Her face going pale during this recital, Lady Alyssa remained silent for some time after he finished, as if contemplating all the sordid details. Until, alarm widening her eyes, she looked back at him.
‘But...you told me you were pulled into the discussion. Not that you merely overheard it. So...you were invited to take part in this?’
As if suddenly recognising that she was alone in the woods with a man who could easily overpower her, she scooted away from him. Thrusting out her sketchbook, she held it up between them, as if that flimsy bit of paper and cardboard could protect her.
Ben rose and stepped back, giving her more space. ‘I assure you, Lady Alyssa, you have nothing to fear from me! Your brother...took such great pleasure in taunting me at Oxford, the other men seemed to think I’d be willing to embrace any scheme, no matter how despicable, to revenge myself upon him. If my character were so deficient that I’d agreed to take part, why would I have come to warn you?’
‘Perhaps you thought it a clever ploy?’ she cried. ‘If you were asked to participate, you must also be considered a “man of great address with the ladies”!’ Perhaps you thought your news would alarm me enough that I would fall fainting into your arms, whereupon you could steal away with me to that nefarious inn.’
‘I would have to believe you dull-witted in truth, to imagine you would faint into the arms of a stranger, rather than run screaming back to Dornton Manor and the protection of your mother,’ he countered. ‘Nor could I carry you off to the inn against your will, if I wanted us to look like two lovebirds eloping, once we got there.’
‘But you would have me believe you were dissipated enough to be present at this conference, but possessed of too tender a conscience to want it to go forward? Or was the reward not high enough to tempt you?’ she added bitterly.
He stiffened at that insult, more stung than he should be at that assessment. Ben might be a self-confessed rake, but he considered himself a principled one. He never seduced a lady who wasn’t willing, always paid his small staff and the merchants he patronised on time and tried as best he could to be a help to his fellow man.
But it wasn’t reasonable to expect her to trust him, an almost total stranger, especially as he’d just identified himself as associating with a group of men who must represent the most idle, spendthrift and useless fribbles the aristocracy had the dubious privilege of counting among its members.
‘Since you know nothing of me or my character, I cannot prevent you from thinking that. I don’t deny I’m claimed to have a certain...reputation with the ladies. But I have never treated any of them with less than courtesy and respect.’
Rather than open himself to more disparagement, he’d convey the rest of the essential information and go. And had to damp down an immediate sense of...disappointment. The unusual Lady Alyssa intrigued him, nor could he remember ever feeling such a powerful initial attraction to any woman.
Both compelling reasons for him to end this little tête-à-tête as quickly as possible.
‘Indulge me for one more minute and I will leave you to your sketching. Let me give you the names of the men currently at Lady Fulton’s party who are participating in this scheme.’
After staring at him, disbelief, wariness and a trace of anger warring in her countenance, she said, ‘I still find it hard to imagine even men as venal as my brother could have come up with such a despicable scheme. But if they have, it’s not logical you would have come to warn me if you were participating in it. And you are right; I know nothing of you save that you belonged to a university group called “the Hellions” and that my brother mocked your heritage. His disdain is hardly a disqualifying factor, since I have very little respect for him or his opinions. Aside from weaving me this fantastical story, you’ve done nothing to warrant my censure. If you are speaking the truth, you’ve gone to a good deal of trouble to warn me. I owe you an apology, and my thanks—though I am still not sure I believe you.’
Her abrupt about-face spoke well for her sense of fairness in admitting that she might have been mistaken. More than that, rather than turning missish and going off in fit of weeping at his alarming news, as he suspected many a maid of her sheltered upbringing would have, this fierce warrior princess looked like she’d prefer to face the offending gentlemen and level a sword or pistol at them.
Even more intrigued by those observations, he nodded. ‘Apology accepted. I know the tale must seem—fantastic.’
‘It does. Though I still find it difficult to believe the wager exists, neither can I explain why you would suddenly appear out of nowhere to convey such a tale.’ She shook her head, looking puzzled again as she apparently tried to sort out all he’d told her. ‘But—you also said you’d spent a few days in the village? Why, if your purpose in coming to Sussex was to warn me about this nefarious plot?’
‘I knew you would be at Dornton Manor, but little else about you. To devise the best way to approach you, I needed to learn more. I also needed to learn who had actually attended the party. While as far as I know, I was the only one to argue against the wager that night, all the participants were rather foxed. Upon sober reflection, others might have decided they wanted no part in it. I didn’t want to present you just a list of those present at the Quill and Gavel, lest I malign some gentleman who later chose to repudiate it.’
‘Oh, no, we certainly wouldn’t want to malign any gentlemen,’ she said acidly. ‘Though I don’t see how lingering in the village helped you. I’m not known there, and while I’m sure there is gossip about the party, how could you be certain who was in attendance, unless you actually came to Dornton?’
‘Ah, but I did.’
She blinked at him. ‘You visited and were not able to see me?’
‘I didn’t call at the front door.’ At her exasperated raise of eyebrows, he chuckled. ‘My time in the army taught me that it’s best not to blunder into enemy territory without first doing a thorough reconnaissance. Nor do you want to ride about in full uniform, rattling your sabre, so that every spy and sharpshooter on the enemy side notices you. No, such a delicate mission required...stealth.’
‘Stealth?’ she repeated. Her lips twitched, as if she were suppressing a smile. ‘What sort of “stealth”?’
‘I had no possible excuse for calling on you, nor do I move in the social circles that make me the sort of eligible parti Lady Fulton would invite to join her party. But, thanks to the army, I know how to mingle almost invisibly among regular folk. Dornton Manor is the largest estate in the area, which means Dornton Village supplies much of the goods consumed here and most of the labour to staff the house. Some rounds of ale at the local tap house, some conversations with the various merchants who provision Dornton Manor, a mention to one of them that, as a returned soldier currently out of work, I wouldn’t mind earning a few coins, and I had a commission to deliver food supplies. That fine fish you enjoyed last night and the pineapples for the compote for dessert?’ He tapped his chest. ‘Brought here from the village by Ben Tawny. Once at Dornton, it was easy enough, over a mug of ale in the servants’ hall, to learn who was valet to whom, and to flirt with the ladies’ maids and unearth a few details about each of their mistresses. Voilà—your size, colouring and love of sketching.’
‘In other words, you misrepresented yourself to the staff here and lied to the merchant,’ she said, her severe tone at variance with the half-smile curving her lips. ‘You are the most complete hand! How can I believe anything you say?’
‘I didn’t misrepresent!’ he protested. ‘I merely...created an illusion.’
‘You lied.’
He shook his head. ‘Not true! I am a former soldier; I grew up poor enough to always be in favour of earning a few coins and many believe that being a Member of Parliament means I do no work. The staff here may have assumed I was a deliveryman because I brought out supplies, but