By now, Cress was practically squirming in her chair. “I’d love to go. Nick comes back from balls to tell us what everyone’s wearing and who he talked to. This will be so exciting.” She glanced at her mother. “Can I go?”
Her mother chuckled. “It’s fine with me.”
“When will we shop for a gown?” Cress asked Tara.
“We can go tomorrow,” Tara replied. “I don’t know when I’ll have to meet with the other members of Ladies of Grace yet. Lady Blakemoor insisted on handling the invitations.”
Nick noticed the disgust underlying her voice. His mother and sisters didn’t seem to notice, though. Tara wasn’t the least bit happy that Lady Blakemoor was doing the invitations. She would have preferred to have done them herself or to do them with Lady Blakemoor. For some reason, she had let Lady Blakemoor do it, and, if he guessed right, it was because there was only one other member of Ladies of Grace so it really wasn’t worth the time to protest. He couldn’t blame her for that. Not everything was worth an argument.
Tara yawned and put her cup on the tray. “I hope you don’t mind, but I need to get some sleep. It’s been a long day.”
“Oh, we kept you up late, too,” Nick’s mother said as she hurried to stand up, her daughters following suit. “You’ll have to forgive us. We were just excited to get acquainted with you.”
“Yes, you’re so fun and interesting,” Augusta added.
Cress nodded. “And so kind.”
“When Nick started looking for a wife,” Nick’s mother began, “we had no idea what to expect. There are so many different kinds of ladies in London. Being a mother, I kept hoping he’d end up with a good one. I’m glad you agreed to marry him.”
Tara’s face grew pink, and her lips turned up into a smile. “Thank you.”
His mother went over to her and hugged her. His sisters, in turn, did the same thing. Nick glanced at the clock again. It was already well past eleven, and during the entire trip, he and Tara had been asleep by ten. Would Tara even want to share a bed with him tonight? Or would she want to go straight to sleep?
He had come across a few gentlemen who said they were glad they and their wives had separate bedchambers, and he might have been, too, if he’d married someone like Lady Blakemoor. He never could get very comfortable with her. But he’d had no trouble being comfortable with Tara. Though they both were strong ladies who knew what they wanted and went after it, they were different.
Lady Blakemoor had spent most of their time together talking about herself. Tara seemed to focus more on things she needed to get done, and those things were often for the betterment of herself and those around her. No, he didn’t think he could have been happy with Lady Blakemoor. He might have been grateful for the money she’d give him, and perhaps he would have been content. But he wouldn’t experience the anticipation of being with her that he did with Tara.
After his mother and sisters were done saying goodnight to Tara, he escorted her up the stairs.
“Your things arrived while you were gone,” he told her once they reached the top of the stairs. “I had the butler take them to your bedchamber.”
He took her to her room and opened the door. The maid had lit candles in the room and set the fire in the fireplace, something he wished she hadn’t done. There would be no reason for Tara to want to go to his bedchamber since hers was nice and warm.
Tara went over to the four trunks and lifted the lid of one of them.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I asked the maid to put your clothes away,” he continued. “I didn’t want you to have to worry about it.” He didn’t think she’d ever had to put any of her clothing away like he and his family had. So there was no reason to expect her to do it now, especially not since his mother had hired a butler, a cook, and another maid. Speaking of which… “My mother thought it best to let you hire your lady’s maid.”
Tara sorted through the items in the trunk. He couldn’t tell what she was looking at from where he stood, and he wasn’t sure she wanted him to go over to her so he remained by the door.
“I’ll advertise for a lady’s maid in a couple of days,” Tara said. “I have too many things to worry about right now.”
Would it be appropriate to offer his services? He certainly wouldn’t mind helping her in and out of clothes since it’d give him an opportunity to look at her without them on. But did husbands ever help their wives dress or undress? The book Lord Edon had given him didn’t mention anything about it. If only Lord Edon and one of his friends were around. Then he could ask them for advice in this situation. But maybe it wouldn’t have done any good. They would probably just tell him the only thing gentlemen were supposed to do was remove clothes from their wives. That, after all, was the interesting part.
Tara closed the lid of the trunk then went to the next one. She closed the lid to that trunk and went to the next one. He recalled the butler mentioning something to the maid about there being two and a half trunks full of clothing and grooming supplies. Nick glanced at the vanity and saw that a brush, hand mirror, and other items were neatly set out.
“Oh good, they’re here!” Tara exclaimed as she sorted through the last trunk.
Unable to hide his curiosity, Nick went over to her in time to see her pulling out a porcelain doll, a leather-bound book, a silver cup with her name etched into it, a small jewelry box, and a pink bow. She carried the items to the dresser and set them out with great care. Three times she changed her mind and reorganized them.
“These are my most cherished keepsakes,” she told him. “The doll was a gift from my grandparents, the book was my mother’s journal, the cup was a gift from my parents when I turned thirteen, the jewelry box used to be my great-grandmother’s, and the pink bow is what I wore when I was a baby. I like looking at them. They remind me that the best things in life are those which money can’t buy.”
He almost said it was easy to say that when one had more money than they’d ever need, but then, he realized she was right. Money wasn’t the answer to everything. It answered a lot of problems. It certainly kept gentlemen out of debtor’s prison, but it would never guarantee a love match.
Which reminded him of something he needed to tell her. He’d been putting it off all evening because he didn’t wish to trouble his mother and sisters with it, but he had to tell Tara about it since she had given him the money required to pay off the debt his father had owed.
“Tara,” he began as she returned to the fourth trunk, “I have something I need to tell you.”
She paused and turned her attention to him, her eyebrows furrowed. “What is it?”
“I went to all of the gentlemen my father owed money to. Well, that is all except one. There is a gentleman who goes by the name Evermont.”
“Evermont?”
“There is no way I can formally address him. The name is simply Evermont. I searched through my father’s records, and I see no way of contacting him directly. There is no residential or business address. Everything is blank except for the name Evermont.”
“So you were unable to pay him because you couldn’t find him.”
“It’s actually stranger than that. Evermont paid off all the other gentlemen I had to pay.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Are you telling me he acquired the rights to your father’s entire debt?”
He nodded.
“Why would he do such a thing?” she asked.
“I wish I could tell you, but I can’t even find him to ask the question.”
Frowning, she shook her head in aggravation. “I bet he did it to get more money from you.”
“How do you figure that?”
“He must have found out you ran off to Gretna Green to marry me. Others in London knew about it. It wasn’t like it was a great secret once we were out of town. I bet he used the opportunity to pay off your father’s full debt so that he could then charge you a higher interest rate. You will now be dealing with him on his terms. This is awful. He knows full well this is
n’t your debt, but he’s so greedy that he’s going to use the situation to his advantage. I wish I knew who this person was so I could tell him exactly what I think of him for doing this to someone who only wanted to avoid debtor’s prison and to help his mother and sisters have a comfortable life.”
As she turned back to the contents in the trunk, he said, “I’m sure he’ll contact me at some point so I can settle the debt with him.”
She looked back at him. “Oh, I have no doubt he’ll do that. I just worry how much interest he’s going to charge you.”
“He shouldn’t want to charge that much since he’s already going to make a sizable profit. He paid the other gentlemen only half of what my father owed each of them.”
Her eyes widened. “You mean he settled on the debts for less than they were worth?”
“Yes.”
“He’s a ruthless gentleman. If he swindled those gentlemen out of their fair share of the money, you can bet he’ll raise the interest on what your father owed him.” She let out a groan. “If I had known this was going to happen, I would have had you pay those creditors before we left.”
“You couldn’t have known. I didn’t even tell you the details of my father’s debt. Maybe I should have.”
“Even if you had, I wouldn’t have anticipated Evermont pulling something as underhanded as this. I hope he doesn’t know how much I’m worth.”
“You think that’s a possibility?”
She shrugged. “It’s hard to say without knowing who he is. I assume he knows more about your financial situation than he does mine, though it’s no secret that my family is considerably wealthy.” After a moment, she said, “I suppose there’s nothing we can do about it now. We’ll just have to find out how much he wants when he contacts you.”
“I’m sorry, Tara. I didn’t intend for any of this to be so complicated.”
“It’s not your fault. You didn’t think this was going to happen any more than I did. We’re dealing with a vile person.”
After a moment, she rummaged through the trunk again. “I did learn some things about investing money from listening to my father and brother while I was growing up, which is why I’m happy to see my brother didn’t sell these.”
She picked up some small, neatly wrapped items. She went to the bed. Since she glanced over at him expectantly, he followed her.
“I was afraid my brother would sell these out of spite,” she told him as she unwrapped the necklaces, rings, and earrings in her possession. “I had hidden them from him, but it was hard to know if he was going to search my bedchamber.”
“Are those important to you like the things on your dresser are?”
“They’re important but not in the same way. I want to sell these and take that money and invest it. It’s money we’re not supposed to touch. I figure by the time our children are grown, the money will go to them when they come of age. I know someone who will give us a fair price for this. I also know someone whose husband is an expert at investing. Actually, I heard she’s good at it, too. But I need you to go to the gentleman who buys jewelry to make the sale because gentlemen prefer to do business with other gentlemen. Also, I’d like for you to be with me when I visit the lady I have in mind. It might be that her husband will be around.”
“I’ll do whatever you wish,” he assured her. “And I fully intend to learn how to be good with the money you brought into this family.” Now that he realized there was more to securing his estate than simply getting married, he would make that a priority.
Tara collected the jewelry and put them in one of the drawers of the dresser. “We’ll take care of those first thing tomorrow. Right now, it’s late. We should get to bed.”
She returned to the fourth trunk and closed the lid. Then she went to her vanity and removed the pins from her hair.
He glanced at the door connecting their bedchambers. Then he glanced at the open door leading to the hallway. Did she want him to leave? Should he ask her permission to stay?
“Is something bothering you?” she asked as she set the pins on the vanity.
“No. I…” He cleared his throat. “Do you want me to leave?”
She turned to face him, an expression on her face that he didn’t recognize. That wasn’t good. Usually, he was good at reading people. When he’d asked her to marry him, he’d detected her attraction to him. He had hoped the attraction would compel her to say yes, and it had. But right now, he couldn’t figure out what was going on in her mind. And that scared him. It meant he was probably letting his own feelings get in the way of being able to see things clearly. If he could change that, he would, but his feelings refused to get out of his way.
“I assumed we’d spent the night together,” she said. “Did you want to stay here?”
Hoping his relief wasn’t evident, he replied, “Yes, I’d like to stay with you. I didn’t see much of you today. I missed you.” The last part was said in a quieter voice. Thankfully, the light coming from the candles and fireplace were dim enough to hide the blush in his cheeks.
She smiled at him, and at once, he felt much better. “I missed you, too. I won’t have to spend so much time away from you tomorrow. There was just so much to do today.” She started brushing her hair. “Believe me, you’re lucky to have been spared all of it. The only pleasant thing I did was visit Stacey, and even then, I found out Lady Eloise is her half-sister. I’m not sure what Lady Eloise will do with that information.” She shook her head. “I’ll have to tell you the details later. It’s too scandalous to get into this late at night.”
He honestly didn’t care that the two ladies turned out to be related. All he cared about was that Tara wanted him to stay in the room with her. He wasn’t going to have to spend the night alone.
“I’ll change into more comfortable attire and return,” he told her.
She nodded and continued brushing her hair. She had beautiful hair. It was long, wavy, and very soft. He was looking forward to touching it. He was looking forward to holding her and kissing her, too. The act of making love to her was pleasurable, but he didn’t only want to be intimate with her. He also wanted to spend time with her. Before she realized he was staring at her, he hurried to his bedchamber.
Chapter Thirteen
The next day, after Tara sent a missive to Lady Steinbeck requesting to speak with her and her husband about managing investments, she and Nick sold the jewelry. As she hoped, the gentleman offered them a fair price for it. Actually, because of the compliments Nick had extended to him, he offered a little higher price than Tara had expected.
Nick had a special gift for dealing with people. When he offered compliments, he meant them. He didn’t flatter people in order to gain something from them. And it was his sincerity the gentleman had detected. Few people in London meant what they actually said while being charming.
Once they returned home, she tucked the money away in a safe place. “I appreciate the fact that you’re letting me have a say in what we do with this money,” Tara confessed as she locked the cabinet in her bedchamber.
“Why wouldn’t I? It’s yours.”
“Since marrying you, it’s actually yours. That’s the way people in London see it.”
He shrugged. “I don’t think I should decide what to do with money I didn’t make or inherit. It’s more than enough you’re keeping me out of debtor’s prison.”
Noting the pensive expression on his face, she said, “Evermont will contact you when he’s ready. I have a feeling he wants you to worry for a couple of days. He thinks it’ll give him more power over you.”
“You really think that’s why he’s waiting?”
“I’d bet everything I have on it. I grew up with my brother. He’s one of the most manipulative people I’ve ever met.” She turned from the cabinet and slipped the key into her pocket. “I know that’s a horrible thing to say about someone you’re related to, but I see no point in pretending he’s someone he isn’t.”
“Well, I don’t personal
ly care for him.”
“I don’t, either, so you’re in good company.”
She paused. She didn’t have to see Stacey for a couple of days. Perhaps they should go on a relaxing outing together. Given how close he was to his mother and sisters, she thought they might all enjoy doing something together.
“I have an idea,” she began. “Why don’t we do something fun? We can invite your mother and sisters along, too. They don’t get to do many activities in London, do they?”
“Unless it’s going for a walk, no, they don’t. Everything requires money.”
“Which we now have. You spend some, save some, and give some. Everything is spread out. Otherwise, you became frivolous or greedy.”
“Do you have a certain activity in mind?” he asked.
A smile crossed her face. “A hot air balloon ride.”
His eyes grew wide. “You want to go up in the air?”
“Sure! It’ll be exciting, don’t you think?”
He hesitated. “Yes,” he slowly replied, “I think exciting is a good word to describe it.”
Since he didn’t seem enthusiastic about it, she asked, “Have you ever been in a hot air balloon?”
“No.”
“I haven’t, either. It’d be fun if we did something new together.” She took his hand and led him out of the bedchamber. “We’ll invite your mother and sisters. I think they’ll enjoy it, too.”
Once Tara explained her idea to them, she was surprised Augusta seemed to be the only one who was enthusiastic about it.
“Those hot air balloons go up awfully high,” Cress said.
“Does being up in the air like that make people sick?” Nick’s mother asked.
“I’ve never been in one,” Tara admitted, “but I’ve seen others do it, and it didn’t look like it made them sick. Even small children have been on them. I assume if a small child can handle it, then we can, too.”
Augusta clasped her hands to her chest. “Let’s do it! We’ll be able to see all of London.” She glanced at Tara. “We will be able to see all of London, won’t we?”
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