“Are you afraid I’ll take the occasion to ravish you?” she asked in a loud, challenging tone.
Somersby laughed heartily. “Do you need a chaperone, Dane?” he called.
“At least we’ll put the cover up, so that no one sees us alone together,” Dane grumbled. Although, come to think of it, it would provide excellent cover if she did decide to ravish him and he wasn’t strong enough to resist.
No, no. They were only going on a short jaunt in the sunlight. Nothing more.
“Perfect. I’ve no wish to worry anyone.”
Dane knew when he’d been outfoxed.
He had no choice but to hand Sandrine up into his curricle and take his seat next to his ravishing tormentor.
Chapter Nineteen
Riding in a gentleman’s carriage is forbidden without a proper chaperone.
—Mrs. Oliver’s Rules for Young Ladies
It was a bright, sunny day, and Dane was acutely aware of the bright, sunny woman sitting so close by his side. She had a way of getting whatever she wanted from him.
“If my mother could see me now. I’m currently flouting at least three of her rules. I’m associating with a known rake, I’m alone with said rake, and I’m riding in his dashing curricle, brazen as you please. And I must say that it’s quite exhilarating.”
“You do know that your mother made those rules for a reason? I’m a rake, and you’re not supposed to climb into my carriage and ask me to take you on a journey. I’m a bad man.”
“Well, as it turns out, I’m scandalous as well. I’m going to confide something in you that I haven’t told anyone else yet. Last night I discovered that Madam Avalon is my grandmother!”
Dane nearly lost control of the horses. “How is that possible?”
“You see the resemblance between us, don’t you?”
Now that she said it, he did. “You told me that your grandparents were dead.”
“That’s what my mother always told me. It was a lie. She was raised in London and rebelled against her freethinking and free-spirited mother by disowning her, pretending she was dead, and settling in a small town with my very conventional father.”
“It’s astonishing. I’ve known Madam Avalon for many years. She’s a very talented and generous woman.”
“Isn’t she?”
“Though, she is scandalous, of course.”
“No more so than you are. Perhaps less.”
“True.” He couldn’t argue with that. Society placed more blame on women who lived freely than men.
“I also learned that I have an aunt and a cousin living on an island in Greece, of all places. It’s nearly overwhelming. I’m so overjoyed.”
“I thought that you were exceptionally bubbly today.”
“The branch of my family tree that I thought had withered and died is alive and well! I heard all about my grandmother’s past today. And she told me her perspective about why my mother ran away. I don’t know my mother’s side of the story yet.”
“She won’t be happy that you discovered her secret.”
“I’m not happy that she lied to me my entire life. Something bad must have happened to herin London. She taught me that men are beasts and not to be trusted, because they’ll tell any lies necessary to steal your virtue and then toss you to the wolves. I never wondered why she thought this. Her marriage to my father seemed if not happy, at least congenial. My father bore my mother’s flighty worries in stoic fashion. And after his death from a cancerous tumor, it was as though my mother blamed him for dying and leaving us alone in the world, as if the disease were somehow his fault. It was after his death that she began retreating from life, hardly ever leaving the house and not allowing me to leave, either.”
“As for your mother’s warnings... they’re all true.”
“They’re not. You didn’t take the opportunity last night to ruin me. And you could have. I was willing.”