Love's Master, page 2
“Yes, Akil,” he said as he rose to walk to his desk. When he’d written out a note, he handed it to the man.
“Take this and make sure it’s in tomorrow’s newspaper. Now hurry and get this to the Times.”
Alone again, Kadar sat back in his chair by the window to drink his morning tea and decide on the details of where and when to meet his two letter writers. However, the possibility of a new person looking to join him preoccupied his thoughts, and he began to plan for the meeting he hoped would occur soon.
A new acquaintance would be a welcome, if unexpected, change. He’d advertised to replace the “pupil” he’d lost—in fact, lost would be the wrong word, he thought to himself. He’d willingly given her up when she’d decided to relocate to America, realizing their time together had come to its natural end.
Such was often the case in the world he traveled in. His “pupils” were more often than not curious ladies frustrated with the austere structure of their lives who frequented the underground sex scene. They sought him and others like him out, looking for a way to express what Victorian society hypocritically demanded stay hidden, buried under modest dress, meticulous manners, and a general fear of anything different.
Kadar stood and stretched his muscular frame. While he waited for a response from the mysterious L., he’d keep himself busy with the two who’d answered his advertisement. Summoning his maid, he readied himself for his day.
“Yes, Master?” the petite, dark skinned woman said as she appeared in front of him.
“Prepare my case. I’m going to be spending some time at the country house.”
“Yes, Master.”
Turning back toward the window, he watched in boredom as his Regent’s Park neighborhood began to come alive for the day.
Lily awoke early and hastily dressed, eager to search the newspaper for a response to her ad. She attempted to tamp down her excitement, reminding herself that it had only appeared the day before and it was quite likely that K. was a busy person who may not have answered so quickly.
But she could hope.
As she entered the breakfast room, she was treated to a painful reminder of how desperate she was for K. to agree to her offer. William sat on the floor next to the table obstinately refusing to do as his mother requested until she agreed to take him out.
“Aunty Lily, tell Mother to take me for a ride in the carriage today,” he whined.
She saw the frustration on her sister-in-law’s face and for a moment forgave her for years of poor parenting. Lily pitied her, for as unfortunate as her life had recently been, she could console herself with the idea that at least she wasn’t forced to face the result of her shortcomings each day. And as uncertain as her future was, at least she’d leave this house at some point. Elizabeth could look forward to no such reprieve.
Sitting down at the table, Lily casually dismissed his suggestion. “William, your mother has many things to do as the lady of this house. Perhaps if you’d stop misbehaving and chasing away your nannies, you’d get to enjoy trips in the carriage or even time at the park.”
Before she’d finished, her nephew had shifted his attention to the cat, which had made the mistake of walking past the doorway. Racing after it, William left the two women in peace, if only for a few moments.
Lily watched Elizabeth sigh deeply, looking far older and more haggard than her twenty-six years. She hoped K. had answered the ad as much for her sister-in-law as for herself.
Opening the paper, she immediately turned to the Agony Column with high expectations. Her eyes flowed over the words until they stopped abruptly at the answer she’d waited for.
“K. instructs his new pupil to appear in blue at the S.E. pavilion in Regent’s Park on Thursday noon.”
Lily could barely contain her exhilaration. The tutor had seen her notice and wanted to meet his new pupil! In her joy, she heard William stomp his feet at the suggestion he leave the cat alone and let out an ear-piercing scream.
“No! He’s my kitty!”
She couldn’t take him to meet the tutor or the man would immediately refuse the appointment! In a flash, her joy turned to despair. No tutor, not even one who believed in strict discipline, would ever agree to work with the child if he acted like that.
But the ad had specifically said the pupil was to appear the next day in the park, and Lily knew no manner of cajoling would change William into the kind of child any tutor would agree to teach in just one day. She’d just have to go by herself and hope to convince him to take the position.
Right before noon, Lily reached the southeast pavilion in Regent’s Park. The focal point of the London suburb that shared the same name, the park was an oasis from the effects of the city that often spilled over into the carefully planned neighborhood that skirted the capital. On this mid-May day, the sun shone brightly, and she immediately entered the pavilion to avoid getting any unsightly coloring from the sun. Suntans may have been permissible for Army men, but a proper English lady would never allow such a thing.
Lily scanned the area in search of the man she hoped would be her nephew’s next tutor and her savior. People walked by, enjoying the pleasant spring day. A rainbow of colored parasols danced against the deep green lawn. She looked down at her blue dress the color of robin’s eggs and nervously worried another would wear blue and steal her tutor out from under her nose, but no one else appeared in any shade of blue nearby, and Lily smiled to herself at her needless concern.
Church bells announced the arrival of noon, and as she listened to the deep chimes, she heard someone enter the pavilion behind her. Turning to face the stranger, she saw a man she identified as a foreigner, probably from Arabia.
“Miss, pardon me. I am sent to give you this note.”
Taking it from his hand, she asked, “Are you the person who placed the notice for pupils?”
The man shook his head. “No, miss. All will be answered in the letter.”
Lily read the note and looked up to see the man waiting for her response. What had seemed like a simple meeting in the park had quickly become more complicated. K. requested she meet with him at his country home in Hertfordshire.
Propriety should have strictly forbidden her from going any further, but desperation trumped caution and proper etiquette. Lily wrestled briefly with the decision but quickly nodded.
“Please tell your employer I will arrive within the next two hours.”
Bowing, the man thanked her and left her standing alone in the pavilion. After steeling herself against the idea that what she was about to do was entirely improper for a young woman, she left to arrange a carriage to take her to Hertfordshire.
“What did she look like?”
Kadar watched as his servant appeared to carefully consider his reply.
“Very English, Master. Dark hair worn in the style popular with young English ladies. Pale skin but very green eyes.”
“Green?”
Akil nodded slowly. “Deep green, like a precious emerald.”
“And the rest of her?” Kadar asked, his interest already piqued.
“Very much to your liking, if I am any judge of your preferences.”
“And she agreed to meet here?”
“She will be here within the hour, Master.”
“Then I will soon meet the mysterious Miss L. Be sure to obtain her full name and inform me before escorting her to the parlor.”
“As you wish.”
Kadar sat down and tried to relax, but the anticipation of a potential new “pupil” made it next to impossible. As the minutes ticked away, he fantasized about her with the information Akil had provided. While he thought about the pleasure someone new would give him, he spied out the window a figure exiting a coach at the end of the lawn.
Her beauty hit him like a thunderbolt, but immediately something about her looked familiar. He watched as she walked up the path to the front door and realized with a shock that the woman coming to meet him was one of his Regent’s Park neighbors.
“What on earth is Richard Scott’s sister doing here?” he muttered in amazement.
A minute later, Akil confirmed what he’d seen outside. “Mrs. Lily Norville is waiting, Master. Shall I show her in?”
Kadar weighed his options and smiled. He’d never known Richard’s sister to be anything but the proper English lady she was expected to be, but if she were here to become someone’s “pupil”, there was obviously more to her than what she appeared to be.
“Show her in, but instruct her to stand with her back to the window. Tell her I refuse to see her if she doesn’t follow my explicit instructions.”
Akil returned to the hallway to retrieve her, and Kadar slipped behind the decorative screen near the window to wait.
As she entered the room, she untied her bonnet and removed it to reveal beautiful dark brown curls fastened in the fashion of the day. Kadar thought how incredibly sensual it would be when he freed them and her from her restraints.
But other restraints would replace those.
He watched as she dutifully positioned herself as instructed and waited. How trusting she was!
Silently, he moved behind her and before she could protect herself, he had his hands around the column of her neck, his fingers holding her chin and forcing her head to remain facing forward. He felt her tremble in fear as he pressed his body against her back.
“Please don’t hurt me,” she pleaded in a frightened voice.
Whispering, he said, “That’s not what this is about. Force is for brutes and blackguards.”
“Then why are you holding me like this?” she asked, her voice shaky.
Kadar brushed his lips against her ear and inhaled the sweet fragrance of her perfume. “You’re lovely, my dear.”
He felt her body stiffen against his when he kissed the soft skin of her neck, but there was excitement in her too, evidenced by the slight heaving of her breasts and her gentle panting. One hand released her chin and slid down to caress the tops of her milky white breasts.
“Lovely.”
As he trailed his fingertips over the skin above her breasts, he felt her push against his hand holding her jaw.
“Eyes forward, my dear,” he whispered into her ear.
“There’s been some mistake,” she began.
“What you want isn’t a mistake. You don’t have to be frightened. I would never hurt you,” he assured her in between gently kissing her neck.
“Please let me go. This is a mistake. I came here for a tutor for my nephew.”
Kadar lifted his head from her shoulder and stared at her, stunned at the realization that she’d taken his advertisement literally. She hadn’t wanted to experiment as a submissive. She had believed she was meeting a child’s tutor!
Closing his eyes, he inhaled her fragrance one last time, disappointed by the misunderstanding. Just touching her for that brief time had excited him, but he wouldn’t force her.
“Take care, my lady,” he whispered and then quietly slipped away behind the screen.
Released, she ran for the door and in seconds she was gone, running to her carriage to escape. Watching from the window, he saw her throw herself into the seat and order the driver to leave. She sped away, and he slumped into a chair, still excited but disappointed by the all too brief encounter.
“Too bad,” he mumbled to himself.
The ride back to Frederick Street seemed to take twice as long as the ride to Hertfordshire as Lily struggled to understand what had happened. Her fingers caressed the path his lips had taken over her neck, and her face grew warm at the memory of him holding her as he began his seduction.
Emotions that had lay dormant since her husband’s death bubbled up inside her. Deep in the pit of her stomach an ache she barely remembered settled into her.
Who was he? Who was the man whose touch had ignited such feelings of desire in her?
Quickly, she chastised herself for such a baseless infatuation. “Whoever he is, he’s obviously a man whose tastes run far differently than mine,” she said aloud, as if to convince herself. But the feelings he caused in her remained.
For the rest of the day, Lily worked to banish the thoughts of the stranger from her mind. Whatever he was, he wasn’t the answer to her problems.
Lily knew as soon as she hit the main floor that her brother had taken the next step toward encouraging a union between her and Captain Danvers. The kitchen staff scurried from stove to counter preparing the finest pheasant and wild herb meal, and the Scott’s maid and head man obsessed over seating placements and dinnerware as if the Queen herself was to grace the household.
“Elizabeth, are we to entertain guests?”
“Oh, yes! Richard has invited Captain Danvers, Jeremiah Needham, and his business partner, Joseph Cranston. And their wives, of course. Now you must go back to your room and get ready. The guests will be arriving soon.”
Three couples and a single man. Richard wasn’t aiming for subtlety, it seemed. It was perfect, wasn’t it? Lily saw all too clearly that she was in for an evening of matchmaking. She consoled herself with the fact that at least her brother wasn’t arranging an engagement with a man as old as Mr. Needham, who was at least sixty.
“It could be worse,” she reassured herself as she climbed the stairs back to her room.
By six o’clock, all the guests had arrived and Lily was enjoying old Jeremiah Needham’s stories of his days fighting Napoleon.
“Sir, your tales are some of the most exciting I’ve ever heard,” she said after he’d finished telling of his time at the Battle of Waterloo.
“And they’re all true, young lady. Bonaparte was every bit the rascal I make him out to be,” the older man boasted.
“Well, thankfully, England had fine soldiers like you ready to give their all to defeat him.”
Having flattered and impressed Richard’s guests, she deftly moved to find a quiet spot near the front window in the parlor, but found Mason Danvers at her elbow.
“Do you enjoy old Needham’s tall tales, Miss Scott?”
Turning to face him, she stared intently into his eyes. “As a widow, Captain Danvers, I still retain the last name of my husband.”
Instantly, she saw his face register her offense to his mistake. Something in his eyes telegraphed his regret even before he spoke.
“Please accept my sincerest apologies. I thought it better not to remind you of your sadness.”
Lily knew his intent hadn’t been to offend and let a smile soften her expression. “Captain Danvers, please simply call me Lily and all will be forgiven.”
All worry left his eyes and at once they seemed to sparkle, gold flecks dancing through the soft brown color. “Then I hope you’ll call me Mason. Captain is for old men who try to flirt with young women by telling stories they hope will impress them.”
Chuckling, she said, “Mason, I think you’re too hard on Mr. Needham.”
“I can only hope I don’t behave like that when I reach his age.”
“Do you have exciting military stories from your time abroad?”
“How do you know I’ve been abroad, Lily?”
Motioning with her eyes toward the rest of the party, she explained, “Quite simply, you have the look of someone who’s seen sunnier regions. Look at my brother, for example. An Englishman if there ever was one. Look at his pale skin. Now look at yourself. It’s obvious from your coloring that you’ve been abroad. Was it India?”
“No. I was in the Afghan wars.”
Lily sensed by the darkening in his expression that his days at war weren’t something he wanted to discuss and tried to lighten the conversation. “The peace and quiet in the house is quite nice, isn’t it?”
Mason looked around the room. “It is indeed. Where is your nephew tonight?”
“Exiled to my sister-in-law’s family for the duration of the party.”
“He is a spirited one, isn’t he?” Mason said with grin.
“You are most kind in your description of him.”
“Boys are meant to be spitfires, Lily. That’s where our military leaders come from.”
“Well, while the military may benefit from his high spiritedness years from now, we would benefit from some better behavior now. In fact, I’m actively looking for a new nanny and tutor for him.”
“Any luck finding one?”
Lily’s mind momentarily returned to her afternoon adventure. Shaking her head, she said, “No, no luck yet. But I’m not giving up. Our sanity depends on my succeeding in finding someone to discipline the boy.”
They heard Elizabeth call then to dinner, and as they returned to the dining room, Lily felt like she’d seen a different, more appealing side to Mason Danvers.
Alone in her bed, she thought of the man’s hands, strong yet gentle, holding her exactly where he wanted her that afternoon. The memory of his control over her nagged at her, like an idea that haunted her into thinking something she shouldn’t.
Everything about her experience in Hertfordshire should have frightened her so completely as to cause nightmares for days.
But it didn’t.
Instead she found herself slipping into a fantasy about the man—the seductive smell of spices that had teased her nose as he dipped his mouth to her neck.
The power in his strong fingers as they controlled her movements.
The husky whisper of his voice in her ear reassuring her he wouldn’t hurt her.
Lily blushed in the darkness as her body came alive, reacting to the pictures her mind conjured up. It had been so long since she’d felt anything for another she’d feared she’d never again respond to a man’s touch.
As she lay there, her Victorian propriety scolded her for her wanton thoughts.
“That’s not how a lady is supposed to be treated,” she told herself. “A gentleman never places a hand on a young woman, unless he’s a brute.”
Everything she’d been brought up to believe told her to forget the incident and be thankful for escaping without harm. Everything was no match for the feelings he’d stirred in her, however.
But ingrained beliefs refused to leave her so easily, and by the time she began to drift off to sleep, she’d convinced herself that the afternoon’s excitement was a memory best forgotten quickly.
