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“M-my lord!” she exclaimed, her breathing shaky. “I thought we had established that a gentleman does not compare a lady to…to a Greek nymph.”
Abruptly he straightened, his eyes snapping wide. “Drat!” he exclaimed and uttered a rueful laugh. “You are quite correct, Miss Antinori. But propriety of speech is deuced difficult to maintain, especially when one’s companion is so utterly lovely. I don’t expect you could help me out by contriving to appear a bit less beautiful?”
He arched an inquiring eyebrow, for all the world as if he’d just uttered a reasonable request. Surprised and diverted, Allegra said, “Would dull homespun suffice? I wore enough of it growing up to prize my new gowns, but I did promise to assist you.”
He made a show of studying her, then shook his head. “Grateful as I am at your willingness to eschew your fashionable new frocks, I fear ’tis not the gown that fires the attraction, but the compelling lady wearing it.”
Though she could not help but feel a feminine gratification at his remark—and the frankly admiring look that accompanied it—his words still skirted too close to the edge of what was acceptable. “Flatteringly said, my lord, but you must remember the Marriage Mart is not comprised of worldly-wise widows or experienced matrons. Any reference to the wearing of a gown would put a young maiden to the blush. You must try harder—or refrain from compliments altogether, for the present.”
“I stand rebuked,” he said with a nod. “Though I could scarce be harder,” she thought she heard him mutter before her attention was attracted by the approach of two riders, who slowed their horses to keep pace with the curricle. Though Allegra did not recognize them, their elegant attire and languid air proclaimed them to be dandies of the first stare.
“Tavener!” the nearer one called. Riding a black gelding, he was garbed in dark blue, his blond locks falling fashionably over his forehead. “Who is the lovely Venus you are escorting? Pray, introduce us!”
“Indeed, do!” the man’s dark-haired companion said, his eyes raking up and down Allegra’s figure.
Liking the second man’s blatantly assessing glance even less than the slight innuendo of the first one’s greeting, Allegra turned away, her cheeks coloring.
Any doubt that she might have misinterpreted the nuance of the two men’s behavior disappeared when she felt Tavener stiffen beside her. “If you want introductions, solicit them from the young lady’s guardian, Lord Lynton.”
“Trying to keep her for yourself, are you? Sly dog!” the second gentleman riposted.
Allegra felt an increase of tension in the tall man beside her even before a look of trepidation replaced the fatuous expression on Dark Hair’s face. As she glanced up curiously, a little shock went through her.
In place of the lazy-eyed, teasing acquaintance of a few moments ago sat a stranger who radiated menace, his jaw set and his feral, icy gaze fixed on the second gentleman. Allegra shivered, glad that look was not directed at her.
“I’m sure you’ll wish to apologize to the lady before you take your leave, Fitzhugh,” Tavener said softly. “Or must I teach you some manners?”
“N-no need to get yourself into a pelter, Tavener,” the man stuttered. “Apologies, ma’am,” he said, quickly doffing his hat to Allegra. “Meant no offense.” Before she could murmur an acknowledgement, the two men wheeled their horses and rode off.
Shaken by the encounter, it was several minutes before Allegra could bring herself to look back up at Tavener. Though his expression was no longer quite so forbidding, he drove in tight-lipped silence, staring straight ahead.
Saddened and a bit angry at having the mood of the afternoon spoiled, at last Allegra ventured, “I take it those two gentlemen were men I should not know?”
Tavener looked back at her and sighed. “I doubt your chaperone would approve an introduction. Fitzhugh and Markham, rakehells and gamblers both, have never to my knowledge sought out the company of innocent maidens.”
Comprehending after a moment what he must mean, she said, “So they thought I was your…oh, my!” She put her hands up to mask her flaming cheeks.
Why would they assume that? she wondered, anger, distress and humiliation warring within her. Her carriage dress was a model of high fashion and modesty, and since she’d barely glanced at them, surely nothing in her manner could have prompted such an assumption.
At that moment, Tavener guided the team off the carriage path and pulled up the horses. Turning to face her, regret and a simmering anger in his eyes, he said, “I must apologize. I truly thought it would be safe to drive you in the park in the middle of the afternoon, but it appears I was mistaken. Though I would hardly call those gentlemen ‘friends,’ we are acquainted. ’Tis my blasted reputation that led them to presume…what they did.”
He gave a short, bitter laugh. “I warned you an association with me might endanger your good name. I hardly expected to find that assertion proved so quickly.”
This time Allegra did not stop herself from laying her hand atop his. “You cannot be sure your reputation prompted their behavior. It must be well known that you are escorting Lady Domcaster this Season as you look about for a wife. You are not responsible for the vileness of their presumptions…any more than I was responsible for Sapphira’s rudeness at Lady Ormsby’s rout.”
Eyes studying her face, as if seeing her in a different light, he said softly, “Though I still think you are mistaken, ’tis kind of you to try to ease my chagrin.”
Allegra laughed shortly. “Thank heavens Sapphira was not present! She would have delighted to see me mistaken for a Cyprian.”
Tavener lifted an eyebrow in surprise. “Her dislike of you is that great?”
“I’m afraid so. She believes my breeding and lineage should bar my even attempting to enter society and is furious that Uncle Robert’s bequest has elevated me above what she considers my proper place.” Suddenly recalling that she ought not be discussing family matters with one who was almost a stranger, she flushed. “Forgive me for prosing on a matter in which you can have no interest.”
“You are mistaken. I’m interested in everything about you. But perhaps I should return you home.”
The incident having spoiled her enjoyment of their excursion, Allegra nodded. “I am feeling a bit weary.”
“We’ll leave at once.” After backing the horses and turning the curricle toward the exit, Tavener added, his voice carefully neutral, “I shall endeavor to convey you home without any additional untoward events.”
“Truly, you mustn’t blame yourself,” Allegra repeated, not wanting him to think her desire to return home was prompted by a reluctance to be seen with him. “Even if a previous association with you led those…gentlemen to jump to false conclusions, you quickly made them aware of their mistake. Lord Lynton himself could not have dismissed them more blightingly, as if I were a gently bred maiden whose innocence must be protected.”
Tavener glanced over at her, a slight smile on his lips. “You are a gently bred maiden whose innocence should be protected,” he pointed out.
Recalling her youth hobnobbing with musicians and theater people, Allegra sighed. “If you knew some of the things I’d done and witnessed growing up, you wouldn’t think so. Certainly society would not.”
“Society can be a dolt,” Tavener said with some vehemence. “But if you are gracious enough to agree to continue our friendship, I shall make sure in future not to endanger you. We shall not stir a foot from your door without your chaperone at our side to maintain propriety.”
The strong connection she felt to him and his forceful handling of the unpleasant incident just past led Allegra to reply, “On the contrary, in your company I do not feel endangered—but very safe. And I shall be honored to consider you a friend.”
Tavener was far too attractive for her to safely relax her guard around him, but though she’d surprised herself with the forcefulness of that avowal, still she knew what she’d just said was entirely true.
By his expression, she saw she’d surprised her escort as well. “You leave me with nothing to say but ‘thank you,’ Miss Antinori,” he said, his voice low.
Conversation ended as they reached the street, which seemed more than usually crowded and required Tavener to keep his full attention on controlling his horses.
As she had while returning from the musicale the night before, Allegra had time to reflect on her excursion with this dangerous and very appealing gentleman.
She had best not underestimate that appeal, she thought, recalling the remarks that had heated her blood and made it difficult for her to concentrate on maintaining a proper conversation. And yet paradoxically, there had been moments when she felt more at ease with Tavener than she’d been with anyone since losing her family.
She supposed she ought to be grateful that if she must cultivate the acquaintance of some other gentleman in order to excite Rob’s interest, the man to whom that task had fallen was turning out to be as complex, interesting and worthy of friendship as Lord Tavener.
