The Trouble With Seduction

Damen paced to the window. He should have been here. Sorrow and barely repressed fury boiled inside. Only a year apart, as boys he and Cory looked enough alike to be twins. They’d often used their resemblance to fool marks and shopkeepers – running them in circles.

Cory was the charmer. He’d seen him talk his way out of trouble too many times to count. When that didn’t work, Damen had always been there with the heavy fists and dirty tricks to chase whomever needed chasing off.

“You should have sent word.” He cut a sharp glance toward his father. “You know I’m better at dealing with rabble than he is.”

“You had your hands full in Liverpool. Cory offered to help.”

Mementos from the pranks he and his younger brother had enjoyed as youths lay scattered about a heavily carved table. Lifelike decoy ducks used on their hunting trips lined the table’s back. Damen twiddled the movable feet of a small metallic duck as he studied the new, exotic items brought home from his brother’s recent travels.

The assault on Cory couldn’t have come at a worse time. Crews were in the midst of constructing two warehouses – a risky, weighty task. Fists, brawn and cunning ruled the Liverpool docks. He should be there right now to safeguard his family’s interests.

Still, he and Cory were as close as any two brothers could be. Not since his mother passed had his powerlessness so frightened him. He had to do something. He couldn’t bring Cory out of his coma, but he could catch the brutal villains who’d done this and put them behind bars. An idea took form as Damen gazed at the decoy ducks again. “I’ll find Cory’s attackers.”

“NO!” his father barked with surprising force. “This is precisely why I told you not to come!”

“I spent my boyhood in St Giles. I know the ways of that world. No one is more prepared than I.” As a boy, against his parents’ orders, he’d explored the rookery’s labyrinthine underworld. There, villains could melt into the murk, their identities amorphous, ever shifting. If anyone could find them, he could.

“Cory and I were often mistaken for one another. No one would—”

“I forbid it!” His father’s voice came out as thin and sharp as a dagger nailing him to the wall. “You were nine when you left, still a boy. Your full attention is needed for our growing business in Liverpool. I wanted you there for a reason… to keep you as far from St Giles as possible.”

“Farnsworth, my superintendent, can take over in my absence.”

The muscles worked in his father’s emaciated jaw as he gazed up at the ornate cast plaster on the high ceiling. “You underestimate the danger.”

“I know the police can’t be trusted, and the villains’ trail grows colder by the minute.”

His father’s face turned crimson. A new vigor seemed to revive him. “Stubborn fool!” He pounded his cane on the floor. “How can you be so brilliant yet so dense? If they were bold enough to do this to him, they will not hesitate to do the same to you!”

“Why?”

“You are my sons. Over the years I’ve had to do… things.”

“But who are they?”

His father rubbed his forehead with trembling fingers. “An ever-changing sewer of villains that thrive in the shadows with gangs and networks of underlings.”

Damen fisted his hands in his pockets. “You know I can do this. I’m familiar with their underhanded tricks and deceits. I lived there long enough to know how to fight dirty.” He made sure his next words were delivered with unmistakable conviction. “And I intend to root out his assailants whether or not you agree.”

Moments passed while his father sat in silence. His voice came out a low croak. “What are you suggesting?”

“You said Cory had been looking for an arsonist. Perhaps he stumbled onto something more.”

“That something more was five ruffians, not one sole arsonist.” His father glared at him.

“In any event, it appears he found the problem, or, rather, the problem found him.”

“Wandering through St Giles after dark was the biggest problem.”

“This was not some random attack, Father. The footman said Cory knew one of the villains. What I find odd is that neither of us has been in London for years. Cory may have an enemy that followed him here?”

“What do you plan to do?” His father sounded like he was tiring.

“Given our resemblance, it shouldn’t be difficult to proceed as if I were him. I intend to goad his assailants out into the open. With any luck I should have them in irons within a few days.”

His father’s lips curved sourly. “Before you dive into the mire, you should know a marriage has been arranged between Cornelius and a woman of means – a Miss Eugenia Lambert.”

Damen’s gaze shot to his comatose younger brother. “Cory is taking a wife?”

“In four weeks.”

Damen let out a snort of disbelief. “He’s not even been back in London two weeks and he’s already engaged?”

“Cory returned with a desire to find and marry a wealthy woman. A perfectly reasonable ambition for a second son. He interviewed and made a choice between three eligible women. Miss Lambert agreed to his proposal two days ago.”

“Who were the other two?”

“The heiress Miss Calista Collins and Lady Strathford.”

“Lady Strathford? As in the widow of Lord Strathford, the famous inventor? Why didn’t he choose her?”

“He said something about too many ghosts in the wedding bed. She’s twice widowed. Are you acquainted?”

“I’ve never met her, but was quite impressed with Lord Strathford. I heard him lecture at Cambridge – rather an odd duck, but a brilliant, brilliant man. She must be a lot younger than him.”

“At least half his age.” His father pressed bony fingers to his brow. “Hopefully, you’ll not have to deal with Miss Lambert. I’ll talk to her father about postponing the wedding. If you’re set on doing this, we’d best keep Cory’s real condition mum.”

***

Damen, his father and Gormley, his father’s valet, withdrew to the room adjoining Cory’s to discuss plans. Yet no matter how much they coaxed and cajoled, Gormley remained deeply distressed and uncooperative.

“I am not at all comfortable with this,” the valet pleaded. “Passing yourself off as your younger brother is sure to send the men who assaulted him after you.”

“That’s the plan, Gorm.” Damen took another gulp of his father’s fine whiskey.

The lanky valet hunched his shoulders, letting his long arms dangle limply at his sides. “This is not at all wise. Think of the repercussions.”

Damen set down the bottle and braced his hands on the table, forcing his head forward. “Hit me, you miserable lily pad!”

Lord Falgate leaned forward in his wheelchair and jammed his cane shakily toward the valet. “He’s stubborn as always and bent on doing this whether or not we agree. So get to it, man – bonnet him! Now’s our chance to thrash him for all the times he’s irritated me.”

Gormley’s gaze drifted around Damen face, his expression growing more and more dejected. “I’d forgotten how closely you favor your brother.” The valet turned to Falgate. “You had me shave off his beard. Now I must pulverize his handsome face? I’m sorry, my lord, it simply isn’t done.”

Falgate glared at the valet and jammed his finger toward Damen.

Gorm sighed and slapped Damen openhanded across the face, leaving little more than a sting.

His father pounded his cane against the floor in frustration. “Be a man and put some muscle into it! If I were in better fettle, I’d do it myself.”

“Come on Gorm. Give me a shot, right here.” He pointed to his cheekbone. “I can’t very well go down and pick a fight in a wharf bar, now can I? I’m supposed to be mugged and left for dead.” He took another gulp of whiskey and shoved the bottle toward the valet. “Here, have another swallow. Now wind up those big mitts of yours and show me some knuckles!”

An hour later, Damen sat alone with Gormley, as the valet finished applying salve to the cuts and bruises around his face.

“Please accept my apologies. I am a very poor pugilist. The last time I struck someone I was ten years old.”

Damen carefully worked his jaw. “You’ve missed a world of fun, Gorm. Not many have your natural talent. When you finally got into the spirit of things, you threw some impressive toppers.”

“I regret to say, it was mostly the drink. Acquaintances tell me whiskey makes me quarrelsome. I’ve learned to stay clear of the stuff. Shall we have a look at your brother’s wardrobe? I believe you and he are very nearly the same size.”

A few minutes later the valet returned with a set of clothes and held them out. “These seem to be the tamest, Mr Ravenhill.”

Damen’s brows went up. Egads! He’d forgotten how his brother liked to be noticed. “There’ll be no relaxing in the corner in those.” Damen preferred conservative gear. Not only did darker colors tend to be more imposing, they held up better and didn’t show dirt. Of course, Cory always enjoyed attention, especially from the ladies.

“Did my brother say where he intended to go the night he was attacked?”

“No,” Gormley mumbled, and proceeded to help him into Cory’s shirt and brightly colored red vest. “He did not account for his comings and goings. The coachman mentioned he took him to the Painted Lady pub in St Giles.”

“Did he also visit the boxing club next door?” If his brother had been trolling for scoundrels, he couldn’t find a better place than the Painted Lady.

“I couldn’t say,” the valet grumbled. “Never was there a darker den of depraved villains and cutthroats.”

“Have a care, Gorm. Our grandfather started those establishments. Mum took over when he fell ill.”

“My apologies.” Gormley’s face wrinkled in distaste. “Clearly your brother stumbled into the path of vicious criminals.”

Damen hadn’t felt this grinding helplessness since their mother died of cholera when he was nine. He’d watched her perish, powerless against a terrifying illness that killed her in less than two days. After she passed, all he managed to keep in remembrance was her shawl.

While Cory cried for weeks, Damen seethed in anger at an enemy he could not fight.

He would never forget the way she had gazed at him, the love in her eyes. She’d been pretty, clever, hard-working and adamant he and Cory keep up with their studies so they could ‘make something of themselves.’ Would she ever have imagined the fell disease that killed her and so many others would alter the path of descent to make her husband, Ebenezer Ravenhill, Viscount Falgate?

Only scraps and pieces of the next few years remained in Damen’s memory. There was prep school with Cory and then Rugby School and an endless number of fights with a breed of boys who felt it their duty to teach the low-class upstarts their place. Fortunately, he’d enough pent-up rage and dirty street skills to correct the schoolboys’ faulty thinking by applying his own brand of teaching.

Gormley held out the loud tartan-plaid trousers and then helped Damen into a fawn-colored jacket. When he’d finished dressing him, the valet stepped back in appraisal. “With your face a mass of cuts and bruises, I would easily mistake you for your brother.”

Damen turned to the tall standing mirror. An involuntary chill skittered over him as he took in the clothes and his bruised countenance. Even he could see the eerie resemblance. Working his shoulders, he realigned his stance to the way he’d seen Cory position himself: feet firmly planted, shoulders back, chest out, chin tucked, a steely look in his eye. “I’ll need your help to make this charade convincing, Gorm.”

“You can count on me, Mr Ravenhill. Might I suggest putting a bit more swagger in your mannerisms? Don’t forget your fondness for revelry and irresponsibility, and that you quite fancy yourself a ladies’ man.”

An apt description of his younger brother. He’d the luxury of being unreliable. As boys, he and Cory tore around St Giles, getting into mischief like two little hellions. In many ways, Cory was still that happy-go-lucky boy… with their mother’s infectious laugh.

Gormley made a careful adjustment to Damen’s gold-specked cravat. “As to your speech, you favor lengthening ‘ah’ sounds and over-softening ‘R’s’.”

“Right. Picked up a bit of Liverpudlian, have I?”

The valet nodded. “And how do I put this politely… you must remember to include in your speech a little more irony and self-deprecating humor. And on occasion, when things don’t go your way, you resort to…” – he cleared his throat – “…clever wit and charm.”

Damen frowned and growled. “I’m capable of clever wit and charm. When they’re warranted.”

“Of course,” Gormley sniffed.

Had the whiskey also released a bit of cheek in the ordinarily stiff valet? Damen suddenly realized playing his carefree, easy-going brother might be a little more challenging than he’d thought. “And what are those small exotic statues in… Cor… I mean, my room?”

The valet pursed his lips. “One of them is your Buddhist guardian. You told me their hand gestures represent a mudra with deep symbolic meaning.”

“I have a Buddhist guardian? What do I do with it?”

“I’m not sure. Although one time I found you sitting cross-legged on the floor chanting indecipherably. You’re quite limber for a man of your size.”

“Indeed.” Inwardly, Damen groaned. “And as to my fiancée, did I reveal any details about Miss Lambert?”

“You said you’d only met her the once when you made your brief proposal.”

“Did I mention what I thought of her?”

“Not directly. But apparently she’s not shy about making her will known and inspired immediate action. On your first and only visit she discovered one of Rufus’s hairs on your sleeve.”

“Who is Rufus?”

“Your dog.”

“I have a dog?” Damen winced. He liked dogs well enough, but they barked and chewed on things and, well, basically raised havoc with his neat and orderly life.

“A big jolly fellow. At her instruction, you came home and banished the poor hound to the stables.”

“Am I that easily influenced?”

“Perhaps you’d hoped to create the impression of pleasing her? I rather doubt your mistress is aware of your betrothal, either.”

“I have a mistress?” Damen almost choked. Why was he surprised? His brother loved women. He hadn’t thought any further than putting Cory’s attackers in irons. Women were another matter, though. They could put a tangle in things. His brother’s irresponsibility always spawned confusion, emotion, drama. He’d forgotten how mixed up Cory’s messes could get.

“I assume Mrs Ivanova is your mistress.” Gormley sniffed. “A message arrived from her this morning. Perhaps you should have a look at it.”

CHAPTER 3

The next day, Damen sat in a dark corner of his grandfather’s old pub, the Painted Lady, fingering a greasy tankard of ale. Mrs Ivanova’s note had been precise: two o’clock, back table, left side. There’d been no endearments or sweet words, not even a hint of sexual lure. Perhaps Slavic mistresses didn’t use such coquetry? The mystery and uncertainty made him feel like he was inching along the slippery side of a precipice.

Surreptitiously, he gazed about the grimy pub. Childhood memories rose at every turn. He’d remembered the place being bigger, cleaner and filled with laughter. The new proprietor had added more tables and rebuilt the bar. A highly polished mirror – clearly the pride of the establishment – stretched behind the bartender. Its wavy reflection and splotches of mildewed silver suggested low quality and advanced age.

Cigar smoke hung about the room like a miasmic fog, barely masking the pervasive stench of St Giles’ open sewers, unwashed bodies and the avaricious hankerings of the Painted Lady’s clientele.

An arrow of light briefly cut through the murk and quickly disappeared. Someone had entered from the back. A rather tall, veiled woman, dressed entirely in black, appeared at his table.

“Vulf.”

Wolf? Her accented contralto put teeth in the word. He might have expected something more, well, endearing. Perhaps she’d found out about his brother’s engagement? Gormley had said she might not be happy about it.

Damen gestured to the vacant chair across from him.

Gracefully, she slid into the seat and leaned forward as if studying him from behind the black filmy material covering her face. “Who did this to you?”

The ominous timbre in her voice tightened the muscles in the back of his neck. Damen couldn’t quite place her accent – a regional dialect, perhaps? He coughed and tried to speak like Cory. “A mystery.”

“And the drawings?” she whispered, turning her veiled bonnet from side to side, clearly checking for eavesdroppers.

Drawings? Still no words of tenderness or affection? Was Mrs Ivanova truly his brother’s mistress, or did their relationship encompass something entirely different?

“I don’t know. They found me insensible.” He gently circled a finger to massage his temple and attempted a confused expression. “Not sure what happened.”

She leaned back and set her gloved hands on the table. Through the black lace covering her fingers he could see a thin silver band with a tiny raised design ringing her little finger. “Fires ruin. Strathford dead. Now you do other plan.”

Fires? Strathford dead? She made it sound as if Cory had something to do with the fires and Lord Strathford’s death. He grimaced as if he were in pain and set his elbow on the table to rest his head in his palm. “What other plan?”

She let out a little huff. “Seduce.”

Damen nearly jerked upright before he caught himself. “Seduce? Whooom?”

She looked around again and leaned closer. “Strathford widow. Find drawings.” Her contralto took on an edge of vexation. “Secrets slip in bed play, no?”

That was certainly an odd order. Wouldn’t seducing another woman possibly jeopardize a mistress’s meal ticket?

He grimaced as best he could with his lumps and bruises. “My memory took a beating along with my head. What drawings?” He purposely slurred his words. “And what do I do with them if I find them?”

She sat for a long moment, silently studying him and finally whispered, “I take to Vesele.”

Was Vesele a person or place? He didn’t know how far he could go with his act of amnesia and made a soft groan as if his injuries pained him. “Remind me. What do the drawings depict?”

“You know theezs!” Mrs Ivanova hissed. The anger in her voice thickened her accent.

Her head turned from side to side again before she said in an even quieter voice, “Small engine.”

Damen was certainly no choirboy and had perpetrated his own fair share of misdemeanors, but seducing a woman for information was not one of them. Unless Cory had totally lost his moral compass, he doubted his brother would either.

There must be another way to get information about this… small engine. He still wasn’t quite sure what the whole endeavor required or why. “My apologies. Due to my injuries, I must recuse myself.”

“Pfftt. They heal. Still have Beeeg Charm, No?”

Beeeg Charm? Was that sarcasm in her voice? Did ‘Beeeg Charm’ refer to Cory’s… charm… or something more physical? “I am not acquainted with Lady Strathford.”

She spat out a word in Russian, one he felt certain translated into a scathing expletive. “You think theez joke.” Her tone turned low and vicious. “You meet. You dance.”

Lord. Cory must have already told her he’d met Lady Strathford. Damen quickly backtracked. “Like I said, my memory is rather scrambled about certain matters.”

Mrs Ivanova worked her hands, clasping and unclasping her fingers. “Many want engine drawings. Beeeg buyer pay much.” She pointed to his head. “Vesele maybe do theez? If Vesele knows of drawings, very dangerous. Must hurry!”

CHAPTER 4

Sarah sighed and gazed at the upper floors of the Crystal Palace.

Beams of sunlight filtered through the opaque glass covering the ceiling and walls. Fountains pattered, flowers perfumed the air, patrons murmured their praise for the multitude of exhibits. All blended to produce a sense of pleasure and awe.

The grandness of the place almost diverted Sarah from her problems.

Almost.

“Strathford would have been enthralled by all the wondrous inventions,” she mused, wistfully.

“Indeed, this is a fairyland for every taste.” Her Aunt Eliza dragged her gaze from an exquisitely embroidered gown. “It’s time you put away your mourning clothes, my dear. Let’s visit my new modiste and have you fitted for a gown in this very shade of blue.”

Sarah and her aunt moved on, halting to study a Roman statue of a scantily clad warrior. The sculptor’s sensuous chisel had brought to life every magnificent sinew. A memory surfaced of the handsome miller’s son Sarah had kissed when she was sixteen.

Unbidden, bone-deep humiliation crept in, squeezing her stomach like a vise. Even after all these years, the remorse over those few stolen moments of happiness almost made her ill.

She leaned close to her aunt, their bonnets nearly touching. “There is something I must tell you.” She peered about to make sure no one could hear them. “For over two years I’ve thought Strathford’s death an accident. Yesterday, workmen found suspicious items in his laboratory. The police now think he was murdered.”

Her aunt gasped. “Oh, my dear, that is disturbing news. Do they have any idea who would do such a thing?”

Sarah exhaled shakily in remembrance of their questions and curled a lip in distaste. “I couldn’t help feeling they think I killed him.”

Eliza’s features tightened. She immediately pressed her hand down through the air. A little signal she’d devised to alert Sarah when she spoke too candidly. “Such frank words in public could be misconstrued, dear.” She quickly looked around before whispering, “Surely you must have misunderstood.”

Sarah pinched her lips together and shuddered. “The police inspector’s questions left me quite… alarmed. It did no good insisting I have no idea who would have wanted to hurt Strathford.”

A pang of anguish tightened her throat. “For over two years I’ve held true to his memory and mourned his death. How I miss him, Auntie. This whole situation has me so... despairing. I have no husband, no family…” She gazed longingly at the nearby children playing around a fountain. “No babies to raise.”

Shifting her attention back to the muscular statue, she exhaled a shuddering breath. “To make matters worse, since the workmen started renovating the laboratory, I have these… stirrings… these annoying quivers I can’t quite satisfy. Such things never happened after my first husband’s death.”

“You were practically a girl when Lord Hardington died. Now you’re an experienced woman.” Her aunt gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Such stirrings are quite natural. I must confess, after Oswald died, a similar condition came over me.” A smile quivered at her lips. “Perhaps you should take a lover.”

“Elizabeth Fortnoy,” Sarah whispered in mock offense, “I am scandalized.”

Her aunt’s eyes twinkled as she spoke under her breath. “Your agitation may be a sign it is time to rejoin the living. I don’t wish to speak ill of the dead, but I always thought your father rushed you into marrying men whose youth had fled them decades before. This time you have the luxury of being able to do a little shopping. Pick out a few pretty ones. See if anything about them takes your fancy. Happiness does not always land conveniently on one’s doorstep. Sometimes it’s necessary to go after it with a club.”

“Yes, Auntie. But I fear the police suspect me of mur—”

Her aunt’s eyes widened and her hand fluttered through the air.

“Well I… I’m so overwhelmed by this new development regarding Strathford’s death. I dare not make any… new friends.” A mist formed in Sarah’s eyes.

Eliza gazed at her sympathetically, then peered around the displays and other patrons. “Now where is that maid of yours? We should go outside. A little fresh air and sunshine should chase away those gloomies.”