The Seducer by Madeline Hunter Page B

leave. Diane tried to absorb that she had just become a protégée of an English countess. It made no sense. In Paris, Jeanette moved in elevated circles, but not the highest ones. Her friends had been wealthy and a few had been
petits
aristocrats, but she had not been among the women who dined with nobility.
    “The countess is very generous,” she said. “I think that I will be imposing. I do not belong at her dinner party, and everyone will know it.”
    “It will not be as you expect. The countess is a bit
outrée.
That I am her friend shows that,” Daniel said. “She prefers the more democratic circles to the strictly fashionable ones, which is just as well, since the best ones do not accept her.”
    “Why not?”
    “She separated from her husband.”
    “Insufferable hypocrites,” Jeanette snapped. “A woman leaves a disreputable husband and she is punished. Not even for another man did she leave. And the women who cut her by day are jumping from bed to bed by night. The English are
such
a people. It still astonishes me that you can live among them, Daniel. At least in France we do not use this pretense of high morality to wound others when we are no better ourselves.”
    Daniel ignored his sister’s outburst. “The countess is one of several women of her standing who have a very mixed group of friends, Diane. You will find your evenings diverting enough, even if you never get into Almack’s.”
    Jeanette rolled her eyes. “Thank God for that. The worst of the worst.”
    “Perhaps the countess was correct, mam’selle, and you will agree to accompany me some of these evenings,” Diane said.
    “I do not care for English society. There is no reason for you to suffer because of my whims, however, and my brother has seen that you will not.”
    He had not only seen to her diversion. He had seen to it that she would be paraded about, to attract the men who could benefit him.
    Diane was determined to keep the reasons for all this generosity in mind.
    Jeanette appeared agitated. She had been out of sorts since they set sail from France on one of Daniel’s ships. It had gotten worse when they arrived at this London house a day ago.
    “Perhaps you would like to get some air in the garden, Diane,” she said. “I wish to speak with my brother about something.”
    It was the most direct dismissal that Jeanette had ever given. Diane excused herself.
    Something had changed since coming here. The relationship between brother and sister had gotten brittle.
             
    “Do not ever do that again,” Jeanette hissed.
    Daniel heard the scathing tone and saw the fiery eyes. He regretted her distress, but could not help thinking that Jeanette in high dudgeon was better than Jeanette floating through life in a haze of Parisian memories.
    “Do not
ever
invite your friends to call on me like that. Receiving the countess in Paris was one thing, but this is another. I agreed to come here, after all these years, for Diane’s sake and yours, but I made very clear that I would not leave this house. I will not have these women cajoling me, be they countesses or wives of shippers or your lovers.”
    “There is no harm in accepting calls, even if you do not go out. It is not healthy for you to become completely reclusive.”
    “Do not tell me what to do. Do not dare. Never forget that I am the one woman in the world who is not in awe of you. Paul and Diane will be company enough.”
    “And when someone calls on Diane? It is bound to happen eventually.”
    “You
swore
that Tyndale would not come here.”
    “He will not, but I expect others will.”
    “Then I will be the gray presence in the corner, reading a book.”
    He had asked a great sacrifice of her, in demanding that she come this time. It pained him to see her grappling with the emotions that England evoked.
    He went over and laid his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him. The anger slid from her face, revealing the real emotions that absorbed her.
    He