Page 2 of Eight for Losing, One for Loving

Vi let out a sigh of resignation. “Never mind, Button. Not your fault. He’s dreadful and there’s nothing either of us can do about it.” Button glanced between them and fled before things got difficult, as they generally did when the two of them were in the same room.

“Oh, come now, Vi,” Leo said, shaking his head at her. “I’ve been positively angelic for months now and all you do is tell poor Button you’re not at home. I’ve called three times a week for months and have successfully escorted you out on precisely four occasions.”

“You took tea on five others,” she pointed out.

“Only because Lady Trevick was here and wouldn’t let you throw me out.”

“One would think under those circumstances that you would give up and go away,” she replied tartly, turning to the mirror over the mantelpiece and studying her hair with more interest than she was feeling.

“Faint heart, Vi,” he said, meeting her eyes in the mirror and returning a rueful smile. “Come on, love. It’s a beautiful day. Come for a turn about the park with me. We won’t be gone above an hour. You can stand me for that long, can’t you?”

“Oh, Leo, why are you doing this?” Vi demanded impatiently, turning back to face him. “I wish I knew.”

Leo shrugged. “I think I’ve made that obvious enough, Vi. I can’t help it if you don’t believe I’m sincere.”

“Really?” she said sceptically. “When you’ve never been sincere about anything in your life before?”

“Harsh, Vi,” he said, frowning over her words. “I was a young man with money and the good fortune to know how to enjoy it. But I’ve grown up. I know what’s important and—”

“Leo!”

Vi groaned inwardly as her mama came into the room. She was still a lovely woman with a naughty twinkle in her eye and never failed to say things that made Vi blush. She adored the woman, though, who had taken her in when her own parents had tragically died and loved her like her own daughter, and with such generosity of spirit that Vi could never say no to her. Sadly, her mama adored Leo and was determined they were a match made in heaven.

“Kitty, you wicked creature. What have you been up to now?” Leo asked her, hugging her as if she were his own mama.

“Why, what can you be meaning?” Kitty said with a laugh, patting his cheek fondly, her Irish accent giving the playful words a lovely lilt.

“You look divine, love, which tells me you’ve been up to no good. You don’t sparkle like that unless you’ve been naughty,” Leo told her, setting Kitty off into whoops as he always did.

“Well, you are perfectly right, of course,” she said confidentially. “But I can’t breathe a word.”

“Of course you can’t,” Leo said with a grin. “I’ve come to take Vi for a turn about the park, but she won’t come,” he told Kitty with a sigh.

“I never said I wouldn’t come,” Vi said in a rush, which was blatantly untrue, but she did not want Mama to scold her for her rudeness.

Leo lifted an eyebrow, and she blushed a little.

“Well, of course she will go! Vi, hurry along and get ready. I shall talk to Leo in the meantime, but where is Mau?” Kitty asked, looking about the room for the huge cat that Leo took everywhere with him. He had caused rather a stir during his last visit, frightening Mama’s ancient spaniel, who had barked wildly until a footman came and rescued her from the corner under the stairs that Mau had stalked her into. The footman, a new fellow by the name of Pembury, had been badly scratched for his trouble. She did not think he had forgiven Mau for it either, or Leo, judging on the icy glare he’d given on his next visit.

“He’s sleep on the seat of the tilbury, the lazy creature,” he said, smirking as Vi shot him a look of pure exasperation and hurried out.

Resigned to her fate, Vi made quick work of changing her gown and readying herself for a drive. She may as well get it over with, she told herself. Yet she could not deny the little thrill of anticipation as she made her way back down the stairs. Leo was a marvellous whip and much admired. He was, in fact, one of the few people she found she could relax with. Her parents had died in a terrible carriage accident and if the driver did not pay complete attention, she found herself increasingly afraid, twitching with the desire to take the reins herself. Driving with Leo was different. He might risk his own neck, but with her he drove with the utmost precision, aware of her anxiety. With him she could relax and driving out became a pleasure. Too much of a pleasure. It would be so easy to let herself believe he was in earnest, that he really wished to marry her, but it would be a terrible thing to allow herself to hope for something which she had always known was out of her reach.

“Well, here I am,” she said curtly, pulling on her gloves as she walked back into the parlour.

“So you are,” Leo said, his gaze running over her in a way that made her skin feel hot and most peculiar. “That’s a lovely outfit, pet. Most becoming.”

“Thank you. Shall we go?” she replied, refusing to allow his words to please her, for he said such things all the time and such flattery came far too easily to his lips.

“Yes, do run along and have a lovely time,” Kitty urged them.

Leo got to his feet and then frowned. Vi followed his gaze and cursed inwardly as she saw her embroidery still in a heap by the window. Leo strode over and picked it up, smoothing out the fabric and deftly putting the needle through it to keep it safe. He walked back to the settee and placed it on the coffee table before following Vi out of the house to his waiting carriage.

“Anyone would think you’d been watching for me,” he murmured as he helped her up into the tilbury.

Vi ignored the comment and refused to look at him, fighting a blush.

“There’s someone in my seat,” she said, gazing down at Mau, who blinked sleepily up at her.