‘Miss Talbot,’ he began again, over-emphasising the ‘t’s as if resisting the desire to spit it at her. ‘I have never in my life encountered a woman so lacking in female delicacy as yourself. I cannot fathom how you have the gall to sit there threatening my brother’s virtue like some … some two-penny theatre villain!’
‘Two-penny?’ she repeated, a little hurt. ‘I must say that feels awfully unkind.’
He stared at her, helpless, before – all at once – dissolving into laughter. She stared at him warily. Was he having a nervous breakdown, perhaps? His family was inclined to sickliness, after all.
‘Would you like some tea?’ she offered cautiously, this seeming the only recourse open to her. He let out another bark of laughter.
‘That would be simply marvellous, Miss Talbot,’ he replied, with a courteous bow of his head. She went out of the room to call for Sally, and in a few moments returned – Sally carrying a tray, and Miss Talbot following behind with cups. He watched her pour, the echo of his laugh still upon his lips.
‘I seem to have underestimated you once again,’ he commented matter-of-factly, as Sally closed the door behind her. ‘And so, we find ourselves at an impasse. I cannot allow you to marry my brother. I am willing to do whatever it takes to keep him from you, but I should like to avoid an unpleasant scene on the road to Scotland.’
‘I have no other alternative,’ she said simply and without embarrassment. ‘I would make him a good wife,’ she added cajolingly, looking up at him through her eyelashes. For a beat, he appreciated how easily she must have ensnared Archie.
‘Doing it a little too brown,’ he said mockingly, and the coy look was replaced with a scowl. ‘Surely you must be able to find yourself another rich young man to target?’ he pressed, wondering what it said about him that he was willing to sacrifice any other man in London, to rid his family of this cursed woman.
‘You say that as if it’s easy. The hallowed halls you walk in are impenetrable, my lord. I only met Archie by chance, and I don’t suppose another such opportunity will simply fall into my lap. For it to be worth me giving Archie up … I would need introductions. Invitations. Patronage, for want of a better word.’
‘And you imagine that I might be able to achieve such a thing?’ he asked curiously.
‘Lord Radcliffe, I am under no illusions about your standing in society,’ she kept her voice reasonable. ‘Nor what you are able to achieve given the right motivation. I’m sure it would be well within your talents to establish me firmly enough within society that I might do the rest.’
Radcliffe could not believe he was even countenancing this conversation.
‘You would have me as your accomplice in fortune-hunting?’ he asked, disbelieving.
She gave a sharp nod. ‘Yes. Or else your blessing to mine and Archie’s engagement.’
‘This is madness,’ he said, trying to appeal to her sense of reason.
‘Think on it by all means, my lord.’ She shrugged again, though inside she was holding her breath. ‘I can assure you my threat was not an empty one. I will not fail my family.’
Lord Radcliffe sat back in his chair, unsettled. Propriety and good sense dictated, of course, that he should refuse this offer categorically. It was not proper, nor right – nor even truly necessary. If he acted quickly enough, he could prevent her villainous threat from being carried out. He could whisper into his mother’s ear all that he had discovered, whisk Archie away to the country and thus inoculate his family against this infectious Miss Talbot. Yet he could not be sure, exactly, what havoc this unscrupulous woman might wreak in retaliation. The de Lacy name and standing would not easily be stained – but was he willing to risk it, when he had so far underestimated her at each and every turn?
Would it be so bad to agree? At least by her method, he might more easily monitor the outcome. And … he imagined, for a moment, Miss Talbot rampaging through polite society, and its starched stuffy gatekeepers – except this time, with his family safely out of harm’s way. It was not an unappealing vision. What chaos might she cause? How might she disrupt the agendas of all the managing mamas who had so doggedly followed in his footsteps since his twenty-first birthday? It would certainly put them all in their place to have one of their precious sons snatched out from under them by such a viper. And were she to succeed or fail, Archie would regardless have his eyes opened to her true nature.