“You wish to discuss the concert?” Lucasta pushed away the quiver in the belly that his words produced.I wanted you.
They had not parted amicably after their excursion to Charles Street. But perhaps he wanted her to fawn over him about the fabrics he’d given the Gorgons. Like most men, he would assume all cruelties could be made right with a handsome gift. It was how the Baron proceeded with his marriage.
“I hope to introduce you to someone very dear to me,” Rudyard said.
Lucasta glanced behind, where Miss Falstead sat cradling her enormous hat. The girl smiled.
“The pleasure would be all mine, but he is thinking of someone else,” she said. “Did you tell her nothing, Jem?”
Jem. His family called him Jem, and now she knew that. It felt like a gift.
“Someone who might perform at the concert?” Lucasta ventured. There was no other reason he would invite her out.She had insulted this man on the occasion of their first meeting, and they had quarreled in their every interaction since.
And he had repaid her with compliments, gifts, and now a reprieve out of doors.
“This person enjoys music very much but does not get out to hear it. I thought I might as a result bring you to her,” Rudyard said.
Lucasta bit her lip. He had invited her out to please another woman. Who? An admirer? Another mistress? Someone he hoped to make his mistress?
“I have missed Judith,” Miss Falstead remarked as the small carriage jostled comfortably along. “Mama did not think it proper to call upon her while I was in mourning. And with the little ones there—well.”
“Yes, I am well aware of how Aunt Payne feels about the rest of them.” Rudyard clicked at the horses to guide them around a stopped cart. “But I hope you will call on Judith whenever you wish.”
He would not bring his cousin on a visit to a mistress. Perhaps this Judith was someone he was wooing, or hoped to woo. Lucasta shied as the huge draught horses pulling a cart stamped in their harness and one snorted on her shoulder as they passed. She did her best to push her stomach out of her throat and back to its normal position.
“On the subject of music.” She held one hand to her hat. “I suspect I have you to thank, milord, for the extraordinary opportunity I have been offered. The governors of the Foundling Hospital invited me to get up a benefit concert,” she told Miss Falstead.
“Did they? Jem’s been a governor of the Hospital for years. All the London charities want him on their boards now, of course, but this cause is dear to his heart.” Miss Falstead paused, a slight frown touching her brow as she studied the back of hercousin’s head. “Jem thinks very highly of you, Miss Lithwick, if he trusts you with his foundlingsandJudith.”
“Do hush, Bertie,” Rudyard said, facing straight ahead. A muscle ticked in his jaw, below his ear. “Miss Lithwick won’t hear praises sung of me. The governors adopted the notion at once when I suggested they would not have to pay Miss Lithwick an organizer’s fee.”
His guard was up, that elegant, sophisticated façade she had seen him assume at Lady Clara’s. He had worn it at the theater but dropped it during their time at the Foundling Hospital and at Sancho’s. He was trying to tell her—no, show her something.
That he was exactly what she thought him? Or that he wasn’t?
She lifted a gloved finger to her lips for a nibble and remembered just in time that fidgeting was unladylike. She wrapped her fingers in her skirts instead, her heart doing that slow circling dance once more.
“I am surprised anyone thought an unknown vicar’s daughter up to the task. When there are so many musical talents within London.” She ought not let him see how deeply she feared she would fail at this.
“On the contrary, they seemed eager to call upon a music instructor employed at Miss Gregoire’s. The Duke of Hunsdon, who is also on the board of governors, said his duchess has some connections to the place, and the Countess of Renwick is known to have attended.”
Rudyardhadproposed her name to the governors. He had guessed what it would mean to her to have the charge of a benefit concert. A dream come to life, in a world all too inclined not to indulge the dreams of the young, the poor, and the powerless.
“Selina appreciated the fabric that Mademoiselle Beaudoin sent.” She brushed away a cloud of dirt threatening to settle on her skirts. “We all did.”
“Did you visit Josie, then? I was hoping you would. She needs good patrons to make a go of her shop.”
“And you suppose the Gorgons would set an example.”
He raised one dark brow at her. They were the same color as his hair. She wondered whether his shoulders were truly as broad as the cut of his coat suggested.
“The Gorgons, as you call them, seem quite the rage at the moment. Everyone wants to know more about a certain Lucasta Lithwick.”
“Younamed us Gorgons, I believe. And no one took the least note of Lucasta Lithwick until a certain Lord Rudyard danced with her. I suppose you did it to prove you might use your powers for good?”
Rudyard’s shoulder rippled as if throwing off an unpleasant thought, and she guessed her barb had landed. “Anyone who overlooks you is a fool,” he murmured. “Did you like the chintz?”
“It is beautiful.” Lucasta sighed, then caught herself. “As I am sure you are aware.”
