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Lucia looked at the very slender shoulders showing above the edge of the tub. “How bountiful is your bosom?”
Victoria couldn’t help herself. She laughed. “Not excessive bounty there, I’m afraid, ma’am.”
“Pity. Diana, as my nephew Lyon was wont to point out, is very amply endowed. I fear this dress won’t fit you. Well, no mind. We will go shopping tomorrow for you.”
“But, ma’am, you don’t know me.”
“We’ll remedy that in short order, don’t you think? Of course you do. As Didier will tell you, if he’s in one of his moods, you are providing me with much-needed entertainment. Now, my child, out of that tub. I will leave you. Grumber! Do come and be of some assistance.”
But Victoria very firmly told Grumber she didn’t need any assistance.
“Your hair, miss,” said Grumber, and her pained voice told Victoria that she was in dire need.
“Can you come back to me, then, Grumber, in about thirty minutes?”
“Very odd,” said Grumber to Lucia a few minutes later. “Are you certain that Miss Abermarle is a lady? Her speech is certainly ladylike, but not wanting me to help her?”
“You’re right, of course. Here, fasten the pearls for me. Thank you. Well, perhaps the child is simply modest. I love a mystery, don’t you, Grumber?”
“Harrumph,” said Grumber at her most sour.
“Get into the spirit of things. That face of yours would curdle the milk.”
Lucia wasn’t at all surprised to find Victoria Abermarle quite a beauty. True, the high-necked yellow silk looked more appropriate for a sixteen-year-old, but that would be quickly remedied. She looked briefly toward the clock on the mantelpiece. A good half-hour until Captain Carstairs arrived. Plenty of time, yes indeed.
“Do sit down, Victoria.”
Victoria sat.
“Now, my dear child, you must trust me. Will you?”
“I suppose so, ma’am.”
“Excellent. Tell me how you met Captain Carstairs.”
Victoria chewed on her tongue.
“No, please don’t tell me he’s a longtime friend or semirelative or any of that nonsense. If I’m to help you, it must be the truth. Now, onward, my child.”
And Victoria, unused to such lightning tactics, succumbed without a whimper.
“I thought the captain looked a bit familiar,” was the first thing Lucia said after Victoria, twenty minutes later, finally fell silent. “I knew his father, the former Baron Drago. A handsome man, a very strong man who wrung the withers of many a hopeful female before he married a noblewoman on a trip to Seville. I didn’t know, however, about this twin business.”
“As I told you, ma’am, Rafael isn’t at all like his twin, Damien. He’s good and kind.”
Ah, thought Lucia, what proximi
ty will do when the gentleman acts a gentleman and is a handsome devil to boot.
At that moment Didier appeared in the doorway. “Captain Carstairs, my lady.”
Victoria stared. Rafael was dressed in severe black evening clothes, his equally black hair brushed, all whiskers gone from his chin. He looked immaculate, powerful, and absolutely breathtaking. And he looked so much like Damien that she felt frozen to the spot.
Lucia thought the same things about the captain’s physical endowments, but she had the benefit of many more years in her dish. “Well, Captain, you are on time. I like a man who is on time.”
“My lady,” Rafael said smoothly. He kissed her veiny hand. “Victoria, you’re looking none the worse for our adventure.”
“Hello,” she said, then blurted out, “Grumber arranged my hair for me.”
