The Lady Tamed by Boyd, Heather (urban books to read TXT) 📗

“Why have you started taking advice from my father on how to dress?”

“It’s a habit from the theater. We actors always consult each other when dressing for a new role.” He laughed. “It also seems a good way to stay on the duke’s good side.”

“Father only has good sides. He’s the easiest of men.”

Jeremy snorted as if he didn’t believe her, but she ignored the chance to set him straight while she finished her adjustment. Jeremy could learn a lot from her father, but perhaps not about cravats. “There, done.”

He rubbed his throat. “Ah, that is so much better. Thank you, my lady.”

He beamed at her—and Fanny’s heart gave the most alarming lurch in response. As she stared up into his handsome face, a feeling of disquiet filled her. Jeremy was an actor playing the role of her admirer. She would do well not to mistake his interest for something real.

Fanny turned away and looked up. “I’ve always loved this time of year at Stapleton. The skies are so clear at night. As a child, I always thought I should be able to reach up and touch the stars, they’re so close.”

“I can easily believe you,” Jeremy murmured, looking up, too. He stretched up his hand, fingers reaching for the bright points of light above them. “You don’t get this sort of view when you grow up in the gutter.”

She turned to Jeremy. “Tell me about that.”

“I’d rather not.” Jeremy stubbornly shook his head. “The future is all that matters, or so a very learned woman told me the day she took me on.”

She blushed. “A happy day that was for me.”

“I’m not sure your family would agree with that now. Don’t take this the wrong way, but your father and brothers gathered together are almost as frightening as my childhood was.”

“They mean you no harm.”

He snorted.

“Papa already knows how we met. I told him this, my little play, was my idea and not yours.”

Jeremy shook his head. “He must have been shocked.”

Fanny shrugged, trying not to remember the expression that had graced her father’s face when she’d told him she’d hired an actor to play the part of her lover. But she’d explained and reassured him it was only make-believe. “I’m a grown woman and my business is my own. He can do nothing.”

Jeremy crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m sure he knows how to make a man who crosses him disappear.”

Fanny laughed. The idea of her father seriously threatening anyone, let alone Jeremy Dawes, was ludicrous. “My gut, as you men call it, told me that you were a sound investment.”

Jeremy sighed. “Women’s intuition is flawed.”

She was taken aback by his statement. Never before had she heard him speak dismissively of women, or her, in her presence before. “I don’t think—”

He drew closer and lowered his voice, “Now, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. You are a brilliant woman. Astute at business as any man, I hear, but when it comes to people, it’s not your head making decisions for you, but your heart. You ought to be more cautious who you trust with your confidences.”

“You are worried that someone might learn about last night?”

He nodded.

“Nothing happened between us. Not even a kiss.”

He drew closer still, his voice a low rumble as he continued, “No one would believe I wouldn’t have tried for that or more. You were upset, vulnerable.”

She had been; she still was around him. She swallowed and squared her shoulders. “We know the truth. Nothing happened.”

“Any man would be a fool not to try to win your favor. There are plenty of men…lords…trying to catch your eye even tonight. Why would you not let one of them catch you?”

Fanny crossed her arms over her chest, and it stopped Jeremy’s encroachment. “You’ve been listening to Papa and my brothers say I should marry,” she accused.

“I cannot avoid them or hearing things of that nature.” Jeremy nodded. “Your father mentioned others had taken advantage of you in the past and is suspicious of me too. He warned me not to be another, or I’d regret it, and I swear I will not stray beyond the terms of our contract. But I can easily see how to go about it. Bemoan a lack of funds and your reticule flies open. You believe all people are essentially good.”

“Everyone has good in them,” she protested.

“And so many choose to do ill instead,” he said with a scowl. “People say they care about others all the time and mean it less than a quarter. People are never completely honest.”

Fanny stared at him in surprise. Was he warning her to distrust him, too?

There was so much about Jeremy that she did not know, and so much he wouldn’t say. His past was as murky as the Thames, and he didn’t like to talk about his future beyond the next play. But he had to make plans. He could not hope to stumble from one performance to another and expect to succeed brilliantly. “I think your past experiences have clouded your judgement. I think—”

“Ah, there you are, Lady Rivers!” Lord Thwaite exclaimed jovially as he joined them in the moonlight. “And you are by her side again, Mr. Dawes. I’m surprised you’re not off making yourself known to the young ladies and charming them.”

“It’s hardly the time to charm anyone,” Jeremy noted, in a voice so devoid of warmth that she almost shivered in dread.

Fanny hadn’t heard anyone approaching across the ballroom’s hardwood floor, and she really should have. How much of their conversation had Thwaite heard before interrupting? “Mr. Dawes was just telling me about his hope for a fascinating new play,” Fanny told Thwaite, stepping between them. “I so look forward to seeing him perform again.”

Thwaite smirked and then wiped the expression clean. “Perhaps we’ll watch him together in the future. The view from my box is exceptional.”

“She already has a box,” Jeremy said flatly, moving to her side. “The best box in the theater is right by the stage, and