But Margaret's face fell when she saw Nathaniel talking to two women across the street outside of the perfumery.
“What is it?” Jane asked, following her gaze.
“Oh, Lord Balwood hasn’t gotten far from the bookshop,” Margaret said softly.
“Who is that young woman?” Jane asked. “She is very beautiful.”
She certainly was, with her dark hair, red lips, and curves. Jane could imagine she would steal every man’s attention. Foolish jealousy filled her at the sight of Nathaniel speaking to her.
“It is Lady Delilah Stanhope, I believe, but I can't exactly tell from this distance. Yes, she is quite lovely,” Margaret said flatly. “I cannot say that she is very kind, however.”
“Perhaps she will be at Lady Constance’s soiree tomorrow evening.” Jane wondered if she’d see Lady Delilah and Nathaniel talking then, too.
Was he also courting her?
“Yes, perhaps,” Margaret said with the furrowing her brow. “Come then, Jane. Tea is waiting for us, and I'm starved.”
Jane allowed herself to be pulled away, but she wondered at Margaret's curious expression. However, she thought it best not to ask, not just yet. It was no business of hers. She still had her feelings for Lord Balwood to sort out, as wild and wanton as they may be.
***
“Lady Delilah,” Nathaniel said, dreading every second that he was standing there in front of her. “It has been some time since I've seen you last.”
“Yes, it has. Some time,” she replied with a flirtatious smile.
“Lady Mortimer,” he said to her mother, who was glaring at him.
It was only his status that bid her to curtsy ever so slightly, but her expression did not soften. He wasn't sure what story Delilah had told her parents, but it had looked bad in the end. One evening at a ball, she had pulled him away to a shadowy place on the balcony, begging him to take her then and there.
He had flatly refused, telling her that he wished for them to wait until their wedding day. She had continued to push him before he decided to simply walk away. He had only just left her behind when a friend of hers had come to catch them in the act, and on his way out, he'd heard the practiced gasp, only for the friend to be scolded by Delilah.
“Too late for that,” Delilah had told them.
The very next day, Nathaniel had gone to her parents and told them what had happened and had also ended their courtship. He thought he and Delilah had had something special, something that could have waited very much until the wedding day.
He had been taking his time in the courtship because he’d wanted to make the right decision. Neither Emily nor his mother had seemed so sure about her, but Delilah had always entertained him. However, that night, he had seen her true colors. She had wished to force him to ask her to wed by way of scandal.
Since then, he'd not courted another until Jane. Looking at Delilah now, still beautiful, still enticing, despite the fact that her parents had whisked her away to the countryside for the past two years to try and reform her, he could not see her as anything more than the woman who had stooped to deceiving him into marriage. She was the complete opposite of the woman he was interested in now.
But I am just like her, am I not? Willing to trap someone into matrimony and for my own gain.
“Well, I must be off,” Nathaniel said after a long silence between them, Delilah still watching him with her dark eyes, her lips curled up in a half-smile. He bowed again and replaced his hat. “Until the next time, ladies,” he said.
Lady Mortimer said nothing, while Lady Delilah waved with a gloved hand. “Goodbye, Nathaniel. I will see you at Lady Constance’s Soiree tomorrow evening.”
He did not look back, but stiffened as he walked away. Even though he'd been looking forward to it greatly, he now was filled with dread.
Chapter 18
“I don't know why you should punish yourself so. The man had the audacity to come to tell us the next day that he would no longer see you, blaming you for what happened. Not the way of a gentleman,” Lady Mortimer, Delilah’s mother, said to her once Nathaniel had passed away down the street. “He should have married you all the same. You had been courting for a while, anyway.”
Delilah’s eyes still lingered on his back as she spoke to her mother. “Do not worry yourself about it, Mother. No damage will be done. I was simply greeting a former suitor. Being polite, as you have taught me to be in these past two years.”
Nathaniel was still just as handsome, even a bit more distinguished than he’d been two years ago. When he’d been courting her, he’d appeared more like a young, eager boy. But now, he most certainly was a man, and he seemed to have filled out his coat and breeches just a bit more.
When she turned back, her mother's expression was dark. “Do not mock me, Delilah. You have brought to your own ruin upon you, or near ruin. We had to pull you away for two years to preserve your reputation. Now you have a chance again. You are going to the Season events, and you will not make a spectacle of yourself. Do you understand?”
She nodded. “Yes, of course, Mother,” she said dutifully.
