something deeply compelling about Lord Nicholas St. John—a mystery that seemed to lurk beneath the surface, a darkness that she had witnessed firsthand when she was in his arms.

It was something that felt familiar. Something that made her believe—after all these years of thinking that the world was against her—that there might be someone who understood her. Who could help her.

Perhaps she could trust him.

That was, if she had not completely alienated him.

“I made him rather angry, I think.”

There was encouragement in Rock’s smile. “Nick is not one to stay angry for long.”

“I am going to tell him everything.” Her audience watched her carefully, no one speaking. “You realize that this will change everything. Once he knows, I cannot take it back.” Isabel took a deep breath, as though steeling herself for battle. “I am not doing it for me. I’m doing it for Minerva House. For James. For the earldom. Not for me.”

She had to believe that. For sanity’s sake.

Lara reached across the table to take Isabel’s hand. “He can help us.”

Isabel looked at her cousin for a long moment, then turned to Rock, meeting his dark, serious gaze. He was watching her carefully, as if assessing her character. Finally, he nodded once. “You are precisely the kind of woman that he needs.”

She blushed. “Oh … I am not …”

“Maybe not,” he agreed, “but you are it, nonetheless.”

Her stomach roiled at the words, and she was immediately nervous. But she could not back down now. She squared her shoulders and headed for the door, ready to search until she found him.

“Isabel?” Gwen called after her. When she turned back, the cook said, “Show interest in his work. Gentlemen like ladies who share their entertainments.”

Isabel gave a short laugh. “Pearls and Pelisses? Still?”

Gwen smiled. “It has worked so far.”

Sarcasm laced Isabel’s tone when she replied. “Oh, yes, it’s working brilliantly.”

“Well, it would do, if you were following it more carefully. Also, do not be afraid to be close to him!”

Isabel looked to the ceiling for patience. “I am leaving now.”

Gwen nodded once. “Good luck!”

Isabel spun on one heel, wishing that Pearls and Pelisses had offered up Ten Ways to Apologize to London’s Lords to Land.

Unfortunately, in this, she was on her own.