To Catch a Countess (6 page)

“Alex is concerned,” Samantha said. “He asked us to look for you.”

Victoria sighed. “I don’t want to see the earl.”

“You were getting along so well last night,” Samantha said.

“I’m embarrassed to see him,” Victoria admitted, a blush staining her cheeks. “Alex and I went to the game room, and when your husbands arrived to play billiards, I was naked to the waist.”

“Rudolf was more embarrassed than you,” Samantha said.

“So was Robert,” Angelica added.

“They told you?”

“Seeing Robert embarrassed me after the first time we—you know,” Angelica said.

“I felt the same way,” Samantha agreed. “Seeing Alex is the only cure for embarrassment. If you don’t go downstairs, Alex will come upstairs to reassure you.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Perhaps Alex is falling in love with you,” Angelica answered.

“How could a sophisticated man like Alex love someone as stupid as I am?” Victoria asked, unable to credit what her sister was saying.

“You aren’t stupid,” Samantha said.

“Even if you are stupid, Alex doesn’t know it,” Angelica said, hiding a smile. Then, “Don’t get your back up. I’m only teasing.”

“Do you want to face Alex in the drawing room or the bedchamber?” Samantha asked.

“Tell him I’ll be down in a few minutes,” Victoria answered, surrendering to the inevitable.

*    *    *

Ten minutes later, Victoria paused outside the drawing room to smooth an imaginary wrinkle from her skirt. The thought of seeing Alexander tied her stomach in knots.

And then Victoria heard familiar voices coming from inside the drawing room. Rudolf’s brothers, Princes Viktor, Mikhail, and Stepan, had arrived. She was about to start forward when she heard the princes speaking to the earl.

“Congratulations, my lord, on your betrothal and impending marriage,” Prince Viktor was saying.

“We read about your good fortune in yesterday’s
Times
,” Prince Mikhail said.

“She will make a devoted wife and give you many strong sons,” Prince Stepan added.

“Thank You, Your Highnesses,” Alexander accepted their good wishes.

Victoria froze. Alexander was engaged and would soon marry?

Backing away from the door, Victoria leaned against the wall. Her heart sank to her stomach, and her head swam dizzingly. Tears welled in her eyes, but she tamped them down. She wished she could crawl into a hole and die.

Alexander had flirted with her, kissed her, and touched her but had been betrothed to someone else the whole time. She felt tarnished and stupid. The earl had used her as a diversion for the weekend.

Victoria almost felt sorry for the lady. The poor woman would endure a lifetime of his unfaithfulness. And then Victoria recalled what he had told her in the game room. The earl said that he had no mistress.

A tidal wave of anger surged through her. Alexander Emerson wanted to make her his mistress. He had nearly succeeded, too. If her brothers-in-law had not interrupted, she could be a fallen woman.

Victoria decided to put the whole affair behind her. It could have been worse. She might have succumbed to his seduction. Her feelings were hurt, but her virtue was intact.

She would practice her flirting skills on Rudolf’s three brothers. That should effectively tell the earl that he had no chance to make her his mistress. She needed to be careful never to be alone with him again.

After taking a deep breath, Victoria squared her shoulders and pasted a sunny smile onto her face. Then she walked into the drawing room. Victoria saw Prince Stepan first. Ignoring the earl, she brushed past him and headed straight for the youngest prince.

“It’s good to see you,” Victoria greeted him.

“Best wishes,” Stepan said, and lifted her hand to his lips.

His words confused her. “Best wishes to you, too.”

“Stepan, I want to speak with you,” Rudolf called from where he stood with his two other brothers.

“Luncheon will be served in the garden,” Aunt Roxie announced.

Feeling a presence beside her, Victoria glanced to her right and saw Alexander. He didn’t look especially happy.

“I want to speak privately,” Alexander said. “Will you come with me to His Grace’s study?”

“I will go nowhere with you.”

“Are you embarrassed about last night?”

Victoria waved her hand in a gesture of dismissal. “Please do not remind me of my folly.”

Alexander narrowed his gaze on her. “I would speak with you about us.”

Victoria knew he was going to make her a proposition. “There is no ‘us,’” she informed him. “Nor will there ever be an ‘us.’”

When she moved away, Alexander encircled her shoulders with his arm and pulled her back to his side. “We need to speak.”

“I’m sorry to spoil your plans, my lord, but I am a virtuous woman,” Victoria told him. “Stay away from me, or I’ll scream.” At that, she lifted her nose into the air and walked out of the drawing room.

Tables had been set up on the expanse of lawn nearest the house. The children and their nannies had already had their luncheon at a long table nearby. Tinker and his squadron of footmen stood at attention, ready to serve.

Victoria intended to sit with the three Russian princes and as far from Alexander as possible. Prince Rudolf materialized beside her and escorted her away from the table. “Is something wrong?” he asked. “You know you can confide in me.”

“You know what is wrong,” she answered. “You saw what Alexander was doing in the game room,”

“That behavior is natural between a man and a woman,” Rudolf told her. “There is nothing to be—”

“I heard your brothers congratulating him about his betrothal,” Victoria interrupted, her voice an angry whisper. “Alex is trying to seduce me into being his mistress after he’s married to someone else. What do you say to that?”

Rudolf stared at her in obvious surprise. Then he threw back his head and shouted with laughter.

“Tory, you are more entertaining than a Drury Lane actress,” he said. “Alex does not want you for his mistress. You are not the mistress type.”

“What is the mistress type?” she asked, insulted by his laughter.

“A man chooses an experienced woman for his mistress,” Rudolf explained. “You are barely out of the schoolroom. Why would he want a virgin mistress?”

“You should ask him that question,” Victoria said, and stalked off toward the table.

Victoria sat down with the three princes though they appeared not to want her near them, especially Stepan who seemed uncomfortable when she slipped into the chair beside his. She pretended blindness but surreptitiously watched Alexander sitting at the far end of the table with her brothers-in-law.

Seeing the three of them put their heads together, Victoria knew they were discussing her. She could feel the earl’s gaze on her. His disgruntled expression became a smile, which made her even more nervous, and then the three men exploded into laughter.

Victoria lost her appetite but looked over the luncheon fare and filled her plate anyway. She helped herself to a crisp salad with sharp creamy dressing and a spicy egg and anchovy sandwich.

“What has been happening in London?” Victoria asked Stepan, trying to banish the earl’s presence by making conversation.

“The usual,” the prince said without looking at her.

No help there. The prince’s behavior verged on rudeness.

“Have you attended any balls?” Victoria asked Mikhail.

“I’ve been passing my evenings at White’s,” the prince answered.

“How do gentlemen pass their time at White’s?” Victoria asked Viktor.

This prince, at least, smiled at her. “We drink and gamble.”

“How interesting,” she said. “Do the gentlemen ever discuss the ladies?”

Prince Viktor coughed. “I’ve never heard any gossip.”

Victoria wanted to ask to whom Alexander was betrothed, but pride kept her silent. Suddenly, she realized why the princes were behaving strangely. Rudolf had warned them away. Her own brother-in-law was conspiring with the earl.

Rising from her chair, Victoria gave the princes a reproving look. “Though I find your company charming, Your Highnesses, I promised to lunch with my nieces and nephews.”

“Where are you going?” Duke Magnus called to her.

“I am going to sit with the children,” Victoria answered. “The children have no ulterior motive for liking me.”

“Roxanne, I want to know what is going on here,” Victoria heard her uncle saying. She didn’t hear her aunt’s reply because, as she passed the far end of the table, Rudolf stopped her.

“We are playing croquet after lunch and need a fourth,” Rudolf said. “Will you play with us?”

Victoria looked at him and then flicked a glance at Alexander. She was about to refuse when she realized the damage she could inflict with a mallet and croquet balls.

“I would love to play croquet,” Victoria said, her smile bright.

She ate a pleasant lunch in the company of the children and their nannies. No one avoided conversing with her, and no one tried to seduce her.

An hour later, after the footmen had set up the wickets and the pegs, Robert and she stood with mallets in hand at the start line. Rudolf and Alexander had insisted the lady should go first.

“We play clockwise,” Robert told her.

“I understand the game,” Victoria said in an irritated voice.

Robert inclined his head. “I apologize for underestimating you.”

Victoria set her red ball down on the start line. She held the top of the mallet with her left arm close to her body. Her right hand grasped the shaft lower down.

Hearing the snickering of the three men, Victoria decided to ignore them. They were trying to break her concentration. She placed her left foot, bearing her weight, in advance of her body. Slowly, she drew the head of the mallet back and struck the ball, which rolled about halfway to the first wicket.

With a triumphant smile, Victoria turned to the men. Rudolf and Alexander were laughing. Robert wore a pained expression.

“You were supposed to hit the ball toward the first wicket,” Robert told her.

“I did.”

Robert shook his head. “Wicket one is to your left. You struck the ball to wicket four on the right.”

“Victoria can’t tell left from right,” Alexander called, making her flush. “She does understand fork and knife directions, though. She had the same problem at the billiard table last night.” His tone became suggestive when he added, “You remember the billiard table, Tory. I believe you were sitting on it.”

Both Robert and Rudolf turned their backs, but Victoria could see their shoulders shaking with laughter. She suffered the sudden urge to hit the earl with the mallet but managed to control herself.

Victoria marched to her ball, picked it up, and crossed the lawn until she stood halfway between the start and wicket one. Then she set the ball down and walked to the sideline so the next player could start.

“You can’t do that,” Alexander said. “You’ll need to start over when it’s your turn.”

“I can do anything I want,” Victoria said, whirling toward him. “Shooting the wrong way was an honest mistake.”

Rudolf started next, and then came Robert. Both men shot their balls closer to the wicket than she had.

Alexander stepped up to the start line. He hit the ball expertly, and it rolled through wicket one.

“Nice shot,” Rudolf called.

“That was great.” Robert turned to Victoria. “Do you think you can hit the ball in the correct direction this time?”

With her anger rising to the boiling point, Victoria approached her ball. She positioned her body and drew the mallet back.

“You are holding the shaft incorrectly,” Alexander called. “I would be happy to teach you the proper way to grasp a shaft, Mistress Victoria.”

Rudolf and Robert shouted with laughter. Victoria felt her face growing hot. Then she noticed Rudolf’s brothers and the duke walking toward them, apparently attracted by the men’s laughter.

Victoria hit the ball. It rolled close to the first wicket but did not go through.

“What do you think, Tory?” Robert asked. “How many strokes will it take to get the ball through the wicket?”

Victoria ignored her unsympathetic partner. Both Rudolf and Robert hit their balls through the first wicket. On his first stroke, Alexander hit his ball through the second wicket.

While the men were admiring the expert shot, Victoria kicked her ball through the first wicket. She dreaded the oncoming ribald comments but supposed she deserved them. She had fallen from grace by allowing the earl to touch her but would never have expected him to be so cruel.

“Tory, it’s your turn,” Robert called.

“Wait a minute.” Alexander marched back to the first wicket. “Your ball was on the other side of the wicket.”

“You are mistaken,” Victoria said, looking him straight in the eye.

“I would never have expected you to cheat, Mistress Victoria.” Alexander walked away but managed to hit her with a parting insult. “Let her cheat,” he called to the prince. “She’s going to lose anyway.” Then, in a louder voice, “I’m sorry we stuck you with her, Robert.”

Victoria felt her complexion flaming and cursed her red hair. She hit the ball, which rolled near the second wicket.

Both Rudolf and Robert managed to get their balls through wicket two. Alexander shot next, his ball rolling only part way toward the third wicket.

“Perhaps your luck is changing, my lord,” Victoria called, relieved that the earl was less than perfect.

Alexander did not respond. Instead, he turned his back as she stepped up to her ball.

Victoria didn’t miss his insult. This one smarted as much as his comments.

At the last minute, Victoria changed direction and aimed for the earl. She hit the ball as hard as she could and watched it fly into the air and strike the earl’s leg.

“I’m terribly sorry,” Victoria called, when he whirled around. “You know I have a problem with directions.”

Her apology didn’t stop Alexander. He started toward her, marching purposefully across the grass, and there was no mistaking the fury etched across his features.

Victoria stood frozen as the earl closed the distance between them. She began to tremble when he reached the halfway point.