The Paid Companion (5 page)

“Yes, well, in addition to the clothes, there is the matter of my age.” This was proving to be an extremely embarrassing interview, she thought. Most of the other potential employers had considered her a bit young for the positions they were offering. However, in this instance, she was definitely too old.

“What is wrong with your age?” He frowned. “I had assumed that you are somewhere in your late twenties. I trust you are not about to tell me that you are considerably younger than you appear? I am most definitely not in the market for a green chit fresh out of the schoolroom.”

She set her back teeth and reminded herself that this morning when she had dressed for her interviews, she had deliberately made herself up in what she hoped was the very image of a typical paid companion. Nevertheless, she was somewhat irritated to learn that he had erred on the high side when he had calculated her age.

“I am six and twenty,” she said, striving to keep her words entirely neutral.

He nodded once, evidently satisfied. “Excellent. Old enough to have acquired some common sense and knowledge of the world. You’ll do.”

“Thank you,” she retorted caustically. “But we both know that gentlemen of your rank and fortune are expected to marry very young, extremely sheltered ladies straight out of the schoolroom.”

“Hell’s teeth, madam, we are discussing a paid post, not a genuine betrothal.” He scowled. “You know perfectly well that it would be impossible for me to employ a seventeen-year-old girl for this position. Not only would she be highly unlikely to possess the skills and self-confidence required to carry it off, she would no doubt expect me to go through with the damn wedding at the end.”

For some reason that remark sent a chill through her. She did not understand why, however. Logic told her that of course the Earl of St. Merryn would not even consider marriage to the woman who played the role of his fiancée for a few weeks. Why, such a woman would be no better than an actress. Wealthy, powerful gentlemen of the ton had affairs with actresses; they certainly did not marry them.

“Speaking of which,” Elenora made herself say briskly, “just how do you intend to end this fictitious engagement when you have concluded your business here in town?”

“There will be no problem with terminating it,” he said. He shrugged. “You will simply disappear from Society. It will be put about that you cried off and returned to your family’s estates somewhere in the far North.”

You will simply disappear.

Alarm slithered across her nerves. That sounded decidedly ominous. On the other hand, he was right. Vanishing from exclusive circles would not be so very difficult. The rich and the powerful lived in a very small, self-contained world, after all. They rarely strayed outside the borders of that glittering sphere, nor did they notice those who existed beyond it.

“Yes, I suppose that will work,” she said, thinking it through carefully. “Few, if any, of my future employers are likely to move in the same exalted circles of Society that you and your acquaintances inhabit. Even if they do go into the Polite World and even if I were to come into contact with some of their elevated friends, I doubt that anyone would take any notice. Once I revert to my role as a paid companion, no one will pay any attention to me.”

“People see what they expect to see,” he agreed.

A thought struck her. “Perhaps I should use another name while I play this role, to help ensure that no one recognizes me while I am in the part.”

He chuckled. “I can see that the notion of taking a stage name appeals to you, but I do not think it necessary, and it will only complicate matters in the event that someone from your own past does happen to recognize you.”

“Oh, yes, I see what you mean.” She was somewhat disappointed, but she had to admit that he was correct. “It is unlikely, but if I should meet up with an acquaintance here in London, it would be difficult to explain my new name.”

“Truthfully, I am not at all disturbed by the notion of you en countering someone you know while you play your part. There is no reason why such an event would affect our script. As long as I claim you as my fiancée, you will be accepted as such. I am considered something of an eccentric, so no one will be unduly shocked that I wish to marry a lady with no social connections.”

“I see.”

His smile was cold. “Who will dare to contradict me?”

“Yes, of course,” she said, a little awed by his unshakable arrogance. But his point was well taken. Who, indeed, would dare to question his claim? And as for the future, well, she would worry about that when it was necessary to do so. She could hardly afford to pass up this extremely profitable arrangement because of some vague fear of being recognized as the earl’s cast-off fiancée six months from now.

“Indeed.” She nodded once, satisfied. “Very well, I think it is safe to assume that no one looking at a companion will see the Earl of St. Merryn’s former fiancée, so I should have no difficulty obtaining future employment.” She hesitated. “But where will I live while I am in your employ? I do not have any lodgings of my own. It is quite expensive here in town, you know.”

“You will stay in my house, of course. We will tell people that you are visiting from the country to shop and enjoy the pleasures of the Season.”

“You expect me to live under your roof, sir?” She raised her brows. “That would invite the sort of gossip that I’m sure you would not want.”

“There is no need to be alarmed on account of your reputation, Miss Lodge. I promise you that you will be properly chaperoned.

The tale that I gave Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis concerning my widowed female relative staying with me for a few weeks was quite true.“

“I see. Well, then, my lord, your scheme just might work.”

“Miss Lodge, for your information, my schemes always work. That is because I am very good at making plans and executing them.”

He said that without any trace of arrogance, she realized. It was a simple statement of fact as far as he was concerned.

“Nevertheless, this particular scheme seems somewhat complicated,” she murmured.

“Trust me, Miss Lodge. It will work. And at the end of it, I will pay you not only triple your fees, but a bonus.”

She went very still, hardly daring to breathe. “Do you mean that, sir?”

“I need you, Miss Lodge. Something tells me you are perfect for the part I want you to play, and I am quite willing to pay you handsomely for your talents.”

She cleared her throat. “As it happens, I have been saving every penny I can afford to put aside in order to invest in a certain business venture.”

“Indeed? What sort of venture would that be?”

She pondered briefly and then decided that there was no reason not to tell him the truth. “I hope you will not be too terribly shocked, sir, but my goal is to go into trade.”

“You are going to become a shopkeeper?” he asked in an astonishingly neutral manner.

Braced for strong disapproval, she felt almost light-headed with relief when he did not condemn her scheme out of hand. In the view of well-bred people, going into trade was a dreadful move to be avoided at all costs. In the eyes of Society it was preferable by far to scrape by in genteel poverty rather than become the proprietor of a business.

“I realize that my plans must strike you as beyond the pale,” she said. “But as soon as I have obtained enough money, I intend to open a bookshop and a circulating library.”

“You do not shock me, Miss Lodge. As it happens, I have made my fortune through various investments. I have some skill when it comes to business.”

“Indeed, sir.” She gave him another polite smile.

He was being very gracious, she thought. But they both knew that the gulf between a gentleman’s business investments and the notion of going into trade was vast and deep in the eyes of Society. It was all very well for a person of quality to purchase shares in a shipping venture or a housing construction project. It was another matter altogether for a well-bred individual to become the proprietor of a shop.

Nevertheless, the important thing was that St. Merryn did not seem the least bit put off by her plans. Then again, she thought, he had made it clear that he was not in a position to be choosy.

He inclined his head in somber acknowledgment of her intentions. “Very well, then, do we have a bargain, Miss Lodge?”

The generosity of his terms completely dazzled her, as he had no doubt intended. She had one remaining qualm about the post she was accepting, but she crushed it down quite ruthlessly. This was the first turn of good fortune that had come her way since that dreadful day when her stepfather’s creditors had arrived on her doorstep. She would not risk losing a golden opportunity simply because of a petty uncertainty.

Scarcely able to contain her delight, she smiled again.

“We do indeed, my lord.”

St. Merryn stared at her mouth for several seconds, as though riveted. Then he gave his head a slight shake and frowned slightly. She got the impression that for some reason he was annoyed, not with her but with himself

“If we are to achieve our objective of projecting an air of intimacy about our association,” he said dryly, “I think you must learn to call me Arthur.”

That would not be easy, she thought. There was a forbidding quality about him that would make such easy familiarity difficult.

***

It was not until she was outside in the street, hurrying back to Mrs. Egan’s townhouse to give her the good news, that the qualm she had squelched earlier rose up once more to plague her.

It was not the earl’s formidable temperament or his bizarre plan to parade her in front of Society as his fiancée that worried her, she thought. She could deal with those things.

What made her uneasy about this too-good-to-be-true post was the fact that she was almost positive that St. Merryn had not told her the whole truth.

He was keeping secrets, she thought. Her intuition warned her that St. Merryn’s scheme involved something far more dangerous than a plan to put together an investment consortium.

But his private affairs were none of her concern, she concluded with rising excitement. The only thing that mattered to her was that if she successfully carried off the role St. Merryn had assigned to her, she would be well on her way to realizing her dream by the time he brought his little drama to a close.

4

“It is just barely possible that my streak of extremely bad luck is about to come to an end.” Elenora sank gratefully into the depths of the wingback chair and smiled at the two women perched on the sofa across from her.

She had first met Lucinda Colyer and Charlotte Atwater six months before, in the offices of Goodhew & Willis. The three of them had arrived on the same day, seeking employment as companions. After a particularly trying afternoon of interviews, Elenora had suggested that they all go to the tea shop just around the corner and commiserate.

As it happened the three of them were quite different in temperament, but that fact paled in comparison to the things that they did have in common: They were all in their mid-twenties, well past the age when a good marriage was still a viable option. They were all from respectable backgrounds; well-bred and well educated. And due to a variety of unfortunate circumstances, all three found themselves alone in the world and without resources.

In short, they shared the common bonds that drove women such as themselves into the paid companion profession.

That first afternoon tea together had become a regular Wednesday affair. After they had obtained posts, Wednesday was the one day of the week that each of them had free.

For the past few months they had been meeting here in the parlor of Lucinda’s elderly employer, Mrs. Blancheflower. It was not an environment calculated to lift one’s spirits, in Elenora’s opinion, and she knew the others did not find it particularly cheerful either.

The atmosphere was one of intense gloom due to the fact that Mrs. Blancheflower was dying somewhere upstairs. Fortunately for Lucinda, who had been hired to keep the lady company in her remaining days, her employer was taking her time about making her transition to a higher plane.

As Mrs. Blancheflower slept most of the time, Lucinda had found her post to be quite undemanding. The chief drawback was that her employer’s relatives, who seldom came to call, had decreed that the housekeeper maintain a suitably funereal decor. That meant that there was a great deal of black cloth hung everywhere. In addition, the drapes were always kept pulled tightly closed to ensure that no hint of cheerful spring sunlight could squeeze into the somber rooms.

While the gloom weighed on one, Elenora and her friends endured it every Wednesday because there was one very significant advantage to holding their visits here: The tea and cakes were free, thanks to Mrs. Blanchefiower’s unknowing largesse. That meant that the three women could all save a few pennies.

Elenora had asked St. Merryn to allow her to tell her friends the truth about her new post and had assured him that neither of them went about in Society. Lucinda’s employer was on her deathbed and Charlotte’s was an elderly widow who was confined to her house by a failing heart.
“Not that either of them would breathe a word about my role even if they were to encounter someone who was acquainted with you, sir,”
she had added with great certainty.

St. Merryn had seemed quite satisfied, even unconcerned with her friends’ ability to keep silent about her role as his phony fiancée. He truly was not the least bit worried about them spreading gossip, for the simple reason that he knew full well that no one in Society would pay any attention to such a wild rumor put about by a couple of impoverished paid companions. Who would take Lucinda’s and Charlotte’s word over that of a wealthy, powerful earl?

Lucinda and Charlotte had at first been astonished by the news that she was to play the role of St. Merryn’s fiancée and live in his house. But after learning that she would be properly chaperoned by one of his lordship’s female relatives, they had concluded that the post was a very exciting one.

“Just think, you will be able to go to all the most exclusive balls and soirees,” Charlotte said, looking dazzled. “And you will wear elegant gowns.”