LITMIR.BIZ

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himself, manfully, she decided, and somehow gathered up the pieces of his humor and tucked them back inside his gentlemanly self. “Forgive me,” he said, pausing for one final hiccup. “Clarice, you are a treasure beyond price.”

      “Thank you, Coop, but that isn’t true. Today, for scolding me when I said nothing so terribly wrong, I think that price will be a new bonnet. Won’t it, Jerry, love?”

      “Two, if you fancy more than one,” her beloved promised as the coach drew to the curb. “And here we are, a mere block from Bond Street. How long, Coop?”

      Coop pulled out his pocket watch and Rigby did the same. “Half past noon should do it. Remember, we’ll stroll in after you by some minutes. We can’t take the chance of raising Mrs. Yothers’s suspicions. Do you know what you’re going to say, Clarice?”

      The blonde was busy gathering her things. Gloves, reticule and the lace-edged parasol she then handed to Rigby. “Don’t you worry about me, silly. The duchess says I lie better than her best Aubusson carpet. That’s a compliment, sweetie,” she told Rigby as he managed to back out of the carriage with his walking stick and the parasol in one hand, Clarice clutching the other and warning him to mind her skirts.

      The door closed and the coach moved on.

      “Dany? You did nothing but sit there while I made an utter fool of myself. You weren’t amused?”

      He’d called her Dany. Well, about time, considering they were supposedly going to marry. Really, she was liking him more and more. Which was probably also a good thing, unless it became a bad thing, which could also happen.

      The insides of her cheeks had nearly come to grief, holding back her own amusement, but somehow she’d remained silent, one might even say composed. “I was amused. A person would have to be my sister to not be amused.”

      “Then I congratulate you on your composure. In my defense, I was not making fun of Clarice.”

      “No, of course not. She does that very well on her own, and seems to enjoy doing so. You were probably chortling too hard to notice that she winked at me. Who is she, really? I mean, other than Miss Goodfellow of the Fairfax County Virginia Goodfellows.”

      “She was raised with Thea, Gabe’s soon-to-be bride, and traveled here as her ladies’ maid. But nobody can know that. Rigby took one look at her and tumbled into love, so now the duchess is turning her into a lady. She’s doing very well actually. It’s only been a few weeks, if that. She still has the occasional slip of the tongue.”

      “Deliberate slips,” Dany told him. “I think I’m going to like her very much. But now, if you don’t mind, perhaps you’ll tell me what’s going on, please. I thought we were going to Mrs. Yothers’s establishment to...to reconnoiter.”

      “We were, but after I left you last night, Darby and Rigby and I came up with a different idea. We don’t want to appear too suspicious or heavy-handed, you understand. Unless you planned to march inside, grab a hat pin and threaten her with it if she didn’t talk.”

      “No, I dismissed that idea in the first five minutes. I spent the remainder of the night waiting for inspiration that never arrived, which is very lowering, because I’m usually quite good at what my mother would term conniving. In my defense, I believe worry for Mari froze my brain. I loathe saying this, but I fear this expedition is all in your hands.”

      “You wouldn’t mind writing that down, would you?”

      “And my sister accuses me of being facetious. Oh, speaking of Mari. I told her what you said I should tell her and she’s completely happy and relaxed, certain her worries are over. For once in my life, I took no pleasure in lying to her.”

      “You couldn’t tell her the truth,” Coop said as the coach stopped again. “Are you ready?”

      Dany peeked out the side window. “This isn’t Mrs. Yothers’s establishment. Where are we?”

      He waited for the footman to lower the steps, and then helped Dany to the flagway before he answered. “Promise me you won’t cause a scene.”

      “Why would I—where are we going?”

      “Minerva—that is, my mother tells me this is the second best jeweler shop in town,” he said as the footman ran ahead to open the door to a small shop. “Ah-ah, don’t dig in your heels, Miss Foster. You are about to choose what will become the Townsend betrothal ring. Generations to follow depend on your good judgment.”

      “Generations to follow depend on your ability to find a willing bride, or they won’t follow at all,” she told him, her heart pounding.

      “You and I know that, but if we’re to convince the world differently, you need a ring, especially since my mother and the duchess spent last evening telling all and sundry that the hero of Quatre Bras is about to become leg-shackled. I’ve already had three impassioned, tearstained missives from young ladies begging me to change my mind, and my man had to turn away one persistent mama who declared it wasn’t fair of me to choose a bride before her daughter recovered from her measles and could race hotfoot to town, at which point I would have no choice but to toss this opportunistic nobody country miss into the dustbin and declare for the beauty.”

      “‘Opportunistic nobody’? Somebody actually said that? I’m sister to the Countess of Cockermouth. I’m daughter to Henry Erasmus Foster, Esquire. I’m grandniece to Lady— No, never mind that. She ran off to Italy last year with her head groom. But that doesn’t matter. I’m Daniella Foster, and I’m not nobody. I’m me.”

      To her surprise, Coop took hold of both her hands and raised them to his lips, depositing kisses on the back of each kid glove, his green gaze steady on her face.

      She pulled her hands free, aware that her insides had begun to tremble in the most alarming way. “Why did you do that?”

      Coop shook his head slightly. “I imagine because to kiss you on the mouth would seal your fate entirely, considering we’re still standing on the flagway and several parties are feigning disinterest while watching every move we make. I just realized that, between your kindness to Clarice, your deliberate teasing me into a better mood with your silliness and your impassioned defense of your unique and increasingly appealing self, I was left with no other choice.”

      “Oh. Well. Um, all right.” Dany’s toes curled inside her shoes. “But you’re only saying all of that so I’ll politely accompany you inside.”

      “I don’t think so, no,” he told her in a voice that, if not sincere, was residing next door to sincere. “But will you?”

      Dany opened her mouth and idiocy came out before she could stop herself. “I’m sorry, will I what, my lord? Behave, or marry you?”

      “For the sake of generations of Townsends to come, for the moment I’ll be delighted if you don’t bankrupt me in there.”

      “Yes, that probably is the best answer. But no garnets.”

      “On my word as a recently declared gentleman.” He extended his bent arm, she slipped hers through it and for the first time in her life Dany was off to pick out a bit of jewelry that, at least temporarily, would be her own.

      The first thing she noticed upon entering the long, narrow shop was that there was not a piece of jewelry to be seen anywhere. No necklaces, no eardrops, no rings. Not even a single stickpin for his lordship’s cravat. The side walls were lined with wooden drawers, each with its own brass handle, keyhole and a white card listing its contents. Each side had its own wooden ladder that could be pushed along the drawers, making it possible to reach them all, and they stacked a good fifteen feet high.

      A library of jewelry.

      In front of each wall were long narrow cabinets and high stools with purple velvet cushions. The carpet on the floor was swirled through with gold, and so soft Dany’s heels sank into it.

      There were a half dozen male clerks wearing black leather visors, their shirtsleeves wrapped

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