Dangerous in Diamonds - Madeline Hunter [49]
His head turned, and she looked where he did. A thick shadow moved toward them, and she heard Verity’s quiet conversation with Hawkeswell on the breeze.
Castleford led her through the dark, back up to the table and the lanterns, all but carrying her as if she was too infirm to manage her own limbs. He sat her down on the settee.
She heard steps coming closer and collected herself. She looked to her dress and readjusted the skewed bodice. She looked at him anxiously. “How do I appear? Normal?”
He laughed quietly. “I fear you look like a beautiful woman who has just been overwhelmed by pleasure.”
That would never do. She closed her eyes and, before Verity arrived back at the table, she found something of herself, of the Daphne she knew, even though the other one she had met tonight was much more exciting.
Chapter Eleven
Castleford could not believe that once again he had been thwarted, only this time by his own unaccountable impulse to spare a woman’s sense of delicacy.
He took some solace in having driven Daphne Joyes to ecstasy. However, his failure to achieve the same bliss suggested he would soon dislike Vauxhall Gardens as much as he currently did not favor flowers. It did not help that Hawkeswell and Albrighton appeared smugly contented when they strolled back from the stern of the barge.
By the time the shallop pulled over and they all walked up the steps, Castleford had recovered physically, but an irritable humor had settled on him. Fortunately, the ladies occupied themselves in exclaiming over the sights and musicians and the fireworks that soon commenced. He therefore did not have to converse much with anyone.
“You seem out of sorts,” Hawkeswell said an hour later while they trailed Albrighton and the ladies.
“It is nothing that two fingers of brandy will not fix.”
“Ah. I understand. I remember that happening, now that you mention it. When I stopped getting raving drunk three times a week, I would sometimes find myself suddenly in a bad humor too.”
“I must have a stronger constitution. I find it hardly affects me and does not account for my moods at all.” That was not entirely true, but it was now. “If I am in a bad humor, it is not because of lack of drink. I merely said drink would cure it.”
Hawkeswell paced on. “I believe, then, that apologies are perhaps due for spiriting off my wife like that. Did you and Mrs. Joyes have a row while we were gone?”
Castleford took a deep breath to rein in his impatience. “Do not apologize for going off. The pavilions were put there for that purpose. My only regret is that I did not have three set up.”
“You mean Albrighton . . .”
“Yes.”
Hawkeswell thought about that. “I fear that we denied you your cave below the river. However, with all of us gone, you had the rest of the barge to yourself. The lack of a pavilion on one of your floating dens of pleasure has never stopped you before.”
“Hell, she isn’t a whore, you ass. I am hardly going to bend her over the railing.”
Hawkeswell did not like being insulted and had a quick temper that now prickled. “You have never worried about such niceties before. Can you swear that no woman of gentle breeding has ever found herself stripped naked under that barge’s canopy in full daylight, let alone in the dark of night?”
Castleford marched on, thinking that a good bout of fisticuffs was just what his mood wanted, and that Hawkeswell’s nose was asking for a punch.
“No answer, I see,” Hawkeswell taunted. “You had better be careful, Castleford. Mrs. Joyes may be making you boring.”
“Not so boring that I won’t thrash someone senseless in the middle of Vauxhall Gardens.”
“Hell, you have never been able to thrash me senseless, even when your dissolution had not yet sapped your better strength. But if it will make you feel better about your intended conquest bringing you to your knees, take your chance.”
“Thrashing? Gentlemen, gentlemen—that will never do.”
Hawkeswell stopped in his tracks and turned to look at the man that had just chided them.