Page 5 of The Paid Companion

T he sound of his voice, dark, chilled, controlled and seemingly emanating from the gloom behind her, unnerved Elenora to such a degree that she very nearly dropped her reticule.

She whirled around with a tiny, stifled gasp. For a few disturbing seconds she could not make him out clearly, but she knew instantly that whoever he was, he could well prove dangerous. An oddly exhilarating thrill of anticipation swept through her.

Hastily, she tried to shake off the sensation. She had never reacted like this to any man. It was no doubt a trick of the poor light. The fog had closed in very snugly around the windows, and the two small lamps on the desks of Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis created more shadows than they dispelled.

Then she realized that she was still wearing the spectacles she had borrowed from Mrs. Egan to enhance her appearance as a proper companion for today’s interviews. She reached up very quickly, plucked the eyeglasses from her nose and blinked a couple of times to refocus her vision.

She could see the man in the shadows quite clearly now, but that did not do much to alter her initial impression. If anything it only heightened her feelings of wariness and excitement.

“Dear me,” Mrs. Willis said quickly. “I had quite forgotten you were standing there, sir. I beg your pardon. Allow me to introduce Miss Elenora Lodge. Miss Lodge, the Earl of St. Merryn.”

St. Merryn inclined his head ever so slightly. “A pleasure, Miss Lodge.”

No one would ever label him handsome, Elenora thought. The power, control and harsh intelligence that stamped his features left no room for elegance, refinement or traditional masculine beauty.

His hair was a deep shade of brown. Unfathomable smoky green eyes watched her from some concealed lair deep inside. He had the bold nose, high cheekbones and distinctive jaw that one associated with creatures that survived on their hunting skills.

She realized with a start that she was allowing her imagination to get the better of her. It had been a very long day.

She pulled herself together and made her curtsy. “My lord.”

“It would seem that we might be of service to each other, Miss Lodge,” he said. His gaze never wavered from her face. “You are in need of a position. I have a distant relative, the widow of a cousin on my father’s side, who is staying with me for the Season. I require a companion for her. I am prepared to pay you triple your usual fees.”

Triple her usual fees. She was suddenly a little breathless. Steady now, she thought. Whatever else she did, she must maintain an air of dignified calm. She had a feeling that if St. Merryn detected any indication that she suffered from delicate or easily excitable nerves, he would withdraw his offer.

Raising her chin, she gave him what she hoped was a coolly polite smile. “I am prepared to discuss the position, sir.”

She heard Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis murmur between themselves, but she paid no attention. She was too busy watching the satisfaction that glittered briefly in the earl’s enigmatic eyes.

“There is a bit more to the post than the duties that are generally expected of a paid companion,” St. Merryn said very deliberately.

She recalled the old adage about things sounding too good to be true and steeled herself.

“For some reason, I am not surprised to hear that,” she said dryly. “Perhaps you would be so good as to explain?”

“Of course.” St. Merryn switched his attention to Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis. “I would prefer to have this conversation in private with Miss Lodge, if you two ladies do not mind.” He paused a beat and smiled faintly. “The situation involves a family matter. I’m sure you comprehend.”

“Certainly,” Mrs. Goodhew said. She seemed relieved to have the excuse to exit the room. “Mrs. Willis?”

Mrs. Willis was already on her feet. “After you, Mrs. Goodhew.”

The two women stepped smartly around their desks and crossed the room. They closed the door very firmly behind them.

A heavy silence descended. Elenora did not like the feel of impending dread that accompanied it.

Some of her initial excitement faded. It was replaced with wariness. Her palms tingled with a strange chill. She sensed the weight of the heavy fog pressing at the windows. It was so thick that she could not see the buildings across the narrow street. Was it just her imagination that made the room seem suddenly very small and intensely intimate?

St. Merryn walked deliberately across the office and came to a halt in front of one of the windows. He meditated for a while on the featureless mist that shrouded the narrow street. She knew that he was debating just how much to tell her.

“I may as well come straight out with it, Miss Lodge,” he said after a moment. “What I told Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis was not the full truth. I am not in need of a companion for my relative, although she is, indeed, staying in my house.”

“I see. What do you require, sir?”

“A fiancée.”

Elenora closed her eyes in despair. Just when she had begun to believe that the nature of the potential employers in the files of Goodhew they certainly did not marry them.

“Speaking of which,” Elenora made herself say briskly, “just how do you intend to end this fictitious engagement when you have concluded your business here in town?”

“There will be no problem with terminating it,” he said. He shrugged. “You will simply disappear from Society. It will be put about that you cried off and returned to your family’s estates somewhere in the far North.”

You will simply disappear.

Alarm slithered across her nerves. That sounded decidedly ominous. On the other hand, he was right. Vanishing from exclusive circles would not be so very difficult. The rich and the powerful lived in a very small, self-contained world, after all. They rarely strayed outside the borders of that glittering sphere, nor did they notice those who existed beyond it.

“Yes, I suppose that will work,” she said, thinking it through carefully. “Few, if any, of my future employers are likely to move in the same exalted circles of Society that you and your acquaintances inhabit. Even if they do go into the Polite World and even if I were to come into contact with some of their elevated friends, I doubt that anyone would take any notice. Once I revert to my role as a paid companion, no one will pay any attention to me.”

“People see what they expect to see,” he agreed.

A thought struck her. “Perhaps I should use another name while I play this role, to help ensure that no one recognizes me while I am in the part.”

He chuckled. “I can see that the notion of taking a stage name appeals to you, but I do not think it necessary, and it will only complicate matters in the event that someone from your own past does happen to recognize you.”

“Oh, yes, I see what you mean.” She was somewhat disappointed, but she had to admit that he was correct. “It is unlikely, but if I should meet up with an acquaintance here in London, it would be difficult to explain my new name.”

“Truthfully, I am not at all disturbed by the notion of you encountering someone you know while you play your part. There is no reason why such an event would affect our script. As long as I claim you as my fiancée, you will be accepted as such. I am considered something of an eccentric, so no one will be unduly shocked that I wish to marry a lady with no social connections.”

“I see.”

His smile was cold. “Who will dare to contradict me?”

“Yes, of course,” she said, a little awed by his unshakable arrogance. But his point was well taken. Who, indeed, would dare to question his claim? And as for the future, well, she would worry about that when it was necessary to do so. She could hardly afford to pass up this extremely profitable arrangement because of some vague fear of being recognized as the earl’s cast-off fiancée six months from now.

“Indeed.” She nodded once, satisfied. “Very well, I think it is safe to assume that no one looking at a companion will see the Earl of St. Merryn’s former fiancée, so I should have no difficulty obtaining future employment.” She hesitated. “But where will I live while I am in your employ? I do not have any lodgings of my own. It is quite expensive here in town, you know.”

“You will stay in my house, of course. We will tell people that you are visiting from the country to shop and enjoy the pleasures of the Season.”

“You expect me to live under your roof, sir?” She raised her brows. “That would invite the sort of gossip that I’m sure you would not want.”

“There is no need to be alarmed on account of your reputation, Miss Lodge. I promise you that you will be properly chaperoned. The tale that I gave Mrs. Goodhew and Mrs. Willis concerning my widowed female relative staying with me for a few weeks was quite true.”

“I see. Well, then, my lord, your scheme just might work.”

“Miss Lodge, for your information, my schemes always work. That is because I am very good at making plans and executing them.”

He said that without any trace of arrogance, she realized. It was a simple statement of fact as far as he was concerned.

“Nevertheless, this particular scheme seems somewhat complicated,” she murmured.

“Trust me, Miss Lodge. It will work. And at the end of it, I will pay you not only triple your fees, but a bonus.”

She went very still, hardly daring to breathe. “Do you mean that, sir?”

“I need you, Miss Lodge. Something tells me you are perfect for the part I want you to play, and I am quite willing to pay you handsomely for your talents.”

She cleared her throat. “As it happens, I have been saving every penny I can afford to put aside in order to invest in a certain business venture.”

“Indeed? What sort of venture would that be?”

She pondered briefly and then decided that there was no reason not to tell him the truth. “I hope you will not be too terribly shocked, sir, but my goal is to go into trade.”

“You are going to become a shopkeeper?” he asked in an astonishingly neutral manner.

Braced for strong disapproval, she felt almost light-headed with relief when he did not condemn her scheme out of hand. In the view of well-bred people, going into trade was a dreadful move to be avoided at all costs. In the eyes of Society it was preferable by far to scrape by in genteel poverty rather than become the proprietor of a business.

“I realize that my plans must strike you as beyond the pale,” she said. “But as soon as I have obtained enough money, I intend to open a bookshop and a circulating library.”

“You do not shock me, Miss Lodge. As it happens, I have made my fortune through various investments. I have some skill when it comes to business.”

“Indeed, sir.” She gave him another polite smile.

He was being very gracious, she thought. But they both knew that the gulf between a gentleman’s business investments and the notion of going into trade was vast and deep in the eyes of Society. It was all very well for a person of quality to purchase shares in a shipping venture or a housing construction project. It was another matter altogether for a well-bred individual to become the proprietor of a shop.

Nevertheless, the important thing was that St. Merryn did not seem the least bit put off by her plans. Then again, she thought, he had made it clear that he was not in a position to be choosy.

He inclined his head in somber acknowledgment of her intentions. “Very well, then, do we have a bargain, Miss Lodge?”

The generosity of his terms completely dazzled her, as he had no doubt intended. She had one remaining qualm about the post she was accepting, but she crushed it down quite ruthlessly. This was the first turn of good fortune that had come her way since that dreadful day when her stepfather’s creditors had arrived on her doorstep. She would not risk losing a golden opportunity simply because of a petty uncertainty.

Scarcely able to contain her delight, she smiled again.

“We do indeed, my lord.”

St. Merryn stared at her mouth for several seconds, as though riveted. Then he gave his head a slight shake and frowned slightly. She got the impression that for some reason he was annoyed, not with her but with himself.

“If we are to achieve our objective of projecting an air of intimacy about our association,” he said dryly, “I think you must learn to call me Arthur.”

That would not be easy, she thought. There was a forbidding quality about him that would make such easy familiarity difficult.

I t was not until she was outside in the street, hurrying back to Mrs. Egan’s townhouse to give her the good news, that the qualm she had squelched earlier rose up once more to plague her.

It was not the earl’s formidable temperament or his bizarre plan to parade her in front of Society as his fiancée that worried her, she thought. She could deal with those things.

What made her uneasy about this too-good-to-be-true post was the fact that she was almost positive that St. Merryn had not told her the whole truth.

He was keeping secrets, she thought. Her intuition warned her that St. Merryn’s scheme involved something far more dangerous than a plan to put together an investment consortium.

But his private affairs were none of her concern, she concluded with rising excitement. The only thing that mattered to her was that if she successfully carried off the role St. Merryn had assigned to her, she would be well on her way to realizing her dream by the time he brought his little drama to a close.