The Rake's Unveiling of Lady Belle (15 page)

‘I have my sources; I'll get you some. And stop changing the subject. So, no oats?' Belinda's lips quivered as he imagined she strove not to laugh.

Phillip hoped he looked soulful. ‘No oats, not even a nibble. And if you remember, she and her parents left the next morning.'

‘Oh dear.' Evidently Belinda couldn't manage to contain her mirth and began to snigger. ‘Your first failure?'

Phillip laughed with her. ‘It was a salutary lesson.' He shook his head. ‘If I had any sense I would have taken it as a warning sign that she was not for me. Instead I decided to chance my arm, changed my mind, and landed you in this potential mess.' He stopped laughing abruptly and became serious. ‘Belinda, I'm so sorry.'

‘Belle.'

‘Even though I know who you are?' Why did she still feel she needed to keep up the pretence with him?

‘Exactly, I am Madame Belle.' She patted his mouth much like one would a petulant child. ‘Do not pout; it does not become you. Believe me, for both of us it is just easier to be Belle and no one else.'

Perhaps, but Belle will not countenance me, Belinda might.
Phillip kissed her cheek. He'd much rather kiss somewhere else but he knew how easy it would be to forget his resolutions and take all she offered. ‘You could soon be Lady Macpherson instead?'

‘You never miss a chance, do you?' Belinda struggled out of his embrace, stood up and refilled her glass with water only and leaned against the window ledge. ‘Phillip, listen to me. No I could not. It would never do, and however much you protest to the contrary you know it as well as I. Even if I did reappear as my old self, people would soon realise Lady Belinda Howells, now the new Lady Macpherson, were also Madame Belle and the scandal would be unbearable. I will not inflict such a thing on your family and besmirch that good name.'

‘Rubbish, every family has a skeleton in its closet somewhere. It would be a five-minute wonder, no more.' How could he make her understand and accept it? ‘We could survive that together.'

‘My family would go on the attack, like scavengers or leeches. I will not do that to you. You'd never be free from their sponging and scrounging.'

‘I can handle them. Scavengers disappear when stood up to, and leeches can be brushed off and crushed. Spongers and scroungers are only such if they are allowed to be. I would not allow it. From either of us.'

‘It will not do.'

He could tell she thought not anyway. Her expression was mulish, and the resolution in her voice was there to hear. Phillip realised he was going to have to rethink his tactics. He sighed and then forced his expression into one of patient understanding—or he hoped he did. It wasn't an emotion that came naturally to him.

‘Very well, but the offer still stands and will continue to do so until you say yes.'

She shook her head. ‘Do not hold your breath, my lord.'

‘Of course not.' Phillip chose to accept her words literally. ‘If I did I'd swoon, or in due course, die. That's not my plan. Now we need to plot and scheme for any eventuality that may occur.' He swore he could hear Belinda grind her teeth.

‘Nothing will,' she said impatiently. ‘I can deny everything. If she ever works it out. After all what is there now of the old me?'

‘Class. And if you look closely, your profile is very much in the Howells' style.'

Belinda rolled her eyes. ‘I look nothing like I did then. Indeed, I
am
nothing like I was then.'

Phillip ignored her statement, and the steady tap-tap of her fingers as she thrummed them on the surface of a table. He began to prowl the room. Unusually for him he was unsettled and jittery. Although the sky was clear, the atmosphere was charged as if another storm was about to break, which in a way he supposed it was. Phillip stared at a fine watercolour painting on the wall until the colours ran into one another and the poppies depicted became a rainbow cloud.

‘We must take all precautions that you are not bothered by her or anyone else.' He pondered how. ‘Shall I send you a doorman?'

Belinda walked up behind him, and to his amazement leant against his back. Her scent lifted his spirits somewhat and her presence so close to him that her breath tickled the hairs on his neck made him all the more determined to be her champion.

‘If only life were simple.' Did she really kiss him or was his imagination overworking? ‘If she wants to make mischief a doorman wouldn't stop her. Or anyone else for that matter. No, I'll just have to be on my guard.'

That doorman will be here by nightfall.

‘Don't you want to know why I did it?' Belinda's voice was muffled as she spoke into his cloth-covered back. ‘All those years ago?'

It was not the way to conduct a conversation. He turned, and she went to take a step backwards. Phillip shook his head and held her close. ‘Stay here, please. I like it.'

‘So do I.' The words were soft but he heard them, hugged her and tilted her head back so she stared up at him. ‘I shouldn't but I do.'

Phillip looked at her steadily. ‘Of course I want to know what's behind it all. I would not be human if I didn't wonder why a young lady of the ton chose to reinvent herself as a person in trade, even someone very elegant and as successful as you. Plus, hide her identity for all these years. However, it's your decision whether to trust me with the story.' He understood she wouldn't have done such a thing without good reason but it stung that she hadn't thought him trustworthy enough to confide in. ‘I suspect my sister knows it all?'

Belinda nodded. ‘And Lady L.'

That did surprise him. Elise Lakenby was kindly, sprightly and not a person to be mistaken for someone with no interest in the world around her. Even so, he hadn't thought her capable of such deception. Mind you, he ruminated, there was a never to be underestimated steely core of integrity in her, which not all people noticed or understood.

‘My godmother?'
Stupid question. What other Lady L is there?

‘And Clarissa's. Yes, the very same. She was a great friend of my mother and never approved of my father, which is one reason she helped, I think. She was one of the bright stars of my growing up. If it hadn't been for Clarissa, your father and Lady L, once my mama died, I have no idea what I would have done. My life would have been bleak indeed.'

‘I confess I'm…' he hesitated ‘…unhappy you felt you couldn't tell me everything.'

‘I daren't. Remember I hadn't seen you for years until you turned up with Bloody Rosemary.' Belinda smiled. ‘To see you with her was enough to turn me away from saying anything at all. It didn't say much for your judgement of character.'

‘I suppose I deserved that,' Phillip said ruefully. ‘However, one's true self doesn't change.'

‘But I don't and didn't know your true self from before,' Belinda argued. ‘Not really. Oh I yearned for you with all the longings a schoolgirl could muster, trusted you because I'd seen how you behaved towards your family, but you were with her. Now, yes I wouldn't hesitate to confide in you and ask for your help, but before? Sorry.'

Why did he think she wasn't quite being honest? Phillip had long learned to believe his instincts over such things. He also knew when not to press for the truth. This was one of those times.

‘I'll listen to whatever you want to say,' he said slowly. ‘However, in comfort maybe?'

Belinda looked around as if she'd only just noticed where they were. She gave a short, shocked gasp and tried to draw away.

‘I didn't mean out of my arms,' Phillip said gently, but in a tone he hoped she understood brooked no argument. ‘I thought perhaps sitting down.'
With you on my knee.
He didn't give Belinda time to voice an objection, but lifted her into his arms.

She squeaked and he laughed. ‘A squeak not a quack? You've been holding out on me in more ways than I thought. That is two animal sounds you can make.'

‘That squeak was not an animal sound,' Belinda pointed out as he sat down and she began to wriggle. His cock responded to the stimulus. “It was me.”

‘Stay still for the love of God,' he groaned the words out.

‘You're bony.'

‘Well that's one way of describing it. And if you don't stop wriggling we'll both be affected by my bones.'

* * *

Belinda looked at him in puzzlement, felt whatever bone it was get bigger and push towards the cleft between the two globes of her rear, and all of a sudden understood what he meant. She stopped moving and held herself rigid.

‘Maybe I should get up.' She tried to get a purchase on the floor with the tips of her toes, without much success. To do that she would have to wriggle again, and to be honest, Belinda admitted to herself she quite liked the evidence of how he felt towards her as his pego stroked her rear.

‘Maybe you should stay where you are and tell me why you feel happy to do so.'

She could do that. She hoped.

Belinda tried not to wriggle again, but it was difficult when she knew what the results could be. Besides, the way Phillip was so determined not to seduce her, even to experience his staff stroking her in such a non-threatening and gentle manner was better than nothing.

‘What did you mean, we would both be affected by your bones?' Belinda was sure he'd said no to most things unless they wed.

‘To put it crudely, my dear, if you wriggle and I lose control and spill, we will both need a change of clothes. Easy for you, not so for me, so for the love of God, desist.'

‘You could take your clothes off,' Belinda suggested, with a wink and a laugh. ‘Just in case.'

Phillip shook his head with a wry smile.

‘Minx, no I could not. Now either tell me what you want to share or I might as well leave you. There is only so much provocation a man can take.'

‘And then give in?'

‘No, then spank your rear.'

She was sure not only were her cheeks as red as the cushions on the long window seat behind them, but also her expression would be one that mimicked a codfish. Belinda spluttered a few times and opened and shut her mouth without uttering a word.

‘You wouldn't.'
Was that what rakes did?

‘No? Do you want to wager on that?'

‘No, thank you. So, my story,' Belinda said hastily. ‘My mama died, I was sent away to school, where I was lucky enough to meet Clarissa and be absorbed into the love and friendship of your family. You were rarely around, and when you were, we were the giggling schoolgirls you avoided like the plague.'

‘I was at Eton and Oxford. Girls were pests to be avoided.'

‘As you say. It seemed my father was happy not to have to bother about me until I became old enough to help him with…' She stopped and bit her lip. This would be the tricky bit. To show why she had to leave her papa's household without revealing all of his perfidy. ‘Running his household.'

‘I don't remember that. Surely it would have been noted and remarked upon?'

‘Well, no.' Here came the tricky part. ‘You see, evidently I caught the eye of a…a gentleman who wanted to marry me even before I came out.'

‘Not much of a gentleman then,' Phillip said dryly. ‘Who was it?'

She took a deep breath, and waited for the fallout. ‘A Mr Featherstonehaugh. In trade. I said no, which makes it ironic that I am now in trade myself.'

‘Feather…' Phillip said musingly. ‘Feath… Good Lord not that fat old fogey with more money than most of us and the habits of a pig? The one who has, to date, buried five wives? That one?'

‘That one.' She shuddered. ‘Five wives? Good grief, I'm sure it was only three then. I had never met him in person to talk to, but he had seen me, and well…' She closed her eyes and tried not to remember the little piggy eyes and the frankly lecherous look on his face when she encountered him in the hall of her home. Belinda hadn't bothered to curtsey; she'd ducked his outstretched hand, turned and made her escape up the stairs. His mocking laughter followed her. Once out of his sight, she'd fled into her room, and locked the door behind her. Even the memory of that episode made her feel dirty. Belinda forced herself not to scrub her hands together or wipe them on her gown. Phillip was much too astute not to know why she did such a thing.

‘He must be, what, forty years older than you?'

‘At least, but my papa was adamant. It was, in his eyes, the ideal answer. Wash his hands of me and well…I imagine—no let me be honest—I know there was money involved, which would be to my father's gain. I couldn't countenance it, so I ran.'

‘To Lady L?'

Belinda nodded. ‘I knew the first person he would make enquiries of would be Clarissa, so I could not go and ask her or your papa for help. Plus, I wasn't sure what your papa's reaction would be. I was after all preparing to defy my parent.'

‘He would have supported you.' Phillip sounded very sure.

‘Would he? I didn't dare risk it, whereas I was certain Lady L would be on my side. Luckily, or providentially, for some reason I'd never mentioned to my father how well I knew Lady L. He never thought to enquire about me there.' She swallowed heavily. Her throat was dry and her stomach churned as she remembered those first few weeks, when every unknown sound made her jump and pale. Lady L had noticed her reactions to the tiniest thing, given her a pistol and taught her to shoot.

‘And then you became Madame Belle.'

‘Not just like that, no. Lady L was determined we plotted and planned until she was certain it would work. I lost weight, improved my complexion, had a decent hairstyle created to suit me and honed the skills needed in my craft. It was six months before I appeared in London as Madame Belle. For the first time in my life I was in charge of my own destiny and I vowed from then on it would always be so. Never would I be beholden to a male for my continued wellbeing, and I haven't.'