Page 12 of Desperately Seeking Seduction

But she had to because it was her job to keep her master’s room tidy. She scooped up the dress just as the door opened.

Lord Stratford strode into the room, nodded to her, and walked into the dressing closet. “Have you seen my opera glasses?”

“No,” Winston called, setting the gown aside and rushing to follow him. He began to toss and discard things over his shoulder. Fearing the chaos he was creating, she put a restraining hand on his arm. “If you will allow me, my lord.”

Stratford stepped back and let her rummage through the shelves and drawers alone. Winston found the opera glasses wrapped in a wool scarf at the very bottom of a drawer and offered them up to Lord Stratford on the palm of her hand. “There you are.”

“Thank you,” he murmured, fitting them to his eyes and looking at her through them.

“I hope you enjoy the performance,” she murmured, ducking her chin.

“What performance?” he asked as he lowered the opera classes to clean the lenses, then putting them back up to his eyes again.

“I assumed there must be a performance to be viewed if you’re in need of those,” she muttered, growing uncomfortable with his scrutiny through the magnifying lenses.

“Oh, no. There’s no performance to be borne tonight, unless you count watching my family maneuvering for the duke’s favor. I was going to do a little spying on my other family members though,” he assured her.

Winston frowned. Spying was not the act of a gentleman. “Well, have a good evening anyway.”

He laughed suddenly. “Winston, you should see the look on your face. You take every word I say much too seriously. I mean to take a closer look at the portrait of a long-dead relative without having it taken down from the wall. One of the larger ones hanging over the stairs. Something about it has always seemed off to me.”

“Oh,” she said, understanding. “I thought you meant your living family. The duke’s guests.”

He laughed and held up the opera glasses again, peering at her through them. “This is how I will survive dealing with them all tonight. I’ll study the portraits all over the place, instead of saying something to their faces that would be considered unwise.”

She could see his eyes, grown abnormally larger because of the magnifying lens, and struggled not to giggle. He was exaggerating most likely about his family but not about studying the paintings. “Well then.”

“Well then.”

Lord Stratford nodded and turned away for the door, leaving Winston to pick up the gown again to put it away, smiling to herself because when her employer babbled, he could be amusing.

“I say, Winston,” Stratford called out.

Winston turned quickly, holding the gown against her.

Lord Stratford’s hand was on the doorknob, but his eyes slowly widened as their gazes met across the room. Winston quickly dropped the gown lower. But Stratford had seen something…and he prowled forward, gaze fixed on her and the red gown she still held loosely in her grip.

Winston’s pulse began to pound in her ears the closer he got.

“Lift that dress back up in front of you again,” he asked quietly.

Winston could not do that for him. “I was just putting it away until tomorrow,” she said, backing farther toward the safety of the dressing closet.

But Lord Stratford was not deterred and continued to advance, all the way to the dressing closet doorway, where he stopped, blocking any chance of escape.

Winston quickly hung the gown on its usual peg. “If you will excuse me.”

As she moved to walk past him, he grabbed her arm and held her still. His eyes widened even more when she looked up at him, and he gulped. “Winston?”

He knew. She was discovered. “Yes, my lord?”

His tongue darted out to wet his lips and she couldn’t look away as he said, “Have you ever considered wearing a gown before?”

CHAPTER 5

Winston shook his head, and the disgust at the very idea of dressing as a woman was writ large on his face. But that did not deter Stratford in the least. He needed someone to pose for him that might just pass, if one squinted, for Lisette. The new young wife of a London neighbor was about Winston’s height and overall size. Stratford may have been mad to ask such a question of his valet, but they were so similar, he couldn’t help himself. Even their hair color was the same. All that was needed was a wig or a bit of imagination on Stratford’s part.

It had to be said. Winston could play the role of a female very easily if he were ever to take the stage.