He let a slow, and so very appreciative smile crest, and noticed the instant ease within her in reaction to this. His smile grew, inspired by the sight of her, now moving toward him.
He was a hungry man, with a huge appetite for her, and despaired again that stripping that gorgeous gown off her would have to wait.
When she stood on the last step, Trevor moved closer so that she could not actually step onto the ground floor. This allowed him to stand eye to eye with her.
“I’ve a mind to take you back up those stairs, my lady,” he said, for her ears alone, as Lorelei hovered yet, a few steps above them. “I could trot out a dozen words to say how exquisite you are at this moment, but I fear they would pale, could do no justice to the truth.” He leaned closer, his mouth only inches from hers. “Ah, but with my lips, and my hands, and my body, I think I might speak more eloquently to your beauty.”
She swallowed. Her lips parted; her breath teased him. Boldly, she suggested, “Perhaps later, when all the guests have gone, I will ask you if you think I’m pretty.”
Trevor grinned, feeling blessed. “You do that, my love. I will give you my answer then,” he said, and backed away, but extended his hand to bring her down from that last step. When she stood at his side, he considered the ever-patient Lorelei, who looked quite lovely in what Trevor had to assume was one of Nicole’s altered gowns.
She, too, smiled with some nervousness.
Politely, and inclusively, Trevor bowed to her, and offered a hand to bring her to Nicki’s side. “Very well done, Miss Brisbane,” he commented. “And we have you to thank, for suggesting—nearly insisting—that the Harvest Ball be resurrected.”
“Do you think they’ll come?” Lorelei glanced at the tall clock in the corner of the foyer.
Trevor frowned, having not considered that the girl might be undone with concern over this improbable possibility. It was no hardship to assure her. “Oh, they’ll come, and from miles around.” He did not suggest to her in any way that curiosity or intrigue might be the reason that the ballroom would fill tonight. Even to the smaller ears of the local gentry and the people of Leven, he imagined that word had reached from London that the Earl of Leven had shunned his bride, had plunked her out in the country. They would need to see her, make assumptions and form opinions about her, and attempt to ferret out the why. He planned to give them no satisfaction, intended that they would leave this ball tonight shaking their heads and whispering that they hadn’t yet an answer, as the earl was seemingly besotted with his beautiful countess.
They had still many minutes before any guest should arrive and so were quite startled by a curious thumping at the door. Both Trevor and Nicole consulted the clock, which showed that no polite attendee should arrive for another fifteen minutes at the least.
As Franklin had not yet assumed his post, Trevor himself marched forward and swung the door open, considering that certain country persons might not be aware of the arriving fashionably late protocol of most city folk.
“Answering your own bell?” Asked Nicole’s grandmother, standing small and crooked in the doorway. “How very vulgar, Leven.”
Had Nicole sent down an invite to this woman? Trevor wondered with an immediate and impending sense of doom.
“Lady Audley,” he greeted, tipping his head, recovering as much as he could, widening the door so that Nicole might see who came.
“Grandmother!”
“He has not yet invited me in,” the old woman groused. “If he were in my employ, I would sack him.”
“Oh, grandmother! The knocking had us a bit at sixes and sevens, as the timing was unexpected.”
“What exactly is expected?” She waved her hand at Nicole’s very formal gown. “I’ve just spent three hours in a carriage. Pray do not tell me you’re going out for the evening.”
“No, we’re having a ball—the Harvest Ball,” Nicole said with some excitement, perhaps a hint of her own trepidation at her grandmother’s arrival. “But I didn’t expect you—”
“My dear, I wasn’t about to send ‘round a note to warn you of my surprise visit,” said the matron. She passed a look over both Trevor and Nicole, made a few of her own assumptions just now, and with a clever grin, announced, “You must stay and greet your guests, Nicki. Have someone show me to my room and I’ll manage—where is that maid of mine?” she turned toward the door, where hovered her similarly aged attendant, as Trevor, his hand still on the handle, had half closed the door. “You are a terrible butler, Leven. Allow the woman entrance, if you please,” she barked.
Trevor grinned an apology to the heretofore unseen lady and swung the door wide once again, only closing it when he’d checked the stoop and the yard for any further entourage.
“I have a few minutes, grandmother,” Nicole said. “Come, I’ll see you up.”
Trevor called after them, “I’ll send the lads out to fetch your trunks,” he advised, having spied an alarming number of chests atop the woman’s stately carriage.
He could not immediately decide if this occurrence bode well or ill for him but could only hope that over the last four weeks, he’d sufficiently proven to his wife how very much he did love her.
He dashed off to the kitchen, supposing that Franklin was there, giving out last minute instructions. He was, with a line of footmen standing straight and still before him. Trevor waited until Franklin had finished and dismissed them before catching Charlie’s arm and requesting he and Henry see to the dowager’s trunks.
“Is aught amiss, my lord?” Franklin wondered, looking charming and proper in his finest livery.
Trevor grinned at the old man, so very glad that Nicole had insisted, when they’d returned from his mother’s home to the abbey weeks ago, that he must be the one to go to Franklin, to insist he return to them. “Possibly. The Lady Audley has just arrived unexpectedly.”
“A calamity indeed,” intoned Franklin.
“Nicki saw her upstairs, but she might need a light repast as dinner won’t come to the ball until later.”
“I’ll see to it, my lord,” he said with a nod and swiveled to pick out one of the twenty or so bustling kitchen staff to see the job done.
Trevor turned and began to walk away but turned back and pointed at Franklin. “I expect to see you dancing out there tonight, Franklin.”
“If you do, my lord, please send for both the doctor and some of that fine medicinal brandy you’ve been hiding in your study.”
Trevor chuckled and went to the front hall again. He found Ian and Timsby now in the foyer, Timsby peeking out the long sidelight window flanking the front door.
Trevor clapped Ian on the back, and took in his neat suit of dark brown, perfectly tailored and pressed by Timsby.
“Not sure why I’m nervous,” Ian said, with a sheepish grin.
“Unless I miss my guess,” Trevor replied, “your nerves are about to go haywire when you see your Lorelei tonight.” He’d only noticed it since he and Nicole had returned, but it wasn’t often that Ian’s gaze rested anywhere else but on the comely young maid.
“Jesus,” Ian groaned. “Am I that obvious?”
Timsby did not turn away from watching out the window, but called, “Yes.”
Chuckling again, at Timsby’s detachment and Ian’s now flushed face, he directed his friend’s eye to the stairs, where once again came Nicki and Lorelei, this time hand in hand, nearly bouncing down the stairs. Obviously having settled the dowager, at least for now, they seemed anxious to resume their positions in the hall.
“Close your mouth,” Trevor laughingly instructed Ian.
Trevor stepped forward again and collected his wife from the bottom stair, which properly showed Ian how to proceed. Nicki grinned at him as she caught sight of Ian doing the same for Lorelei.
“Well played, my lord,” she teased.
“A little nudge never hurt anyone.”
“Oh boy, here they come,” announced Timsby. He jumped back from the window just as Franklin appeared
, as if dictated by some inner clock.
Franklin took the handle of the door, while Timsby brushed unseen specks from Trevor’s coat before jumping into place. Trevor held Nicole’s hand, giving it a happy squeeze. He sent one glance down the excited receiving line and smiled proudly. He was a very lucky man, indeed, to have this wife, and this life, and these friends.
With that, he gave a nod to Franklin, who pulled open the door.
“Well, I’m still painfully in love with him, if that is what you are wanting to know,” Nicole said to her grandmother, hours later. The dowager had joined the ball only minutes ago. And though Nicole had been having the time of her life, dancing and talking and meeting so many people, she had happily found a quiet spot on the sidelines where she and her grandmother could visit.
“I am aware of that, my dear. Take your eyes off him for even a few seconds if you don’t wish anyone else to know, your husband included.”
Nicole grinned. “I have no plans to keep it secret.”
“And?” her grandmother persisted.
“And what?”
Lady Audley was not above rolling her eyes at her granddaughter. “And, my dear, what is the current state of your marriage? Has he pulled his head out of his—”
“Grandmother!”
“Oh, piffle. And rot. Has he, or has he not, made things right? Or am I to be whisking you away from this too far removed monstrosity of a house, as was my intent in coming here?”
With a curious frown, Nicole challenged, “Grandmother, I’ve written you extensively of the state of my marriage, all the ups and downs, which possibly had you dreading any subsequent missives from me.” Nicole grinned when her grandmother tipped her head, suggesting this might well have been the case. “But I love him, and he loves me, and he’s told me so. And so here we are.”
The reel was announced as the next dance, and while she wanted so very much to join in with her friends, as they’d spent so much time practicing, she couldn’t leave her grandmother. With a pleased smile, she watched Charlie and Henry take their places opposite two pretty local girls, while Ian’s sure hand deposited Lorelei into the line before taking his place next to the lads.
This news softened her grandmother’s stern face, until she frowned, wondering, “Is he to be trusted, though?”
Nicole dragged her gaze away from the dance floor. “Grandmother, if I don’t trust him, then we have no chance.” Then, firmly, because it was true, “But I do.”
“Very well,” said Lady Audley with a sigh. “Go on then, get into that dance line, but send your man over here to me.”
Nicole grinned and quickly pressed a kiss onto her grandmother’s cheek. “I love you, grandmother.”
“Yes, yes. Go on.” She waved a wrinkly hand.
Nicole scooted around the unimaginable crush of people to find Timsby and grab his hand, pulling the laughing valet along with her to where Trevor stood.
“Grandmother has requested your presence,” Nicole whispered at her husband’s ear, as he was speaking with two local farmers. When he turned to look at her, grinning with amusement at her holding Timsby’s hand, she added, “Good luck.”
Trevor chuckled as Nicole lugged Timsby into the line of almost thirty dancers with only seconds to spare before the music started. Charlie clapped his hands at her near late arrival, and Ian gave a lively hoot for the addition of the countess and the valet. Timsby—God love him, a new man since he’d come to the abbey—made little happy motions with his arms just as the dance began and he and Nicole met across the aisle, the valet’s face flushed with joy.
He’d have like to watch the entire dance, as they’d worked so hard at this one, but excused himself from the gentlemen to whom he’d been speaking, to find the dowager.
She was seated at a small round table, and Trevor took the empty chair opposite her.
“Are you enjoying yourself, my lady?”
“I am now,” she said, with about as much gentleness as Trevor was sure he’d ever noted in her. “Having spoken to my granddaughter, I think I can now enjoy this little spectacle you’re putting on.”
Trevor grinned, but said nothing. The woman, as before, likely had an agenda.
“I won’t apologize for my visit to your home those many months ago.”
Yet, she had the grace to look, or feign, a tinge of embarrassment for her unseemly behavior then.
Trevor leaned across the table, which had the lady leaning forward as well, her brow lifted. He said, “I wouldn’t either, if I were you. It was just the kick in the ass I needed.” Somehow, he was sure the lady would not be offended by his crude language.
Her grin assured him she was not.
“You’d have gotten around to it anyhow, somehow. Am I right?”
He chewed on this query for a moment, before admitting what she likely only wanted confirmed. “No one to blame but myself, but truth be known, I died a little death every day without her. It was only a matter of time, I like to think. I am a better man when she loves me.”
She nodded, digesting this. “So now you’ll stay here, keep her hidden away from true society?”
“We will go and be and live wherever she wants. She’ll not want to be away from the abbey for too long at any given time, but we’ve talked about going into the city for some stretches. And I’ll go where she goes.”
“You’ve got all the right answers, Leven, I’ll give you that.”
He leveled his gaze on her. “Here’s the thing, my lady. The right answers are so easy to give when they are truth.”
Accepting this with a proud nod, she abruptly changed the subject. “And what’s this I hear you’ve sacked your bailiff, that bounder, Percival?”
A smirk found its way to his mouth and eyes. Was there nothing that escaped her? “Turns out, he’d likely been embezzling from the Leven estate for decades. My father was foolish not to have noticed it. Mr. Wendell has replaced him, managing not only the abbey, but all of Leven’s affairs. Between him and me, I think we’ve a fair head for business.”
“I’m pleased to hear that.” She stamped her cane onto the floor and plopped her aged hands on its head. “I’ve a fair amount of money of my own, most of which would naturally belong to Nicole upon my death. Perhaps we should put it to use now, invest it in that mine of yours, get it up and running again.”
Trevor sat backed, drummed his fingers upon the table and stared at her. She met his gaze evenly, while a knowing grin hovered just under the surface. “Not an answer you should consider overlong, if you’re smart.”
He shook his head and did now smile at her, as pieces and answers—her source, actually—came together in his head. “It pleases me greatly that my wife shares so much with you in her letters, but it also begs the question, does she not speak of our relationship in those missives that you felt the need to sit in a carriage for three hours to come and be assured that she is, indeed, happy?”
Lady Audley surprised him by barking out a pretty laugh. “Do you know what I like about you, Leven? You’re as clever as I am. Indeed, she does share much with me. And yes, I knew about your ball here tonight—to which she did graciously invite me. But I demurred and told her I could not, until just this week when I deemed it a fine opportunity to glean for myself that what she’d written was truth. You don’t think I regularly travel with such finery?” She asked, impishly indicating her very lovely golden gown and bejeweled hands and neck. “Did you?”
“All I know, my lady, is that I finally see from whence comes Nicki’s marvelous charm.”
Lady Audley couldn’t contain another grin at Leven’s own charm, of which he had plenty. Indeed, she’d arrived this evening intent on finding answers. She needed to know that her Nicki would be all right.
Truth be known, aside from Nicki and her dear George, she believed the rest of the lot of Audleys were all rotters. But these two, perhaps because they were so like her, she worried about and fretted over. But no more.
The lively reel, to which ju
stice was indeed done by these hapless servants and locals, was done and here came Nicki now. As soon as she came into view, the entire façade of Leven changed. All that polite but possibly false charm he’d employed with her vanished as a completely new look overtook his features. Gone was the cool earl with certain expected airs, and in its place, simply a man in love. You couldn’t fake that, Evelyn knew. Besotted, he was, and all the better for it, in her opinion.
The table at which they sat was rather pinched between an overlarge potted tree and the doors to the balcony so that Nicole almost had to squeeze behind Trevor. Nicki set her hand onto her husband’s shoulder. Leven folded his elbow and placed his hand over hers. For the barest of seconds, he closed his eyes, just feeling her.
Evelyn nearly gasped—or, she did gasp, as Leven opened his eyes and met her gaze. He didn’t grin or smile at Evelyn, having been caught reveling in the touch of his wife. He gently squeezed Nicole’s fingers and met Evelyn’s stare, showing only a man in complete understanding that he had been remarkably blessed.
Epilogue
Spring, 1828
Inside the Wentworth Mayfair house, a shrill scream broke the relative silence.
Nicole tipped her head back and stared at the ceiling, as the ear-piercing noise had come from above. She waited. It wouldn’t be long.
Sure enough, not a minute later, the sound of many feet tramping down the stairs reached her. Many more screams accompanied the coming army. She braced herself, wishing her husband were here. He was so much better at this than she, could turn them around so easily, with only a few playful words or well-timed tickling.
The door to the parlor burst open, and four little persons rushed into the room. Setting aside the letter she’d been reading, Nicole looked up from her desk.
“Mother!” Cried the youngest, her little green-eyed hooligan, Julia. “Thomas cut my hair off!”
When She Loved Me (Regency Rogues: Redemption Book 1) Page 24
