The Seducer by Madeline Hunter Page B

headache, does she?” The truth came to her quietly, as if the intimacy in the carriage had opened new insights into this man. “Nor did you see me in the garden by accident. You arranged this, so I could ask my questions.”
    “I have known that you are curious. Anyone in your place would be. If I have avoided telling you before, now you know why. I fear that I have ruined your dream of visiting England.”
    “It is not your fault. Even without the dream, I will still go there. It is the place of my birth.”
    With the ensuing steps and silence, he managed to indeed make things crisp again. He put them back where they had been. She was sorry to feel the mood pass. It had made the blankness a bit smaller for a while.
    The new king, restored to the throne by France’s conquerors, was in the gardens today, surrounded by an entourage of nobles and ladies. So was the Duke of Wellington, also surrounded by ladies. Daniel identified them for her and pointed out other notables, both famous and infamous.
    Daniel included some of those among his friends. He might make his main home in England, but he was well-known in Paris. Aristocratic men in tall hats and hard collars and young dandies decked out in patterned silk waistcoats paused to chat. He introduced her as his cousin from the country. With one glance at her poor appearance, his friends accepted her insignificance.
    Elegant, beautiful ladies favored him with warm smiles and appreciative gazes. Twice, women with more worldly expressions engaged him in conversation. Their female companions occupied Diane while Daniel was eased away for some private words.
    Something in the way he looked at the second one, and in the way she looked back, made Diane think about that book of engravings. A shocking image entered her head of Daniel doing those things with this woman.
    And then, in a flash, she saw him doing them with
her.
    She banished the image, but it made it very hard to continue strolling beside him. She sneaked a glance at his profile. The sensation of that little kiss returned, making her cheek tingle. She felt the rough warmth of his hands on hers that first day in her chamber, and time began stretching into a little eternity again. . . .
    “Diane!”
    The call pulled her out of the shameful reverie. A young woman, gorgeous in rose wool and golden hair, bore down on her with arms outstretched. A solid, fair-haired man trailed behind her.
    “Diane, it is me! Margot!”
    Margot had left Madame Leblanc’s school the previous year.
    Diane accepted the embrace and held Margot back for inspection. The rose wool was very fine, and the brimmed bonnet expertly made. Expensive jewelry finished the effect. Margot appeared beautiful and sophisticated, the equal of any lady in the Tuileries.
    This time it was Diane who got eased aside as the companion occupied Daniel.
    Margot bent her head close. “Holy Mother, Diane, that is the Devil Man. Have you left the school to live with his family now?”
    Diane grimaced. She had always referred to Daniel that way, and the girls at school had taken it up. “For a short while. I will be seeking a position as a governess once we go to England.”
    Margot rolled her eyes. “What a hellish life. Wait until you see what it means.”
    “You left to be a governess and it seems your life is not at all hellish. It appears that you have done very well.”
    Margot’s hand went to her necklace and then her hat. “M’sieur Johnson is very generous. You say that you journey to England? M’sieur lives in London, although he has bought me a small residence for when we visit here.”
    “Then perhaps we will see each other in England.”
    “Oh, it must not wait for that, especially if you will be jailed as a governess when you are there. You must visit for an afternoon and tell me about all of the other girls.”
    “If M’sieur Johnson is English, do you have many English friends here?”
    “But of course. Paris is full of Englishmen these days.