Lily and the Duke (Regency Spinsters Alliance #1)

Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

“You were wrong in your assessment of the situation a week ago, St. Albans,” Hellsmere drawled. “The subject of Lady Tremayne has now become one of great interest to me,” he added softly.

The two gentlemen had followed Lily outside. Gabriel, because he wished to reassure himself that she had departed safely in the Truro carriage. Hellsmere, because… Well, Hellsmere invariably had his own reasons and held his own counsel on most things he did and said.

“I believe I have warned you of how unwise it would be for you to speak of that lady again,” Gabriel grated, waiting until Lily’s carriage had completely disappeared before turning to look at the other man.

“I am simply curious regarding the depth of your…zeal in pursuing her,” Hellsmere voiced carefully.

Gabriel snorted. “It is so zealous that I have been away from town this past week! A week during which I worked Jacobson so tirelessly, he might never forgive me,” he added with self-derision.

“And the moment you returned to London, you came to a ball, when you never attend balls. A ball at which you no doubt knew, as your daughter was to be here with your aunt to chaperone her, that her good friend Lily Tremayne would also be in attendance.”

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. “I am curious as to what you are doing here, when you never attend balls either.”

Hellsmere grimaced. “I called at St. Albans House earlier this evening. Imagine my surprise when your butler informed me you had accompanied Chloe and her great-aunt to the Landers’s ball.”

Gabriel had no wish to imagine any such thing. “What my butler would not have been able to tell you is that I parted from Jacobson as soon as we returned to London so that I could spend two hours reporting my findings to Prinny. I was only able to return to my home late this afternoon.”

“Is Brinton innocent or guilty of any wrongdoing?”

“Innocent.” A nerve pulsed in Gabriel’s jaw. “Perhaps you would now like to tell me why, after learning I was not at home when you called, you then felt it necessary to seek me out here?”

The other man shrugged. “I was curious about your sudden interest in attending one of the balls you have always claimed you abhor. I realized the reason the moment I entered the ballroom and saw you conversing, rather heatedly, I might add, with Lily Tremayne.”

Gabriel tensed. “Your point being?” he challenged.

“My point being that by singling her out in that way, you are making her an object of speculation, possibly ridicule, regarding what the Duke of St. Albans’s intentions might be toward her.”

“I do not have any intentions toward her.” Gabriel felt a dark scowl creasing his brow.

“No?”

“No!”

Hellsmere grimaced. “Then you are lying to yourself as well as to me.”

Gabriel’s hands clenched into fists. “Men have been called out for less.”

“And you are perfectly at liberty to do so if you feel the situation warrants it,” his friend invited calmly. “I will enjoy kicking your arse in both the boxing ring and with sword.”

“And I will outshoot you every time.”

“Indeed.” The other man nodded. “But as I am speaking out of concern for both you and Lady Tremayne, I am trusting none of those scenarios will prove necessary.”

“That will depend upon the reason for you having voiced that ‘concern.’”

Hellsmere sighed. “I am worried in case this situation should in any way be similar to the one involving Clara.”

Gabriel stilled. He and Hellsmere had known each other for almost three decades. As children, then as youths, and now as adults. Which was why Hellsmere was fully aware of Gabriel’s infatuation with the dairy maid all those years ago. The other man also knew of the violent outcome of that situation.

Hellsmere grimaced at Gabriel’s continued silence. “Lily is obviously a different sort of woman to the dairy maid.”

“I should hope so.”

The other man nodded. “From what I observed of Lady Tremayne’s blushes a week ago—also unlike Clara, who never blushed because she preferred the rougher company of stable boys—it would seem Lady Tremayne reciprocates the attraction you feel toward her.”

Lord, Gabriel hoped that was the case! “Your point being?”

“That I should not like that lady to become in any way…alarmed by the depth of your interest in her.”

Gabriel gave a humorless chuckle before sobering. “You are correct in saying that Lily is nothing like Clara. She is the opposite to her in looks and is in every way a lady. But she is also an outspoken one. Which is why I have absolutely no doubt that Lily will bluntly tell me when or if she wishes any interest in her on my part to cease.” She certainly seemed to have no trouble speaking her mind to him on other subjects.

The other man studied him for several long moments before nodding. “Very well.” He brightened. “Shall we now depart this hellish ball and instead enjoy a bottle of brandy together at our club?”

“An excellent idea,” Gabriel agreed.

In truth, Gabriel was relieved that, for now, the subject of Lily had been dropped.

By Hellsmere, at least.

Gabriel spent the rest of the evening inwardly trying to formulate a plan in which he might arrange to spend more time with Lily, not less.

“Ah, Lily, now that you have decided to grace me with your presence, we shall immediately discuss the reason why the Duke of St. Albans should have singled you out for his attention at the ball yesterday evening.” Lily’s mother eyed her reprovingly after she dismissed the attending footman with a wave of her hand. She waited until he had left the room before continuing. “Neither your father nor I, indeed none of our family, can withstand the possibility of you being involved in an even more scandalous situation than your sister was two years ago. We only managed it then, and since, because her lover was only a secretary and we, as a family, have been able to maintain secrecy on the subject. The same would not be possible if you were to become involved with a man as prestigious as the Duke of St. Albans.”

“There will be no scandal, Mama,” Lily assured calmly. “And once I have chosen the fruit for my breakfast and am sat at the table, we shall discuss any subject you wish.”

She had successfully avoided answering her mother’s curiosity the evening before.

She had done so when, after the countess returned from the Landers’s ball, she had come directly, and no doubt purposefully, to Lily’s bedchamber and Lily had pretended to be asleep. After several frustrated attempts to wake her, the muttering countess had departed to her own bedchamber for the night.

Lily had decided it would be for the best if she allayed her mother’s frustrations as soon as possible this morning. Goodness knows she knew how relentless her mother could be when she was set on a subject.

Which was why, instead of asking for a breakfast tray to be brought up to her bedchamber, as Lily would have preferred, she had instead come down to eat as soon as she had washed and was dressed for the day ahead.

As expected, her father had already left to go about his daily business, whatever that might be, leaving Lily and her mother to breakfast alone together in the small family dining room.

Lily duly collected the selection of diced fruits before sitting opposite her mother. She smiled as the footman returned with a fresh pot of tea. He poured her a cup before placing the pot in the center of the table and once again leaving the room after a dismissive nod from the countess.

Once they were alone again, Lily knew she could no longer delay answering her impatiently waiting mother. “The duke wished to talk to me concerning his need to choose the material and design for a new gown he would like to give Chloe on her nineteenth birthday in two weeks’ time.”

Lily had been rather proud of herself, as she lay in bed the previous evening, for having thought up this excuse for Gabriel’s conversation with her. Having made that decision, Lily had fallen into what had unfortunately been a restless night’s sleep.

How could it be any other when she could not stop thinking of the hunger in Gabriel’s eyes as he attempted to coax her out onto the terrace with him? A hunger which had left Lily in no doubt of his desire to kiss her again.

Lily would have willingly allowed him to do so, would have enjoyed kissing him back. If they had not been at an event such as a ball, where so many eyes and ears of Society had already been concentrated in their direction.

Her mother now tutted her disappointment in that answer. “Is that the only reason?”

Lily nodded. “Obviously, he should not have done so where our talking together was sure to attract interest. But as he so rarely chooses to be seen in public, I believe he must have decided to make a special effort to converse with me when the opportunity arose.”

“Oh.” Her mother’s disappointment deepened. “Your father had hoped…”

“What?” Lily gave a derisive laugh. “Surely Papa did not think, even for a moment, that a wealthy and toplofty gentleman such as the Duke of St. Albans would ever be interested in someone like me?”

“You are the daughter of an earl,” her mother protested.

“A poor one.”

“That is not publicly known.”

Lily did not totally agree on that point, but she was not about to say so. Let her mother continue to live in her fantasy world, if that was what she chose to do. “I am not pretty enough to attract such a man as St. Albans.”

“You think far too little of yourself, Lily,” her mother reproved sharply.

Which was ironic, considering her mother was the one who constantly complained that Lily's looks were such that her French maid could only ever manage to make her appear “tolerably pretty.” The countess had also been known to claim that no effort on the part of Lily’s maid would ever succeed in presenting her as a true beauty.

Her mother usually added that Lily’s dark hair, olive complexion, and strange pale green eyes were not in the least fashionable and would never win her a husband.

The truth was, this was Lily’s third Season, not her first, all without a suitable offer of marriage having been made. She was the daughter of an earl, after all, even if he was an impoverished one, and her parents did not believe that a simple Mr. or Lord would do as a husband for her. This lack of a betrothal only added to the countess’s vitriol on the subject.

Lily had inherited her looks and coloring from her father rather than her mother, the countess being a woman who was fashionably fair-haired and blue-eyed. Hazel was similarly fair-haired and blue-eyed, and even at sixteen had been hauntingly beautiful.

It was their mother’s fair beauty which had no doubt briefly captured the Earl of Truro’s attention all those years ago, enough so that he had offered her marriage and they had produced four children together.

But the countess’s looks were now marred by the visible lines upon her forehead as well as beside her eyes and mouth. Formed over the years, Lily believed, by her mother’s deep unhappiness within her marriage.

Whatever the reason, the countess’s frustration with her lot in life was such that she often vented those feelings as criticism of her unmarried daughter.

It was a dissatisfaction with life which Lily was determined she would not emulate.

Primarily by refusing to marry at all and so not allowing herself to be forced to suffer the disappointment of living with such unhappiness.

“What were you talking to Lily about so earnestly at the ball yesterday evening?” Chloe prompted as she and Gabriel enjoyed breakfast together. “It caused quite the scandal, you know.”

Gabriel tapped his daughter playfully on the nose. “A gentleman must be allowed to keep some secrets from his daughter.”

Chloe’s eyes widened. “A secret? Oh, do please tell me, Papa.” She clapped her hands together in her excitement.

Gabriel might have done so if he had any idea what that secret was!

But he freely admitted, to himself at least, that he had no idea what he was talking about. It was his intention to spend the morning at the boxing salon, then fencing at his club and practicing with his sword—possibly as a reaction to Hellsmere’s claim to outdo him in both those skills—in the hope that he would be so thoroughly exhausted in both body and mind later today that he might actually be able to sleep tonight.

A mind which, the previous night, no matter how much Gabriel tried to divert it, had refused to stop thinking of Lily. Of wanting to be with her again. It refused to do so still.

“I know what it is!” Chloe announced triumphantly. “You and Lily are conspiring to arrange a surprise for my birthday in two weeks’ time.”

Gabriel wished that was the case. He would gladly take any situation that began with “you and Lily.” But with no other explanation in his mind, Chloe’s explanation would do as well as any other. It would also, he hoped, be reason enough for him to see Lily again.

He arched a mocking brow. “Is the purchase of a new gown not present enough?”

Chloe giggled. “Stop teasing me, Papa!”

“I will if you agree to cease asking me questions on the matter,” he encouraged affectionately.

Chloe beamed. “Lily thinks of the best birthday surprises!”

“She does…?” Gabriel prompted curiously.

“Oh yes. Last year, for Rose’s birthday, she arranged for us all to go on a picnic at Vauxhall Gardens. On Georgiana’s birthday, we all attended the theater and sat in the Earl of Truro’s box. On Juliet’s birthday, we visited the animals at a private zoo. Juliet is particularly fond of wild animals.”

“Yes, yes,” Gabriel dismissed, having heard enough of the treats Lily had arranged for the benefit of others. Treats, he noted, which would not have cost her money but were nonetheless both thoughtful and kindly tailored to the recipient. “What surprise did you all give Lily for her birthday?”

“We—” Chloe broke off with a frown. “Now that you mention it, I do not believe we gave her anything.” She winced. “Her birthday is in December, you see, and so we were all with our individual families rather than together.”

This lack of consideration for Lily made Gabriel once again wish that he could mention Chloe’s thoughtless excitement the previous week regarding the ordering of her new gown. But to do so would reveal that he had been in the library at the same time as the group of young ladies, that he had heard all they had to say on the subject of marriage.

So he must remain silent on the subject of Chloe’s new gown, but that did not mean he had to remain silent regarding this other situation. “Chloe, I cannot tell you how disappointed I am to learn that none of you have been as generous a friend to Lily as she obviously has been in the past, and continues to be now, to all of you.” A generosity, now that Gabriel was aware of it, he fully intended to return on Chloe’s behalf.

He would call upon his lawyer today before doing anything else, with the intention of asking Harold Atherton to check deeper into the financial situation of the Earl of Truro.

Gabriel did not care about the lack of funds in the earl and countess’s account. But he intensely disliked Lily having to go without those other frivolous pleasures in life that her friends so easily enjoyed. Both Mariah and Chloe had told him of the simple joy of being able to choose and own a new gown.

Chloe looked suitably chastened. “I am sorry, Papa.”

He gave her a stern look. “It is not me you should be apologizing to.”

“No,” she acknowledged sadly. “I realize now that we have all of us behaved very selfishly.”

He nodded. “Then might I suggest you discuss this situation with your other friends and decide how you might all do something this year to return Lily’s generosity.”

“Of course, Papa.” His daughter eyed him curiously beneath her lashes. “Why do you sometimes call her Lady Tremayne and at others only Lily?”

Gabriel cursed under his breath at his lack of caution when speaking of Lily. Hellsmere’s accusation had been a correct one, in that Gabriel really was not adept at hiding his interest in that particular young lady. Even from his own daughter.

“I am of an older generation to all of you, and so might do as I wish,” he teased.

“You are not that old, Papa,” Chloe protested with affection.

“Thank you for that.” He gave a derisive smile. “But the real reason is that I thought you would prefer it if I were not so formal toward someone of whom you are obviously deeply fond,” he excused. “When I forget to do that, I call her Lady Tremayne.”

Inwardly, I now refer to her, always, as my Lily , Gabriel admitted to himself.

Thankfully, he was easily able to divert Chloe into talking about her plans for the rest of the day rather than continuing to pursue the subject of Lily Tremayne.

Meanwhile, it was Gabriel’s hope, now that Chloe had suggested it, that he might forgo the boxing salon as well as practicing with sword and rapier in order to use the excuse of organizing Chloe’s birthday surprise to be with Lily again.