Banished to Brighton by Sydney Jane Baily

Chapter Twenty-Five

Or wouldst thou wish to join the dancing throng,

Where pleasure gaily leads the hours along;

Where laughing love lights up his gentle fires,

While melting music every heart inspires.

– Brighton. A Poem by Mary Lloyd, 1809

GLYNNIS COULDN’T DENYshe was happy knowing she would be in James’s arms, even if only on the dance floor. His admission of not having tupped the harlot had certainly smoothed her ruffled feathers. However, the realization he only abstained due to the amount of wine he’d drunk was little comfort. Tonight, for instance, he seemed perfectly sober and might pay the doxy another visit.

“I would love some lemonade before the next dance,” she announced. “Do you think there will be five minutes?”

Lord Payton responded immediately. “I shall see what is being offered. No wine tonight, Miss Talbot?”

She glanced at James, then back at Lord Payton. “No, thank you, my lord. I’ll stick to lemonade or barley water if that is what they’re offering.”

He went toward the refreshment table.

James watched him go. When he turned to her, he looked as if he had something to say but kept his mouth firmly shut. She didn’t want to ask. If he was going to warn her away from Payton for some reason, she would ignore him. In fact, she had quite the opposite plan.

“Prince George seems happy,” she remarked.

He nodded. “Almost his birthday masquerade. Every other assembly has merely been a rehearsal to the main entertainment.”

“I can hardly credit it can be a more spectacular party than those we’ve already attended. So much food and drink have recently been consumed. No wonder the local merchants are always thrilled when the prince and his toadies come to town.”

Lord Payton returned with a servant behind him carrying three glasses of orangeade.

“What a treat!” she exclaimed, after taking her first sip and then, while trying not gulp it, she drained the glass. It quenched her thirst and revived her flagging energy.

“Interesting,” James said, tilting his back.

“Could be improved with a splash of brandy,” Lord Payton suggested, “but then most things can be.”

A single note was played indicating the dancers should line up. A thrill went through her as James took her glass and set it down before taking her hand.

“Let us dance,” he said, catching her eye.

Her treacherous body went hot all over as she imagined them together, bare as babes, doing something more intimate than dancing. But dancing would have to do.

Lining up opposite him, when they stepped together, Glynnis forgot all else except James Lambert. And even when she briefly touched palms with another, she kept coming back to him, and it felt perfectly natural. It felt right.

Yet an hour later, when Lord Payton invited her to leave the ballroom to see the musicians’ balcony and even tour the royal box, she tamped down her regret and went with him. Up the stairs in the hallway outside the ballroom, they went first to where the musicians were taking a break. Twelve men were eating and drinking in good humor. Still, they didn’t mind the interruption for her compliments and praise.

Then they went farther around the perimeter of the second-floor gallery that circled the ballroom below, and came out in the royal box, overlooking the dancers.

“It reminds me of the upper-floor balcony of Marlborough House,” she said. “I only went there once, but it was a unique view to be able to watch the dancers from above. Shall we stay up here until the music starts again so we can watch?”

Lord Payton wasn’t looking at the dance floor but at her. “Perhaps the next time you are at Marlborough House, Miss Talbot, I shall be with you, and we’ll remember this night fondly.”

Glynnis felt the possibility of victory within reach.

“That would be lovely,” she said.

He took her hand and gazed into her eyes. “I’ve enjoyed the past few days with you. I know we haven’t known each other for long at all, but you are an easy woman to spend time with.”

“Thank you. I feel the same way about you.” Truthfully, she felt at ease with Lord Payton, extremely comfortable like donning her most well-worn nightdress.

All at once, the murmurings from below reminded her anyone could look up and see them, standing close. Then it struck her — that was exactly what she had wanted to happen!

Glancing out over the other guests, however, no one was taking any notice of them. Except one.

James’s blue stare caught her own, and she would vow he knew what was in her thoughts. As if on a stage with an audience, she could grab Lord Payton by his jacket, draw him close, and kiss him. As long as she made some noise, perhaps a stamp of her foot, someone would look up and witness the act of bold indiscretion.

Yet with James watching, she couldn’t do it.

“Shall we go?” Glynnis asked. “Perhaps obtain another glass of that delicious orangeade.”

“Yes, of course.” Lord Payton looked around as if just realizing where they were. Releasing her hand, he gestured for her to precede him. In the hallway, however, in the space between the royal box and the entrance to the musician’s balcony, he halted.

“Miss Talbot. Glynnis.”

“Yes?” She turned to him.

“After the Prince’s birthday masquerade, what are your plans?”

Her plans?Did he not know about her supposed fiancé? She hadn’t discussed it with him but assumed James must have told his friend.

“I might be returning to Wales,” she said honestly. “My life is not entirely in my own control.” That was the truth. It was not a fiancé but finances which controlled her.

“But you’re not against staying in Brighton, are you?” Lord Payton asked. “It sounds as though you aren’t longing for someplace else, such as London. Might you as easily be satisfied with a home by the sea, at least for part of the year?”

His words reminded her of James. He was the one who desperately wanted to return to London. She could be happy just about anywhere ... with the right person.

“So far, despite nearly drowning and having my reticule stolen,” both of which she’d already told him when they were having their carriage ride, “Brighton has been entertaining,” she said.

“I had heard you were engaged,” he admitted bluntly. “I know I should respect such a contract. But I’ve observed you without your fiancé, and you seem no worse for it. Is it possible you have no true affection for the man?”

“It is possible,” she allowed, not wanting to elaborate on her lie.

“That was what I had hoped.”

“And do we get along as well as you do with your fiancé?”

Again, she could tell the truth. “Most definitely, my lord.”

Lord Payton took hold of her upper arms without warning, drawing her close. With even less warning, he kissed her.

Glynnis breathed him in, and he smelled ... wrong. Not unpleasant, just not the way she now expected the man kissing her to smell. And he tilted his head in the opposite way to what she’d come to anticipate.

These were small things, and when she was familiar with Lord Payton’s kisses, they would become entirely expected. She had only to get used to him.

Raising her arms, she put her hands on his shoulders. This mild kiss was acceptable, she determined, albeit wishing that place between her legs would pulse merely a little.

Even her heartbeat felt calm.

“Payton!” It was James.

As she and Lord Payton broke apart quickly, her heartbeat certainly sped up. They turned as one to see not only James but also two of the musicians and a lady from the party. They had all witnessed the kiss!

“You know what this means,” James spat out, arms fisted at his sides.

Lord Payton nodded solemnly. “Of course.”

Glynnis’s head was spinning. This was exactly her plan, and it had always seemed like a good one, too. Obviously, it worked like a magical charm. However, she hadn’t thought about how mortifying it would actually be at the moment one was discovered. A single woman of good upbringing should not be in the clutches of a man who was not her husband. Not in public, at any rate.

Her cheeks were hot, even though only the lady was still staring at her, clearly horrified. To spare her the embarrassment of her ruin, however, the men all kept their gazes firmly upon the man who had ruined her.

“Although it isn’t my place to call you out, Aberavon isn’t here,” James continued, looking, if possible, even grimmer.

“You don’t have to call me out because I will marry Miss Talbot and with pleasure,” Lord Payton said. “That is, if she will have me and if her fiancé will give her up. I shall go tell Prinny the happy news now, and this evening can become another type of celebration.”

“Don’t tell Prinny,” James said. “You must leave her fiancé a little dignity. When Aberavon arrives in town, Miss Talbot should break it off with him first, and then you can announce your engagement. Anything else will cast her in a bad light.”

Glynnis wished one of them would address her directly, but she had a feeling she could slip away and they would keep on arranging matters just the same. Besides, since no fiancé was, in fact, coming to town, waiting for one could put her in a precarious position.

“I accept your proposal,” she said to save face, even though no one had asked her. All eyes turned to her, the lady’s with pity and the men’s with a mixture of distrust, anger, and joy depending on whom she looked at. She decided to keep her gaze fixed upon her future husband.

“Perhaps Lord Aberavon has been held up. If he hasn’t come by the time of the Regent’s birthday masquerade, I believe we should announce it. As far as I know, my fiancé has abandoned me.”

That was plausible. After all, she didn’t have a line of suitors at her door. Both James and, she assumed, Lord Payton knew of her impoverished status, and thus understood her undesirability on the marriage market. They might even believe her fiancé had changed his mind because of it.

James frowned, fixing her with a discerning look. But Lord Payton appeared pleased with that idea.

“Truly, any man who can’t find his way from southern Wales to Brighton in a few days doesn’t deserve to be your husband.”

That made her smile despite the serious step she’d taken. Finally, it was done! Her future was secure. She was to be the wife of an earl’s younger son. She should be thrilled with the honey-fall. And yet, the relief was bittersweet.

***

JAMES WALKED HOME WITHhis emotions swinging wildly from anger to regret to sadness. He had behaved out of character. If he’d handled his Brighton encounter with Glynnis in his usual raffish way, he would have compromised her a dozen times over, and he would have been the one about to slip the parson’s noose over his head.

And gladly, too.

Didn’t it gall Payton to be merely another man whom she’d kissed and happened to get caught with?For all they knew, that was how she’d captured Aberavon in the first place. Perhaps at a dinner at her family home, she’d followed him down a passageway and got him to kiss her precisely as her parents were coming around the corner.

If she had actually caught herself a fiancé. To James’s way of thinking, it seemed likely because she was a beautiful, lively woman, but Aberavon’s long absence made him less and less convinced.

In any case, now she had a real fiancé. His own friend! A part of him was curious to see how this played out on the night of the masquerade ball, while another part of him wanted to defy Prinny and head home at once.

In London, everything made perfect sense. There, he was certain of his desires and his wants, and he went after them as he pleased. Mistresses didn’t trick him. They knew their role. But they also didn’t warm his heart or move his soul or lift his spirits the way Glynnis Talbot did.

The devil take her! He wouldn’t deign to greet her when she returned in the wee hours. He would be harbored in his room, probably foxed on his best brandy or dead asleep if he was lucky.

But he wasn’t that fortunate. Much later, he heard Glynnis come in. Despite the hour, he could hear the maid — Polly, if he recalled her name correctly — chatting to her as they ascended the stairs. The girl who’d become Glynnis’s willing shadow must have stayed up to help her undress.

Rising from the chair in which he’d been sitting by his window with his head back, eyes closed but unable to nod off, he began pacing. He would give his right arm to be the one undressing her.

Instead, he waited. When he heard the maid take her leave, James counted to twenty, then slipped from his room. Approaching Glynnis’s door, he tried to make himself halt and turn around. A moment later, he gave a light tap on white-painted oak panel.

“Come in, Polly,” Glynnis said, then gave a soft laugh. “What did you forget?”

Pushing the door open, James stood in the opening and drank his fill of her, a vision in nothing but a white chemise. Her glorious dark brown hair was loose over one shoulder, hanging down the front, drawing his gaze to where it draped across one of her full breasts. As for the other, covered only by the sheer, fine lawn, he could see a shadow of its curve and her outlined nipple.

For a moment, he forgot all his words. Then she coughed, bringing his gaze to hers.

“All your plans went well tonight,” he said.

She pursed her lips and said nothing in return, only crossing her arms to shield herself.

“Payton is a good man.” James hadn’t meant to say anything like that, but it was true. The way she’d caught his friend in her scheming trap both disappointed him and made him angry.

“I believe so,” she agreed, looking wary.

“And you have no remorse over trapping him?”

She shook her head. “I did not trap him.”

“I was there. I saw you.” James couldn’t believe, after everything, she would still lie to him.

Sighing, Glynnis lowered her arms and lifted her chin. “What do you want?”

What did he want?That was easy. Unlike her, he would be completely honest.

“I want you. I think my actions have made that obvious.”

Her expression softened. “Want me? What do you mean?”

He took a step into the room. “Will you now play coy? Yes, I want you — in my bed or on the sofa like Dodd and his so-called aunt. I want you up against the wall or in the bathtub if we had one big enough. I want you on the seat of my coach. Hell, I wanted you on the grass at the racetrack and in the middle of the Old Ship’s dance floor.”

Her eyes had widened at his raw words. Then she shook her head.

“I see. You’re speaking only of the physical wanting. Of swiving.”

Again, she sighed, and he wondered what she would say if he told her how he also wanted to lay awake in the moonlight and talk to her about the world. He wanted to introduce her to his family. He wanted to discuss the news in the mornings over coddled eggs and share books and chess by the hearth in the evenings. He wanted to escort her around London, proudly showing her off as his lady love.

Except she wasn’t his. And he could not trust her if she was. She seemed happy to spin Fortune’s wheel and take up with whichever man was at hand, and her heart apparently played no part in her choice whatsoever.

“You only want me now because it is too late,” she said, her voice filled with outrage.

“It was already too late. May I remind you once again, you are engaged? Now to two men,” he added.

She shrugged delicately and closed her eyes for a second to complete the message of how inconsequential was her engagement.

James could only wonder whether the promise to Payton would be equally meaningless as that to Aberavon.

He could test her — only for his friend’s sake, of course! Or he could do the gentlemanly thing and leave.