ladies her age took advantage of their freedom from the encumbrance of a husband and marriage to indulge in affairs that gave them either satisfaction in the bedchamber or the heart. After being the wife of Lord Edward Boyd, a cold and merciless man, Juliet had no desire for either!
‘… care to go boating with me on the lake tomorrow, My Lady?’
Her eyes were wide as she turned to St Claire. ‘I beg your pardon?’
He smiled in satisfaction at her obvious surprise. ‘I enquired if you would care to go boating on the lake here with me tomorrow?’
Exactly what Juliet thought he had said!
Chapter Two
‘Or perhaps,’ Sebastian amended smoothly as he saw the way the Countess’s eyes had widened incredulously at his suggestion, ‘you would prefer it if we were simply to stroll in the gardens?’
Those green eyes narrowed now, and the tension in her body was almost palpable. ‘I have no idea what incentive Dolly has offered you in exchange for your being pleasant to me, Lord St Claire,’ she hissed beneath her breath, so that neither their host—or the other guests should overhear, ‘but I assure you most strongly that I do not appreciate such attentions!’
Sebastian was so taken aback by the accusation in her tone that for a moment he could make no reply. She actually believed that he and Dolly were lovers!
His own gaze narrowed to steely slits, his jaw rigid in his displeasure. ‘And I assure you, Lady Boyd, that you are mistaken in your assumption concerning my friendship with Dolly.’
She adamantly refused to back down from his disapproval. ‘Mistaken or not, your—your forced attentions to me are most unwelcome.’
No, this evening was not proceeding at all as Sebastian had hoped it would!
Neither was he accustomed to having his temper roused in this way. The St Claire family always maintained control over their emotions, whether it be boredom, amusement or anger. Not so for Sebastian, it appeared, when it came to Lady Juliet Boyd.
Sebastian suddenly realised what she’d said, and removed the tension from his body and the anger from his gaze. ‘Forced attentions?’ he repeated quietly.
‘Of course they are forced,’ she said scornfully. ‘Do you imagine I did not see the look of distaste on your face earlier when I entered the drawing room?’
Distaste? Sebastian remembered being dazzled by her exceptional beauty. But distaste? Never!
He shook his head. ‘I believe you are mistaken, My Lady.’
‘I do not think so,’ she maintained stubbornly.
‘You are calling me a liar?’ His voice was dangerously soft.
‘I am merely stating what I saw,’ she retorted.
‘What you think you saw,’ he corrected firmly. ‘Am I to infer from these remarks that you would prefer not to stroll in the gardens with me tomorrow?’ he asked dryly.
The Countess glanced at him quizzically, a frown between those mesmerising green eyes. ‘My preference, My Lord, is for you to leave me in peace,’ she finally murmured. ‘Coming here at all was a serious error of judgement on my part. In fact, I am seriously thinking of making my excuses and leaving in the morning.’
Sebastian had only subjected himself to the tiresomeness of this house party because he was intent on seducing this woman—he certainly had no intention of allowing her to escape so easily!
‘Are you not being a little over-hasty, Lady Boyd?’ His tone was pleasantly cajoling now. ‘I believe Dolly told me that this is your first venture back into Society since your time of mourning came to an end. Is that so?’
After the awkwardness of this evening it was likely to be Juliet’s last venture into Society, too!
She liked Dolly immensely, and had always found the other woman a complete antidote to the formality of the stuffy rules that so often abounded at any occasion attended by the ton. But if Dolly believed she was doing Juliet a kindness by casting one of her own lovers into Juliet’s path, then she was under a serious misapprehension. The attentions of a man such as Sebastian St Claire—a renowned rake and a flirt, and moreover several years her junior—was the last thing Juliet needed to complicate her life. Now or at any other time.
‘I do not consider my decision any of your business, My Lord.’
‘No?’ He quirked mocking brows. ‘You do not think it would cause embarrassment for Dolly if you were to leave so soon after your arrival?’
Juliet raised a cool eyebrow of her own. ‘On the contrary, My Lord, I believe I will be saving Dolly from further embarrassment by removing myself from her home at the earliest opportunity.’
‘So your intention is to run back to the safety of your estate in Shropshire at the first hint of opposition?’ Sebastian needled.
Juliet gasped. ‘You go too far, sir!’
He appeared completely unruffled by her anger. Instead he leant forward to place his hand on her gloved one as it rested on the tabletop, his lips a mere whisper away from the pearl-adorned lobe of her ear as he whispered, ‘My dear Countess, I have not even begun to go too far where you are concerned!’
Juliet felt the colour come into and then as quickly fade from her cheeks as she looked up and saw the flirtatious intent in that whisky-coloured gaze. How dared he talk to her in this familiar way?
‘You are causing a scene, sir,’ she snapped as she deftly extricated her hand from beneath his. ‘I believe it might be better, for both our sakes, if you were to refrain from talking to me for the rest of the evening.’
He gave a wicked smile. ‘Will that not look a little strange, when we have seemed to be getting along so well together?’
‘Seemed is the correct word, sir,’ Juliet assured him frostily. ‘This conversation is now at an end.’ She moved slightly in her seat, so that her shoulder was firmly turned against him, and began to converse with her host about the expectations of the weather for the forthcoming week.
She had never before met a man such as Sebastian St Claire. A man so forthright in his manner. A man who refused to listen to or accept the word no.
Juliet had always accompanied Edward to London in spring for the Season, attending such parties and balls with him as he had deemed necessary, and giving a ball herself towards the end of the Season, to which all suitable members of the ton had been invited. Lord Sebastian St Claire had not been amongst her guests.
St Claire’s eldest brother, the haughty Duke of Stourbridge, had several times been invited to dine privately with them, and Juliet could see a certain resemblance between the two brothers in colouring, and in that inborn air of arrogance. But young rakes such as Sebastian St Claire had not entered into Edward’s lofty circle of acquaintances, nor consequently, Juliet’s own.
Even as she continued to talk to the Earl of Banford, their conversation soon including his mother, the Dowager
