Chapter 20
“Then it's settled!” Alexander exclaimed, thudding his mug to the table enthusiastically.
The material proved no match for his grip or the force with which he brought it down.
It cracked and milk began to ooze out across the table.
Violet leaped to her feet but not before Lillian reached a drawer containing cotton tea towels.
She reached for the top one in the drawer just as Violet did. Their eyes met.
“Would you really blackmail me, Lilly?” Violet whispered.
Lillian let go of the towel and bit her lip. She looked thoroughly ashamed, which Violet was relieved to see. She had hoped that her cousin’s words had been a spur-of-the-moment thing, said without thinking.
“Of course not. You know I love you as my sister, Vi. No matter that you insist on calling me your cousin. I feel in my heart that we are more than that to each other. I would never give up your secret nor do anything to hurt you,” she said.
Alexander cleared his throat. He had risen from his seat and was wiping his hands on his trousers. “I had no doubt, lassie. Have no fear,” he said.
“Nor did I,” Violet put in quickly. “You just took me by surprise, Lilly.”
Lillian took the tea towel and returned to the table, mopping up the mess.
“Mrs. Jameson will be in quite the tizzy when she finds one of her mugs has been broken. I will tell her that I was clumsy from sleep when I came down to the kitchen,” she said.
“I will say that I was with you and we were being foolish,” Violet said, refusing to let Lillian carry the blame alone.
“I meant what I said. That was an offer from the heart,” Alexander said, looking earnest. “I do not trust the man I have working for me. But I have neither the wit nor the experience to challenge him. I am used to dealing with threats with my fists. I cannot deal with this kind of threat in the same manner.”
Violet sighed, leaning back against the draw from which the tea towels had been taken.
She could see that there was no fair way for her to refuse.
It was what Lillian wanted and what Alexander needed.
It just went against the grain that Lillian was striking out in a direction so anathema to everything Violet believed.
“Very well,” she said. “Not that it was ever up to me. You are both adults.”
“Violet, do not underestimate the influence you have. I certainly would not have wished to undertake this role without your blessing. Your approval is important to me.”
Violet smiled and Lillian embraced her, hugging her fiercely.
“And now that I have had my warm drink, I will go back upstairs. And in the morning will wonder if I have dreamed all of this.” She laughed, kissing Violet on the cheek,
She then drew an elegant curtsy to Alexander who returned her genuflection with a bow. Lillian practically danced from the room. Violet looked at Alexander and he stared back, unabashed.
“This cannot continue,” Violet said, not unkindly.
“It cannot. I shiver to think how close we came to disaster tonight. Not for myself. For you.”
Violet wanted to go to him. Wanted to rush across the room into his arms.
What is wrong with me? A handsome man with a good pair of shoulders and pretty eyes and I go to pieces. I become a wanton woman!
“I will go. I have my escape route,” Alexander added.
“You will not,” Violet replied. “I do not wish you to break your neck scaling that wall in the dark. I will let you out of the side gate. The key is kept in here.”
“You let me scale the wall to come in,” Alexander pointed out.
“And now I have come to my senses,” Violet replied. “Do not question me, Your Grace.”
She spoke with a wry smile playing at the corner of her mouth and Alexander grinned boyishly.
Oh, be still my heart when he smiles at me like that. It sets my pulse to racing.
“Yes, My Lady,” Alexander replied.
He placed such tenderness on the last two words that Violet could feel herself melting, wanting to be in his arms and let the entire world see.
“We have known each other a matter of hours altogether,” she said. “In terms of time spent in each other’s company. We must remember that. There are rules to courtship that we must observe.”
“So, we are courting, are we?” Alexander asked with a mischievous smile.
Violet flushed, hearing the words she had just spoken. “I did not mean to be…forward,” she said.
Alexander crossed the room to her, making her heart leap. Once again he took her hands in his and kissed her fingertips. Then he kissed her forehead.
“I should consider it an honor to court you, Lady Violet. And a badge of the greatest honor for this society of yours to see you on my arm.”
“Well, I should like to give you some more lessons in private first. But, then we must be seen publicly to test what you have learned. The theater for example, restaurants, museums.”
“And in the meantime I shall set Mr. Octavius Gellert the task of tracing your father,” Alexander said.
He must have seen something in Violet’s face because he frowned. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Mr. Gellert’s firm also serves my family. Serves my Uncle, I should say. He has refused to undertake that task. I have already asked.”
Alexander’s face hardened. “I may not know all of the rules that govern this strange society of yours, lass. But, I understand the power I can wield should I choose. Mr. Gellert may think himself able to refuse Lady Violet Ravendel but, trust me, he will not refuse me. I’ll have the shirt from his back if he does. ”
There was a fierceness to him that Violet found at once comforting and frightening.
The intensity of his passion threatened to break through her long-held inhibitions and carry her away to a wild place from which she might not return.
Those inhibitions and the rules they represented were all she had. All she’d had for a very long time.
“Thank you. I wish you better luck than I had.”
Alexander stroked her cheek with a finger. Then pulled his hand away sharply. “Sorry, lassie. I forget myself. I should not touch you in such a proprietorial way.”
Violet smiled, taking his hand, and placing his fingers back where they had been. “Perhaps, just for now, you could be proprietary.”
“Aye,” Alexander said, softly tracing the line of first her cheek, then her jaw, and finally her neck.
“I had best be away, had I not?” Alexander asked. “Before anyone else in the house comes downstairs for a drink.”
Violet sighed. “Yes. You should. When shall we meet again, do you think?”
“I have won over two more votes this evening, I am sure of it. But I need more. I have a few days. Perhaps a week. What about tomorrow?”
Violet had been hoping he would say that. “I will come and see you with Lillian. At your house. Then, in the evening, perhaps we should make our debut. At the Theater Royal perhaps?”
Alexander swallowed and nodded. Violet could see the sudden trepidation in his eyes and wanted to comfort him, to hold him and reassure him.
If only I could give him the confidence I have, somehow communicate it to him through my touch. Or my kiss.
“Do not worry. It will be well. I shall help you to find the perfect gentleman within you.”
“One that your Uncle would approve of for you?” Alexander asked.
Violet blushed deeply. “I am sure,” she said, hoping that her anxiety on that subject did not show.
It was Uncle George who had warned her off Alexander. She did not know how easy he would be to persuade.
But that is a battle for another day. For now, I must help Alexander to blend into the Ton.
“Come, lass. Lead me to the gate and send me on my way until we meet again,” he said in a fond tone, entwining the fingers of one hand with her own.
She led him from the kitchen, stealing around the house, peering in at dark windows before dashing past. Finally, they reached a narrow passageway between brick walls which ended in a tall, wooden gate.
She had taken the key to the gate from a hook beside the kitchen door and now she unlocked it, wincing when it grated in the lock.
Before Alexander stepped through and while he still stood within the shadow of the passageway, he dipped his head and kissed Violet on the lips.
Then he was gone, while she stood still with eyes closed and breath caught.