bring Lord Stonehaven down—by seducing him.
“Julia, no! Absolutely not!” Phoebe, Julia’s petite blond sister-in-law, jumped to her feet at Julia’s words, her hand flying to her chest as if to keep her heart from leaping right out of it. “You cannot. You must not. You don’t know what you are saying!”
Julia sighed. She had known that Phoebe would react like this to the announcement of her new plan. Seduction was simply not something a well-bred young lady of 1811 set out to accomplish. “I do know what I’m saying. And I don’t intend to actually sleep with the man.”
Phoebe let out a strangled cry and sank back into her chair. “Julia!”
“I should think that would please you,” Julia stated practically.
“Well, of course I don’t want you to—to—you know—but, Julia, dear, you show such a want of propriety! To even speak of such a thing!” Her cheeks flamed at the thought.
“How else can I explain it to you?” Julia had little use for many of the conventions of Society. Because of her mother’s long illness, she had not made her debut when she should have, and then there had been the tremendous scandal around her brother, after which she and Phoebe had been ostracized by the ton. So she had never lived through a stifling London Season, her every word and action examined and criticized by the leading lights of the fashionable world. That, Phoebe was sure, was to blame for Julia’s lack of conventionality.
Julia knew that it went much further back. Her mother, like Phoebe, had tried to instill ladylike behavior in her daughter, but her sweet nature had never had the iron necessary to win in a battle of wills with Julia. Both her father and brother had doted on Julia, and they had found her bright wit amusing and her courageous spirit admirable. She had been allowed to express herself freely, to study where her curious mind led her, and to attempt whatever physical feat intrigued her. As a result, she had a quick mind and an even quicker tongue, could ride as if one with her horse, could hit a bull’s-eye with both firearm and arrow, and brimmed with a confidence that few women of her age had. The best that her mother had managed to do was to teach her manners, dancing and the obligations of a lady. In public she had learned to curb her tongue and control her actions, primarily so that she would not cause her mother or Phoebe distress.
Phoebe moaned and sank her head in her hands. “Julia, you cannot do this. Selby would be furious with me if he knew! I shouldn’t have let you come to London. I shouldn’t have agreed to any of this. Your first plan was bad enough—kidnapping Stonehaven and forcing him to confess! But this…!”
“Phoebe, don’t fail me now.” Julia crossed the room and knelt in front of the other woman’s chair, taking Phoebe’s hands in hers. Phoebe was as dear and sweet as a woman could be, and Julia understood why her brother had loved her so much, but there were times when Julia wished that her timid sister-in-law had a little more fire in her. “You mentioned the first plan. Remember how you worried and fretted over it? You were afraid that I would get hurt if I went along with Nunnelly and Jasper. You were afraid my reputation would be ruined.”
Phoebe nodded. “Yes. I was cast into despair every time you went out!”
“But nothing happened, did it?” Julia continued. “I came back safely every time, even tonight, and Lord Stonehaven never had the least clue that the lad atop the coach was I.”
“I know, and I thank the Lord for it.”
“Then believe me when I tell you that nothing bad will come of this, either. I told you, I’m not about to let the man have his way with me. I’m simply talking about meeting him, flirting with him, leading him on a little. Encouraging him to talk about what he’s done.”
Phoebe gazed at her doubtfully. “Do you think that will work on a man like Lord Stonehaven?”
“I am certain of it. Look—” she sat down on the floor beside Phoebe’s chair and eagerly explained “—there are two things I learned from following Lord Stonehaven these past three weeks. One was that taking him by force simply will not work. I did not know the man. I assumed that someone who did as foul a thing as he did to Selby would be too cowardly to even resist us. But physically he is strong and, I must admit, quite brave. He did not run from two men, instead he stayed and defeated them!” She could not keep a tinge of admiration from seeping into her voice. “Even tonight, when we were in the carriage and running away, he came after us—knowing that there were three of us. But—” she paused significantly “—the other thing that I discovered about him is that Lord Stonehaven is very fond of women.”
“A roué?”
Julia shrugged. “I don’t know that I would go as far as that. He doesn’t seem to pursue innocent maidens. I have only seen him with sophisticated ladies and, uh, well, women of a certain sort.”
“Oh, Julia…” Phoebe moaned.
“But don’t you see? That will work to our advantage!” Julia cried. “The man has a weakness, and it is women. That is why I realized that if I could get close to him, talk to him, I could worm the truth out of him. Why, you yourself have told me that it is when a man is pursuing a woman that he is most vulnerable, the most eager to please. Doesn’t it follow that that is when he will be the most likely to tell me what I want to know?”
“I don’t know.” Phoebe looked uncertain. It seemed to her that Selby had been at his most vulnerable after they had made love, but she certainly could not reveal something like that to his sister!
“I have found with my suitors that they are amazingly eager to talk, especially about themselves and how clever they are and what great things they have done. They want to impress me. I suspect that Lord Stonehaven is the same way.”
“Perhaps so, but, Julia, I think that you are getting in over your head. You haven’t even made your debut, and Lord Stonehaven is a wealthy man who has been on the town for some years. I am sure he is in his thirties.”
Julia raised her eyebrows and stood up, putting a hurt look on her face. “Are you saying that you do not think I can attract a sophisticated man like Lord Stonehaven? That only those who live in a little town like Whitley are drawn to me?”
Her gentle sister-in-law looked horrified, as Julia had known she would, and she forgot her questions for a moment in a storm of anxiety. “Oh, no, I did not mean that! Dearest Julia, you must know that I would never think you could not attract any man you wish. You are the most beautiful woman I know. Not just in Kent—I am sure that if you had had a Season in London, you would have outshone all the other debutantes.”
Julia smiled. She had not really had any qualms about her ability to attract a man, sophisticated or not. She had merely wanted to distract Phoebe from her worries. Julia Armiger had been assured that she was a beauty from the time she was old enough to toddle. The eager pursuit of her since she was sixteen by every gentleman within the vicinity of their country house had done nothing to disabuse her of the notion. Indeed, looking in the mirror each day was reassurance enough of that. Her figure was tall, slender and high-breasted, the perfect body for the high-waisted, soft, flowing styles that were currently popular. Her hair was a rich auburn, thick and inviting, and her eyes were a vibrant blue, accented by thick lashes. Everything about her face, from her creamy white complexion to the narrow arch of her dark brown brows to the sweet curve of her full lower lip, all combined to create a perfection that would perhaps have been cold if it had not been for the warmth of her smile
