Her chin went up. "Need I remind you—I wasn't the only one pretending?"
"As I said, it was necessary at the time."
She tilted her head back and looked him straight in the face. "Why did you come back here?"
Caleb's eyes remained locked with hers, but there was something in them. She wished she knew what it was.
"Because I wanted to explain. I was hoping I could make you understand." In the light of the torches he looked impossibly handsome and her heart continued its ridiculously uncomfortable patter.
"Fine. So now you've explained and I understand and you can leave." She tried to brush past him, but he caught her arm and turned her once more to face him.
"And I wanted you to know that if there were… consequences… to what happened between us, I would not shirk my duties."
Her lips tightened. She jerked free of his hold and settled a hand on her hip. "And just what, exactly, does that mean?"
"It means I would accept my responsibilities. I would provide for you and the child."
She laughed. It rang with bitterness through the garden. "I have plenty of money, Caleb. I don't need any of yours. If there is a babe, I am perfectly capable of caring for it myself."
"The child would be mine as well, Lee. I would want him to know his father."
It was a worry she had considered in regard to choosing a protector. An image of Caleb in that role popped into her head, but she ruthlessly forced it away.
"Then I shall be happy to keep you informed. However, I don't believe you need worry on that account." She flushed, unwilling to discuss her monthly curses with a man who was still a virtual stranger. "In the meantime, I suppose this is farewell. Good night, Captain Tanner. Have a pleasant journey back to London or Spain or wherever it is you are going."
She pushed against his chest, trying to shove him out of her way, but she might as well have been trying to move a block of stone.
"Eventually, I'll be returning to Spain. Not yet. And as for my immediate departure from Parklands, your aunt has been kind enough to invite Major Sutton and me to the weeklong house party she is giving. I believe the festivities begin on the morrow and end with the celebration of your nineteenth birthday."
For the first time, her aplomb deserted her and a knot of dread tightened in the pit of her stomach. "Surely you… you don't intend to be here for that."
His eyes went dark and his smile turned feral. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."
Lee stood frozen as Caleb caught her hand and brought it mockingly to his lips. He pressed a soft kiss against her fingers and a little tendril of heat curled in the bottom of her stomach.
"So you see, sweeting, for now it is adieu and not farewell."
Lee said nothing. She was thinking about the heat of his mouth against her hand and trying not to remember the way it had felt when he had kissed her.
"It's getting late," he said. "Unless you wish me to do exactly what you are thinking, I believe it's time I escorted you back inside."
She flushed as he offered her his arm, as if he had done it a thousand times—as if it were his right. Anger dissolved her embarrassment and stiffened her spine.
"Go to bloody hell, Captain Tanner."
This time she shoved hard enough to catch him off balance and he took a step backward, barely able to stop himself from toppling into the shrubbery. Blue silk rustled against the legs of his navy blue breeches as she brushed past him. She wasn't ready to forgive him, not yet. If she did, she might wind up back in his bed and she wasn't about to let that happen. Not with her birthday only a week away.
Slippers crunching on the gravel path, she cast a last glance over her shoulder. She thought she caught a glint of amusement and what might have been determination in Caleb's dark eyes before he turned and walked away.
"So how did it go?" Major Sutton rode beside him on the trip back to London. It was late, well past midnight. Ever the gracious hostess, Gabriella Durant had invited them to spend the night, but the journey wasn't overly long and they needed to pack the appropriate clothing for their return. Caleb felt a shot of satisfaction that he had managed an invitation—or at least Sutton had. A big four-poster bed in a guest room upstairs would be far more comfortable than the bunk he had slept on in the stables.
He flicked a glance at the major, who had so expertly won the Durant woman's confidence. "I thought the day went extremely well, considering…"
One of Sutton's black eyebrows went up. "Considering that you've obviously bedded the younger of the women. I don't imagine Vermillion was particularly happy to discover your deception."
Caleb's mouth barely curved. "You might say that." He didn't confirm or deny the major's assumption, but one of Sutton's talents was reading people and apparently he had seen enough looks passing between them to believe they had been intimately involved. "I think if she'd had a gun, she would have shot me."
"Yes, well, better to discover one's lover is not a groom but the son of an earl, than the other way round."
Caleb made no reply. He wasn't all that certain Lee would agree.
"At any rate, we've gained the access we need. What you do with the girl from now on is your business, but I would suggest if you can find your way back into her bed, you should do so. It would certainly better our chances of gaining information."
He smiled and Caleb caught a flash of white teeth in the darkness. "Besides, she is a fetching little baggage. My God, the girl has breasts like ripe melons. I thought on several occasions tonight they were going to spill out the top of that dress. I daresay I was hard beneath the table for the better part of the evening."
Caleb's gloved hand fisted on his horse's reins. He drew the animal to a halt in the middle of the lane. "I realize you're my superior, Major Sutton, but when it comes to Vermillion, I suggest you keep your thoughts to yourself There is a line, sir, and you have just crossed it."
Sutton eyed him in the darkness. "I see."
"I don't think you do. The girl is not the woman she appears. In truth, until I took her innocence, she was a virgin."
"That's impossible."
"I wouldn't have believed it either, but I can tell you with all certainty that it is exactly the truth."
"But why would she pretend—"
"She has her reasons. They have to do with being a Durant and the loyalty she feels to her aunt. Whether they are valid or not is another matter."
"Interesting…" Sutton nudged his horse forward and they started riding again along the lane. "On the other hand, thanks to you, Vermillion is now exactly what she has always seemed. All in all, I don't suppose it matters which man among us was the first."
Caleb clamped down on his jaw, fighting to contain the fury that shot through him. He was coming to dislike Mark Sutton more and more. If the man hadn't been his superior, Caleb would have dragged him off his horse and given him a taste of the punishment he had doled out to the last man who had insulted Vermillion.
Instead, he forced himself to remain silent as they rode the rest of the way down the lane back to London. All the way there, he kept thinking of the hurt and betrayal he had seen in Lee's face.
And wondering what would happen when she found out he was betraying her trust again.
The weeklong house party began the following day. The first event was an evening of gaming, dancing, and entertainment designed so that guests could become better acquainted. Though most already knew each other, there were always a number of recent acquaintances Gabriella had made. Actresses and opera singers, poets and artists, men like Major Sutton and Captain Tanner.
Lord Nash was there for the week, as well as Colonel Wingate and, of course, Lord Andrew Mondale. Lee was chatting with the colonel when a flash of scarlet caught her eye and she turned to see Caleb walk into the drawing room.