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“No,” Flint admitted dryly. “And I almost lost Chastity because I was not truthful with her from the beginning of our acquaintance.”
Alaric grimaced. “As I will surely lose Grace if I accuse her lover of being involved in a murder with little or no evidence.”
“Forgive me for saying so,” Flint chided softly, “but I do not believe you currentlyhaveher.”
“Bastard,” Alaric muttered without rancor.
The other man smiled. “You said earlier that Grace enjoys the theater and the opera?”
He nodded. “She has attended both in the last two weeks.”
Flint nodded. “Then your next gift to her should be a ticket to one of the performances she has not yet attended. No, not just any ticket, but one to a private box,” he amended. “I doubt, if she is so enamored with those entertainments, that she will leave that ticket unused.”
Alaric doubted it too. “But how does that help me?”
“Why, my dear chap, once she is seated and alone, you will join her in the privacy of that box.”
He scowled. “Which will only result in her leaving.”
“Not necessarily,” the other man murmured. “If you wait until just after the actors come onto the stage to begin the play then slip quietly into the box, she won’t wish to draw attention to herself by standing up and leaving. Besides,” Flint added lightly, “it is a public theater with hundreds of other patrons present, and she might well consider suffering your company for several hours to be worth being able to spend another evening at the theater.”
He gave a heavy sigh. “Remind me to come to you again when my ego needs stroking.”
Flint chuckled. “Your ego has never needed any stroking.”
The phrase “until now” hung in the air unsaid by either man, but Alaric had no doubt they both knew it was there.
Just as they both knew it to be the truth. In the past, Alaric had always been able to charm any lady he desired into going to bed with him.
Until Grace.
The more he thought about Flint’s idea, the more Alaric realized it had merit. Especially so when he knew how much Grace had enjoyed such entertainments in recent weeks. The tickets would not have been cheap nor easily obtained. Purchasing the use of a private box for the evening would be costly and was often impossible to acquire. It would be even more so when it was for this evening’s performance.
Unless you were a wealthy and arrogantly powerful duke.
Alaric, thankfully, was both.
Every vestige of Grace’s uncertainty as to whether it would be wise of her to make use of the theater box the Duke of Melborne’s brief letter had informed her had been made available to her this evening vanished the instant she was seated on one of the two plush red velvet-covered seats at the front of that private space.
For the first time, she had a completely unimpeded view of the stage below. As a rule, she invariably had a large lady or gentleman seated in front of her restricting that view. This, the utter privacy of the box and having no one seated in front, beside or behind her, was sheer luxury.
She had wondered when she arrived if there would be other people joining her in the three vacant chairs, but as the actors came onto the stage, it became obvious she had the box to herself.
Members of Society occupied all the seats in the boxes either side of her, but it seemed that Alaric Montrose had somehow managed to procure this private box this evening for her use only.
Grace really did not know what to make of the toplofty duke and his insistence of sending her gifts in apology.
Despite the calm manner in which she had spoken in the park that day, Grace had been inwardly furious with Melborne for such underhand behavior, and she had remained so for two days afterward.
The flowers and handmade chocolates the duke had delivered to her the day after that incident, Grace had happily taken to the orphanage, the flowers to bring a smile to the faces of the ladies working there, and the chocolates for the children to try. Most of them had never seen or tasted the delicacy before.
Indeed, Grace had never known that luxury either until coming to London the previous year. But George had fallen into the habit of bringing her a box of chocolates when he visited, saying they were for her to enjoy until they saw each other again.
She had felt no hesitation at all in immediately returning the diamond-and-emerald bracelet and earbobs Melborne had delivered to her from the jeweler known to be the most prestigious in London. The gift was far too expensive, and in any case, the only jewelry she habitually wore was a locket about her neck, given to her by her mother.
Grace had realized too late that instead of returning the jewelry, she could have kept and sold it to a pawnbroker and then donated the money from that sale to the orphanage. Which was exactly what she would do if the duke should ever try to seduce her again with jewelry—
“I see you were quite right in refusing the bracelet and earbobs. What is already perfect has no need for such gaudy decoration.”
