Amber smiled. “What woman wouldn’t? It is easy money.”
Her reputation would be destroyed, but what reputation was that? No one knew who the Abacas Woman was. And for Easterly to land her would boost his reputation to legendary status.
Meanwhile, Amber cast him a coy look. “I should think Lord Easterly would be very grateful to the man who arranged that for him. Perhaps enough to vote his way on a resolution to aid veterans.”
“He would indeed,” Elliott breathed. “As I would be grateful to the woman who helped me arrange such a thing.”
Amber grinned. “Would it be enough, then?”
“Enough what?”
She gestured ahead to the edge of the fashionable throng. “Enough to repay you for taking me here today? To sponsoring me tomorrow night at Almack’s?” She looked at him, and when he didn’t answer, she blew out a breath. “I am trying to be of service to you, my lord. To pay you back for the trouble of introducing me to theton.”
Of course, she was. Of course, she wasbarteringfor his time with her. Because that is what people in her world did. They paid her for her time and her jewelry. “Does no one do things for you merely because they wish to help you?”
She stared at him in surprise, but he would not be deterred.
“Do allmenof your acquaintance require recompense for your time?” As if she were no better than an upstairs lady, as she called them?
“I…” She began. “I thought…” But what she thought was not clear, at least not in her words. Elliott had no trouble understanding.
“Let me explain,” he said firmly. “I am pleased to introduce you to theton,” he said, and it wasn’t a lie. She was a delight, and he thought all worthy people would enjoy her company. “I amhonoredto escort you this afternoon and tomorrow night. I do not require payment nor barter from you. It is what a gentleman would do for a…” He was about to say agently reared lady, but of course, she was nothing of the sort. “For you,” he finally said. “Any gentlemen would be happy to sponsor you into his set.”
She sighed. “I think we both know that is not true.”
That he wasn’t a gentleman? He wasn’t, given what he’d tried to do with her last night. But he knew what she meant. Most of his set would disdain her simply because of her birth. “Well,” he finally said, “perhaps my sister and I are cut from the same cloth. I do not find you in the least bit objectionable.”
“Not objectionable,” she drawled. “Damned by faint praise.”
He blew out a breath. “Worthy, Miss Gohar. I find you worthy.” And wasn’t that a surprise? He wasn’t one who thought the lower classes should be suppressed. He certainly wasn’t one to bargain harshly one minute, then sneer at the crassness of it all in the next breath. But she was generally considered beneath him. And yet, he found her more engaging, more irresistible, and generally moreworthyof his attention the more time he spent with her.
Which made it all the harder for him to turn his attention outward to the fashionable throng to acknowledge all the greedy gentlemen who came looking for an introduction. But that is exactly what a ride in Hyde Park was about, and that was quite explicitly what he had promised to do.
So he did. He smiled and made her known to every eligible bachelor who had come to London this season looking for a wife. He kept his smile in place while she greeted them with the kind of composure absent in schoolroom misses and sheltered ladies. And he watched with growing anger as one gentleman after another was charmed by her.
She was his companion, she was his find, and she was absolutely, one hundred percent not for them! And yet, within the space of an hour, three gentlemen found a moment to ask if applications for her hand in marriage should go to Elliott or if there was a different relation at hand.
They weren’t declarations, of course. There was a great deal of business to investigate before a proposal was in the offering. But the process had begun, and with his family’s sponsorship, Amber could very well find herself choosing between suitors by week’s end.
It was enough to make him invent an excuse to cut the ride short. But he could not do that to her. Anyone could see that she was enjoying herself immensely. This was the dream of a lifetime for a girl like her. And so, he bit back his growl and made yet another introduction. And they stayed there until the last eligible bachelor left.