Chapter Twenty
Fanny frowned atthe mirror. It wasn’t that she disliked how she looked. On the contrary, the new gown that had arrived that afternoon from the dressmaker—due no doubt to Lucy’s insistence on a rush order—flattered both her form and her coloring, floating as it did from a high waist to the modest flounces at the hem. The subtle stripes woven into the silk gave her an appearance of added height without shouting to the world their intention. If the neckline revealed rather more of Fanny than she thought proper, Lucy laughingly assured her that was not so. Her frown owed more to her belief that the money might have better served as payment on a home for her siblings, but that thought warred with delight.
Delight won. When she walked into the theater tonight on the arm of a handsome earl, she would feel like a princess. She wondered if the Earl of Grimsley truly was the feast for the eyes that she recalled, all well-muscled form and blond good looks, or had her writer’s imagination been at work again? She looked forward to finding out, for he would meet them there.
When they had encountered Grimsley in Green Park one afternoon—quite by accident—he had offered to call to escort Fanny. Eli’s insistence that Rob would want to escort the ladies and that he, Eli, would of course accept the earl’s gracious invitation had startled her. The Benson brothers’ protective instincts crossed the border to possessive. Yet she remembered with a twinge of shame that it had gratified her to be the object of the spark of jealousy she’d seen in Eli’s expression. Childish, maybe, but the heat in those brown eyes had given her a lift of feminine awareness.
“Ready?” Lucy asked. “You certainly look it.”
Fanny stood tall, nodded, and followed her down the stairs, only to pause partway down at the sight of Eli gazing up at her with naked admiration. The gown, she decided, conveyed some sort of magic. All niggling doubts fled. She would happily enjoy the evening.
Their coachman brought them to the front of the theater, and Rob alighted from the carriage first, turning to help Lucy out. Eli followed and offered his hand to Fanny. The odd tingling she had begun to feel whenever he touched her radiated up her arm, stronger tonight than ever. Sparks she didn’t fully understand moved between them when their eyes met as she stepped onto the pavement.
The moment passed quickly. The Earl of Grimsley came forward, meeting them as promised. His gaze seemed to devour her whole, the open attraction causing unease that baffled her. She’d welcomed Eli’s; why not this gorgeous man’s admiration? His physical attributes proved to be every bit as fine as she remembered. It was as if her sketch of the hero in her current work had come to life. Yet something about him left her uneasy. Perhaps title, wealth, and a pretty face combined into something rather too much for the comfort of an ordinary woman, a mere mortal.
Once in the earl’s box, Grimsley helped her to a seat in front, one against the side of the box, where, she realized, no one else could sit on her right side. To her left, Grimsley fussed over her comfort and arranged her shawl just so. When his hand brushed the back of her neck, the hair at her nape stood on end. She heard a faint growl and glanced back to see Eli glowering at her.
How dare he?Who was Eli Benson to judge? Fanny knew her behavior to be perfectly proper. She looked resolutely away and focused on the program for the evening’s performance,Rob Roy MacGregor; or, Auld Lang Syne!: A Musical Drama in Three Acts.
Two theater adaptations of Mr. Scott’sRob Royhad opened in the spring, one at Covent Garden and the other at Drury Lane. The Earl of Grimsley assured her the musical version presently at Covent Garden was by far the more entertaining of the two.
As she looked about, the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden delighted Fanny. She’d been told that it lacked the modern gas lamps of the new theater at Drury Lane, but she found it marvelous in its own right. She locked all uncomfortable thoughts—worries for her future, Eli’s possessiveness, and even the earl’s presumption—firmly away in a box, prepared to be enchanted. She wasn’t disappointed.
Scottish ballads and stirring action scenes played in Fanny’s head when the lights came up for the interval. Ideas for scenes on the written page bounced back and forth in her mind. A sound to her left brought her back to her surroundings to find the earl leaning over her.
Had he said something? He bent a touch too close, and his cloying scent wreaked havoc with her reason.
She sat a bit taller and leaned back. “I’m sorry, my lord. I was lost in the performance and didn’t attend your words.”
“I suggested we visit the lobby for refreshments,” the earl said. He stood and put out a hand to help her rise, assuming agreement.
“I’m sorry, my lord. I need a moment to savor the experience,” she said, remaining seated.
Something hard flickered through the earl’s eyes, but a slow smile came over this face. “But a visit to the lobby is part of the London theater experience. Let me escort you?”
Fanny hesitated. She truly preferred to stay seated, but did not wish to make a scene. She returned his smile and let him lead her out of the box.
*
“They make apretty pair,” Rob murmured, watching Fanny and the earl leave.
“That gown suits her to a treat,” Lucy said. “As for the earl…”
“Pretty is as pretty does,” Eli muttered, scrambling to his feet.
“Slowly, Eli,” Rob said.
Eli’s hackles rose. “What do you mean?”
“The gentleman has escorted her properly. Don’t embarrass the lady by rushing after them like the cavalry at full charge,” Rob said.
Eli stiffened.Gentleman?He had no reason to think otherwise of the man. He took a shuddering breath. “Shouldn’t the two of you chaperone? Discreetly,” he grumbled.
“Eli is right. Besides, I could use a lemonade,” Lucy said.
Rob smiled into his wife’s eyes, put out a hand to help her rise, and gestured for Eli precede them.
When they stepped into the hall, Fanny and Grimsley had disappeared. Rob shrugged and led the way to the stairs. They saw no sight of them in the crowd milling around the refreshment tables; alarm flashed through Eli.
