Chapter One #2
Calliope was not sure what made her do it. Oh, the heat, the tiredness of her journey and her mother’s letter, yes, they all were contributing components to a day that had already been far too long.
Whatever forced the words from her mouth, she was horrified to hear them…but not as horrified as she suddenly felt when the gentleman grinned from his comfortable seat in the hansom cab that he had so rudely taken from her.
‘Your hansom cab?’ he said, a teasing lilt to his smile. ‘I think you’ll find I’m the one seated inside it, my lady.’
My lady indeed. Calliope’s temper burned, though she did as she had always done and attempted to hold it within.
‘And yet it was I who gave my address to the driver first,’ she said triumphantly, trying and failing not to look pleased with herself. ‘So unless you wish to be transported to my aunt’s lodgings, I suggest—’
‘Is your aunt as beautiful as you?’ The gentleman’s grin became wicked. ‘Perhaps I wish to be transported there.’
Calliope’s mouth fell open as her cheeks burned.
The very idea! The gall of the man to— Oh, if only she hadn’t sent away her brother-in-law’s footman. He could have secured a hansom cab for her in minutes. She would even at this moment already be seated with her aunt in the cool, drinking lemonade and gossiping about her mother.
As it was…
‘My aunt is a dear woman and I’m sure would not appreciate being discussed in the street,’ Calliope attempted to say with the stiffness of a maiden aunt and the haughtiness of a duchess.
The trouble was the only duchess in her acquaintance was Ditty. The last time she had seen her elder sister Calliope had had a paint smudge on her cheek and was attempting to persuade an elderly gentleman he could no longer play polo.
It wasn’t exactly duchess-like behaviour.
The gentleman in the cab, blast him, was still grinning. ‘That’s quite all right. We can discuss you instead. You’re very pretty, aren’t you?’
Calliope’s mouth fell open. Of all the scandalous, outrageous—
Never mind that her heart twisted as he said it. Never mind that the gentleman, now she’d had a little more time to properly look at him, was handsome.
Remarkably handsome. Tall, as far as she could make out from the way his long legs folded languidly in the carriage.
Large eyes that were dark, with flecks of gold shimmering in the sunlight.
A high forehead and a teasing mouth, one that appeared to be always laughing. Broad shoulders, elegantly attired…
It was most unfair that it was the rude, arrogant, irritating men who were the most pleasing to look at.
Calliope swallowed. It was also most unfair that the gentleman had caught her gawping.
Now he was laughing. ‘Do you like what you see, my lady?’
Calliope took a hurried step backward and almost tripped over her own trunk, which would not have helped.
This was ridiculous! All she wanted to do was get herself and her luggage to her aunt’s home, and take off this ridiculously warm shawl and dampen her temples to cool them.
She didn’t want to stand in the street gawking at handsome strangers!
‘You do, don’t you?’ The gentleman’s voice was lower now, and if she had still not been so close to the hansom cab he had stolen from her, the noise of the street would have drowned him out.
As it was, she could still hear him say, ‘In that case, a gentleman cannot simply ignore a woman as beautiful as you. I do not have much to do this afternoon. Why don’t you clamber into this carriage with me, my dear, and we can see what fun we’ll find this afternoon? ’
Calliope really did stumble backwards this time. ‘Sir!’
She must have misheard him. Gentlemen did not proposition young ladies on the streets of Brighton!
That was unless she had been drastically misinformed about the rules of Society here!
But the gentleman, whoever he was, only appeared a little abashed by her tone. ‘I am sorry, that was a little forward. Am I supposed to apologise for finding you attractive? No true gentleman should ever do such a thing.’
The scalding heat had returned to her cheeks and this time it was of an even greater temperature. Calliope hardly knew where to look, the words the man was uttering were so offensive, but somehow her gaze was fixed upon him, her lips parted in astonishment as her pulse quickened.
What the blaggard was suggesting… It was outrageous. It was ridiculous. It was…
Tempting.
Calliope forced the whispered voice away. No. No. Absolutely not. She was not going to arrive in Brighton and immediately lose her innocence and reputation!
‘My name is Montague, by the way. Montague Donovan,’ the gentleman said gesturing to the seat opposite him. ‘Won’t you join me?’
Calliope took a deep breath and tried to remind herself she was not attracted to strange men in any way, especially not this one. ‘No, Mr Donovan, I will not.’
Mr Donovan’s eyebrow rose in a most delightful, most infuriating, way.
Drawing herself up and reminding herself she was a woman of good repute, excellent family and basic morals, Calliope said firmly, ‘I’m here in Brighton to visit my mother and my aunt, and to paint.’
‘To paint?’