Taming The Viscountess Read online

  Most ladies would have been disgusted by his handicap. A few would have even pitied him. But Celia hadn’t shown either reaction to him. From the moment she met him, she had treated him as if he had never lost part of his leg. And he couldn’t think of any other lady who would actually go to sea with him. Marriage to her was turning out to be the best thing that had ever happened to him.

  After the doctor left, Sebastian decided to go through his ledger. He worked through the numbers for a good fifteen minutes before the footman informed him that he had two visitors. Surprised, he put the ledger into the drawer of the desk and told the footman to bring them in.

  He was in the middle of pouring brandy into three glasses when Ethan and Christopher came into the room. Christopher had something behind his back and was smiling as if he couldn’t wait to show it to Sebastian.

  “Close the doors,” Sebastian told the footman. Whatever Christopher had to show him was probably best done in private. When the footman closed the doors, he set the lid back on the decanter and gestured to the drinks. “Go on and take one. Pull up your chairs, and we’ll discuss what’s on your mind.”

  Sebastian returned to his chair behind the desk. Before he could take a sip of the brandy, Christopher came up to him and dropped a book right in front of him. The title was too small to read from where the book had landed, so Sebastian set his drink down and picked it up so he could read the title. How to Pleasure a Lady.

  “What’s this?” Sebastian asked, glancing at Christopher as he sat in a chair next to Ethan, who was already sipping his drink.

  “It’s a gift,” Christopher said. “You’re not a member of White’s, so you can’t pick up that book yourself. It’s the only place in London you’ll find a copy.”

  Sebastian arched an eyebrow. “And you think I’m going to need this because…?”

  “Because there’s no reason why a gentleman should decline the chance to enjoy the bed, even if the lady he’s married to is a shrew.” Then Christopher added, “Even if you are married to a shrew, it doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of the better part of marriage. At least until you get to the point where you can no longer live under the same roof with her. But you must not tell anyone I gave this to you.”

  Ethan rolled his eyes. “You’ll have to forgive my friend. He assumes that if you can share the bed with your wife, then you’ll be able to stay with her for the next five months.”

  “Four and a half months at this point,” Christopher said as he picked up his glass and drank from it. “All I need is that long to win the bet.”

  “This is a book on how to have sex?” Sebastian asked.

  “It’s more than that. It’s about how to make her enjoy it,” Christopher replied. “If she enjoys it, you’ll have no trouble getting her to your bed.” He shot him a pointed look. “I know this from personal experience. My wife wasn’t all that excited about being married to me at first—”

  “Because you somehow managed to trap her into it,” Ethan interrupted. With a glance at Sebastian, he added, “I’ll never know how he did it, but she didn’t marry him because she wanted to. She married him because she had to.”

  Christopher groaned. “It doesn’t matter how I did it. The fact of the matter is, my wife was reluctant to join me in bed because her first husband left a lot to be desired. When I employed the techniques in that book, all of that changed. It turned my shy little flower into a lady with a lustful appetite.” His lips curled up into a satisfied grin.

  “The more you tell the story, the more I get bored,” Ethan said before he drank more brandy. “I swear, I must have heard you regale your lovemaking prowess a hundred times by now.”

  “If I can make a lady passionate about the bedchamber, so can he,” Christopher told Ethan as he motioned to Sebastian.

  Sebastian hid his amusement. Getting Celia interested in making love was not a problem. She made it no secret that she enjoyed her time with him, and more than that, he hadn’t had to go to her bed once. She’d gone to his bedchamber every night since the first time she slipped into his room. Then there were times when she didn’t even wait until he was in his bedchamber. As she had promised, she hadn’t worn any undergarments under her gowns, allowing him easy access to her body at any time.

  But there was no need to tell either gentleman this. They didn’t need to pull their money out of the wager they’d made at White’s.

  “If nothing else,” Christopher began, turning his attention back to Sebastian, “you’re a titled gentleman, and titled gentlemen need an heir. Making sure you spend some time in bed will help you pass on the title to a future son.”

  Amused, Sebastian said, “You’re afraid if I don’t have marital relations with my wife, I’ll get rid of her too soon.”

  “That’s exactly why he gave you the book,” Ethan replied. “Don’t think he did this for you. He did it for himself.”

  “And what’s wrong with that?” Christopher glanced at Sebastian. “You have five and a half months to go. You might as well get whatever enjoyment you can from that time.”

  “We ask that you don’t speak a word of this book to anyone,” Ethan told Sebastian. “It’s as private as the wager.”

  Christopher nodded. “If the ladies found out our secret, they would be disappointed to learn that we needed help in order to become skilled lovers.”

  “There’s no harm in asking a lady how to satisfy her,” Sebastian said. “Besides, how do you know the techniques in this book work on every lady? The author could be wrong.” And that brought forth a more interesting question. He opened the book and flipped to the page where the author’s name should have been. “Who wrote it?”

  “We don’t know,” Ethan replied.

  “Well, we know it’s a lady, but she wishes to remain anonymous,” Christopher clarified.

  “There’s no way to prove a lady wrote it,” Ethan said.

  “There’s no way to prove one didn’t.”

  Sebastian chuckled. “Do you two do this all the time?”

  Christopher and Ethan looked at each other and then turned their gazes to Sebastian. “Do what?” Christopher asked.

  “This bickering back and forth,” Sebastian said. “You two remind me of a crewman and his mother that I once knew. When it came time for him to come aboard the ship, his mother tagged along, and the two squabbled over every little thing until we finally set sail.”

  “I wouldn’t say we squabble,” Ethan replied. “We merely have differences of opinion and aren’t afraid to express them.”

  “Which seems a lot like what the word ‘squabble’ means,” Sebastian pointed out.

  “Yes, but these are trivial matters,” Christopher said. “We don’t have serious arguments.”

  “Again, that is what the word ‘squabble’ means,” Sebastian replied.

  The two looked at each other as if they had never heard anyone point this out to them before, and for all Sebastian knew, they hadn’t. This might be the first time anyone had ever mentioned it.

  The doors to the drawing room opened, and Sebastian hurried to slip the book into the drawer. Celia came into the room, an excited expression on her face.

  Sebastian glanced at Ethan and Christopher. Would they assume things were going as well between him and Celia as they were? This could hurt his chances of winning the wager if word got out that she was smiling at him.

  “My friend and I finally came up with the name of our new group,” she said. “It will be Ladies of Influence.” With a glance at Christopher and Ethan, she said, “Our group will be far more prestigious than Lady Eloise’s group. Your wives might want to join. I already have the Duchess of Lambeth in my group, and I don’t need to tell you how important the Duke of Lambeth is. And, of course, my husband,” she gestured to Sebastian, “captained a ship. You can’t say many gentlemen have done that.”

  Eyes wide, Christopher and Ethan looked at Sebastian, and Sebastian could see that they were considering pulling their money out of the
wager—and perhaps warning the other gentlemen at White’s to do the same. This was it. He was about to lose all that money he’d had his heart set on acquiring.

  But then, the coachman came up to Sebastian and handed him a parchment with a list of shops in London. Under each shop was a list of gowns, shoes, hats, parasols, gloves, or jewelry that had been purchased there. Next to those purchases was the cost of each item.

  “What’s this?” Sebastian asked the coachman.

  “Your wife went shopping this afternoon,” the coachman said.

  “Yes,” Celia told him. “Usually, the owners of those shops send the bill to my brother, but since you’re my husband, they’re giving it to you. You might want to establish an account with those shops to make it easier for me to make purchases in the future. You have no idea how difficult it was to talk a couple of those owners into letting me leave with the items I rightfully bought.”

  Sebastian straightened in his chair. “Items you bought? Are those items here?”

  “The butler and footman are bringing them in as we speak,” the coachman said.

  “All of this?” Looking at Celia, he asked, “This isn’t just a list of things you want to buy? These are all things you did buy?”

  “Of course,” she replied as if spending all that money in a single afternoon was the most natural thing in the world. “I need those things to get Ladies of Influence started.”

  “But everything on this list comes to seven pounds,” he said.

  “Yes, I know,” she replied, not even looking the least bit concerned by the amount she’d just spent. “The shop owners took the time to add everything up.”

  All at once, he broke out of his shock. He grabbed his crutch and stood up. “Tell the footman and butler to take everything back to the carriage,” he ordered the coachman as he hobbled to the door.

  “You can’t be serious,” Celia said. “It took me all afternoon to acquire my wardrobe for Ladies of Influence.”

  “The only influence your group is having at the moment is sending my estate into the grave,” he shot back, not the least bit happy to find a five-foot pile of boxes in the entryway. A look out the front door showed him that the footman and butler weren’t even done bringing everything in.

  Christopher and Ethan came up behind him, and Christopher whispered, “Use the book. She owes you for this. You just have to make it to five-and-a-half months.”

  Ethan grabbed Christopher by the arm and dragged him to the door. Taking a moment to look at the stack of boxes, Ethan shook his head. “I wouldn’t have thought this possible. Even for her.”

  Sebastian ignored the two gentlemen as they left. Turning to the coachman, he said, “Get those back into the carriage. I’m not buying all of that.”

  “Why not?” Celia asked, coming up beside him.

  He looked at her as the coachmen picked up a couple of the boxes and then headed back to the carriage. “Because I remember when the butler, coachman, and footman hauled all of your things in here from your brother’s townhouse. It took each of them three trips to get all of your trunks up to your bedchamber. You have more than enough clothes.”

  “That’s not true,” she insisted. “Being a prominent member of the Ton requires a lady to have a lot more than what I currently do. Why, Lady Eloise has an entire room in her father’s townhouse that’s dedicated just to her assortment of clothes and accessories. Everything I have is in my bedchamber.”

  He stared at her in disbelief. “All you need is a few good gowns. No lady needs more than that.”

  “Not if she wants to be the laughingstock of the Ton.” When he shook his head, she continued, “It’s true. In order to impress the Ton, I will need to have enough things to wear. It’s not enough to know how to act in public. A lady also has to look the part. I know what I’m talking about. I’ve been doing this for the past two years. Even before I entered my first Season, I was taking lessons on this kind of thing.”

  “I have no doubt that you’ve been wasting your time learning how to impress people who don’t care about you.”

  She gasped. “Wasting my time?”

  “Yes. All of it has been a waste of time. I’ve heard what people have been saying about you. You have not impressed one single person in London.”

  “But my brother spent good money on those lessons I took.”

  “Yes, and he wasted every farthing of it. I’m not going to do the same with all of those things you bought today. We are going to take them back, and you are going to explain to every shop owner that you are returning them.”

  Her cheeks turned red, and she frowned at him. “You can’t be serious.”

  “For seven pounds, I’m serious.” He waved the bill in front of her. “I’m not paying for this.”

  “Some of the money you have is because of my dowry.”

  “Which will be completely drained within the year at the rate you’re going. We haven’t even been married for a month, and you’re already spending more than I can handle. You keep this up, and you’ll be a widow.”

  The footman and butler came and collected the rest of the boxes to take to the carriage.

  “Come,” he told her.

  “No. I don’t want to do it,” she said.

  “You don’t have a choice. You went through the trouble of getting these useless things, and now you’re going to go through the trouble of returning them.”

  She stared at him, as if willing him to relent, but he wasn’t going to yield. Not on this. Not when it came to the financial security of their estate. Someday they were going to have children, and he didn’t want those children inheriting an impoverished estate.

  Whether she could appreciate it or not, this was something they had to do. The sooner she stopped spending money like it was an endless resource, the better off they would all be. He didn’t understand why her brother hadn’t taken the time to do that. He was sure if her brother hadn’t let her get everything she wanted, then she wouldn’t have tried to pull this stunt on him today. But it was too late to go back in time and order her brother to do the right thing. Sebastian was just going to have to deal with the situation himself.

  He waved her to the door. “If you don’t willingly go, I’ll have the butler carry you.”

  “You wouldn’t dare!”

  “I don’t care if you’re kicking and screaming the whole way to the carriage, but you’re getting in it one way or another.”

  For a tense moment, she glared at him, and then, with a huff, she stormed down the steps of the townhouse.

  “I thought for sure I was going to have to carry her,” the butler said.

  Sebastian hadn’t realized the butler had returned to the entryway. With a sigh, he replied, “Some ladies aren’t brought up learning how to handle finances.”

  It took Sebastian longer than he wished to go down the steps of the townhouse. The doctor had been right. The crutch was large and cumbersome. It made some things, like going up and down steps, more difficult. The peg leg just might be the best thing he could have asked for.

  By the time he got into the carriage, he was out of breath. He handed the footman his crutch and then settled into the seat, wiggling around a couple of the boxes as he did so. Good grief, but she had gotten so many items that some were even inside the carriage! He couldn’t get these things back to the shop owners fast enough.

  Not surprising, Celia crossed her arms and turned away from him. The day had started out pleasantly, but he already knew the evening would not be the same.

  Glancing at the first shop on the list, he told the coachman to take them there. They were going to go right on down the list until they returned every single item. Then, maybe Celia would think twice before pulling another stunt like this in the future. Even if he couldn’t fully blame her for this fiasco, she did have her part. He only hoped she would come around to understanding that he had to do this, that he couldn’t let her spend everything they had.

  He glanced at her as the carriage m
oved forward. She refused to look at him. Obviously, she wouldn’t come around to understanding it right away. He set the parchment on his lap and got ready for a long and tiring evening.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Celia handed Mr. Hamil the box that contained one of the most beautiful gowns she’d ever seen in her entire life. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she said, “I have to return this. Please remove the charge from my husband’s bill.”

  Then, with trembling hands, she presented the list of things she’d gotten that day. Already, four of those items had been crossed off the list. Mr. Hamil was the second shop she’d gone to, and the only thing she’d gotten here was the gown. The gown would have done wonders to complement her figure. Of all the things she had to return, this one hurt the most. Had it not been for the stinging humiliation of having to go through this, she would have broken down and cried. Now when she told Lady Eloise she was leaving her group, she wasn’t going to look dazzling because she wouldn’t be wearing this particular gown.

  Mr. Hamil opened the box and took out the gown. “Is there something wrong with it? Perhaps I can have my seamstress modify it to your liking.”

  “No, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a lovely gown. It’s just that I…” She glanced at Sebastian who stood nearby.

  As much as she’d like to say Sebastian was refusing to let her get anything, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She didn’t know why she couldn’t. She’d never had trouble letting people know when someone had upset her in the past. But for some reason, she couldn’t do that to Sebastian. It wasn’t because he was her husband, either. There was something about him that made her weak. Besides her grandparents and Loretta, she couldn’t think of a single person who made her feel as if she must be loyal to them no matter what happened. Even if she didn’t like what they were doing, she couldn’t say one bad thing about them.

  Turning back to Mr. Hamil, she finally said, “I already have enough gowns.”