Scandalous Regency Secrets Collection

“True, but we won’t point that out.”

“Or ask costs.”

“With my betrothed present? No, I—we—definitely will not ask costs.”

Dany couldn’t help herself. She laid her hand on his forearm and batted her eyelashes at him, just as Mari did from time to time with Oliver. “As true love has no price. Aren’t you a dear.”

Coop shifted rather uncomfortably on the stool. “Are you done?”

“I don’t think so, no. Do you think it’s the red hair? Dexter’s said more than once that redheads are often mistaken for females of negotiable affections. Birdwell may only have been making a natural assumption.”

“Can we possibly have this conversation another time? Or are you getting some of your own back for something I did?”

“I’m not quite sure. I’ll have to think about that. It may just be that otherwise I’d feel rather overwhelmed in such stuffy surroundings. Either that, or I’d enjoy seeing Birdwell’s eyebrows climb his forehead like bushy black bugs a few more times. I do know I’m enjoying myself. Are you enjoying yourself?”

“More than I’d believe, yes. I’m nearly on the edge of my seat, wondering what you’ll do next.”

“Well, I could be good. But what fun would that be?”

“No fun at all, I agree. Ah, and here comes our smugly smiling proprietor, followed closely by a parade of clerks toting drawers undoubtedly filled with gems and rings. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but let the bug crawl begin.”

She watched as the drawers—she counted seven in all—were reverently placed on the countertop at exactly the same time, the purple velvet cloth covering each just as reverently removed, one after the other. The pompous precision of the thing nearly caused her to giggle.

The clerks stepped back, actually clicked their heels and then turned as one, retreating, leaving behind only a man nearly as large as a mountain. He took up a position behind the diminutive Birdwell that seemed innocuous enough, but warned that there would be no pilfering going on as long as he was around or else there would be a cracked head in someone’s near future.

“My lord, for your kind consideration,” the proprietor intoned importantly, sweeping a hand over the assembled glitter and glory. “My very best, at your disposal. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, pearls, aquamarine, topaz.”

Dany wanted to scream, laugh, jump down from the padded tool and dance about in a circle. She’d never seen so much marvelous all in one place. She was having trouble controlling her breathing; swallowing was definitely beyond her, blinking out of the question.

Yet once again the proprietor was ignoring her, selecting rings and presenting them to Coop, just as if she wasn’t there.

“No,” she heard herself say as the jeweler held out a heavily engraved gold band encrusted with diamonds, the center stone so immense as to seem unreal.

Both Coop and the jeweler turned to look at her, which was when Dany realized she’d spoken.

“You don’t care for it, Miss Foster?” Coop asked, clearly inviting her to do mischief.

Wasn’t he a sweetheart!

“Assist me,” she said to Coop rather imperiously, extending her hand so that she could slide off the stool rather than jump from it. Ladies clearly weren’t often accommodated in jewelry shops, or else at least some of the stools would be shorter. “Yes, thank you. Now step back if you please.”

He squeezed her hand encouragingly. “You don’t care for diamonds?”

“I don’t care to have the Townsends’ soon-to-be ancestral betrothal ring chosen by you two gentlemen. If that were to be the case, you shouldn’t have brought me here.”

He leaned closer, to whisper his next words in her ear. “And what fun would that have been?”

She bit her lip so that she wouldn’t smile. He was going to give her her head, let her do what she wanted, even if it meant she was about to embarrass him all hollow.

But she had an idea, and he’d given it to her.

She walked along the counter in grand imitation of her sister at her most imperious, pointing a finger at first one velvet-lined drawer, and then the next. “No, not this one, take that one away, no, no, definitely not the diamonds. That one,” she declared, stopping in front of the drawer of emerald rings.

Emerald. Like his eyes.

This drawer had been her destination from the moment the assortment had been placed on the cabinet, a decision solidified when he’d looked into her eyes and he’d seen a twinkle of her own mischief there.

Birdwell motioned for the other drawers to be removed and the clerks hustled forward to do his bidding. That left the single drawer in front of Dany, and she hopped up onto the stool once more and began examining its contents, row by row.

The settings and stones all looked so impressive, and so very heavy. Why, Mari very nearly had to have a maid walk beside her, holding up her hand, when she wore the Cockermouth ancestral ring. Dany had supposed the first Cockermouth bride had been nearly Amazonian, and the countesses that followed had all been saddled with the thing, like it or not. Mari swore she adored it, but Mari wouldn’t tell the truth about something like that if someone held a knife to her.

The Townsend brides would not be burdened with anything so monstrously large, or so garish. She slipped off her gloves, more than ready to try on dozens of rings, just because she could.

But that turned out not to be necessary.

“That one,” she declared, pointing to a large but otherwise unadorned rectangular-shaped stone held in place by thin prongs, the gold band itself fairly wide, flat and completely plain. Simple. Elegant. And not likely to bankrupt his lordship.

“Yours is a lady of taste, my lord. This stone has just recently arrived from Columbia, home of the most exquisite emeralds in the world.” If Birdwell had wings, he probably would have lifted completely off the floor. As it was, he seemed to grow about two inches as he reached for the ring.

But Dany was faster. She snatched it up and slid it onto her finger, where it fit as if fashioned for her. And yes, the stone was a perfect match for Coop’s eyes, at least when her behavior elicited any sort of emotion from him, be it amusement, frustration or downright anger.

“My lord,” Birdwell all but bleated, keeping one eye on Dany’s hand, as if she was about to make the ring disappear. “You understand that the emerald was only inserted into that setting to, well, to display the stone. That’s not a complete ring. You’ll wish now to choose a setting worthy of the stone. May I suggest diamonds? A veritable cushion of them, wrought into rosebuds on either side of the stone, raising it a full half inch above a heavily engraved band. I have just such a setting.”

“Absolutely not. That will just muck it up,” Dany said, closing her fist. The ring was going nowhere!

Coop took her hand, and she unclenched her fist. “Are you sure, Miss Foster? It’s beautiful, no doubt, but it is rather plain.”

“I’m being considerate. It’s probably the least expensive stone in the drawer,” she whispered as Birdwell flew off, probably to bring them the setting he favored. “Besides, you said I could choose, and I do like it.” She looked up into his eyes, but couldn’t read them. “Please?”

He bent and kissed her knuckle, just below the ring. “And there it stays until the day you take it off, mostly probably to fling it in my face.”

With that, he turned to the approaching Birdwell and said, “Miss Foster and I have decided. The ring goes with us today.”

It was only then, watching the proprietor’s face as various emotions flitted across it, that Dany realized that the man was caught between elation and his reputation, should anyone know the unadorned, rather outré ring had come from his shop.

Apparently elation won the battle, and he ordered the man mountain to take the drawer away as if its inferior contents offended him.

She looked down at the stone once more. It was large. It was deeply green, and very likely without flaw. Birdwell had said he’d only put the gem into the plain setting in order to display it. So it wasn’t the ring that could cost the earth, but this single, solitary stone itself.

Oh, dear.

“Um,” Dany whispered, tugging on Coop’s sleeve. “You might want to ask him the cost. I may have...misjudged.”

“Just now figured that out, did you?” Coop whispered back. “But don’t worry. My crafty mother already arranged for a discount, so you’ve probably only halfway bankrupted me.” He grinned at her. “And as that same mother used to warn me, you may want to close your mouth now before a fly wanders into it.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN (#u25973cb7-38b6-5eee-b0b0-28ad01a1b954)

DANY WAS STILL sunk in a sulk as she and Coop walked along the Bond Street flagway. What a mess she’d made, believing herself to be so brilliant.