CHAPTER 11
Winsome didn’t mind where John chose to kiss her, but the meeting in the Terrington’s library did not take her any closer to being his lover. Although he had shown clear signs of arousal when he took her into his arms last night, he did not suggest a place for a more intimate meeting. Although she would like to, she couldn’t invite him to share her bedroom. Mama would be scandalized. She couldn’t meet him in a hotel. He was too well known.
Since his servants had proved to be discreet, the only possible place was his town house. Which he did not offer. Therefore, she rode out with him the next morning, hoping to discuss the matter. “Am I to be forever an untouched spinster, my lord?” she asked in a wan voice as they entered Green Park.
“I could hardly call you untouched.” A smile of sardonic amusement crossed his face. “You have certainly been touched and I hope we can start where we left off.”
She lifted her eyebrows. “But when, may I ask?”
“Judging by the expression on your face, I was expecting you to add my dear man.” He smiled lightly. “Do you have any more invitations to masked balls?”
“Not as yet. Do you?”
“I don’t believe I was invited to the last.” Although he used an arrogant tone, his expression quizzed her. “I never let the matter of an invitation stop me when meetings in libraries are at stake.”
Her mouth tickling with a smile, she took her horse through a grassy patch that led toward the open area lately used for balloon ascensions. Wheel rims etched out the ground. Farther away, trees marked the gray skyline. “If I had realized I would be attending balls this year, I would have persuaded Mama to hold one. Normally, I don’t accept invitations to anything but the lightest entertainments, like Rose’s musical evening.”
“Nor do I. We’re an unsociable pair.”
“We’ve both missed having a season or two, but each for opposite reasons. I couldn’t bear the thought of putting myself on the marriage market and you had other interests.”
“My reason was the same as yours. It’s one of those misconceptions of youth, that marriage is the end of a pleasurable life.”
She nodded. “In some cases that is true. I’m glad to say that my parents are happy together and my younger sister is very much in love with her husband. When you look at Rose and Della, you see women who have made the right choices.”
“Many in society marry for wealth and position. The marriages survive, but many a man takes a mistress on the side.”
“While his poor wife remains in the country breeding children.” Something she would never be blessed with, being too old. Her younger sister was twenty-five and the doctor had already told her she would be lucky to conceive, having tried for four years without success. The prime time, her sister had said, was between sixteen and twenty-two, though of course some women remained fertile much longer.
Mama had produced Winsome at the age of nineteen and Hestia two years later. No other children had followed. Having missed her opportunity did not cause Winsome concern since she had never intended to marry. If she somehow managed to bed John, and fate gave her a baby, she would simply retire to the country and suddenly appear again a year later with a child some relative or other had bequeathed to her. She had enough money of her own to give a child a reasonable enough inheritance to make him or her acceptable in society. Other people had done so without causing more than a raised eyebrow or two. And of course, she was known to be an eccentric. “It seems to defeat the idea to marry and spend your life searching for illicit affairs.”
“If I had a wife, she would not be sequestered in the country, nor kept short of money,” John said, the expression on face serious. “For I certainly intend to keep my vows.”
She reached out a hand and touched him on the arm. “I’m sure your choice would love you to the end of her days. You are a good man, John, and a worthy suitor for anyone.” But not her, of course, though she greatly desired otherwise. She hoped she would last with him for a while, but no one could predict the length of a love affair. Which reminded her. “We are wandering off the main subject. We can’t continue to meet in libraries. We need somewhere else.”
His gaze connected with hers. “I want to spend a night with you, Winsome. Are you able to lie?”
She had been lying by omission to him this past week. “It would be difficult.” She forced a mournful sigh. “I would need a very good reason.”
“Is making love with me a good enough reason?”
Until now, that had been her only reason. Her breath shortened. “Only if I am granted more than half an hour of your time.” She hoped she appeared more composed than her heartbeat indicated.
He drew up his horse and reached out for her reins, stopping her. “My mother lives in the Langsdene country residence, so I can’t use that, but I have another little property in Kensington which is vacant at present.”
“John! You shock me. Are you offering the house you use for your mistresses?”
He had the grace to glance away for a moment. “The place would have been scoured from top to bottom. You would only need to say you were visiting someone or other to be able to meet me.”
“I think I could manage that. I could use Rose or Della as an excuse. When?”
“Can you manage tonight?” He sat absolutely still, his gaze large on her face.
“Telling a lie takes a while to manage. Perhaps we could stage a kidnapping.”
“Winsome, you are not serious?”
She laughed. “What a shame I haven’t been asked to a country party. I hear all sorts of debaucheries happen in country houses.”
“I can get you an invitation to Danton’s house party,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck and frowning with concentration. “He asked me to come down tomorrow, but I said I was otherwise engaged. I’ll let him know he should expect another two guests and then you can tell your parents that you’ve had an invitation. I will offer to take you with me. That saves any lie-telling.”
“How long are you staying? Jane will need to pack for me. I assume my parents will approve. Of course they will. They always want me to go husband-hunting.”
She barely had time to turn her horse back onto the path before he decided to hasten her home to speak to her mother.
“Tomorrow?” Mama said, with a frown at her embroidery. She appeared to have begun on a leaf. Poor dear. She must have been horridly bored for the past few days to have completed so much. “That’s very short notice, Lord Langsdene. I’m not sure Winsome can pack in that time.”
“Of course I can, Mama. Because Jane will do so for me. What time will you call for me, John?”
“Early. Eight or nine. We will want to arrive in time for the evening’s entertainment. Now the weather is on the change, many will be leaving London. I believe my cousin will have a full house.” He bent courteously over her hand, and left, presumably to warn Danton he would need to prepare an extra room or two.
She raced upstairs and told Jane, who began to ask awkward questions.
Winsome sighed. “I don’t know the entertainments planned. Give me a day gown or two, and a few evening gowns. That should suffice for a week. And stop fussing. I will make do, I promise. And of course, my prettiest nightwear.”
With the last words, she finally realized she had agreed to an irrevocable last step.