The Foundling Bride

by Helen Dickson

  ‘You may find the gardens at Vauxhall so during the day,’ Marcus retorted, ‘but at night they are altogether different.’

  Lowena stiffened. ‘Really? Please explain what you mean by that.’ She was unable to look away from his ice-cold eyes.

  ‘Only that at night they are not so genteel—in fact they really do become pleasure gardens in every respect after dark. Sexual intrigue stalks the remote avenues when ladies of the town frequent those dark walks.’

  Confused by this information, she asked, ‘Pardon me—but what are you talking about?’

  ‘It must be an intoxicating experience to stroll along Vauxhall’s Grand Walk on the arm of a gentleman—even if you are only his mistress and he is twice your age. Why, if you play your cards right, Lowena, you could become the greatest demi-rep in London.’

  She stared at him, unable to believe he was saying these awful things to her. ‘What—what’s a demi-rep?’ she asked in all innocence. She really hadn’t the faintest idea, but she had a vague idea that it wasn’t complimentary.

  He cocked a sleek dark brow. ‘Do you really need me to spell it out?’

  His meaning hit her like a slap in the face. She was stricken. Her cheeks filled with heat. ‘No. I understand you perfectly.’

  He smiled thinly. ‘I thought you might.’

  His deliberate insult sliced through her, and she now knew what he was thinking—though horrified, appalled and deeply hurt that he could even think that of her, she had no intention of enlightening him.

  ‘How dare you say that to me? I may have lived all my life in the country, away from the sleaze and corruption of London, but I would have to be a simple and naïve fool not to know the implication of what you are saying. Your standards are so perfect you consider yourself an authority to judge me, I suppose?’ she uttered with equal sarcasm, her cheeks aflame, suppressing the desire to hit him over the head with anything that was to hand. ‘I wonder why, when you have such a propensity to insult me, you deign to speak to me at all.’

  He arched his brow infuriatingly. ‘And I wonder how, since you left Tregarrick in such haste, you managed to fall on your feet in no time at all.’

  Lowena recoiled as though she’d been stung. ‘It wasn’t like that. You don’t know anything about what happened to me after I left. Little did I realise when I went to work at Tregarrick that your brother was a predatory amorist, and my virtue some kind of challenge to him, regardless of my station. And now, because of what you have just accused me of being, you no doubt think it was all my fault.’

  Marcus stepped closer to her, his eyes penetrating, cold and ruthless, his jaw tightening ominously. When she had left him at Tregarrick she had looked like a wounded child. Now he was confronted with a woman he didn’t recognise—an enraged, beautiful virago.

  ‘I have never said that.’

  ‘I have no doubt you think it. You are a monster, Marcus Carberry, and I can’t imagine why I let you make love to me.’

  His lips twisted laconically. ‘You are right. I must seem like a monster to you. Tell me something I don’t already know. This man who keeps you—he treats you well?’

  Raising her eyebrows, she said coolly, ‘I confess that the gentleman you speak of and I have become...close. He treats me very well and I want for nothing. Indeed, I have come to love him dearly.’

  Jealousy ripped through Marcus on hearing those endearing words for another man on her lips. Her apparent lack of contrition fuelled his anger even further.

  ‘So you admit it, then?’

  ‘I have nothing to admit—at least nothing that signifies.’

  He bent his body so that his face was level with hers. ‘So you value yourself so little that you are prepared to sell yourself to this man?’ he said, knowing full well that his attitude must seem brutal to her, but so mired in suspicion that he couldn’t help himself. ‘I am surprised you have settled for an older man when you rejected my brother’s attentions.’

  Despite this outrageous attack on her character, which she would not have believed in him, Lowena let her soft lips break into a smile. ‘One man is much like another—and the difference between the gentleman you saw me with earlier and your brother is that I did not choose your brother. He chose me—and my new status is certainly an improvement on that.’ Slanting him an amused look from the corner of her eye, she said, ‘Why, the way you are behaving you are beginning to sound like a jealous suitor—which, of course, we both know you are not. I really cannot understand why you are making such a fuss.’

  ‘Do you expect me to act reasonably when you failed to inform us where you had gone? When you left Tregarrick we assumed you would be returning. After the consideration my mother has shown towards you over the years, do you not think she deserved better than a short note? I demand to know what you have to say for yourself,’ he said, in an icy, authoritative tone that Lowena resented.

  She had the grace to look contrite, but she continued to defend her actions. ‘Yes, you are right—and I do apologise for not being more open—but you have no right to demand anything from me,’ she retorted, sparks of anger darting from her narrowed eyes. ‘There isn’t a man born who will tell me what I will and will not do. Do not forget that you told me I had to leave Tregarrick—and you were right to do so. Living with the compliant, obedient deference of a domestic servant was not for me any more.’

  ‘I know I told you to leave, but you had little money and no connections—I did not want you to leave until we had found you a suitable place with a good family. I also wanted to be certain that after—’

  ‘What, Marcus? That after our night of pleasure I was not with child? Is that what you were afraid of?’ Lowena’s smile was one of irony. ‘You need not concern yourself. There is no child. In your arrogance you thought you knew what was best for me. Why, anyone would think that because I took it upon myself to leave I was setting myself on a path to financial and moral ruination.’

  It was clear she could not begin to understand just how concerned Marcus had been, how relentless his search to find her.

  ‘Well, you need not concern yourself any longer,’ she said, tossing her head and glaring at him, her eyes sparking ire, her chin set firm. ‘Neither my finances nor my morals are any the worse for leaving Tregarrick. Now, please excuse me. This conversation is going nowhere. I think enough has been said between us.’

  Her words brought a feral gleam to his eyes. ‘Have a care, Lowena. Do not fight me.’

  And, before she could walk away, with a startling jerk he pulled her into his arms, his mouth capturing hers in a desperate kiss born out of frustration and an unappeased hunger for her which had increased a thousand fold since they’d been apart.

  But Lowena didn’t care for his reasons. His sudden kiss set spark to tinder, unlocking all the hidden passions she had held in check since the night he had made love to her. It was just what she wanted, what she needed, and her reaction was to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him back with a hunger of her own.

  As he crushed her pliant body to his, spearing his fingers through her hair, his head filled with the fragrance of her, Marcus felt the passion flare in her, felt her heart race. He felt a burgeoning pleasure and an astonished joy that was almost beyond bearing. He deepened the kiss and she shivered. He felt it bone-deep. A moment later he finally forced himself to lift his head and he gazed down into her eyes, his anger unappeased despite her surrender.

  ‘Tell me again how you have come to care for your lover, Lowena... You would do well to remember that men do not marry the women they choose as their mistresses. Do you respond so wantonly to his kiss as you have to mine? Tell me he means nothing to you—if you can.’

  ‘I owe you no explanations.’

  ‘You may be as haughty as you wish, but I think your flight from Tregarrick has not brought you the independence you so desire
. Why are you with him?’ he persisted.

  Lowena listened to him with outrage burning inside her, wanting to fling her new-found status in his face. But for some unfathomable reason she desired more to keep her relationship with her father from him. Let him wallow in his jealousy and anger a while longer.

  With as much dignity as she could muster, she replied evasively, ‘I am with him for the usual reasons.’

  ‘Money, influence and a very comfortable position, I expect,’ Marcus summarised with scathing disgust.

  Tilting her head to one side, Lowena looked at him. ‘Why, Marcus, I cannot imagine why what I do should concern you so. Are you jealous, by any chance?’

  Marcus’s sardonic gaze swept over her lovely face and the full soft mouth that positively invited a man to kiss it. Tendrils of her hair drifted like whispered secrets against the curve of her cheek, precisely where his lips had been just moments before. His eyes dropped to the swell of her breasts, trembling invitingly above the neckline of her gown. Desire poured through him like molten rock. She had a body that was created for a man’s hands—a body that could drive a man to lust.

  Recollecting himself, he averted his gaze, felt his pulse hammering. He had known her as intimately as it was possible for a man to know a woman, and it had been her first taste of pleasure, yet he wanted more from her. Knowing that she was giving the pleasures he wanted to experience again for himself to another man sent ripples of unrest into the hollow place that was his soul. Yes, damn it, he was jealous. It was an emotion he had only felt once before, for one woman, and he despised himself for his sudden weakness.

  ‘You are beautiful—but you are also amoral. I congratulate you on your success in snaring a wealthy man, but I thought you were different from that—that you were a woman with a heart, not some mercenary little opportunist.’

  This pious condemnation from him of all people was too much for Lowena. She drew herself up, her eyes blazing. ‘I think you have said quite enough. I will not stand here to listen to you accuse me of being mercenary, lacking in morals and an opportunist.’

  ‘Why not?’ he bit out, wanting to hurt her as much as she had hurt him. ‘Evidently you are all those things.’

  ‘And you are arrogant and overbearing. I owe you nothing. My life is my own, to make of it what I will, and neither you nor anyone else will tell me how to live it—especially you.’

  Marcus glared at her. And then without another word he turned on his heel and strode swiftly away.

  Lowena watched him stride along the terrace and disappear into the house, and knew that in all probability he had just left her life for ever.

  Raising her hand, she touched her lips. That kiss, vibrant and alive, soft, insistent and sensual, invaded her mind. Her reaction to it—her submission—terrified her. She’d wanted more—much more. She’d wanted it to go on and on, and to kiss him back with soul-destroying passion.

  Disappointment overwhelmed her and she bitterly faced the awful truth that physically she was no more immune to Marcus Carberry now than she had been at Tregarrick. She felt the serenity she had acquired over the past weeks melt away, leaving her grieving for the man who was no longer a part of her life—grieving for the man she loved...for love him she did. Of that there was no doubt.

  She could withstand his insults, his anger, but not his smile, his touch, his kiss—the kiss that twisted her insides into knots, that made her burn, that wreaked havoc on her heart, her body and her soul. She was still as susceptible as she ever had been. She wished she could resist that wanton streak he had uncovered in her but she was helpless to do so. Marcus had turned her into some kind of wild creature—someone she didn’t recognise.

  But, she asked herself, how could she possibly love a man who had hurt her and insulted her as he had done? It would seem there was no protection against love once it had you in its power. From the instant she had seen him on his return from America she had admitted that she loved him, and now she felt despair flooding over her like a great wave. She really shouldn’t have deceived him...doing nothing to alleviate his suspicion that her father was her lover.

  She had thought she was secure in this new world with her father, but just a moment spent with Marcus had shown her it was nothing but a fantasy—a bubble that had burst with just one look at his face.

  Forcing back her dammed-up tears, she turned to see her father walking towards her. Immediately she pinned a smile to her face and went to meet him.

  Frowning, Robert Wesley looked towards the French windows through which the gentleman who had been speaking to Lowena had disappeared. ‘Do you know that gentleman?’

  When Lowena spoke she tried to keep her voice from trembling, to dispel the passion Marcus had roused in her. ‘Yes. It was Captain Carberry—Marcus Carberry.’

  Robert’s eyes widened. ‘The man who found you in the woods when you were a babe?’

  ‘Yes, the same.’

  ‘I see.’ He studied her closely. ‘I would like to meet him, but you seem put out, Lowena. Did he say something to upset you?’

  She averted her eyes. ‘No—although he was surprised to see me.’

  ‘What? Here at Lady Wychwood’s musical evening, or to see you at all?’

  ‘Both, I suppose. The last time he saw me I was a servant in his house.’

  ‘Lowena, I know you wrote to Lady Alice, but did you tell her where you were living—that we have been united after all this time?’

  She shook her head, looking sheepish. ‘No, I’m afraid I didn’t.’

  ‘But why not? For what reason? Did you not think that you might owe it to her?’

  Lowena had the grace to look contrite. ‘You are right. I should have told her. But I—I didn’t want Marcus to know. When I left I considered it in my own best interests not only to terminate my employment, but to terminate my relationship with him.’

  Robert noted the catch in her voice. He glanced at her sharply. ‘Relationship? Did he hurt you in some way? Did he upset you?’

  ‘Our last encounter was...unpleasant.’

  Robert’s face tightened as a terrible suspicion began to take root. ‘What happened between the two of you, Lowena? Was his behaviour towards you inappropriate?’

  Lowena felt heat stain her cheeks and she looked away. She couldn’t possibly tell her father how, as a servant in Marcus Carberry’s house, she had willingly, shamefully, let him into her bed—how she was unable to blot out of her mind the exquisite sweetness of the intimacy they had shared, how it had felt to be held in his arms and how the memory kept coming back to torment her and that there was nothing she could do about it. That sometimes she didn’t even want to.

  And so she looked for another answer to her father’s question and said, ‘He told me I had to leave. It may not seem important now, but at the time it was—to me. He wanted to find me a suitable position—probably as a governess or something of that nature—with a good family. I was angry and very upset. I told him not to concern himself—that my life was my own and I would make my own way. As I said, my leaving was—unpleasant. Too many things were said—by both of us. We did not part on the best of terms.’

  Digesting what she had told him, Robert studied her unhappy face for a moment, feeling uneasy and sensing there was more to her relationship with Captain Carberry than she was prepared to admit. But he would not press her.

  ‘You are a grown woman, Lowena, who knows her own mind and is her own mistress, so I won’t interfere in what is not my affair. It is too late for me to begin playing the heavy-handed father now. However, I did not come down in yesterday’s shower, and I sense there is something else—something you are not telling me. I felt when you first came to me that you were unhappy about something. I’m a good listener, if you want to talk about it.’

  She shook her head. ‘It’s nothing—truly. Please don’t worry about me
.’

  ‘When I saw him just now, the Captain looked decidedly put out about something.’

  ‘I’m afraid he was—very put out. It’s all so silly, really...’

  ‘He does know you are my daughter? He must, since society has done nothing gossip about me turning up in London with you.’

  She flushed and looked away. ‘No. He—he only arrived in London yesterday. It would seem he hasn’t had time to catch up on the gossip. I—I didn’t tell him about you—he didn’t give me the chance.’

  ‘I see. So who does he think I am?’

  When she failed to answer he took her arm and turned her to face him.

  ‘Well?’

  Lowena hesitated to answer. After all, it was hardly the sort of thing a daughter would say to her father. Regardless of this, a mischievous twinkle entered her eyes. ‘He—well, he assumed that you and I—because he saw us together in the park—that we are...’

  Comprehension dawned and, seeing the funny side of it, Robert threw back his head and laughed out loud. ‘For a man who is getting on in years, whose youth is just a distant memory, that is the most flattering thing that has happened to me in a long time. I feel twenty years younger. If Marcus Carberry believes that, then he has been well and truly duped. Oh, my dear—wait until I tell Deborah.’

  ‘I know. I can imagine just how furious he will be when he finds out.’

  ‘He will not remain for long in ignorance. He only has to ask any one of these guests and they will enlighten him as to your identity. I should speak to him...’

  ‘Yes—but not immediately,’ Lowena said, mischief still lighting her eyes. ‘Let him remain in ignorance just a while longer.’

  Robert chuckled. ‘That is cruel.’

  ‘I know,’ she said, linking her arm through his. ‘But it’s fun.’

  ‘Not the kind of fun Deborah was referring to when you first appeared in London.’

  ‘I know,’ she said, laughing, ‘but I’m learning.’