A Pair of Rogues (12 page)

“Ahhhh . . . “ Christina formulated her response on a long, drawn out breath. “Perhaps you are right, and I am only temporarily dazzled. But then, Levington is always so willing to give me what I want.”

“And what is that?”

A footman stepped between them to serve the final course, and Ned’s frustration could be read in the tense line of his mouth.

As soon as the footman disappeared, Christina leaned closer to Ned, with a surreptitious glance at her brother. Fortunately, Robert did not seem to be paying her and Ned the slightest mind.

“What I want is to be taken to one of those gaming houses you undoubtedly frequent in Pall Mall.”

If she had expected to be rewarded with a flash of anger or even amusement, she was quickly disappointed. Ned’s eyes were as sober as the set of his jaw, when he replied, “You would never do anything so stupid.”

“Why not? I am sure you do stupid things all the time.”

She saw that she had taken him aback with her logic. “You might even offer to take me to one yourself, if you think Lord Levington is not to be trusted. As good a friend as you’ve become, I am sure you can be.”

“Don’t be absurd. You are acting like a brat.”

Christina felt all the truth in his words, but still she could not help herself. Ignoring a pressing ache inside, she shrugged as charmingly as she could. “Very well,” she promised lightly. “If you will not take me, I shall simply ask Levington.”

A gleam of intelligence relieved Ned’s stormy visage. His unyielding posture relaxed. “This is all bluff,” he said, speaking through a grin. “You will never be able to leave the house without someone’s being aware.”

“Dear, dear Ned” —with a little chuckle, Christina shook her head at his innocence—”has no one ever told you of windows? I assure you I know how to make full use of mine.”

Just then, Christina’s gloomy neighbor tapped her on the shoulder in order to finish his monologue on factory conditions, which had been interrupted on their last switch of partners.

With a dazzling smile, she could not feel, Christina turned her back on Ned.

Chapter Six

Ned left the dinner party that evening, worried that he had underestimated Christina’s desire to do herself in. Her threat, that she would make Levington take her to a place she had no business going, had sounded an alarm. While she had threatened many pranks before, none had approached this degree of seriousness.

All along, he had wondered what sort of demon was driving her to practice such impropriety. He’d doubted that she could receive much gratification from her acts. And, yet, she persisted in thinking up ways to court social ruin.

At first, he reluctantly confessed to himself, he’d found her brand of girlish impudence entertaining. He had not truly minded keeping an eye out for her interest, not when her clever powers of invention had posed such a challenge. It had almost seemed as if they’d joined in a battle of wits. He had let Christina know he would not allow her antics to pass the bounds, and Christina in turn had done her utmost to confound his efforts to guard her reputation. Their constant dueling over society’s rules, a thing they commonly despised, had actually brought them into friendship, he’d thought.

Ned could not deny their fellow feeling, nor his sympathy for a girl with such high spirits being forced to play the ingenue. Nor did he seriously deny his growing interest in her welfare.

But this last start, the one she had so casually mentioned tonight, was of an entirely different sort. Ned wondered if he could dismiss it as merely an idle threat. She might have uttered it in an attempt to tease him. He had not failed to notice the pleasure she took in raising his ire.

But the trouble was her threat had not seemed idle. How she could even contemplate an action, not only outrageous by anyone’s standards, but of serious danger to herself, had disturbed him all evening.

A voice in the back of his head tried to tell him he had often acted the same, but Ned rejected this notion outright. Christina was a very young female, with kind relations, a proper education, and a woman’s sensibilities. She could not possibly be suffering from the same dark restlessness he had known all his life.

Nevertheless, she’d appeared to be suffering from something tonight. Her wan coloring and the glint of desperation he’d detected in her eyes had sent him a warning signal he could ill afford to ignore.

He knew he ought to tell Robert. But would Robert believe his sister was threatening to go to a gambling hell, or would he reasonably suspect Ned to be out of his mind? The notion that a delicately raised female would contemplate such an action was not one a man usually threw at the girl’s brother. Not unless he wanted to meet that brother at dawn.

Ned sighed heavily over the prospect of offending Robert to that degree. No, he would do better to watch out for the chit himself to make certain that the proposition she’d made remained just so much idle bluff.

* * * *

Over the next many nights, he stayed alert to Christina’s whereabouts. In the course of normal events, this was actually quite easy. They were certain to be invited to the same affairs. At the height of the season, the list of balls and parties was entirely predictable to one with Ned’s social expertise.

If a ball was in the offing, he could search the room to make certain Christina had arrived and that she was being properly chaperoned. If the evening called for the theater, he had only to sit where he could spy on Robert’s box to reassure himself that nothing was toward.

In the meantime, however, as a result of this private concern, which was causing him an unanticipated amount of anguish, he decided to avoid Christina as much as he could. Her most outrageous acts often seemed provoked by himself, as if the pleasure she took in thwarting him were part of her reason for misbehaving. It was all part of their game, he thought. But if, in playing, they had lost control of the game, Ned would have no part of feeding her waywardness.

Christina’s high spirits, though they stirred his blood with their youth and daring, could have no permanent place in her future. She must marry. Even though she revolted at the notion of pleasing an eligible man, she must soon reconcile herself to that necessity.

She would not wish to remain childless and a spinster. It was time she woke up to the risk of losing all chance of matrimonial harmony. Ned could only wonder what was wrong with all the young bucks these days that no one suitable had seen what a prize she would make and fought for the pleasure of making her his own.

He continued his vigilance, forsaking his clubs and his gambling hells in the possibility that Christina would try to visit one herself. Ned paid particular attention whenever Levington was about. Even though the baron’s visits had been politely discouraged from Broughton House, Robert had found no legitimate way to keep Christina from speaking to him at functions they attended.

Forewarned by his mistake at Almack’s that night, Levington had altered his tactics and had become the very model of propriety in order to win Robert’s heart. As a result of his moderation, Robert had begun to worry less about him than some of Christina’s other suitors and had consequently lowered his guard.

During the week following Louisa’s dinner, Ned spotted Levington several times in Christina’s company. More than once, they seemed disturbingly intent upon a private conversation, but he had not been able to come between them without giving the appearance of someone more concerned than he wished to appear. But nothing scandalous had yet occurred.

Then, just as he’d begun to feel that his extreme care in guarding the girl had been unjustified, Christina failed to appear at a ball to which she had been invited.

Robert and Louisa had come. As soon as Ned spied them entering the vast drawing room, he casually scanned the corridor behind them for Christina as well. But no amount of searching discovered her whereabouts, so he was forced to ask Robert where she was.

“Christina came down with a headache just before we departed this evening and declared she could not go,” Robert said, with a sigh. “Frankly, I think she has had enough of parties for the instant. I dashed well know I have myself.”

“Then, why did you not stay at home to bear her company?” Ned tried to muffle his concern, but the sight of Robert without his wayward sister alarmed him.

Robert said wistfully, “I would have been more than happy to, but Louisa insisted we could not all disappoint Lady Ensley. I would give anything to spend one quiet night at home, but no doubt she’s right. I hope to get her out of here before too late, though, without Christina.”

“Will you look in on her when you get home?”

“No.” Robert shook his head. “We promised not to disturb her. What she wants, she said, is a good night’s rest. You know what the devil it can be to try to get back to sleep once one has been awakened.”

“Of course.”

Ned saw immediately that his uncertain tone had captured Robert’s attention.

“What?” he said, a glimmer of worry taking birth in his eyes. “Why are you asking so many questions about Christina?”

“My dear Robert,” Ned said, using the arrogance he knew so well how to employ. “You have asked me to keep an eye on the girl until I barely have an evening to myself. Now, when I pose an innocent question about her health, you take me to task?”

His cool delivery calmed Robert, who said defensively, “Don’t be so testy, Ned. Of course, I’m not taking you to task. It was just that for a moment—”

With a hasty frown, Robert refrained from pursuing the subject. Instead, he invited Ned to join him in the cardroom.

It took all the diplomacy Ned possessed to avoid being swept into a game, which would have tied him down for an hour at least, without raising Robert’s suspicions over his reluctance to play. It was entirely unlike him to turn down an invitation to cards, especially at a ball, which could offer him no other enjoyment.

But he was determined to discover whether Christina’s headache was real.

A quick turn of the room, and then two more, decided him that Levington had not come to the ball. The baron’s failure to appear at such an elegant event, certain to be attended by many heiresses, ripe for the plucking, did not bode well for Christina’s story. Ned tried to reassure himself with the possible reasons for Levington’s absence, but his unerring instinct pointed him towards but one.

He left Lady Ensley’s party and hired a chair to carry him to Pall Mall, cursing himself for a misguided fool all the way.

Over the course of the next two hours, Ned searched the private gambling hells where Levington might have dared to take Christina. He wasted no time in discovering their directions because he had frequented them all himself. On a gamble, he ruled out the ones at which ladies of the evening were known to be in prevalence, and opted instead for those at which hardened gamesters of both sexes might be found. He did not think that even Levington would be so foolish as to choose a place where Christina’s virtue could be compromised.

The thought that the baron might well use the opportunity Christina had so innocently provided him to turn elopement into rape, with a consequent marriage, made Ned so feverish with anxiety, he found it hard to maintain a polite demeanor for the acquaintances he passed. Only by holding on to his cynicism, which told him Levington still cherished hopes of persuading Robert to sanction the marriage, could Ned conduct his search with any appearance of calm.

The first two houses, both on near side streets, offered no sign of the pair. But at the third, a private residence with an aging boxer standing guard at the door, Ned got lucky.

The owner of this hell, a former opera dancer with a trumped-up widowhood attached to her name, had invited her guests to partake of a masked supper tonight. The purpose of such disguises could only be to encourage the attendance of ladies who would normally fear to be seen in such an establishment. Masks would allow them to indulge their indiscretions without the consequences that would otherwise arise.

And to this particular assembly, Ned gratefully remarked as he made his way past the various tables in the dimly lit room, hazard and faro seemed to hold more allure than the opposite sex. Considering the anonymity of the group, surprisingly little in the way of flirting was going on. Instead, the guests remained intent upon their tables with all the passion of true gamesters.

One table in particular captured Ned’s attention. This was due to the couple standing beside it who appeared to be engaged in an escalating quarrel. The gentleman, whose artful brown locks looked plastered in place, was eager to resume his play, while his companion—a young lady with smooth, blond hair piled high upon her head—seemed out of spirits. Her colorless lips beneath a rose pink mask gave the lie to the stubborn set of her jaw.

Ned had no sooner recognized Christina, than a rush of immense relief flowed through his body, followed quickly by a deadly rage.

Despite an inner voice which urged him to relish her discomfort a moment longer, he could not contain his temper one second more. A few hasty strides brought him to within inches of the pair.

As they turned, startled by his sudden assault, he began, “You will pardon me, my lady, but I must inform you that it is shockingly past your bedtime. I shall wait while you fetch your wrap, providing you had enough sense to bring one.

“And you, sir—” Ignoring Christina’s gasp of outrage, he turned on Levington. “You, sir, will hear from me on the morrow. For the moment, you are excused.”

As he expected, both objected to this high-handed treatment. Christina, he ignored. But Levington would not stand to be robbed of his treasure without a fight.

“Look here, Windermere! You cannot barge in here like this, laying claim to a lady who prefers my company to yours.”

“Does she? Then, why did she first ask me to escort her to this kind of den? If I were you, Levington, I should learn to tell when I am being used.”

“How—dare you!” Christina spluttered, but Ned’s accuracy had made her flush. “Go away, and let me enjoy myself. We are having a marvelous time.”