“Your books won’t do?” Ormond had an extensive library.
“Of course not. What will people say if I donate books to her?”
“They will say you’re trying to seduce the little miss.”
“Exactly.”
“What was I thinking?”
“I have no idea. Perhaps you’re still not completely awake.”
“Perhaps,” she murmured, “since it’s not yet ten o’clock. However, your high-strung impatience intrigues me.”
His look clearly disputed her characterization. “High-strung?”
“Oh, very well,” she murmured, knowing Ormond generally didn’t care enough about anything to become agitated. “Although you must admit to a degree of impatience at least.”
“Lust, I’m afraid.”
“Of course-the prime motive in your life.”
“We can’t all be virtuous. The beau monde would have nothing to gossip about.”
“Thankfully, you have been doing your part to generate conversation in that regard.”
He smiled faintly. “We do what we can.”
“I expect this new woman who pleases you will soon be in the gossip sheets.” Leaning back in her chair, the countess gazed with affection on her favorite cousin. “So tell me why she so engages your attention. Should I have heard of this Miss Russell?”
“No, but I wish you to meet her tonight. To that purpose, I’d like you to invite her to your evening rout. Address your invitation to Mrs. Bellingham, Miss Russell, and Harriet Russell; she lives with an aunt. And if you could pay them some special attention when they arrive, I would be extremely grateful.”
“Indeed. Is there anything more you’d like?” she inquired archly.
Ormond grinned. “No.”
The countess laughed. “I gather you have not yet taken this miss to bed.”
His gaze narrowed faintly. “You don’t expect me to answer that, do you?”
“No, darling. You never kiss and tell. I expect that’s one of the many reasons the ladies love you so.”
“And I them in return,” he lightly replied.
The countess gave Ormond a measured looked. “You seem happy.” The viscount wasn’t an exuberant man.
“I suppose I am.”
“Because of her?”
He shrugged. “Who knows.”
An ambivalent answer, Catherine decided, but not unexpected. James had been amorously involved with a great many ladies for a decade or more and had never shown any inclination to enter into a permanent arrangement. “I look forward to meeting this astonishing woman. Although you realize, while I may offer her every courtesy tonight, there may be others who will not be so cordial.”
“Leave them to me.”
She smiled. “I am forewarned.” Ormond was famous for his set-downs.
He nodded at the small bell beside her plate. “Be a dear and ring for pen and paper. The sooner I deliver your invitation the better.”
“You don’t intend to go calling in that condition.” She rang for a servant.
“No. I’ll detour by way of my apartment first.” He blew out a breath. “Then I shall have to offer a plausible excuse for the lateness of your invitation.”
“I’m sure you’ll think of something.”
Suddenly hit with a wave of fatigue, he rose from his chair and moved to the buffet to pour himself another coffee. “She has the same color hair as my mother,” he casually remarked.
So that was it, the countess thought. “I always liked that shade of red,” she neutrally declared, looking up as Franson reentered the room and quickly giving him instructions.
“Her sister’s a blonde,” he noted as he returned to the table and sat down once again.
“More your style.”
“That’s what I thought, too.”
“Until?”
“Until I met the older sister.”
“She must be fascinating. I’ve never seen you orchestrate a schedule for any of your lady loves. Rather, they’ve always been obliged to accommodate you.”
“I know.” His shoulder lifted in the merest shrug. “I have no explanation.”
“You just want what you want.”
“Don’t we all,” he said. “We nobles only labor to amuse ourselves,” he cynically observed. Raising the cup to his mouth, he drank it down. “Except for the few like you who have found a love match,” he noted, setting aside the cup.
“You, too, might someday find your love match.”
He shook his head. “Not likely that. You forget I had the misfortune to be in contact with my father as a child.” His smile was sardonic. “I am deeply scarred.”
“Pshaw.” Catherine spoke with the surety of a true romantic. “You only need find the right woman to love.”
“Perhaps Miss Russell will serve,” the viscount drawled. “At least temporarily.”
Catherine made a small moue. “You’re incorrigible.”
“So I’ve been told on so many occasions I fear it’s true.”
Beneath his insouciance and mockery she discerned a different Ormond. Was it possible this little schoolmistress had struck some hitherto untouched sensibility? Or was she just not privy to his seductive protocols. Were all his initial pursuits like this? “Ah, here’s pen and paper. Tell Franson which books you require and we’ll have them delivered to your schoolmistress.”
Ormond rose from his chair. “I’ll pick them out. Tell Harry I’ll replace them, of course. Nor will I select anything from his grandfather’s renowned collection. Also, be sure to make your invitation excessively friendly.”
“Would you care to compose it? I wouldn’t want to take a wrong step.”
Ignoring her sarcasm, the viscount cheerfully said, “I trust you, darling. Are you not the most courteous member of our family?”
“Compared to you, I certainly am.”
“Exactly. I thank you in advance. Expect us early. I’m not sure their guardian, Mrs. Bellingham, is familiar with the late hours of our set. After you, Franson.”
He was whistling as he left the breakfast room, a circumstance that further heightened the countess’s curiosity. This woman had to be the consummate paragon of womanhood.
She was very much looking forward to meeting Miss Russell. The countess quickly penned the most gracious and hospitable of invitations, even alluding to a well-known aristocratic bluestocking as though that personage may have been the impetus for her invitation.
Informing Ormond on his return of her reference to Lady Whiteside who was forever holding intellectual soirees no one wished to attend, she added, “If you wish to affix your own explanation to my invitation, please do.”
“No, no…your attribution is excellent. I couldn’t have done better. The books are in my carriage; I thank you again.” Taking the note Catherine held out to him, he said with a smile, “I warn you again, we shall arrive unfashionably early tonight.”
The countess sat at the table for a few moments after her cousin left and tried to imagine who this woman might be to so enthrall Ormond. He’d said she wasn’t conventionally beautiful. Was he drawn to her only because she reminded him somehow of his beloved mother? But his mother had been not only conventionally beautiful, she’d been the reigning beauty of her day.
So it was something more.
She would have dearly loved to share her thoughts with her bosom friend, Betsy, but knew better than to involve her. Any hint that Ormond might actually be susceptible to earnest feelings would race through the ton like wild fire. She couldn’t be so unfeeling as to offer up his newest inamorata to the rumor mill.
Although, soon enough Miss Russell would be grist for that mill.
The moment Ormond walked into her rout tonight, escorting the three nobodies, everyone would know something was afoot. Not only did Ormond avoid conventional society like the plague, if he deigned to attend some entertainment, he never, never arrived with a woman.