by Anna Macy
With a voice that left no questions, she finally said, “But not now, I cannot be in here a second longer. I bid you goodnight, my Lord.”
Relief swept through William like a tidal wave, and he could feel his body sag at the prospect of this night finally coming to an end. He needed a few moments, or a few days, to at least sort out what had even happened.
“Yes. I understand.” His eyes were drawn to her slim form as the soft moonlight illuminated the curve of her body against the thin lace-trimmed nightgown.
Her slender bare feet made tiny slaps against the polished floors as she hurried to the door. William walked up to the elaborate four-poster bed and leaned onto one corner. His shoulder burned at the unusual position, but William welcomed the clarity that came with the pain.
He couldn’t help but stare after the beautiful young woman who had gone from a burning volcano to a polite, soft-spoken maiden who ran from his room.
What a night.
Shaking his head at the incredibility of the night, William felt his knees threaten to give. William plopped ungracefully onto the end of the bed, casting his eyes wryly over the mess they’d made, the blankets pulled every which direction.
Lady Juliet hesitated with a single step to go, glancing back at him, her swirling dark amber locks caressing the exposed skin of her shoulder. For just a moment, their eyes met, and a half-smile curled those sweet lips, the same that he could still taste against his skin.
“By the way, my name is Juliet,” she said softly, her eyes smiling at him as she turned back to go. Her pale hand reached for the large brass doorknob to make her exit, only to be suddenly shoved hard back into the room by the force of his bedroom door being opened inwards from the hall.
Juliet went sprawling to the floor, her gown fluttering up to reveal trim legs up to her knees. She landed with a thud as William automatically sprung from the bed to aid her, dragging his eyes from the slight of his best friend’s fiancé’s limbs.
He gripped her shoulders in the dimly cast light, kneeling behind her to get her feet back under her. It was then he realized how light the room had become.
William couldn’t move at first, as he noticed the warm candlelight now circling the pair of them on the floor. He knew in his heart that the door opening, coupled with the newly lit room, could mean only one thing.
They had been caught.
CHAPTER TWO
Not just caught, but as William’s eyes adjusted, he looked up at a petite young woman towering over them with her mouth hanging open. They had been captured by Marian Wains, Robert’s eldest sister, and truthfully, one of William’s favorite people.
When William was an only child, with his parents otherwise engaged, Robert’s family had been his second home, making Marian, Robert, and their youngest sister Laura, the only siblings he had ever been blessed with.
Beyond the initial slack-jawed expression on Marian’s face, the burning glare he was currently being pinned down by rivaled any punch he’d ever taken.
“Juliet? William? What’s going on?” Her steady voice betrayed nothing, but her light eyes continued to hold him pinned to the floor. The question hung in the air, twirling between them like the seeds of a dandelion.
With a breathy snort out of her delicate nostrils, Marian fluttered her lashes shut. “I heard Juliet’s voice and thought-,” she hesitated, “Well, I’m not sure what I thought, but not this.”
While Marian held the candle with one hand, the other pointed at first Juliet, then William in a palatable move of disapproval.
William’s legs finally seemed to be working again. He rose with a slight grunt, gently pulling Lady Juliet to her feet after him. He meant to let go of her as soon as she was standing, but his hands lingered just a half a second too long, and when he removed them, they tingled slightly at the loss of contact.
Guiltily, William stepped back, wiping his suddenly sweating hands on his thighs as he put more distance between himself and both ladies. Dejected, William realized he was about to be in a significant amount of trouble. Robert’s smiling blonde face flashed in his mind, as did his ferocious right hook.
Marian watched him like a hawk, sharp eyes easing over his face. William could practically see the speech she was composing in her head. Ever polite, ever elegant, it had been Marian who kept him and Robert in line all those years. Her speeches as to his inability to be a proper gentleman had been lengthy.
He could see her composing another, damned if they weren’t both adults. Based on his suspicions, it would be lengthy, it would be painful, and he would have to sit and listen to every word.
But perhaps, at the end of it, Marian might come out an ally instead of an instigator. William knew from experience that she could be swayed. Or at least bribed. Taking a deep breath, he settled a polite smile on his lips. Perhaps her finding them wasn’t the worst possible outcome for any of them.
William stepped towards Marian; he was ready to take his punishment, especially if it meant these two ladies would be out of his room, and he would be able to finally crawl into bed and put this ridiculous day to rest.
“Marian, please understand. This is a simple misunderstanding.” William looked between the dark-headed beauty who had crawled into his bed and the tiny, fair woman he loved like a sister. Neither moved nor even breathed as he wracked his mind for the right way to explain how she had just found him in bed with an untouchable young gentlewoman.
William tried to catch Juliet’s downcast eyes, to beg her to give that explanation she had mentioned earlier a try right now. But she seemed transfixed again, staring at her bare toes just peeking out the bottom of her nightgown. Marian looked from one to the other and back again, clearly desiring a more detailed response.
Marian crossed her arms over her robed chest, “A misunderstanding William? I know you think you have a way with ladies, but this is Juliet Sonders of Greystone. The same Juliet, who is Robert’s fiancée! What on earth are you thinking?”
William cringed away, not just from the implication, but the volume of her voice cutting through the quiet of the manor’s upstairs hall. He held out his hands, trying to find a way to quiet her, but without garnering more of her ire.
It didn’t work, and William saw those perfect, fair arched brows rise a deadly fraction. A sure sign that her speech on his apparent lack of decency and misuse of gentlemanly charms was quickly on its way.
“It is my fault, Marian. Please,” Juliet suddenly broke in, that raspy voice, solid as stone, cut between William and Marian.
Juliet stepped forward, facing down the stern-faced blonde woman who was effectively blocking her escape from William’s room. With a smile, Juliet reached out, gripping one of Marian’s hands in her own.
“This was all my doing, don’t be upset with -,” Juliet turned back to him for a quick look, “William. It was such a horrible idea in the first place. I’m dreadfully embarrassed by all of it. Please don’t extend that embarrassment by making William a part of my mistake.” She turned her almond-colored eyes back to Marian, and William could see the slight flush across her cheeks.
Marian tilted her head a bit, looking hard at Juliet. After a soberly long moment, she leaned to look around the tall, young woman to find William again with her bold blue eyes.
“This is not over, for either of you.” Marian pointed at both of them again, narrowing her eyes before raising her candle and turning to leave the room. “But right now, both of you need to get back to bed now. Separately, may I suggest?”
Juliet immediately darted around Marian. William guessed she would’ve been down the hall in a flash of that white nightgown if she had not run face-first into the broad chest of none other than Robert Wains, the future Viscount of Devonshire.
Letting out an oomph of surprise, Robert gently caught Juliet’s slender shoulders in his large hand, his face filled with confusion as they stared at each other. Robert was dressed casually in a deep red velvet robe belted around his slim waist. His thick blonde wa
ves were rumpled as if he had been sleeping.
His head was moving impossibly slow, looking from his fiancée to his older sister, to his best friend. Each moment was darkening the fair man's expression.
Setting Juliet from him, Robert’s intelligent eyes snapped from William to Juliet and their matching guilty expressions, straight to his sister, who was making an extraordinary impression of a gulping fish, her lips opening and repeatedly closing as she moved towards Juliet.
Robert and his sister shared a likeness, their bright blonde hair was curling, and they tanned easily and quickly in the summer sun. Robert was never one to shirk away from the outdoors, and he and William had spent many, many summers holidays hunting, fishing, swimming all across his family’s estate.
On the other hand, Marian had always been forced to wear her bonnet and stay indoors during the best of the summer sunlight for fears of freckles ruining her prospects at an advantageous marriage. It had been a woe William had heard long and often during his stay with their family in his youth.
Other than their fair complexion and intense blue irises, the siblings were very different figures. Robert was abroad, a barrel-chested figure of a man who looked like he’d be far more comfortable on the back of a horse, or even in a boxing match than he’d ever be behind a desk.
On top of the previously mentioned tricky right hook, Robert was a natural swordsman and a horrible poker player. William loved him like a brother.
Marian, Robert’s sister, younger by three years, was a petite, delicate creature who had been the bane of their existence when they were children. While she might be a great deal smaller than Robert, William, or their third, Nicholas, Marian needed no man to defend her.
Her brilliant mind and wickedly sharp tongue kept her brother and his friends right where she wanted them. She also used that tart mouth to keep Devonshire, and those associated with it, up to date with the latest gossip and chatter amongst the peerage.
William met his friend’s eyes steadily, “Rob, I’m so sorry,” he blurted out. All formalities and explanations were far out of reach at this point.
To his surprise, Robert's handsome face turned sheepish, almost ashamed as well. “Not as sorry as I am.”
Stepping aside, taking Juliet with him, William noticed that it hadn’t only Robert who had joined their strange little party in his suite. Standing in the shadow of Robert’s form was the human who William feared most in the entire country. Perhaps the world.
Lady Catherine of Devonshire stood as still as a statue, her tiny figure draped in a voluminous bed robe the same deep, blood-red her sons. Her length of silver hair was twisted into a long braid draping over her shoulder and the eager face that watched him with rapt bemusement.
Suddenly the green shade of the room's walls reminded William vividly of the churning ocean, something he intensely disliked because it gave him such horrible seasickness. Something he was starting to feel here, too, even with his feet on solid ground.
“Oh sweet, merciful-,” William began, his hands raking through his dark hair as he bent at the waist to take a long, deep breath.
“That is quite enough, Huntington,” Lady Catherine cut him off, her familiar voice ringing through the room with painful clarity and authority. For a moment he was nine years old again, getting scolded for the trouble that he and Robert consistently got into as boys. The woman had boxed his ears more times than he wanted to remember.
William’s stomach churned, and he straightened, looking down his nose at the Devonshire matriarch, who undoubtedly now commanded the situation. Robert had released Juliet awkwardly, and somehow despite the space constrictions, they shifted until they were all inside William’s temporary rooms. The elaborately carved and gilded door may as well of been a jail cell.
“This is most unusual, William,” Lady Catherine scolded; her aristocratic features molded into a mask of cold indifference. “Only you would find this to be an enjoyable way to ruin yourself, to ruin our treasured Lady Juliet.”
“Ruin me?” William stammered, his voice catching as he tried to process what was coming out of Lady Catherine’s mouth.
Clearing his throat, William tried to speak again, “Nothing happened, Lady Catherine. Lady Juliet simply turned and ended up in the wrong room. It could have happened to anyone.” There was a long pause where Marian glared at him as if trying to squeeze the truth from his body with only her eyes. He looked away quickly, knowing it would’ve worked if he kept her gaze.
Lady Catherine sighed deeply, releasing her son’s arm, she moved into the room and closer to William. “Now, William, stop gaping at me like a fish. It’s very unbecoming.”
“Wait, hold on. Your treasured Lady Juliet?” William said in disbelief, looking from Robert to Juliet. Lady Catherine ignored him, pushing further into the group until she was right in front of him, Juliet at her back wearing an expression of dread that must have matched his own.
“Lady Catherine, I beg of you, please listen to reason. She mistook our rooms, which all look the same from the hall. It could’ve happened to anyone.”
“But it didn’t, young man. It happened to you.” Lady Catherine said, ignoring his questioning and somehow managing to look down at him, even with the vast height difference between them. Even now, that look took him back to being caught sneaking frogs into the manor to scare the governess at Devonshire.
Rolling his eyes back, William found himself avoiding direct eye contact with her, instead of looking back to Robert for his reaction. And again, William was confused to find his friend looking on rather serenely as the scene unfolded.
William knew that Robert and Juliet were not a love match, but his lack of interest was offsetting in the least. A hint of suspicion crept up his spine, but it was squashed as the bright flame of Lady Catherine’s candle was thrust upwards, illuminating his face for her perusal.
Lady Catherine was looking intensely at him; her expression unreadable, the crinkled hand holding her candle was steady. “I’m going back to bed. I highly suggest all of you do the same,” Lady Catherine said, looking around at the group meaningfully.
Juliet reminded William of a startled doe, prepared ready to flee at the first sign of danger, and he couldn’t blame her. William understood the notion completely, but he could feel the air changing, and he waited.
There was no way that it would be that simple. Not with Lady Catherine. William glanced at Juliet, his heart skipping a beat.
No, this would not be a simple dismissal; he was sure of it.
Lady Catherine turned and began to walk out of the room, sliding her delicate hand back into the crook of her son’s elbow with a dignified sniff. Bending at the door, she stared straight into Williams' soul. And for a moment, he considered making a run for it, as he always had as a child.
“You will need all the sleep you can get before we negotiate the terms of your wedding.”
Robert looked down at his mother, then over at Juliet, who had paused just outside of the bedroom door. Confused, Robert opened his mouth only to be shushed by his mother. Lady Catherine’s face slowly split into a smile. “Oh no, not your wedding Robert. I meant William, dear.”
“What did you say, Lady Catherine?” William said cautiously. Juliet gasped, her pretty face pulled tight as both hands covered her cheeks in shock.
“Yes, William, you heard me correctly. Your wedding. Actions have consequences. I believe I’ve taught you that a few times over the course of our relationship. Quite a bit more than a few times if I remember correctly, young man.”
William felt faint. He closed his eyes hard and waited for a breath. Then he opened them again to see the group still standing there in his room. Still very real. Worse, Lady Catherine and Robert had made it to the doorway now.
“This isn’t happening.” William knew his voice was a mix of anger and disbelief.
“Oh yes, yes, it is,” came the stern reply. “I’ll write to the Earl at first light. I don’t think he will have any concerns ab
out his daughter marrying into the Mansfield Park estate.” There was a pause as William let his chin fall to his chest, one hand ran through his dark hair, tugging as he considered what implications were now quickly headed his way.
With a sweep of cloth and shuffling of slippered steps, William knew that he was finally, at long last alone. He had gone to bed a bachelor, blissfully and wholly unconnected, with limited responsibilities and very little concern about his future; yet somehow, he had woken up an engaged man with not only his mantle upon his shoulders but hers.
It should shock and horrify him, but all he could think about was falling straight back into bed and dreaming away this whole confounding night. Yet, as he stripped off his shirt and trousers and flopped back into the mussed covers, his mind and nose were filled with memories of lavender-scented skin and warm, insistent lips.
***
