Lessons in Seduction (Greentree Sisters 1)

“Then I will meet you tonight.”

“What about Lady—”

“I will manage.”

“Then meet me tonight, outside, around the corner. At ten o’clock.”

“Vivianna?” Footsteps.

“Coming, Mama!” Vivianna hurried out into the hall, her skirts rustling about her. Oliver followed more slowly.

“We must go,” Lady Greentree said impatiently, her gaze all over them.

Oliver took Vivianna’s hand, his fingers closing so firmly on hers it was almost painful. “Goodbye, Miss Greentree,” he said. And then he had released her, turned politely to her mother and sister, and the door had closed behind him. There was a little silence, before Marietta broke it.

“Oh, I do like him! You are lucky, Vivianna!”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Vivianna could feel her face turn fiery red.

Lady Greentree was pulling on her gloves. “He is very good-looking, my dear, but…I cannot help but wonder what his aim is, in making himself so agreeable to you. Why come here as if he is our friend, when he is refusing to do as you ask? And why do you receive him as one?”

“He is being polite, that is all,” Vivianna said quietly. “He was born a gentleman, Mama.”

“But is he one now?”

Lady Greentree was thinking of Toby Russell, who also went by the title of “gentleman.” And she could not blame her for that—had she not also been afraid Oliver and Toby were very much alike? Only it no longer mattered. The fact that Oliver was a rake would make her night with him even more memorable.

She would give herself to him, she would set the seductress in herself completely free, and she would not allow a single doubt or fear to spoil it. And tomorrow, well, she would walk away from him forever.

Vivianna allowed the realization to trickle through her, soothing her fears, accepting the inevitable.

“You should have no concerns for me in regard to Lord Montegomery, Mama,” she said firmly. “I do not expect to see much more of him.”

Lady Greentree stared at her hard a moment more and then looked away. The line of her mouth was sad, as though she feared the worst. “Very well, my dear.”

Guilt assailed Vivianna. She was deceiving those she loved.

“Come on, you two!” cried Marietta. “Let’s go shopping!”

Chapter 16

Marietta was determined to see every fashionable shop in Regent Street—from drapers and dressmakers to shoemakers and bonnet warehouses—and it was afternoon when they finally headed for home. Loaded down with parcels and packages and boxes, and with Marietta suffering from a headache—she was prone to them when overexcited—they reached Queen’s Square.

“I think I shall put Marietta to bed,” Lady Greentree said, removing her bonnet and tossing it onto a chair in the hall. “And then I will lie down, too, until supper.”

“You should not let her run you ragged, Mama.”

Lady Greentree smiled, her gray eyes lighting. “I know, but she is such a dear girl. Not an ounce of spite in her. If she was vain and full of self-importance, than maybe I would be firmer, but she isn’t. Most of the presents she has bought are for all of us and her friends at home. You know it is so, Vivianna.”

Vivianna sighed. Marietta was a dear girl, it was true, and no doubt as she grew older her temperament would grow calmer and more considered. It was just that Vivianna herself had never been like Marietta. She had always felt far older than her years, with the responsibilities of her family, and the world, heavy upon her. It was only lately, since she had met Oliver, that she had felt young. And happy. As if, for the first time in her twenty years, she knew what it was to be a young woman. To look at the world with young eyes.

To be a woman in love with a man.

“You go up and rest, Mama,” she said now, gently. “I will fetch you some tea from the kitchen. Aunt Helen hasn’t enough servants to run after us all, I am afraid, so I help when I can.”

“You are a sweet girl,” Lady Greentree said, and kissed her cheek. “I do not know what I would do without you all. I am very fortunate, my dear.”

“As are we.”