Never Marry a Marquess

by Regina Scott

  Kendall glanced over the closely written pages, noting all the provisions he’d specified, except one. “Where are the dowries for Ivy’s sisters?”

  Ivy put a hand on his arm. “Sir Alexander explained to me the impropriety of the offer.”

  Kendall glanced up at the solicitor, who was smiling pleasantly. “What impropriety?”

  Alex waved a hand. “Tongues will wag if a lady is given more than what might be expected. I merely thought to protect Lady Kendall from such a calamity. If you would both sign, my lord, I will take myself off and leave you to your pleasures.”

  Ivy picked up the quill.

  Kendall reached out to stop her before she could dip it in ink. “I agreed to support Lady Kendall’s sisters,” he insisted. “The papers must be redrawn.”

  She bit her lip, glancing between him and the solicitor. “But the expense. I would not deprive you and Sophia for the world.”

  So that was her concern. Kendall touched her cheek, the skin soft and warm. “My dear, there is no deprivation. I have money to spare.”

  “Money that the estate needs, my lord,” Alex put in. “You have, perhaps, been preoccupied with Lady Sophia, but you have requirements that must be met.”

  Kendall dropped his hand and turned to his solicitor with a frown. “What are you talking about? We have no mortgage, no debt.”

  “For now,” Alex said unhelpfully. “But improvements will be needed. You will want to continue your family’s legacy in Roman antiquities. Then there are these excessive amounts going to the household account—the money will have to come from somewhere.”

  Ivy flinched, hands pressing against her diaphragm as if trying to hold back her breathless reply.

  “Do you know something about our finances you haven’t shared with me, sir?” Kendall demanded. “Because the last time I consulted the ledger, there was no reason for concern.”

  Alex waved a hand. “I would not trouble you with trivialities, my lord. Suffice it to say, I have endeavored to ensure Villa Romanesque can continue for another generation without hardship. But it is always wise to consider what might be recouped from an investment. You must admit, it is doubtful the Bateman sisters could be expected to marry well, even with dowries.”

  Ivy raised her head, cheeks pinking. “How dare you, sir.”

  “Leave,” Kendall said. “Now.”

  Ivy stared at him, as if he had spoken to her. Alex must have thought so as well, for he was clearly struggling not to smile. Kendall met his gaze, fury squaring his shoulders. He might prefer to speak softly, to wield his power gently, but he had warned Alex and still the solicitor persisted in treating Ivy as if she were beneath him.

  No one treated Ivy that way in his presence.

  “Leave, I say, sirrah,” he told the solicitor. “Get out of my house. My father hired your firm, so out of respect for him I will allow you to transfer management of my affairs to another of your staff, but I have no wish to speak to you again.”

  Alex gaped, but he recovered quickly. “My lord, I have always looked to the best interests of your family.”

  “By your words and attitude today, you make that statement a lie,” Kendall told him. “Lady Kendall is my wife. Her family is my family. By belittling them, you belittle me. I will not stand for it.”

  Alex licked his lips. “I suppose an apology may be due.”

  “The fact that you only suppose proves how little that apology would mean. No, Sir Alexander, I am done with you.”

  Color flamed up him, but he grabbed his satchel and stalked from the room.

  “Oh, Kendall!” Ivy cried, and she threw herself into his arms.

  It was the easiest, most natural thing in the world to meet her lips with his own.

  Chapter Seventeen

  He was kissing her. Ivy’s surprise quickly blossomed into something more. His lips were warm, firm; the brush of his mustache like the caress of silk against her skin. She kissed him back, clung to him as joy and delight collided. She was one of the fireworks over Vauxhall, bursting in the night sky over the river, only the light, sound, and wonder were inside her.

  He pulled back and stared at her, the same awed look she was becoming familiar with on his flushed face. “I beg your pardon.”

  Ivy seized his hand before he could withdraw further. “Don’t. It was marvelous, wonderful. It gave me hope we might be more to each other one day.”

  His color washed away. “That was wrong of me, Ivy. Please forgive me.” He pulled out of her grip. “I should change before we go see Sophia. Excuse me.” He hurried from the room.

  She could not be discouraged, not with her lips still tingling from his kiss. He had discharged a man long in his service because of a slight to her family. He had kissed her. She had a chance to win his heart.

  She danced across to the door of the study, feet skimming the carpet. She had a chance. It might take time, it might take effort, but one day, she might truly be Kendall’s wife.

  It was very hard not to gaze at him besottedly as they played with Sophia. Why had she never noticed the curved length of his lashes, sweeping his cheeks as he bent over the baby on the carpet? Or the way his smile lifted not only his lips but the edge of his mustache? Perhaps she had been staring overly long, for he glanced up at her expectantly.

  “And what did you have planned this afternoon, Ivy?” he asked.

  Another kiss?

  Ivy settled her skirts around her to join him beside Sophia, face feeling warm. Among the toys she had brought down from the old nursery was a set of wooden blocks painted in bright colors. She spread them out in front of the baby now. Sophia promptly grabbed one and tried to put it in her mouth. Kendall snatched it away from her.

  Sophia teared up.

  “Build something,” Ivy told Kendall, rubbing the little girl’s shoulder.

  He frowned at the jumble of color. “Build what?”

  “Anything,” Ivy said, “so long as it falls with a rattle.”

  His brow cleared as if he took her meaning, and he set to work with a will. How quick his hands, how sure. Hands that had touched her face and her heart, hands that held her effortlessly. She forced her attention back to Sophia, who was watching his progress avidly.

  “There.” He settled back on his haunches before an elegant tower.

  Ivy moved the baby closer to it. “What do you think, Sophia?”

  The little girl eyed the tower, then reached out a hand. Down it came with a clatter. She glanced between Ivy and Kendall.

  Kendall clapped his hands. “Well done, my strong girl.”

  Sophia smiled and laughed.

  “How do you think of such things?” Kendall asked after Sophia had demolished a dozen of his buildings, crowing with each crash. “I would never have thought to present blocks to a girl.”

  “Girls need to know they can control their world the same as boys,” Ivy said. “Society may dictate our spheres, but it cannot rob us of our abilities.”

  “Or our pleasure in a job well done,” he said. “You help me see the beauty of fatherhood, Ivy. Thank you.”

  His tender smile warmed her to her toes. As if he thought he’d overstepped once more, he busied himself with yet another tower.

  ~~~

  Meredith paced the floor in her withdrawing room. Fortune darted out from hiding now and again to try to catch her lavender skirts as she passed. A shame she could not feel so lighthearted. Her former clients and friends had been as concerned as she was about the intrusion of this Bow Street Runner in their affairs.

  “Gregory was not pleased to speak to him,” Yvette had said when Meredith and Lydia had joined her for tea. The red-headed Frenchwoman’s blue eyes twinkled. “Me? I had him followed, but he merely returned to the magistrate’s office.”

  “Mr. Cowls had him followed as well,” Meredith had explained, “with the same result.”

  Lydia glanced between them, pale blond ringlets bright around her creamy face. “Worth refused to see him. Too busy w
ith his work. But I had a lovely chat on the way to the door. He’s working for Sir Alexander Prentice, the solicitor.”

  Meredith had not been surprised the young viscountess had succeeded where she and Yvette had failed. With her big green eyes and eager conversation, Lydia was frequently underestimated by those who didn’t know her well.

  Meredith had expected some protest from Julian’s former mentor at their upcoming wedding but not an attack that would threaten her clients as well. It was a testament to the love her ladies and their gentlemen shared that none of the husbands had allowed the barbed questions to lodge. Still, the tie to Julian was entirely too close for comfort.

  Her betrothed arrived just then, striding into the room with a ready smile that faded as his gaze met hers. “Meredith, what’s wrong?”

  No reason for obfuscation. “I am apparently being investigated by Bow Street. Did you know?”

  Nothing changed in his face, but her heart sank.

  “Let us say I am not surprised,” he allowed, coming to her side. Fortune scampered out of hiding to weave her way around his boots.

  She wanted to take comfort in the fact. Always she had trusted her pet’s opinion of people more than her own. Still, his calm rankled. If she was outraged, why wasn’t he?

  “And you did not think to warn me?” she demanded.

  “I hoped good sense would prevail, and I wouldn’t have to warn you.” He took her hand and drew her over to the sofa. “I will speak to Bow Street.”

  “Speak to Sir Alexander as well, then,” Meredith told him, reluctantly sitting beside him. “He is the one directing this investigation.”

  Fortune jumped up between them and set about her own investigation, of which lap she would prefer.

  “And his investigation will find nothing and thus assure him of your innocence,” Julian countered. “You have nothing to fear from him, Meredith.”

  “Don’t I?” She couldn’t help her shiver. “You weren’t there when he accused me of murder.”

  His hand tightened on hers. “I wish I had been. I would have defended your good name.”

  “Will you defend it now, should Sir Alexander bring charges?”

  Julian frowned. “Charges of what?”

  Meredith pulled away from him and threw up her hands, causing Fortune to jump down and stalk off behind the sofa in high dudgeon. “Who knows? Embezzlement? Attempted murder?”

  Now his brows shot up. “Attempted murder? Of whom?”

  “Of the gentlemen my ladies married,” she replied. “This Bow Street Runner is asking questions of their households as well, probing into marriage settlements and wills, as if each lady intended her husband ill.”

  Julian shook his head. “Ridiculous. I’ve attended many of the weddings. Utterly besotted, the lot of them.”

  “Except perhaps Ivy and Lord Kendall,” Meredith allowed. “Theirs is a marriage of convenience.”

  Julian leaned back. “Is that so? Small wonder Lord Kendall seemed so nervous that day. But the former Miss Bateman was ever a kind, generous soul. You couldn’t make me believe she married him intending him harm.”

  “Sir Alexander doesn’t need to convince you,” she insisted. “He only needs to convince a magistrate, or, worse, Lord Kendall.”

  Julian rose. “Point made. Leave this to me. I’ll speak to Alex.”

  Meredith stood as well. “You think a conversation will suffice?”

  “I certainly hope so.”

  She could not be so optimistic. “I wish I could share your hope. I know what Sir Alexander’s support has meant to you, Julian. But I very much fear, in the end, that you will have to choose between him, and me.”

  ~~~

  Travis delivered Meredith’s invitation, a letter from Charlotte, two letters from Tuny, and a note from Miss Thorn the next day in Ivy’s suite.

  “Where did you find them?” she asked with relief.

  His square-jawed face was pale. “They had been placed among his lordship’s things, your ladyship. I don’t think he even noticed. And I have had words with the footman who misplaced them. You will have no further trouble.”

  She thanked him and hurried to respond to the invitation, hesitating only a moment before confirming her and Kendall. Surely he would want to attend as well.

  Charlotte’s letter was full of news about the family. Daisy was bent on pursuing Sir William, who was proving difficult to bring up to scratch. Tuny had brought home a puppy to keep Rufus company. Both her sisters were eager to come visit when the Season ended. Tuny’s letters extoled the virtues of Rex, her new puppy, who was nearly as clever as Rufus and might grow even bigger. And she certainly had room for a chicken or two, if Lord Kendall would be willing.

  But Miss Thorn’s note gave Ivy the most pause.

  A Bow Street Runner has visited my clients, she’d written. Though I do not consider you as such, he may. I do not know how Lord Kendall will react if the fellow approaches him.

  Neither did Ivy.

  Since his impetuous kiss, Kendall had been more attentive—taking Ivy on longer walks in the summer sun, spending a greater amount of time with her and Sophia. She had hoped they were growing closer. Would questions from this investigator prove the lever that forced them apart?

  “Will you inform me if Lord Kendall has a visit by a stranger?” she asked Travis when he came to collect her replies to the correspondence.

  The tall footman did not so much as blink. “At once, your ladyship.”

  She could not doubt him.

  Nor could she doubt Kendall’s intentions when she stated her plan to return the dowager duchess’ visit and he indicated a desire to accompany them.

  She should have known he would take every precaution in traveling the two hours to the duke’s estate on the River Thames. He brought out the largest of his carriages, the great lumbering travel landau in which they’d ridden from London, and filled it so full of pillows and blankets that there was barely room for him, Ivy, and the baby. He posted the coachman and head groom on the driving bench and stationed Travis at the back, with a brace of outriders in front and behind. A trunk on the top held extra clothes, toys, and food for Sophia.

  And their riding comfort wasn’t the least of it. He insisted on bundling the baby in so many pieces that Sophia lay stiff in her crib, unable to bend her arms and legs. She peered up at Ivy, little face tight and beginning to turn red, but from heat or frustration, Ivy wasn’t certain.

  “It is a warm summer day,” Ivy reminded him. “You don’t intend to dress to explore the arctic, do you?”

  “No,” he admitted with a frown.

  “Then neither should Sophia.” Ivy set about stripping the ermine-lined coat and wool gown from the baby.

  Kendall’s hands twitched as if some part of him longed to replace the coat on Sophia’s little body, but he didn’t stop Ivy from changing the baby into a long cotton summer frock and soft cloth bonnet, and they headed for the waiting coach.

  Despite the fact that Kendall flinched at every bump and threw out his hands as if certain Sophia was about to tumble out of Ivy’s grip, they reached the Thames safely and rolled over the bridge onto the island that held the duke’s home.

  A castle, she’d been told. It certainly reminded Ivy of one. Stone walls towered as high as three stories above the crest on which the house was situated, narrow windows looking toward the gleaming river in the distance. The walls encircled a cobbled courtyard, with the house wrapping around three sides. Footmen ushered them inside and up a flight of stairs to a room where they could remove their outer travel garments and wash their face and hands before being escorted to a room done in delicate pink, from the medallions on the silk wall coverings to the upholstery on the gilded furniture. Matthew would have hated the feminine décor. Kendall merely smiled.

  The duke’s family seemed well used to the space. Her Grace was seated on a high-backed chair that resembled nothing so much as a throne, His Grace and Jane were seated on one of the two flanking sof
as, hands clasped in a way Ivy could only envy. The duke stood until Ivy was seated. His three daughters waited on the other sofa. No one had tried to smother them in winter clothes. They wore cambric, pretty gowns that left room to move, to play. Ivy caught Kendall eyeing them. If she knew her husband, Sophia was about to get a new wardrobe.

  “How nice to see you, Lord Kendall, Lady Kendall,” Her Grace the dowager said, waving them into chairs to the side of the group as her son returned to his seat.

  “And Lady Sophia as well,” His Grace put in with a smile to the baby.

  Sophia cuddled closer to Ivy and glanced around at all the strangers.

  Jane rose from the sofa, rubbing her hands together. “Right. We’re glad you could join us. You are just in time for a science lesson.”

  Ivy thought either the duke or the dowager duchess would protest, or at least politely steer her away from the idea, but His Grace leaned back with a grin as if he couldn’t wait to see what his wife had planned, and Her Grace smiled encouragement.

  Jane looked to her girls. Larissa sat taller, Callie’s eyes widened, and Belle wiggled in her seat. “Here is the question of the day. Does a thing change if it disappears from view?”

  Kendall frowned as if he wasn’t sure why she was asking such a question.

  Lady Larissa frowned as well. “Certainly not. Just because we look away doesn’t mean we have any effect on the object.”

  Kendall nodded agreement. Sophia sucked her thumb, as if considering the matter.

  “Sure, are you?” Jane challenged. “Let’s test that.” She turned away from them, put her hands over her eyes, and began counting. “One, two…”

  Larissa and Callie grinned at each other, slid from the sofa, and scampered from the room. Kendall gazed after them as if trying to make sense of it all.

  Belle climbed down and came to take Ivy’s hand. “Come with me, Lady Kendall,” she whispered. “I know the best places to hide.”