Page 63 of The Redemption of the Shrew

“You look frightfully happy, Elspeth,” she said. “Are you going to marry Mr. Turner?”

Elspeth nodded and favored her with a blinding smile.

From estrangement to wedding plans in one short evening. “How did you manage that? I thought he was avoiding you.”

“Because he was embarrassed, and because he can’t afford to marry anyway. There was no point pining over what could never be. I had to use my woman’s wiles on him.” She giggled. “I was that nervous, miss, for I’ve never done such a thing before. I feared he would take me for a loose woman, but once I had him to myself, I blurted it all out.”

“That easy, was it?” Gloriana said.

“It wasn’t easy,” Elspeth said. “It was necessary.”

Gloriana tried to imagine cornering Philippe somewhere and explaining why she’d behaved so hatefully. She shuddered at the thought. It wouldn’t make any difference, not really. He didn’t love her anymore. Most likely, what had occurred years earlier was merely an infatuation on his part. So in what possible way was it necessary?

It wasn’t.

Besides that, if she tried using her woman’s wiles on him, he would spurn her, as he did all the other females who lusted for him. He might even think she hoped to compromise him—which was absurd, as he should know by now.

Why, she wondered, was he so set against marrying?

A few days later, she attended a small, impromptu ball with Alice Stowe and found to her dismay that maybe he wasn’t.

“I wonder why he spurns the advances of so many attractive women.” Alice brought up this subject every time they saw him. They were standing together in one of the window embrasures, sipping wine. Philippe had just arrived and stood in the doorway, sweeping the room with his gaze. Several ladies preened, hoping to arrest that gaze on themselves.

“Because he refuses to be forced into marriage.”

Alice stared. “Heavens, what makes you think that?”

He told me so, but Gloriana couldn’t admit that. The first rule of friendship with a gossip is to be discreet with regard to one’s own follies. With this dictum of her mother’s, she wholeheartedly agreed. She shrugged. “Most men feel the same.”

“But half the women who pursue him are already married.”

“Perhaps he prefers not to anger their husbands,” Gloriana offered—a standard sort of explanation. She thought of another one. “Maybe he even has some moral scruples.”

Alice snickered. “He’s far too handsome for that. Perhaps he will charm poor Marianne out of her infatuation with Freddy Barnham. He seeks her out at every party and dances with her far too often.”

Needless to say, Gloriana had noticed this, but she’d also dismissed it—for Philippe had said she and Marianne were the only two ladies who didn’t seek him for immoral purposes. Most likely Philippe was just amusing himself with a pretty woman, with the added pleasure of annoying Lord Hythwick into the bargain.

A far worse explanation assailed her. Oh, God. What better revenge than to seduce Hythwick’s sister? “Oh, I hope not!” she blurted.

“Good grief, what’s wrong?” Alice asked. “Why shouldn’t Philippe flirt with her?”

So much for being discreet. “Because she loves Freddy! How horrid that true love should fall victim to such—such callous charm.” Surely Philippe wouldn’t go to such lengths!

“I thought you Warrens didn’t believe in love,” Alice said.

“I didn’t used to, but then my brother fell in love with his wife, and since then some of my cousins have married for love, so it seems we have changed.”

“How tedious, my dear. You are becoming maudlin.”

No, she was a romantic at heart and always had been. She should acknowledge this, accept it, and get on with her loveless life.

At that, commonsense reasserted itself. Philippe wouldn’t seduce an innocent girl, and she should be ashamed of herself for thinking it even for a few seconds.

No—he meant to marry Lady Marianne, a far better solution to his problem with the Home Office. She was well-bred, attractive, wealthy, and as respectably English as she could be—and what better revenge than to walk off with Hythwick’s sister? The earl would have to give up his hopes of having Philippe arrested as a spy, for it would reflect so badly on his own family. It was the perfect solution.

And Philippe would be able to recover the Book of Hours more easily too.

But he didn’t love Marianne. He was using her. He wouldn’t make her happy. Much as Gloriana needed her Book of Hours back, she wanted no part of such a plot.