‘I wouldn’t want to see you come to harm,’ he rejoined as her mother’s attention was claimed by a friend. ‘You matter to me.’ She would be his sister-in-law if he had his way; it behoved him to protect her. Besides, he owed her mother much for her help with Imogen. Evaline blushed and lowered her eyes, but he was not displeased. She had seen the folly of that silly flirtation. Enough of acting the big brother for one evening, he thought, and went in search of the card tables.
Chapter Nineteen
‘Good morning.’
Dita started and dropped her reticule. Her footman dived for it and Alistair removed his hat with a suave politeness that made her want to hit him for making her react so revealingly.
‘Good morning, Lord Iwerne. This is an early hour to meet you in Bond Street—I would have thought at ten o’clock you would still be contemplating breakfast. Thank you, Philips.’ She took her reticule from the footman and tried for a bright smile as she gestured for him to retreat to a discreet distance.
‘I had some shopping.’ He was carrying nothing, nor did he have a man in attendance, but perhaps he was having whatever it was delivered. ‘Will you be at the Cuthberts’ masquerade this evening?’
‘We all will. Or at least, Mama and Evaline and I. It would probably take wild horses to drag Papa to such a thing.’ They began to stroll along the pavement.
‘And what will you be going as?’ Alistair raised his tall hat to Lady St John, who was observing them with interest from her barouche.
‘A milkmaid,’ Dita admitted with a sigh. ‘Very pretty and conventional, but Mama thought it suitable.’
‘You are still in trouble with the old tabbies?’
‘Not really, but people are aware of me, I suppose. You saw Lady St John just now. Who am I with, what am I doing?’ She shrugged. ‘I don’t care, but I should be cautious for Evaline’s sake.’
‘Then I cannot lure you off for a morning’s delicious sin in Grillon’s Hotel?’ he suggested.
‘No! Don’t say such things, even in jest.’ She eyed him sideways. ‘That was in jest, wasn’t it?’
‘No. It was a perfectly serious invitation. And now you are blushing most delightfully. Come and look at the wigs in Trufitt and Hill’s window while I make you go even pinker.’
‘Certainly not. I have no desire to look at horrid wigs, or to have you put me any more out of countenance than I already am. I wish you would go away, Alistair, and stop tempting me.’
‘Am I?’ He sounded very pleased at the thought.
‘Yes, and you know it and there is no need to be smug about it.’
‘Very well, but not before I make you another, quite unexceptional, offer. I have sent for Indian silks and jewels from my house in south Devon. It is where I have my plant collection and where I shipped goods back to while I was away. Would you like a costume for the masquerade? I am going to wear Indian dress myself.’
‘Oh, yes!’ The thought of fine silks and fluttering veils made her heart race. To see Alistair dressed in Indian fashion, to partner her … ‘Oh, no. It would look as though we were a couple.’
‘Not at all. Everyone knows we have been in India—what more natural that we should both chose to dress like that. We will arrive separately, after all.’
It was rash, possibly even reckless. She knew how she would feel when she put on those sensual, sensuous clothes, how she would feel when she saw him, a peacock in all his magnificence. Dita took a deep breath to say no.
‘Yes, please, Alistair.’
‘Mama.’ Both Dita and her mother looked round at the tone of Evaline’s voice. ‘I am very well dowered, am I not? I mean, I do not have to hang out for a rich husband?’
The Wycombes’ town coach, driving along Piccadilly, seemed a strange location for such a question. ‘Yes, you are, my dear.’ Lady Wycombe put down the book she had just bought and turned her full attention on her daughter. Dita twisted on the seat, puzzled. ‘And it is important that you marry a man of equal status and at least the same resources as yourself.’
‘But why, Mama? What if I met a young man of prospects?’
Oh dear, Mr Morgan, Dita thought. She had done some investigating and James Morgan was about as well paid as the average curate, was the second son of a country squire, had an excellent degree from Oxford and ambitions to enter government service. Papa would never countenance such an unequal match.
‘It would depend on his connections and pedigree, my dear. Have you met such a man? I am trying to think to whom you might be referring.’
‘It was a rhetorical question,’ Evaline said with a bright smile that to Dita was patently false.
‘Dear Alistair Lyndon is quite another matter,’ Lady Wycombe continued. ‘Now he might well take an interest, I believe. He would be eminently suitable, a most superior catch. Your father would be delighted.’
‘Yes, Mama,’ Evaline said and Dita closed her open mouth with a snap.