Chapter 86

Deliberately, he lowered his voice. "Well, I thought it was pleasant. But if you're now telling me it wasn't, that Gabriel reacted in that odious way ... "
"I never said that he did, I merely said I don't own Splendor. Would that I did. As for last night, pleasant is not the word she used to describe it."
"What did she use?"
"I can't say. It has to do with the awfulness of fornication. Then she threw a pot at my head."
"I see. Well, that's a pity when Lady Kertouche is a patron of the arts. Did you know that?"
The sideways glance she flung him said not only did she not know, but she had no interest in learning, and if he thought he could dangle that carrot, he was suffering from some form of insanity. But then she wasn't interested in art, or she'd have damn well accepted his invitation to the theater.
"How interesting for the paintings she visits."
"Oh, it's far more than that."
Because it was. He just needed to keep this casual. Make it sound as if this came from the heart and not from the desire to force the issue. "She is also the patron of various charitable causes."
A flower seller stood on the corner, gaudy in her green jacket, the loose purple muffler that had seen better days. He dipped into his coat pocket, threw a sixpence into her wooden tray. Winter violets-better than nothing-and snowdrops. Snowdrops were too pure. Too reminiscent of everything he had once been and everything that had vanished from his life. Winter violets were better. Even their scent was difficult to determine, no matter how much he wrinkled his nose. Either that or he had a stinking cold coming on.
"She just doesn't like it known," he finished as he carefully fastened the nosegay into his lapel. Then he straightened his arms as if adjusting his cuffs. Now that she'd stopped dead just ahead of him on the pavement he might as well take his time. "In fact, you might even say the poor are her beneficiaries."
Was that a gleam he spotted behind the thick spectacle lenses? Hard to tell. But her feet had ground to a halt, so it was no trouble for him to continue. No trouble for him to dig in his coat pocket and toss another sixpence in the flower seller's tray either.
After all, the woman looked poor. A drudge in fact, with a battered bonnet adorning her red hair, black mittens that seemed to be held together entirely by holes and teeth that were much the same. He might as well benefit her. It didn't look as if anyone else would, although frankly, benefiting the poor took a bit of doing when he considered his father running off with that scullery wench, leaving him and his mother to dine off the floor.
He shot a sideways glance, keeping his expression as bland as possible.
"You did say Lady Splendor and her charming betrothed enjoyed benefiting the poor? A pity, when it not only would have paid her to get to know Lady Kertouche better, it might have led to the opportunity to ask her to benefit such causes as she and the excellent Mr. Rodriguez are involved with. But there ...Let us not argue. Life is too short."
Did she suspect he was lying through his teeth? Violetta was a patron of the arts, but she seldom went to anything, benefitted them either. His being seen was what was important, especially when he frequented nothing, with the exception of brothels, when he was between women, and drinking dens. So his appearance at a theater would guarantee a stir, especially with a woman on his arm. It would also silence any gossip that Babs had thrown him over. Everyone knew what a bastard he was. Think how it would enhance his reputation if he could parade the reason for his ending it with Babs beneath everyone's noses: the charmingly gauche Lady Splendor.
"Here." He casually extended the nosegay. "For your lapel."
"No. I really don't like-"
"Oh, for goodness' sake ... "
He grasped the lapel. As he did, what flashed at the thought of pinning it on her was not something he wanted to bathe in, given that she was dressed as a man in the brown corduroy breeches and the jacket, a soft blue scarf fluttering at her throat. People might get the wrong idea. Then there would be a stir for all the wrong reasons.
Actually any kind of stir that proved his wintriness wasn't just thawing at the hands of the gauchely charming Lady Splendor, but also extended to fastening a winter nosegay in her young cousin's lapel, was surely to be indulged in.
She recoiled as if he were pinning something to her lapel that he'd picked up from the street.
"What is it now? Don't you want a nosegay?"
"I-I am allergic to such things, Your Grace. So I would really rather not snee-"
"Well, I can't very well wear two, for heaven's sake." He loomed closer so his shadow darkened her face. Particularly across her lips, which froze in an agonized contortion. "How ridiculous do you think that would look?"
Not half so ridiculous as her snatching the nosegay and flinging it into the gutter.
It was exactly what the indignation playing around her lips said she was going to do. But he held the pin. He might as well feel her tremble on the end of it.
"Oh, I wouldn't like to say, Your Grace." The smile didn't touch her eyes. "Of course it just might start a new fashion. Make a certain lady take notice of you."
"A certain lady? So you did speak to Lady Splendor about me then?"
He had the satisfaction of seeing the color drain from her face. She passed her tongue over her lips.
"On the contrary. Lady Splendor is only interested in one man. That man is not you."
"Well, then if that is so, it won't trouble you to ask her again." He smoothed his fingers over the crease in the lapel. My God, he was inches from her left breast. The breast he didn't want to think about right now to keep his hand from trembling. When she was dressed as a man? How immeasurably foolish was he? "I can put up with her swearing. Believe me, if she does it at the theater, there are those who will silence her."
A stupid thing to say when her lips were so close and all he could think about was how he might do that, if she shouted out, if she protested.
After all, he still hadn't got her to agree to the theater. And he must, although he could barely believe the jeopardy it seemed to be placing him in.