A Virtuous Lady (25 page)

Briony turned her mouth to his ear. "Or mountebank," she whispered softly, but loud enough for the Countess to hear. Briony was not above flaunting her position as Ravensworth's wife. Her deliberately flirtatious manner was meant to convey the message that she was on the most intimate terms with her husband. The Countess's back grew rigid, and Briony was not displeased.

"Monty is not his favorite soubriquet," Briony went on airily. "There are a few other names I call him, but not in general to his face." The viselike grip on her waist tightened and Briony sobered.

With an arm firmly encircling
Briony's
waist, thus effectively foiling the quick escape he was sure she was contemplating, Ravensworth saw their guests off the premises, promising that he and Briony would look in on them later for an informal evening of dinner and cards.

Once inside the foyer again, he turned to face her and Briony, studiously avoiding his eyes, mumbled that there were a million things that required her immediate attention. She was pulled roughly into Ravensworth's arms. "What a woman you are, Briony Langland," said Ravensworth, his eyes warm with admiration. "What grace, what dash, what a pleasure to see you in
action.
"

"And what quick thinking," snorted Briony.

"Monty indeed!"
He tipped her head back. "Is it too much to ask that you use my Christian name?"

"Would you make a liar of me?" she countered. "You'll get used to it, Monty. Besides, when you hear that soubriquet, you'll know that the lady who wants you is your wife. See that you come to heel when I call," she said with a bold look.

"I intend to, my love, my own sweet briar patch."

"Briar patch?"

"My pet name for you.
You remind me of the untamed gardens you seem to admire so much. I give you leave to do what you will on the estate. But for this particular untamed patch of weeds," he went on, giving her a playful shake, "there will be only one gardener—myself. I'll cultivate my briar patch with jealous care."

"Cultivate?"

"Like this." He cupped her face in his hands and looked deeply into her luminous eyes as if trying to gauge the effect of his impulsive gesture. Briony looked steadily up at him and read the uncertainty in his usually confident expression. She knew instinctively that she had some terrible power over him and could shatter his self-confidence with one look or a word. She smiled a slow smile (a la Ravensworth) and was abruptly swept into an embrace that threatened to suffocate her.

Months of deprivation with vivid images of a receptive Briony nestled in his arms to torment him had his senses on fire from the moment he felt her warm lips respond beneath his. He groaned his pleasure at the heat of her soft body melting against his. Her receptivity to his embrace inflamed him. His hands traveled the length of her body, wanting to
possess all of her. He could not get close enough to her. He kissed the rounded swell of her breasts, and the soft, whimpering sounds deep in her throat had him in a fever of passion. He raised his head, and his lips curved in an exultant smile at the desire he saw mirrored in
Briony's
smokey
gray eyes.

"I
cant
let you go now. Take pity on me, Briony," he coaxed. "You know that there is some unfinished business between us that needs to be urgently settled." His lips moved tantalizingly against her throat. "Come to bed with me now. You won't regret it."

Briony strove to retain some of her composure. "It's not possible," she finally managed, regaining her breath. His head jerked back and Briony found herself looking into a pair of stormy blue eyes.

"Briony!" he growled. "Don't try my patience too far."

"We can't," she said apologetically, biting down on her lip. "This is Tuesday and the floors of all the
usptairs
bedrooms are to be sanded. The servants will be there now."

"Well, the library will suffice," Ravensworth went on in a mode of quiet desperation.

Briony was shocked to the core.
"
There are no drapes," she responded, her voice rising.

The attic?" he suggested on a note of forlorn hope.

"Be reasonable, Hugh," said Briony
placatingly
, rearranging the folds of his lordship's disarranged
neckcloth
. "Come to me tonight."

The simple invitation took Ravensworth's breath away. "Oh my dear," he said softly as he stroked her hair, "how I have longed to hear those words." He bent to kiss her again, but the unexpected appearance of two of the upstairs maids had Ravensworth and Briony draw apart in a guilty start. Briony slipped out of his arms and with a saucy gait moved to ascend the staircase. She threw him a flirtatious glance over her shoulder. Ravensworth stood watching her retreating back with a gleam of anticipation in his eye. As

Dolly and Polly, or was it Polly and Dolly, moved to pass him demurely, he gave a sudden high kick in the air almost startling the housemaids out of their wits.

Ravensworth's admiring eyes held
Briony's
momentarily before he turned back to give his attention to his table companion. He was in a fever of impatience to have this obligatory evening with Adele over and done with so that he could at last be alone with his wife in a house which, he sincerely hoped, was devoid of
Briony's
overzealous lackeys. A small smile at some private reflection curved his lips as he strove to give the semblance of an intelligent reply to the query of the lady on his left. He watched Briony covertly and noted with approval her easy grace as she conversed with the shy young man who seemed to gain confidence under her approving smile—a younger son destined for holy orders, if he remembered correctly. He wondered idly what topic of conversation could have so engrossed the young man's attention.

Ravensworth was not the only one who was watching Briony with covert interest. Lady
Ad&le
St. Clair, although resigned to the fact that her former lover was lost to her forever and indeed had attached Grafton to herself to stave off boredom and loneliness, was not averse to baiting the younger woman. To have lost the
Marquess
to a chit of a girl with so little to recommend her, she took to be in the nature of a personal insult. What could a man of his appetites see in the prim and proper miss with her modest frock and old-
maidish
chignon?

Lady Adele was not to know that
Briony's
demure appearance that evening was far from expressing
Briony's
preference. It was Ravensworth who had insisted that his wife coil her wayward locks and
clothe
herself like what he was pleased to call "a virtuous lady." What he was willing to permit in the boudoir for his eyes only was one thing, but to allow his wife to flaunt her charms before lecherous men was a thing he would not countenance. He viewed with distaste the open invitation to every man in Adele's provocative glances. That she had dampened her petticoats to make her gown of lavender silk cling like a second skin went without saying. It amazed him to think that he had once found her overblown beauty enticing. Briony had changed his taste in women irrevocably. When he had daughters of his own, he would give them a few pointers from the benefit of his experience, thought his lordship, allowing his warm gaze to settle on his wife's person. When he found himself mentally undressing her, he forced himself to initiate a conversation with the Honorable Miss Brown on the unexceptionable topic of the vagaries of the unseasonably warm weather.

"Did I hear the word '
Newgate
?" asked Lady Adele of Briony and her table companion Mr. Guy
Sommerville
. Briony looked up and was dismayed to see that the whole company was looking in her direction.

"By Jove, yes," said the young Mr.
Sommerville
, his eyes warm with admiration for Briony. "Lady Ravensworth is acquainted with Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, a Quaker lady who has taken up penal reform."

"Never heard of her," drawled Grafton.

"You will," responded Briony succinctly.

"Lady Ravensworth has paid a visit to
Newgate
in person," interjected Mr.
Sommerville
, drawing a murmur of surprise from quite a few of the guests. Briony stole a quick look at Ravensworth and was relieved to note that his expression held more interest than displeasure.

"Is this true, Briony?"

"Yes. Mrs. Fry was a friend of Mama. Naturally, when I came to town, I renewed the acquaintance. When she invited me to examine in person the inhuman conditions which prevail for the women of
Newgate
, not to mention their innocent children, I felt duty bound to accept. Mama would have done no less, and many Quaker ladies have since taken up the work."

"Hardly a fitting occupation for a lady of refinement," said Lady Adele dismissively.

Briony's
eyes were as cool as ice as she looked at her hostess. "Do you know
,
that is the second time today that someone has said something like that to me? Fortunately, I do not aspire to be a lady of refinement, so my sensibilities remain untouched."

"Well, I think Lady Ravensworth is top o' the trees," interposed
Sommerville
in an attitude of belligerence.

"What I think," said Lady Adele, her temper rising at the implied rebuke, "is that they should lock them up and throw away the keys. They've broken the law and must be taught a lesson."

Briony was thoroughly roused and refused to heed her husband's warning look.

"Laws!" she said scathingly, her voice shaking. "What laws are there to protect the disadvantaged? These women steal to feed their hungry children and we brand them as criminals."

"Let their husbands and fathers feed them, if they have any," a masculine voice farther down the table mumbled.

Briony threw down her knife and fork in a gesture of impatience. "Now there, sir, your erudition quite overwhelms me, for you have wittingly or unwittingly, as the case may be, uncovered the heart of the matter. If these husbands and fathers would simply desert the British Army, the problem would be less pressing. They should be home where they belong looking after their families."

"Desert the Army?' Even Mr.
Sommerville
was stunned.

Ravensworth bent a withering look at Briony. "Lady Ravensworth is but jesting," he broke into the astonished silence. 'Tell them, my dear!"

Briony did. "War is a most ridiculous method of solving our problems. Take poor Napoleon, for example!" She ignored the shocked gasps around the table. "Think of all the

good
he has done for France—fairer taxes, more equitable laws, schools and university education for the masses. Even our cousins in America admire him. I don't mean to say that the man's a paragon of virtue, but he is not as bad as we have been led to believe. The man has heart.
We should have made a friend of him, not confined him to Elba like a common criminal.''

"Madam, you forget yourself," said Ravensworth tersely, wishing that he could wring her neck.

"Oh forget it, Ravensworth," Lord Grafton broke in. "We are all friends here. Even Lord Byron expresses himself in much the same terms. I find myself in agreement with Briony, especially about the Americans. I've never understood the nature of our quarrel with them. They're British the same as you and I. Damned inconvenience if you ask me. Some of my cousins are American."

Lord Grafton's words fueled the flames of Ravensworth's anger. "May I remind you, sir, and everyone
present,
that in some quarters such remarks would be regarded as treasonable? As a peer of the realm and a loyal subject of His Majesty, I know where my duty lies. We are at war with the United States of America. It behooves us to speak and act with discretion. At this very moment, the far-flung British Army might well be under attack by American forces. If we lose this war, would that please you? Do you wish the Americans to annex Canada?"

Lord Grafton shrugged his indifference, but Briony was by no means finished. "Of course I shouldn't wish any harm to come to Canada. But who provoked this stupid quarrel in the first place? The House of Hanover—"

"Briony," roared his lordship at his wits' end, "will you be silent on this subject!" It was a command, not a question, and Briony, observing the dangerous glitter in Ravensworth's eyes, yielded to the ferocity of his expression.

When the covers had been removed, Ravensworth cornered her before the ladies withdrew to leave the
gentlemen to their port. "For pity's sake, Briony, mind your tongue. If you don't take thought for yourself, think of my position. Any question of my loyalty to the Crown would ruin me." He squeezed her arm to convey that his anger had been more for public display than personal rebuke. "Now be a good girl and talk to the ladies about babies or weddings or some indifferent subject."

Conversation among the ladies in the drawing room was rather boring and desultory until Briony found a Miss Brown who shared her interest in herb gardening. The lady, a native of Yorkshire who had been out for three Seasons, had an extensive knowledge of medicinal herbs. Briony was enthralled as she compared notes with a fellow devotee. Lady Adele came to stand beside them for a moment or two but, perceiving that the conversation held no interest for her, stifled a yawn and moved to another group. With no males in attendance, Lady Adele took little pains to conceal her boredom and made not the least push to entertain her female guests.