Radiance (Diamonds of the First Water #3)

Chapter Sixteen

E dward was flattered that Lady Radiance had an interest in him.

“I was born George Edward Lockwood, II,” he explained. “My grandparents were all in favor of royal names, it appears. Yet my parents seemed to regret it almost at once since they have never called me anything except Edward. I have never used George, although I assume it is scrawled upon my birth notice and a university diploma tucked away somewhere.”

“I suppose it is of little consequence to me presently, sir. I cannot go around calling you either Edward or George, while you are free to call me by my name.”

“As long as there is a ‘lady’ in front of it.”

“Obviously,” she agreed without irony. After all, she’d been called a lady from the day she was born, and being addressed thusly must be as natural to her as breathing.

Another rude saying from his university days came to mind. More than one young man upon meeting a titled lady would then tell his chums about the encounter. As a group, they would recite: “The lady behind the ‘lady’ may not be a lady underneath.” To which the young man would exclaim, “I pray to Venus, not underneath!”

It was juvenile. Yet many a man would report that Venus had answered his prayer, and a lady was as likely to let a man explore beneath her skirts as an untitled one.

Edward would wager his own life that Lady Radiance was a lady through and through, as well as under her skirts.

But he still wanted to kiss her. It wouldn’t make her any less a true lady. Then again, if she didn’t want to be kissed and he insulted her tender sensibilities, it would ruin their blossoming association.

He was willing to risk their joint jewel investigation in order to finally satisfy his desire to taste her lips.

“I am glad we can speak freely,” she said, her voice a little breathy.

His curiosity was piqued. “Are you?” He hoped she wanted to murmur words of yearning.

“Yes.” Radiance finished her wine and set the glass down. “I keep thinking about Mr. Minton.”

Mr. Minton! He barked out a short laugh without thinking. They were entirely alone, for which he ought to be shot or made to offer for her hand at the very least, yet all she was thinking about was the wretched Newgate bird.

Edward wished to hear her thoughts, but he also wanted to claim her mouth under his, which would greatly impede her ability to speak. Rising to his feet, he held out his hand. When she took it, sliding her bare fingers against his, he had an inkling he would get his way.

Drawing her up beside him, Edward fell into her luminous eyes, which seemed to catch and reflect every particle of light in the room. If they were true emeralds, he didn’t think they could be any more beautiful.

“If you recall,” she added, “Mr. Minton said it was really Mr. Garrard’s duty to —”

Edward ran his thumb over her lower lip, and she stopped speaking. Then he leaned in close and nuzzled her left ear, wanting to place a kiss just below it, but he refrained. Instead, he whispered, “You smell ... sparkly.”

In a husky tone, Radiance asked, “How does one smell like a sparkle?”

“You do,” he insisted. Something about her fragrance reminded him of gemstones glittering on a bed of luxuriously soft velvet. And then Edward could wait no longer. Covering her mouth with his own, he experienced the moment she gasped, opening her mouth under his.

Sliding his fingers into her hair and cradling her face, he tilted his head and deepened the kiss. When she relaxed against him, Edward dove into her wet softness, his tongue plundering her mouth like a diamond miner.

Her hands clasped the lapels of his coat and held on to him before she drew back a mere whisker’s width.

“You mustn’t do that,” she whispered against his lips.

He couldn’t imagine why not. It felt right. His bare fingers were finally touching the silky softness of her fiery tresses. And the sensation of pressing close to her while starting to nibble on her lower lip was as intoxicating as any glass of brandy.

Letting loose her lip from between his teeth, he trailed a path of kisses along her jaw and down the slender column of her neck.

“I want you,” he confessed in a voice that didn’t sound like his own, surprisingly full of passion and longing. He certainly hadn’t meant to say any such thing.

She stiffened, and he hoped his raw confession hadn’t sounded too crude. Relinquishing the silken skeins of her hair, his hands roamed down her back, across the satin gown until they rested at her waist.

Rather than push him away as she had every right to do, Radiance threaded her hands up and around the back of his neck. Edward wished he could sweep her away somewhere truly private.

Blazing a trail of kisses along her exposed collar bone, he reached the upper swell of her left breast. Her fingers slipped into his hair, gripping him tightly. And he knew he had to stop, just as he knew she would let him continue because she was an utter innocent.

“ Mm,” she moaned, her head arched back to give him access.

His answering groan was torn from deep inside, where his body throbbed for her. He was like a university student again, ready to toss her skirts up and take her on the library table in the midst of the fancy foodstuffs. Cucumber sandwiches be damned!

But even though he found himself gripping the soft globes of her bottom, and despite feeling her hips tilt toward him as if she couldn’t help herself, he restrained from treating her like a light-skirt.

He couldn’t yet tear himself away, however. Their second kiss was heady and hot, raw and intense, as if they were two people who already shared a relationship and had been kept from one another for an eon. His soul relaxed as if coming home, while his body sizzled with pent-up lust.

Edward would swear it was the most satisfying kiss he’d ever given or taken. And from a proper lady at that!

Even when he released her mouth, they remained pressed front-to-front for a long moment, her full breasts crushed against him. Then slowly, he stepped back, drawing in long breaths while she did the same, silently eyeing one another and wearing — he was certain — equal expressions of surprise.

Radiance spoke first.

“Not my first kiss, but the best one, I don’t mind telling you.”

His heart was still thumping so hard, he could hear it in his ears. But he caught her extraordinary words and felt a twinge of jealousy over the man who had kissed her before, followed swiftly by pride that his was better.

“I shall be honest, too, for I have kissed a few females. That one rocked me to my core.”

“Well,” she said, and nothing more, simply looking pleased as Punchinello.

Edward wasn’t sure of the etiquette after ravishing a lady in a library. Before the moment turned awkward, however, he ought to think of her virtue, no matter how belated, no matter how passionate the woman.

Running a hand through his hair, hoping he was tidying it and not messing it further, he said, “I suppose we ought to return to the party before we are missed and your parents set a date for our wedding.”

Her lovely face clouded over like London skies in the spring or the fall, winter or summer, for that matter. Clearly, it was the wrong thing to say.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted at once. “I meant no disrespect. But obviously, a kiss, no matter how extraordinary, doesn’t warrant being leg-shackled. I would hate for your father to feel as though he had to force the issue.”

He laughed, hoping she would, too. She was upper nobility and could not possibly have an interest in an untitled geologist without a butler. Could she?

“You are right,” Radiance said, her tone cool. Picking up her plate and empty glass, she went toward the door.

He had to hurry to reach it first, yanking it inward just before she reached it. Radiance sailed gracefully, albeit swiftly, out of the room without hesitation as if she would have marched right through the blasted door if he hadn’t opened it for her.

Damn! He had cocked that up, and no mistake, although he wasn’t sure how.

Not bothering to retrieve his own plate and glass, he followed her, making sure she got safely to the dining room where she wordlessly set her service down on a table cluttered with other dirty dishes.

Then she turned and offered him her usual small smile, except it was devoid of warmth, and her emerald eyes were most definitely glittering with anger.

“Will you escort me back to the ballroom? I believe the dancing will begin again soon. My card is full,” she added sharply.

Of course it was! She was the most beautiful, desirable woman in London. And he had insulted her.

Edward wasn’t certain to what degree he had erred until he went to claim her for the last dance of the evening, their second one, only to witness Radiance and her parents leaving through the open double doors of the great chamber.

Including Woolley, it was his second cut direct of the night. A few minutes earlier, as the clock struck half past one, he’d seen Radiance on the dance floor, smiling and laughing with some other lucky chap. Thus, there could be no claim of a head or stomachache — no necessity for leaving except to avoid him.

He hoped she didn’t tell her parents why she wished to escape his presence, or he could expect a terse visit from the earl later that day.

Edward left directly, walking for a few minutes in the damp and chill night air before he hailed a cab. It was just as well. His life, while touching the edges of hers, was decidedly different. He hired public transport, and she rode in the luxurious comfort of her father’s town carriage. Similarly, Edward’s home was too modest to welcome a lady into it, as his life was too small and boring. Radiance deserved to shine at private balls and exclusive dinner parties with those of her echelon.

And then Edward wondered why he was thinking of their lives joined at all.

The following afternoon , Radiance went to take tea with her two older sisters at Clarity’s home on Grosvenor Square. She had decided she needed guidance, and there was no one better. Except perhaps their mother, but she was unsure if Carolyn Diamond would be thrilled to learn of her daughter’s behavior under her own nose.

Her sisters would offer counsel without the parental condemnation. Or so she hoped.

“You kissed him? After your first dance and at your first ball together?” Clarity sounded beyond surprised.

Expecting her oldest sister’s next words to be those of censure, Radiance waited. Yet Clarity gave small clap. “How fun! Was it a good kiss?”

“I don’t have much to compare it to,” she said. “But of the few I have experienced —”

“How few?” Purity interjected, not appearing nearly as amused as their sister.

“Two,” Radiance said, despite thinking it wasn’t really any of her sister’s business. “That’s not really the point. Besides, Mr. Lockwood and I have already been to a dinner party together, so this was our second social interaction. Also, I’ve attended two of his lectures and accompanied him to a meeting at Buckingham Palace.”

She nearly added “and to Newgate jail” before she recalled she couldn’t speak about the fake stones.

“What on earth did you go to the Palace for?” Purity demanded.

“To speak with some very important people about helping the Queen with her diamond problem.”

“Her diamond problem!” Clarity laughed heartily, tickled for some reason. “I have never heard of such a thing,” she said finally. “It is beyond anything. Tell us all about it.”

“The Koh-i-Noor is lumpy and flawed. Prince Albert and the Queen want it improved. Mr. Garrard thinks it can be done while Sir Brewster thinks it risky.”

Silence met her words, and Radiance fidgeted, twisting her hands in her lap.

“Again, that is beside the point except to let you know I didn’t kiss a man upon first meeting him at a ball and sharing a plate of sandwiches.”

“What is the point?” Purity asked more softly.

Radiance couldn’t help the great sigh that escaped her. “The kiss transported me to a realm of pure sensation without thought or worry. It was absolute bliss.”

Her sisters glanced at one another.

“And then what happened?” Clarity asked.

“Mr. Lockwood ruined it by making a joke about Father demanding we marry, and then he wanted to hurry me back to the ballroom.”

“What a dunce!” Purity said. “He ought to have got down on one knee and thanked his lucky stars for sending such a glorious girl his way. Ungrateful, ungracious clod! Civility would demand he behave as if marrying you was uppermost in his thoughts and his most avid wish.”

Radiance hadn’t expected such a vehement declaration.

Maybe Clarity hadn’t either, for her eyes widened. She leaned forward, staring into Radiance’s eyes with her beautiful blue gaze.

“I think your gentleman friend was most likely overcome by his own emotions. When they get that way, they tend to say silly things. He was giving you an escape as much as himself. How did you end the evening with him?”

Radiance considered her sister’s words. Maybe Mr. Lockwood — Edward — had felt the depth of the kiss as keenly as she had. She hoped so. In truth, she had wished for him to say as much instead of his skittish words about being forced into marriage with her.

“He used the term leg-shackled ,” she said softly, instantly wishing she hadn’t because Purity reared back, and even Clarity, who usually thought the best of everyone, raised her eyebrows. Now, her sisters would think him a scoundrel.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t speak again,” Radiance continued. “I told him I had many other men to dance with — which I did — and then I left before the final dance, which would have been our second one.”

She’d come off the floor and told her parents that her ankle hurt. They’d taken her swiftly from the ballroom without a backward glance. It would have been too awkward to dance with Edward again.

“Oh dear,” Purity exclaimed. “You left him without explanation nor apology.” She appeared truly distraught by the breach of manners.

“I am shocked Mother allowed you to do so,” Clarity added.

“I fibbed and told her I’d already let him know I was leaving before I left the dance floor with my previous partner. Really, I just wanted to make Mr. Lockwood feel insulted as I had.”

Purity shook her head. “You must send him an apology at once and tell him you were overcome with ... with ...”

“With the vapors,” Clarity added helpfully.

“The vapors!” Radiance repeated. “I hope he knows I am made of sturdier stuff than that. I shall tell him what I told our parents — that my ankle hurt. I hated lying to them, and I don’t wish to create yet another one for him.”

She paused and sipped her sister’s fine tea blend.

“Must I really apologize?” Radiance knew Purity would think it the proper thing to do, but Clarity might say differently. “After all, he was audacious and then hurtful.”

“If you left him waiting without a dance partner and without even saying goodbye after a fabulous kiss, then, yes, I think you owe him an apology. Not only for your bad manners but for the childish behavior. If you are grown up enough to receive a kiss from a gentleman, then you ought to be mature enough to handle the consequences.”

Radiance stared at Clarity. Her words seemed so unlike her usual self who soothed and left one feeling pleased that even Purity was staring at their eldest sister.

Clarity shrugged. “I simply cannot bear to think of poor Mr. Lockwood, whom you said earlier doesn’t normally mingle in ballrooms, made to feel awkward or out of place. And if he was overcome with profound emotions for you, he might have been waiting all evening for that second chance to express himself — only to be thwarted by your abrupt departure.”

When Radiance looked at it that way, she did feel a wee bit sorry, imagining him standing on the edge of the dance floor, having looked hither and yonder for her. She should and would send him a note.

“I shall do as you suggest, but it is irksome nonetheless, to be in the wrong after ... never mind. Now, do you have any cream cake, perhaps with raspberry syrup?”

Radiance changed the subject. Every once in a while, she thought about Mr. Minton, not only the unfairness of his situation but also something he had said which bothered her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t figure out what precisely it was — yet the irksome notion played about the edges of her mind nonetheless. She would dearly love to tell her sisters everything and perhaps suss out the niggling issue. But she could not.

Thus, determined not to slip up and say a word about the forged and stolen gems, she happily told her sisters all they wished to hear about her involvement with the Koh-i-Noor.

“Your name will go down in history as the woman who helped,” Clarity declared.

Radiance wrinkled her nose. “I would prefer being the woman who cut the diamond to make it sparkle, but that is out of the question. I am only now practicing on semi-precious garnets.”

As soon as she got home, she wrote to Mr. Lockwood.

Dear Sir,

I made the egregious error of not letting you know about my departure from the Cobble House ball. With a bruised ankle, I had no choice but to withdraw from the dance floor. I hope you were able to find a replacement partner upon noticing my absence.

Sincerely,

Lady Radiance Diamond

That seemed utterly suitable. But then she thought about their investigation. Despite the kiss, she still wanted to help solve the crime and was ever more certain of Mr. Minton’s innocence. The best thing to do was discover who was involved with the second fake gemstone.

Thus, she added:

PS. I believe our next step ought to be to speak with Mr. Garrard.

Satisfied, she folded her letter, sealed it, and addressed it before finding Sarah. Once her short missive had been dispatched, there was nothing Radiance could do but wait.