The Charm School (21 page)

Late that afternoon, he emerged from the brothel with a head muzzy from drink, a body sated by sex and a jumble of confusing thoughts and misgivings.

He had been offered contraband riches, sex, gambling, strong drink. At one time such things had been all he desired in life and he would have happily accepted. Yet now such pleasures held only faint allure for him. Instead, he went out to look at the teeming market and terraced hills and pastel palaces of Rio, and one thought tugged at him: none of this meant anything unless he had someone to share it with.

Someone who looked at the world with wide-eyed wonder. Someone who drank in new sights and sounds with a passion belied by her sober when. Someone who took a new experience and clasped it to her breast like a precious treasure.

“The coach is ready,” Journey said, coming toward Ryan.

“What the matter?” He peered at him.

“You look sick.”

“Maybe. In my mind,” Ryan said, and he walked toward the carriage.

His Aunt Rose made an embarrassing fuss over him, exclaiming at his height, his handsomeness, the clarity of his cerulean eyes, the glossiness of his auburn hair.

Lily looked on, indulging her for a few moments before saying, “He’s my son. Rose dear. Not a show horse.”

“You should see me when I’m sober,” he said, swaying a little.

“Of course.” Rose hugged him. She smelled pleasantly of coffee and flowers.

He hoped it masked his own less pleasant scent of liquor and cheap perfume.

“Forgive me, Ryan. I wasn’t blessed with children of my own, so I must do all my mothering when I can.”

“And you do it with a natural grace,” he assured her, smiling despite a pounding headache.

“Where is Isadora?”

Lily and Rose exchanged a knowing glance. Ryan cursed himself for letting his eagerness show.

Isadora came down the carved cypress stairwell, uncertainty evident in her stiff posture.

“I—I apologize for keeping everyone waiting” — “Nonsense, my dear,” Rose interrupted.

“We keep no schedules at Villa do Cielo.”

“House of the sky,” Isadora softly translated.

“What an enchanting image.”

“Now that we’re all together,” said Rose, “let us go in to supper.”

She led the way across the arched foyer. Lily linked arms with her, and Ryan was confronted with the prospect of partnering Isadora.

He found the notion absurdly appealing.

He cocked out his elbow.

“Shall we go?”

She sent him that startled, I-can’tbelieveyou’rebeingnice-to-me look that gratified him even as it broke his heart. Had no one ever shown this poor woman a bit of courtesy?

She wrinkled her nose and pruned her lips in disapproval.

“Captain Calhoun, what sort of business were you conducting?”

He didn’t feel ashamed, exactly. Sheepish, perhaps. “I took care of a … personal affair as well.”

“So I gather.”

“It was a long voyage, Isadora. It’s not natural for a man to … do without.”

“I’m certain I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

“I’m trying to explain myself so you can include it in your report to Easterbrook.”

“Why, how dare” — She stopped as his mother and Aunt Rose came into view.

He pressed his arm against her until she took it. “Thank you.

Captain,” she murmured.

“Now that we’re ashore, you should call me Ryan.”

“I couldn’t possibly.”

He gestured at his mother and aunt who crossed the patio ahead of them.

“The other ladies do.” “Your ladies of the night, I presume,” she said tartly.

“That would be ‘ladies of the afternoon,” ” he explained.

“And for the record, there was only one. You are keeping score, are you not?”

She made a strange wheezing sound, but couldn’t seem to get a word out.

“I meant my mother and aunt,” he said, taking pity on her.

“They call me by my given name.”

“They’re related to you.”

He winked at Isadora.

“That can be arranged.”

Her gaze darted away.

“You shouldn’t tease.”

Maybe I wasn’t. The idea was too absurd and too startling to voice aloud, yet the instant it occurred to him, it sent down roots that reached deep inside to a tender place in his heart. It was the oddest notion that had ever occurred to him. Isadora Peabody? The prim, bashful Yankee who dreamed of Chad Easterbrook?

Ryan had clearly been too long at sea.

Isadora had no appetite for supper, though the meal was both delicious and exotic. There was avocado seasoned with vinegar, yams and beefsteak and two kinds of wine, melon and guava and lemony ice shaved from the large block Ryan had brought his aunt as a gift.

Yet for all the bounty, Isadora could only pick at her food. She felt jumpy and out of sorts, and she wasn’t sure why. Eagerness, she decided, studying the ochre walls of the dining room, the arched doorway and windows with their carved wooden screens. That, and a decided enchantment with this strange new place, with the fragrance of orchids and tamarind trees and the strains of soft guitar music that came from the servants’ wing.

And disillusionment with Ryan. The moment he’d reached shore, he’d gone looking for a woman, which he had made a point of explaining to her without apology.

“There’s so much to see,” Lily declared.

“And in such a short time.”

“It doesn’t have to be short,” Rose said.

“You could stay with me.”

“Here?”

“Of course. What is there at Albion for you?”

Lily took a sip of her wine.

“Albion is my home. It’s where I raised my son and buried my husband. My stepson has two children I barely know. I spent too long on the Continent.

I can’t stay away forever.”

Ryan eyed her keenly.

“Father’s dead and I’ll never live at Albion again. Mama. I think Aunt Rose has a fine idea. Let Hunter have Albion. He never needed us anyway.”

Hunter. Isadora tried to picture the stepbrother—older, of course.

Dissolute, with a big red nose from drinking all those mint juleps on the porch while his slaves worked themselves to death in the fields.

“What are his children like?” Rose asked.

“I hardly know—they were both in leading strings when I left. The boy’s name is Theodore and his sister is Belinda. Hunter’s wife—her name is Lacey—didn’t welcome my attention.” A wistful expression softened Lily’s face.

“I would have liked to be a grandmama.” The expression vanished as she drilled Ryan with a stare. “Perhaps one day someone of my own flesh and blood will oblige me.”

Ryan laughed.

“I know I performed a small miracle in getting us here so fast, but even I would have trouble having a baby.”

Rose burst out laughing. Her sister merely shook her head.

“Whatever shall I do with the boy?”

Isadora took a very small bite of melon, chewed it carefully and swallowed.

She prayed they would not see the hot blush that stained her cheeks.

“We’ve embarrassed our guest with all this bawdy talk,” Rose said.

“Shame on us.”

“No, really” — “Nonsense, my dear. Let us move on to politer topics.” She folded her unfashionably sun browned arms on the table.

“You are a most intelligent young lady. Lily was telling me you’ve a gift for languages.”

Isadora shook her head.

“If the conversation I heard at the wharves today was any indication, I am no expert.”

“She’s being modest,” Ryan said.

“She’s the best interpreter I’ve ever heard.”

She blinked. After her performance with the harbor pilot, she hadn’t expected praise.

“Is that so?” Rose asked, lifting a dark eyebrow.

“It is,” he said, upending his wine goblet.

Isadora felt a soft shock of pleasure. Praise from Ryan Calhoun should not feel so good, but Lord help her, it did. She knew pride was a vanity, yet his compliment warmed her like the wine she was drinking.

“You have,” Rose observed, “a most remarkable smile.”

Isadora immediately pressed her mouth into a flat line. Ryan had probably given her a compliment because he felt guilty about his behavior.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything,” Rose commented.

“But that smile—it quite transforms you. And the cut of your hair is quite … revolutionary. I simply adore it. Perhaps I shall get mine cut short, too.”

Isadora had no idea what to say. Lily rescued her by turning the subject back to Albion and people they knew years before. Isadora sampled her lemon ice and listened, enjoying the stories of these lovely strangers while barefooted servants waited on them.

A low churring sound came through the arched windows, startling her.

Noting her widened eyes. Rose said, “That noise you’re hearing is a tara ming—a nocturnal monkey. He’s a pet of sorts. Shy, but he’ll come around for a taste of fruit or honey from the kitchen.”

“I’d love to see him.”

“Ryan, show Isadora out to the patio,” Rose said.

“No, really,” Isadora began, quickly changing her mind. Rose’s suggestion bore a nightmarish resemblance to the well-meaning matchmakers of Boston, forever trying to pair her up with mortified young men.

“It’s not nec” — “I don’t mind.” Ryan pushed his chair from the table. She searched his face to see if he wore the look of those doomed suitors.

‘ “You can stop in the kitchen for a pail of food,” Rose suggested.

“The monkey is sure to be prowling about the garden.”

Torches illuminated the stone-paved area which formed the heart of the villa.

Low arches flanked the patio, and one side had no wall but a wrought iron fence and a huge, unusual tree with a twisted trunk that resembled straining sinew and branches that grew almost horizontally out from it.

The scent of flowers weighted the night air, the odor so thick and exotic that Isadora felt woozy simply breathing it. She stopped in front of the burbling fountain in the center of the patio and stood very still, inhaling deeply, feeling the essence of the night pour through her, bringing parts of her to life that had been sleeping since before she could remember, sleeping so soundly that until this moment she didn’t know they existed.

“Are you ill?” Ryan asked, breaking in on her ecstatic reveries.

She opened her eyes.

“No. Why do you ask?”

“You looked a little … peaked,” he said.

“A little dizzy.”

“If I’m dizzy it’s not due to illness,” she said, flushing.

“It’s because this place is so wonderful—the smells and sounds and the very feel of the air—it makes me … tingle,” she explained, then flushed again.

“For want of a better word.”

“Tingle,” he repeated, an amused quirk lifting the side of his mouth.

“What I mean is that this environment gives me a sense of vitality I’ve not felt before. Does it have that effect on you. Captain Calhoun?”

He studied her with a frank and probing scrutiny that made her uncomfortable.

And without moving his gaze from her, he said, “I do believe I feel that tingling effect, Isadora.” “Now you’re teasing me,” she said, but the night was too perfect to feel angry about it.

He held out his hand to her.

“Oddly, I’m not. Shall we go in search of this elusive creature?”

When she touched his hand, the tingling sensation heightened. She hadn’t expected that. Perhaps it was something she’d eaten—all the fruit had tasted so exotic. She felt light on her feet and graceful, probably a trick of equilibrium, since she had been so long at sea.

They walked to the end of the path, finding a sundial sitting in the gloom.

“How do you call a monkey?” Ryan asked. “I have no idea. I’ve never even seen a monkey.” He rattled the pail of fruit and made a smooching sound with his mouth. Isadora laughed.

“That’s your monkey call?”

He winked at her.

“Can you do any better?” She pursed her lips and tried to emulate the churring sound they’d heard in the dining room.

“I don’t know how the monkey feels,” Ryan said with a chuckle, “but you’ve certainly got my attention.”

She laughed again, wondering if it was the perfumed garden air, the wine she’d drunk, or sheer madness that made everything seem so delightfully funny.

“Ah, Isadora. If your laughter doesn’t tempt the little rodent, I don’t know what will.” He propped one foot on a garden bench made of died masonry. The negligently elegant pose looked wonderful on him.

“You have the prettiest laugh I’ve ever heard.”

“And you, sir, have the glibbest tongue.” He grinned.

“Talked my way onto the Swan.”

“I have often wondered. How did you manage that?”

“I won’t say. You already find me despicable enough.”

“I don’t find you despicable,” she protested. “.!

“CT.”

Does this mean I’m rising in your “At least it’s a feeling you can understand,” she said, “because you find me equally exasperating.”

He fixed her with an unreadable stare.

“I was with a woman this afternoon.”

“I know that. I’m not stupid.”

“Were you shocked?” he asked.

“Was it worth it?” she countered.

“Are you going to report me?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“On why you did it.” She bit her lip.

“Besides … the explanation you gave me earlier.”

“To shock you? And perhaps … hell, I don’t know. It’s not … what you think. I came away feeling empty. It’s hard to explain.”

“Then why do you do it?”

“Because I’m a bad man.”

She shook her head.

“I think you’re actually a good man with some very bad habits.”

He propped an elbow on his knee and gave her a dazzling smile.

“Isadora” — He broke off and grabbed her hand, holding on tight.

“He’s coming,” he muttered in a low voice.

“The monkey?” she whispered.

He nodded. They waited, straining to hear. A distant night bird called and another, even more distant, answered. Closer in, the bushes rustled with a furtive sound.

Isadora kept her grip on Ryan’s hand. She liked holding his hand. His bore calluses of hard work and a comfortable dry warmth. She couldn’t help but note the size—she had large hands for a woman but his were much bigger, swallowing hers so her fingers nestled safely inside. Safe.