The Perfect Duke

by Ruth Ann Nordin

  “He is sorry,” Lady Blakemoor hurried to add. “And he did imagine things.” She laughed. “My husband has an imaginative mind. Why, just last week, he thought he saw a lion in the bedchamber. As soon as we lit the candle, he realized it was a pile of clothes that weren’t in their usual spot. We had a good laugh about it.”

  “Yes,” Nick agreed, suspecting she had come up with the lie in order to help him—and her husband—out. “I’m sure we’ll have a laugh over the plant incident, too. I’m sure next time people see Lord Mulborne, they’ll say they knew someone of his good reputation would never act in such a way.”

  Nick scanned the room, and as he hoped, the others indicated their agreement. Good. It was working.

  “I admit that my finances weren’t the very best they could have been,” Nick continued, “but I assure you, I’m not with my wife because of the money. I’m with her because I want to be.”

  Tara put her arm around his. “Indeed. We happen to make a good match.”

  “Lady Eloise,” Lady Cadwalader said as she approached them, “I am dismayed that you would try to ruin the good name of my nephew and these fine people who have organized this ball tonight. You’ve done yourself no favors this evening, and I’m afraid the good people of London won’t stand for this. When Lady Blakemoor and the Duchess of Ravenshire removed you from the group, they did the right thing. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t allow you back into it after this evening’s debacle. You’ve ruined any chances of propriety you could have salvaged.”

  As if on cue, the people in the room voiced their agreement.

  “I assure you that she won’t ever be allowed back into the group,” Lady Blakemoor told Lady Cadwalader. “Ladies of Grace has no place for someone like her.”

  Lady Eloise spat at her. “If it weren’t for me, you’d still be the pathetic little chit who begged me to take her into the group.”

  Lord Cadwalader and a couple of other gentlemen took Lady Eloise and carried her out of the ballroom.

  Ignoring Lady Eloise’s screams about how she’d been betrayed, Lady Cadwalader turned to Lady Blakemoor and put an arm around her shoulders. “You must not let her trouble you. I knew she was horrible from the moment I met her. It’s why I couldn’t fully endorse Ladies of Grace, but I can give my full support to it now. Now, let’s go back to enjoying this beautiful ball.”

  The others indicated their agreement, and the music started back up.

  As everyone turned back to their conversations, Tara let out an audible sigh of relief and released Nick’s arm. “Thank you,” Tara told him. “I don’t think things would have turned out so well if you hadn’t intervened when you did.”

  “I’m glad I could help.” Really, if there was ever anything she needed, he would be more than happy to do it.

  One of Lady Cadwalader’s friends came up to them and gave Tara a sympathetic look. “You poor thing. I can’t imagine what being in the same group as Lady Eloise was like. It’s good that you and Lady Blakemoor got rid of her when you did. What she did to Lady Youngtown was bad enough, but after this evening, there will be no chance of redemption for her. If she had still been in your group, it would have been completely destroyed. You both showed good judgment.”

  “My wife is very good at judging what to do in any situation,” Nick chimed in.

  “She certainly is,” the lady agreed. Then, with a twinkle in her eye, she added, “And she certainly knows how to pick a good husband.” She chuckled and turned her attention back to Tara. “I was wondering if you’d join me and a few ladies for a conversation?”

  Tara glanced at Nick, and since he nodded his encouragement, she left with her. Nick watched Tara, recalling the day they had married. Looking back, it was one of the best days of his life.

  Cress came up to him. “I thought the most excitement I was going to have tonight was dancing, but I don’t think anything could get more exciting than watching a lady tell everyone she didn’t like them.”

  “That rarely happens,” Nick replied. “Fortunately. Have you been having a good time?”

  “I have. I’m not interested in any of the gentlemen I’ve danced with that Tara introduced me to.”

  “Good. You don’t need to be in a hurry to get married.”

  She chuckled. “I’m not looking for a husband tonight. I just want to dance.” She paused then lowered her voice. “It’s a relief no one believed that lady when she said you married Tara to get out of debtor’s prison. Mother would have been embarrassed if they had. You know how she worries about the family name.”

  He nodded. “I’ve learned that the sooner you can put an end to a rumor, the better. You have to concede to some of the truth in order to be credible, but there’s no reason why people need to know everything.”

  “That sounds like something Father would say.”

  “He’s the one who taught me how to deal with people.” It was a shame their father didn’t manage his finances as well as he could manage his relationships. Pushing the thought aside, he said, “Would you mind having a dance with your brother?”

  “I’d love it,” Cress replied and joined him to the center of the room.

  ***

  The next morning, Tara rolled the brush over in her hand as she sat in front of her vanity. She hadn’t called her lady’s maid in yet to help her get ready for the day, and she wasn’t in the mood to do it, either. In fact, she didn’t want to leave the bedchamber. She just wanted to return to bed and give into despair.

  She should be glad last night went as well as it did. And she was. It was wonderful that Nick smoothed things over before Lady Eloise was able to destroy the group. There was that tense moment of silence right after Lady Eloise told everyone the truth about Nick that Tara thought for sure everything was going to crumble down around them.

  She didn’t know how Lady Eloise figured it out. Perhaps Tara’s brother had figured out why Nick wanted to marry her and told Lady Eloise when they were together. Tara had no way of knowing if the incident regarding Sir Tristan Blakemoor was true or not, but Lady Eloise didn’t make it a habit of lying about things that people were doing. Yes, Lady Eloise had many faults, but lying about scandals wasn’t one of them.

  Tara let out a heavy sigh and rubbed her forehead. What did it matter? In the end, what did the group really matter if she was one of several ladies Nick spent time with? She didn’t know why she thought she could ever be content to take her husband to bed if he went to other ladies’ beds.

  How had her mother done it? Tara’s father had had a couple of mistresses over the course of their marriage. Never once did her mother voice a complaint about it. She’d obviously been in bed with him long enough to conceive two children. Tara didn’t think she could ever share her bed with Nick again. It was one thing to go to bed with him knowing he’d had other ladies before he married her, but after they married, things had changed. Lovemaking was just too personal—too private—to share with another person.

  She’d honestly thought she was stronger than this when she reached maturity. She hadn’t expected her husband to be faithful to her. So few husbands were faithful to their wives.

  Last evening after the ball, Nick had hesitated in the hallway, and she knew he’d wanted to come to her bed. He didn’t have to ask it. The question was in his eyes. And she couldn’t bring herself to consent to it, even though he had saved Ladies of Grace. She just couldn’t do it. The whole time he was with her, she’d be wondering if he was thinking of someone else. So she’d claimed a headache and went to her bedchamber. He’d been disappointed, but he hadn’t argued.

  The worry did cross her mind that she might be pushing him toward another lady by being cold to him. At the moment, however, none of that seemed to matter because she was in so much pain. Besides, if he was already seeking other ladies’ beds, then what did it matter if she turned him away or not? It wasn’t like taking him to bed every night right after their wedding had been enough to satisfy him. She probably just wasn’t as
exciting as other, more experienced ladies were.

  She blinked back her tears and steadied her resolve to get ready for the day. Nothing would get better if she stayed in this room all day. She needed to be busy. The more things she could do, the less time she’d have to think about Nick.

  After a moment, she decided she’d see if Miss Duff was back in London yet. And if she wasn’t, then she’d visit Stacey and, if Stacey wasn’t available, she’d see Lady Blakemoor about what to do next for Ladies of Grace. And if Lady Blakemoor wasn’t available… Well, she’d deal with that later if it happened to be the case.

  Once she trusted herself to show a pleasant façade, she got up and summoned her lady’s maid.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Are you going to meet Lord Edon and his friends for another game of cards?” Tara asked as Nick headed in her direction.

  She’d waited for him in the entryway this evening, sure he had snuck off to change clothes because, once again, he had no intention of spending time with her or his family. Otherwise, he would have settled into the drawing room with them. As much as she had tried to talk herself out of confronting him, she couldn’t seem to help it. She’d gone from wanting to cry all the time to wanting to scream at him. And now, she was angry. It was taking all of her self-control to address him in a calm manner.

  Nick hesitated to respond. Was he going to try to come up with another lie? Was he going to keep to the same story? Or, was he finally going to tell her the truth?

  He cleared his throat and slipped his hands into his coat pockets. “Actually,” he began, “I thought I’d go to White’s.”

  “I didn’t realize you were a member,” she replied, knowing full well he wasn’t.

  “Oh, well, they’re thinking of adding a new member, and I’ve been invited to go there so the other gentlemen can meet me.”

  He wasn’t good at lying. It was obvious he was lying, but she asked, “Who invited you?”

  “Lord Edon.”

  “Hmm… You and Lord Edon seem to be very good friends. He likes to spend almost every evening with you.”

  Did he honestly believe she would believe something like this? By the expression on his face, she realized he did.

  “We only recently became friends,” he said. “As it happens, we get along with the same group of gentlemen.”

  “That’s convenient.” One might say a story like that fit very well into the lie he insisted on spinning. She wondered if Lord Edon was aware that he was using him in order to sneak out to spend time with ladies he hadn’t married.

  Nick didn’t seem to know how to respond to her comment, so he looked down at his coat and started fastening the buttons.

  She was tired of this. She wasn’t going to let him get away with lying to her anymore, but if she told him she knew he was lying, he’d only deny it. She was going to have to catch him in the act of the lie. Only then could she give him a good whack on the head and get her own townhouse.

  The butler hurried to the door, effectively ending their conversation. She pretended she didn’t notice the pleading look Nick gave her. If he thought she was going to be all right with him running off to another lady, he was sorely mistaken. Maybe her mother was fine with her father doing it. Maybe other ladies were fine with their husbands doing it. But she wasn’t fine with him doing it.

  She waited until Nick left then grabbed a cloak from the hook nearby. She slipped it on then brought the hood up. Ignoring the butler, she caught the direction Nick was going and then left the townhouse. She was going to get to the bottom of this tonight. She couldn’t handle the strain of the lies anymore. As much as she’d love to believe he was spending all of his nights playing cards, she just knew he wasn’t.

  She kept close to the townhouses as she followed him. It was already dark out and she was wearing a dark cloak, but she still worried he might turn around and see her. If that happened, he’d probably go to White’s just to “prove” he’d been telling her the truth. Then he would find a way to make sure she didn’t follow him tomorrow evening when he left.

  So she was as careful as she could be while she followed him. Thankfully, there weren’t too many people out, which made it easier to keep a good distance from him without losing track of him. She didn’t know if they could tell she was a lady or not since the cloak covered most of her, but at least no one tried to talk to her.

  By the time she turned down the sixth street, she realized he was heading in the direction of her brother’s townhouse. But why? What could he possibly want with her brother? Surely, her brother wasn’t into sharing ladies. Even her brother didn’t do that.

  She stopped when she saw Nick climb the steps of the townhouse. He knocked on the door, and a moment later, the footman opened the door. Nick stepped inside, and the footman closed the door.

  She blinked and shook her head. She had to be imagining things. There was no way Nick and her brother were friends. There was just no way. No possible way. Her brother wasn’t one to forgive anyone for betraying him, and her brother had been deceived when she ran off to marry Nick.

  No. Something else was going on here. After a moment, she snapped out of her shock and hurried over to the townhouse. She reached it then glanced around to make sure no one saw her. Once she was assured she wasn’t being watched, she snuck over to the servants’ entrance.

  ***

  “I can’t keep coming here every night,” Nick told Lord Maten a second time. “Tara doesn’t believe I’m playing cards with my friends.”

  “Then you should do a better job of lying or get some friends,” Tara’s brother replied as the maid brought a bucket full of soap and water into the drawing room.

  Nick rolled his eyes. “I can’t keep coming here every night to clean. I can probably do two or three evenings without arousing her suspicions, but as it is, she thinks I’m doing something else with my time.”

  And given the hurt look in her eyes that evening, he had a nagging feeling that she thought he was being unfaithful to her. Which was probably exactly what Lord Maten wanted her to think.

  Her brother let out a long and heavy sigh. “All right. We’ll go to three times a week, but it’ll take you longer to pay off the interest on the debt.”

  The maid brought over a couple of clean rags.

  Lord Maten took them from her then held them out to Nick. “Tonight, you are expected to clean the floor. It’s up to you to move the rugs and furniture out of the way. When you’re done, you have to put them all back. You can’t leave here tonight until you finish, so I suggest you get to work.”

  Nick snatched the rags from him. By the size of the room, Nick didn’t think he was going to get home until sunrise.

  “If that doesn’t work, you can come tomorrow,” Lord Maten said. “Then you can do half of this tonight and the other half then.”

  “I’ll do it all tonight,” Nick replied, keeping his tone as neutral as he could.

  “I thought you might choose that option.” He chuckled. “Well, I’ll let you get started.”

  Nick watched as he left with the maid. Once he was alone, Nick threw the rags to the floor then rolled up his sleeves. He hadn’t bothered putting anything over his shirt. The coat hid the fact that he’d been improperly dressed anyway, so what had it mattered?

  With a sigh, he started to move the furniture to the other side of the room.

  ***

  Tara searched the rooms. Nick had to be somewhere in this townhouse. She doubted he’d be in the servants’ quarters, so she didn’t bother looking through those. Instead, she quietly worked her way through all of the rooms. By the time she reached the drawing room, she saw Nick washing the floor on his hands and knees.

  “What are you doing?” she blurted out as she ran over to him.

  He looked up, his eyes wide in shock.

  Since he didn’t answer her, she asked, “Is this where you’ve been going every night?”

  After a moment, he set the rag aside and rose to his feet. Sh
ame crossing his face, he admitted, “Yes. I haven’t been playing cards. I’ve been coming here.”

  She heard footsteps and turned to the doorway. Her brother stopped as soon as he saw her.

  She stormed over to him and pointed to Nick. “What are you doing to him?”

  Basil crossed his arms. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

  “It looks like you’re treating him like a maid.”

  “Then you already know the answer to your question,” Basil said, his tone condescending.

  She stared at him in disbelief. “Why are you treating him this way?”

  “Because I’m one of the gentlemen his father owed money to, and he was unable to pay back the debt in full,” he replied. “He had to work off the rest of it somehow…unless you want him to go to debtor’s prison.”

  “No! Of course, I don’t want that.”

  “Then you should be glad I’m gracious enough to let him work the rest of the debt off.”

  Nick walked over to them but directed his gaze to her. “He’s Evermont. He’s the one who settled the debts owed to each creditor.”

  Noting the way Basil glared at Nick, she asked him, “So, you’re Evermont? You’re the one everyone’s afraid of?” She glanced at Nick. “Why didn’t you tell me it was my own brother?”

  “Because it was none of your business,” Basil told her through gritted teeth.

  “It definitely is my business,” she snapped. “You’re taking advantage of my husband. I had enough money in my dowry to pay the full debt, including the interest, off.”

  “He gave me three options,” Nick told her. “I could go to debtor’s prison and let you have all of the money, I could pay him four hundred and twenty-seven pounds and work off the interest, or I could pay him your entire dowry.”