Dangerous in Diamonds - Madeline Hunter [44]
Her father had also been known in the same county as Becksbridge’s main estate, and there would be a scandal if the other landowners came to know of the duke’s misuse of her.
Small wonder the paragon’s conscience had led him to have a “committed interest” in his prey’s welfare after the affair ended.
Chapter Ten
“You are early, Hawkeswell. We do not embark for half an hour,” Castleford said when he noticed his first guest striding down the dock.
“It was my goal to be here when you arrived so we might have a private word. Several of them.” Hawkeswell stepped off the pier and onto the barge.
Castleford continued watching the servants set up the little tents that would serve as pavilions on the far lower deck. This was not his yacht, which he kept down near the Tower and which could easily sail the open seas. Rather this large shallop served only as a pleasure craft, designed for the river, with plenty of space for the table, chairs, and settees up here above the roof of the wooden tilt, under which passengers might find shelter from the sun or rain. Only the sky would form a canopy to the dinner party up here.
Servants and crew moved about, seeing to the preparations. Several men rolled back the large canopy sometimes used up here for additional protection. Others lit the lanterns hanging around the table. This shallop had been built with a galley down below for the oarsmen and food preparation, and feet thudded on steps up and down. The crew’s and servants’ glances said they thought it odd His Grace was present. Normally he came late, if he came at all.
“Speak your private words, if you must,” Castleford said to Hawkeswell. “I assume that you want to complain that my plans are forcing you to go to the gardens tonight. I promise to feed you well, at least.”
Hawkeswell leaned against the railing and gazed at the elaborate dinner table. “It is bad enough I know what you are up to with Daphne Joyes. Making me complicit is going too far.”
“It is not possible for you to be complicit in a seduction. Only two people are involved. The seducer and she whom he seduces.”
Hawkeswell pointed at the table. “You are making us all complicit.”
“I am not going to take her between the fish and fowl courses and expect all of you to watch, Hawkeswell. Actually, I doubt I will be so lucky as to seduce her at all tonight.” He shrugged. “Unless the barge capsizes and she and I sink to the bottom of the river, where we find a secret, dry cave that we cannot leave until the tide turns.” He went to the table and fractionally adjusted the position of a vase of flowers.
“What an active imagination you have. I had no idea your pickled mind came up with such vivid imagery and devices.”
“If my mind were sufficiently pickled today, I would find your tone’s resemblance to that of my old tutor more bearable. As it is, I can only implore you not to be insufferable all night.”
Hawkeswell gave him a good, hard look. “You are sober, aren’t you? I’ll be damned. Have you stopped drinking for this woman?”
“You would put it that way. No, I have not. That glass of wine over there is mine, for example. However, if you must know, I have chosen to make sure that I enjoy her favors to the fullest when they are inevitably mine, not to be foxed senseless when I see her.”
Hawkeswell appeared astonished. Impressed. Befuddled as hell. Then his eyes narrowed. “She told you she would never have you drunk, didn’t she?”
“She said nothing of the kind.”
“That is fine. Say no more. It is not as if you would admit it, if it were true.” Hawkeswell scrutinized him like an old aunt judging an errant nephew. “So, how is it, seeing the world most days without a haze in your head? I found it an improvement, myself, after the initial shock.”
“I, on the other hand, have only rediscovered how boring the world can be.” It was a lie, spoken in pique at Hawkeswell’s damned perspicacity. “It is livable.”
Hawkeswell grinned. “Woe unto the world if you decide it is not only livable but preferable.”
Castleford had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Fortunately, the conversation