Mistress - Amanda Quick [11]
“I wanted to create an image that was so outrageous it would cause your friends and acquaintances to use their imagination to turn me into a far more mysterious and dashing creature than I actually am.”
“My compliments, Mrs. Bright. It appears you were successful.”
“Thus far, my little deception has worked rather well,” Iphiginia admitted with obvious pride.
If she was exerting any effort at all to appear modest, she was failing spectacularly, Marcus decided. “I’m certainly impressed. Even awestruck.”
Iphiginia must have heard the cool amusement in his tone. Her brief flash of pride dissolved at once into a disgruntled look. “I realize that, in your eyes, I am a complete failure in my role as your new paramour.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
She glanced down at her demure white silk gown. Red stained her elegantly sculpted cheekbones. “I know that I do not appear to be at all the sort of woman with whom you usually consort.”
“My dear Mrs. Bright, as anyone will tell you, I have never favored the usual. I much prefer the unusual.”
“You’re certain that you should be taking me home like this?” Iphiginia asked with another uneasy glance out into the night.
“You know very well that it is quite the thing for a gentleman to escort his paramour home after an evening’s round of social affairs. In our particular situation, it would be considered strange if I did not.”
“I suppose so.”
“Now, if you were an unmarried young lady in the market for a husband, it would be quite a different matter, of course.” He watched her face closely. “But you are an unattached widow, are you not?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, sir.” She concentrated on the view of the night-darkened streets. “What else would I be?”
“Exactly.” No innocent or respectable spinster intent on guarding her reputation would have dared undertake such an astounding masquerade, Marcus thought. “Even if you were not already posing as my mistress, there would be nothing to stop me from escorting you home tonight.”
“No, but—”
“The widows of the ton are the most privileged of ladies, are they not? Financially independent, free of the encumbrance of a jealous husband, they may form whatever liaisons they wish, so long as they are reasonably discreet.”
“I realize that a widow has a great deal more freedom than an unmarried female, sir. Indeed, I am not arguing that point. But the thing is—”
“Yes? What is the thing?”
She turned to face him once more with a resolute expression. “The thing is, I have put a great deal of effort into creating an image, if you will. Part of the illusion consists of a certain air of elusiveness.”
“So I have been told.”
“My lord, until tonight I have not allowed any gentleman to see me home.”
“Ah.” He wondered why he was so pleased to learn that small fact. “A nice touch.”
“I have kept to that habit during the entire time that I have been posing as your mistress.”
“Lady Starlight.”
She scowled. “I beg your pardon?”
“I am told that they call you the untouchable and unobtainable Lady Starlight. You are seen as a glittering midnight star who lures and entices but remains just out of reach while she searches for a replacement for me in her bed.”
Iphiginia opened her mouth, closed it again, and then opened it once more. Her voice, when she finally spoke, sounded breathless, as though she had been running a great distance. “You know how Society is when it comes to sticking labels on people, sir. Calling me Lady Starlight was a bit much, I’ll grant you. Nevertheless—”
“Nevertheless, in this case the appellation is apparently quite appropriate.”
She looked briefly disconcerted. “It is?”
Marcus realized that he was enjoying himself. They were playing a cat-and-mouse game and he got to be the cat. “Definitely. Furthermore, you are in luck. As it happens, I have recently made a study of elusive, untouchable stars. There are ways to capture the light. If a man is very clever, he can hold it in the palm of his hand.”
“I do not understand, sir.”
“No, I don’t suppose