Chapter Five #3
“The Reader’s Dare Club is a ladies-only club.
” Joy spat out the words so fast that they tumbled over one another.
“A gambling hell for women. We meet every Tuesday to enjoy gaming, betting, winning, and losing. Some have even been known to smoke and drink a brandy or two on occasion, but we ensure everyone is well set and refreshed before they leave the bookshop, so the males in their lives are none the wiser. The house gets a percentage of every pot no matter who wins, and we donate those proceeds to the London Children’s Home most of the time.
Sometimes, when there is an increased need elsewhere that we are made aware of, we donate to other charities that we have verified do some actual good for the populace of this area.
There.” Joy jutted her chin to a defiant tilt. “What say you to that?”
“A gambling hell for women,” he repeated, tossing the concept around to examine it from every possible angle. “A ladies’ club. Like White’s for the gentlemen?”
Joy pulled in another deep breath and jerked a curt nod. “Yes. Like White’s.”
“What is wrong with that?” He was amazed someone else hadn’t thought of it long ago. The idea was a veritable gold mine.
Both Joy and Aurelia stared at him as if he had suddenly sprouted horns.
“Most gentlemen would not agree with you, brother,” Aurelia said.
“While ladies are permitted a few friendly games here and there at parties or teas, we are by no means allowed the freedom of going to a club and gambling away the afternoon. It simply isn’t done—well, it wasn’t done until the Reader’s Dare Club. ”
“And what do you fear would happen should word get out?”
“The ton would brand us as terrible jades leading polite ladies astray and putting improper ideas about things they shouldn’t even think about into their pretty little heads,” Joy said.
“We—or more accurately, I—would become a social pariah.” She gave Aurelia a sympathetic smile.
“I am the founder and take full responsibility for leading Aurelia, Freddie, Connie, and Prudie down this path of depravity.”
“I believe you are bloody well brilliant and fail to see the problem with your club.” Jansen shook his head, suitably impressed by the entire operation.
“You are helping charities and giving ladies a way to relieve their boredom in ways much more suitable than taking lovers or embarrassing their husbands in some other foolish manner.” He thumped his knee with his fist. “By golly, I believe you should expand to your own building and stop hiding in the bookshop’s upper levels.
Who knows how much coin you could pull in for the orphans and foundlings, veterans of the wars, and whoever else might be in need?
Such an establishment could grow by leaps and bounds. ”
Joy stared at him, her lovely mouth ajar in disbelief. “You don’t wish to break our engagement and forbid Aurelia to be my friend or ever speak to me again?”
“Copper!” he called out to the driver. “Find us a nice, shaded area that is quiet and free of tongue waggers craning their necks and sniffing around.” This matter needed to be settled, and settle it he would.
“Right away, sir.” Copper tipped his hat and nodded.
Soon, they were sitting in the shade of a sprawling oak, watching the swans gracefully float by on the Serpentine. Jansen handed his sister a spare parasol from the pocket inside the carriage and pointed at the lake. “Please go for a walk, Aurelia. Not too far, but far enough. Understand?”
“I am not a bacon-brained half-wit, you know.” She snatched the parasol out of his hand, climbed down from the carriage, and stormed off.
“You should be kinder to your sister,” Joy said. “She has had a most trying afternoon being my champion.”
“Your afternoon has been trying as well, my lady.” He took her hand between both of his and held it. “I meant what I said about your club. It is an absolutely brilliant undertaking.” A huff of amusement escaped him. “I am not at all surprised, because you, my angel, are a brilliant woman.”
Tears welled in her eyes and quickly overflowed.
“Oh, good heavens. Forgive me. What did I say?” He started to drop to one knee right there in the carriage, but she dove into his arms and sobbed against him, thumping his chest with her fist.
“You are unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable,” she cried, hiccupping out the words.
“In a good way, or bad?” He hated her crying, but rather enjoyed the opportunity of holding her close.
She sniffed and pulled back, wrestling with her reticule for what he could only assume was a handkerchief.
“Here.” He held out his, thankful he’d tucked one of his best silks into his pocket before leaving the house.
“Thank you.” She sniffed again, tapped it to her nose, then dried her eyes.
“Please forgive me. You have no idea how heavy this burden of secrecy has weighed upon me.” She shook her head.
“And to have you accept me so easily…without accusation…without fault finding…” She crumpled with another onslaught of tears, holding his handkerchief to her mouth as if trying to hide behind it.
“Dear heavens, what has Society done to you women?” He gathered Joy close once more, shushing and consoling her.
“You’re just like…just like my papa. So understanding. So open-minded.” She shuddered against him, melting ever closer, making him wish they could stay like this forever. “I will most certainly marry you, Sir Jansen Winterstone. I would be proud to be your wife.”
“Because of my understanding, or because you are fond of me?” He knew it was petty, but he longed to hear words of tenderness and affection. He prayed she felt both for him.
“Because I have fallen hopelessly in love with you,” she said, snuggling herself more comfortably beneath his chin. “And you…understand me.”
He closed his eyes and rested his cheek atop her silky head, his heart soaring so high he couldn’t breathe.
“My angel.” A ragged sigh escaped him, and he kissed her rose-scented hair.
“I think I loved you from the first moment I saw you—even before you appeared to me on the battlefield and kept me from dying.”
“You frighten me when you put me on a pedestal. The more highly you speak of me, the farther I have to plummet.” She shifted back and looked up at him. “But I still need us to observe a long engagement.”
“Why?”
“Because I need time to not only become accustomed to the idea of marriage but also settle the matter of the Reader’s Dare Club. Connie and Prudie are certain to be a problem. I feel it in my bones.”
“We already settled it. I shall immediately start looking for a place to lease. Is that building next to the bookshop not empty? If you wish, I shall put my name on it so you will not be incriminated further.”
“You will not get involved.” Joy scooted back, putting even more space between them.
“I have yet to decide what I wish to do. Your acceptance helps immensely, of course, but just because you accepted it so readily, that does not mean the other males of the ton will do so. Nor does it mean the ladies who patronize the club will wish to share it with the men in their lives. Not everyone is like you. Openly flaunting what the club truly is could be…messy.”
“Why will you not allow me to help you?”
“Because I need to do this myself.” She huffed at him. “I started this mess. It is mine to finish. On my own, thank you very much. If you get involved, it will only complicate matters.”
“How so?”
“Everyone will think I am a mindless ninny who gets herself into scrapes only to be bailed out by the first man she can trick into doing so by batting her eyelashes and waving around her dowry!”
That was more than mildly insulting. “I have no interest in your dowry, my lady. My only interest is in you, and I wish to be clear on that. As far as I am concerned, you can take your dowry and donate it to one of your precious charities.”
“I will not! That dowry is for my children, should something happen to my husband!”
“Then why are we even speaking of it?” Egads, the woman not only drove him to distraction because he loved her, but the minx possessed the ability to irritate him beyond belief.
“You started it.”
“I did not, my lady. You brought up your dowry and your eyelashes. I simply offered my assistance in helping you solve your dilemma.” How could they tumble so fast from tender words to sparring like a couple of amateur pugilists?
“I do not want your help.” She paused, staring at him with those startling blue eyes of hers, chest heaving with emotions he prayed weren’t so strong that she would spurn him after all.
“I do not want your assistance—I simply need your support and understanding. I must handle this myself. Please try to understand.”
It suddenly struck him that one of the reasons he had waited until such a ripe old age to marry was because all the women he’d met had worshipped Polite Society and did whatever the ton commanded.
He was nine and thirty and had searched forever for a woman of independence and thoughtfulness.
One who knew herself and respected herself enough to follow a path for its rightness, not for its acquiescence with Society.
Well, now he’d found her. What did he expect? While it would be nice to have an independent woman who also did whatever he said, that would be a contradiction in terms. He couldn’t have it both ways. An independent woman knew her own mind and wouldn’t automatically accept his opinion as her own.
“I understand,” he said, struggling to fully do just that. Perhaps it wasn’t that he didn’t understand, but that he just didn’t like it. But as he’d already realized, he couldn’t have it both ways. “I do not like it, but I realize why you feel this way.”
“Really?” She arched a brow.
“Really—or at least, I am trying to, and need you to accept that as enough for now.”
“That would only be fair, since you have accepted so much about me.”
“Thank the Almighty.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I am thankful. What are you angry with me about now?”
With a heavy sigh, she bowed her head and massaged her temples. “I am not angry with you, per se. I am angry at the world. The devil himself couldn’t get along with me today, and I should never have emerged from my bedchamber. Please accept my apology for my horrid, snappish harpyness.”
“Is that a word?” he asked, unable to resist teasing her.
“What?”
“Harpyness?”
“It is now, because I just used it, and if you are wise, you will accept that and let it lie.”
He chuckled. He couldn’t help it. “I shall, my lady. I shall.”