by Lauren Smith
“Nonsense,” Cedric said. “I shall provide one for you.”
“Actually…” Lord Morrey cleared his throat, his expression unreadable. “I believe that is my duty, as next of kin.”
Cedric crossed his arms. “You are here to acknowledge that she is a relation, then?”
“I am,” Morrey said, frowning back at Cedric. “Insofar as I am able. I hope no one is under the impression that I intended to disown her.”
“Well,” Cedric began, “it makes a man wonder. She’s been in service all these years. Where were you when she needed help?”
“My lord!” Gillian blushed to the roots of her hair as she watched Cedric defend her. It wasn’t necessary.
“You misunderstand. I have been searching for her,” Morrey said to Cedric, then faced Gillian. “For quite some time now. My father, our father, wished for me to take care of you and your mother. I’m sorry that I failed to find you after he died, but I wish to make up for that now and do all that I can to help you.” He was smiling, but there was a sadness to it. “It seems I’m too late, however. Lord Pembroke has informed me you two are to be wed. So the least I can do is give you a dowry and offer myself and my sister as your family.”
“But…” The world suddenly tilted around her, and she gripped the back of the nearest chair to stay on her feet. James was there in an instant, catching her by the waist.
“Thank you.”
“Of course,” he whispered back.
“Lord Morrey, if you acknowledge any connection to me, it will cause a scandal.”
Morrey grinned, lending a boyish glint in his all too serious eyes. “Ah, but I have thought of that. James mentioned your concern for scandal, and I believe we may have come up with a delightful solution. Haven’t we, Pembroke?”
“I believe so.” James glanced toward Audrey. “Ambrose Worthing, a friend of mine, was once able to enlist the aid of Lady Society. It is my hope to do the same.”
Gillian saw Audrey suddenly stiffen.
“Lady Society?” Cedric chuckled. “You’d be better off making a deal with the devil. You’ll be up to your neck in trouble with that woman, whoever she is.”
“I don’t think so,” James said. “Lady Society is quite clever and has always championed matters of the heart, especially those that fly in the face of convention. She reminds her readers that we must temper our traditions with compassion.”
“She also has a way of ferreting out the most inconvenient secrets and shining a light on them for all to see,” Cedric countered. “I tell you, you are playing with fire if you hope to enlist her aid.”
“She would be worth any price if she can assist me in convincing society to applaud rather than condemn my marriage to Gillian. I think she would agree it is a cause worth championing.”
Gillian relaxed when she realized he wouldn’t reveal Audrey’s secret identity in front of her brother.
“What is your solution?” Cedric pressed.
Morrey was still smiling. “We will contact Lady Society through the Quizzing Glass Gazette, informing her of our situation and asking her aid. It is our hope that Lady Society will write about the enchanting new lady in London, Miss Gillian Beaumont, rumored to be a cousin from the country, an old family connection that my sister and I are excited to renew. Of course, if she believes she has a more effective means of reaching the public, we will defer to her expertise.”
“Your sister does not object?” Gillian asked, holding her breath.
“Of course not. I hope you are open to us as well…sister,” Morrey said, and the tenderness in his tone shocked her. For a moment Gillian couldn’t breathe. A joy so strong seemed to burst inside her that she had to calm herself lest she burst into tears. She’d expected Morrey to want to pay her off to hide her, to discredit her, or ignore her at the very least. But to welcome her so openly? It was beyond anything she’d ever dreamed.
“Thank you, my lord,” she said, her eyes misting.
Morrey was still watching her closely, his warm smile growing at her response. “You’ll find us to be worthy siblings. Father taught us that family matters, and you are a part of ours.”
Cedric beamed. “Well said! Glad to hear you got the right of it, Morrey.”
Morrey approached Gillian and held out a hand. “I know you have no need of my blessing to marry Pembroke, but you have it, along with a healthy dowry.”
“I truly don’t need it,” James said. “Gillian’s heart is all I truly need.”
“Please. Allow me to provide it so that you may shower your wife with gifts. After all her years in service, I believe she deserves nothing less,” Morrey insisted.
Shower her with gifts? The thought was so foreign it was laughable.
“What do you think, love?” James asked. “The best gowns, the finest slippers, an entire room for just your bonnets?”
“Yes! Of course she wants that!” Audrey exclaimed. “Gillian, you’re going to have a room for your very own bonnets!” Her friend’s eyes glowed with mischief and sheer joy at the thought of all those silly hats being piled in one room.
Gillian sighed and chuckled. “Perhaps we might extend the library to include more novels instead?”
James grinned at her. “Novels it is, but I do insist on the gowns and slippers at least.”
She bit her lip. “Because I’m so very plain?”
James stared at her in astonishment. “Far from it! You’re the loveliest woman I’ve ever met. But I wish to provide you with the best to make every woman jealous.”
“Oh.” It would certainly take getting used to, the idea of anyone being jealous of her.
“So all that is left is to choose a date, then?” James asked. “Would Christmas suit you?”
“Is that too soon after your mother’s passing?”
James shook his head. “Officially yes, which means people will talk, I’m sure, but I’m a bachelor, quite a catch, or so I am told, so it won’t surprise them that I’ve been snapped up. What’s the point in waiting? I told you I didn’t mind scandal” Humor glinted in his eyes as he curled an arm around her waist.
“Christmas would be wonderful, then.” She tilted her face up to his, basking in the sunniness of his smile.
James stole a quick kiss. Cedric and Morrey both harrumphed strongly, but more for propriety’s sake than any actual objection.
“I shall come to call for tea, riding on Rotten Row…” He pressed a lingering kiss to her hand. “You will be courted properly, just as I promised.”
Gillian’s heart was suddenly so completely full of love, a joy so overpowering she could scarcely stand it. In a matter of weeks, she’d gone from an orphaned servant to a lady with two protective brothers.
“See? I promised you good things would come after we met all those years ago,” Audrey said with a twinkle in her eyes. “Very good things.”
Gillian smiled at her friend and mouthed the words that could never fully relay the depth of her gratitude. Thank you.
“That’s what sisters are for,” Audrey said. She shrugged as if giving her such joy had been a simple duty and not the greatest gift anyone could ever receive. Lady Society could indeed work miracles. She had given Gillian a love like no other, a man who truly cared about her, someone who wanted her as a partner in life.
James was watching her, that look of hope still in his eyes, but there was something more. Not just hope, but a promise of love and a life together. He was her wonderful, wicked earl, after all, and he would make her every dream come true.
Epilogue
One month later
Gillian stood in the dining room of James’s townhouse, her wedding gown whispering on the carpets as she walked around the long table. The guests would be arriving any minute from the church to attend the breakfast feast, but she had a few precious moments alone to admire the cook’s creations. The table was laden with cakes and other delicacies, and there was an abundance of orange flowers that filed the air with their scent, making the room
feel more like a garden. For so long she had been on the other side of this kind of life, the one who must be unseen and unheard, toiling away in the predawn hours and late into the night to make another person’s life better. Now she was the one who would have anything she wished. It was strange rather than comforting to think about, and she knew it would take some getting used to being a lady rather than a lady’s maid.
“Gillian?” Gillian turned to see her new sister-in-law standing in the doorway.
“Yes?” She studied Letty as she walked over. Her brown eyes were solemn and remorseful.
“In all the madness of the quick wedding, I never had a chance to apologize.” Letty reached out to touch Gillian’s hands. “I never should have pushed you to tell James about your past, not that day. It was wrong of me, and I’m sorry if I accused you of trying to deceive him for selfish reasons.” Letty’s voice broke slightly.
“Letty, there’s nothing to forgive. You were protecting him. I would expect nothing less from a devoted sister.” She still clasped the other woman’s hands in hers.
“But I hate the true reasons behind my actions. I was more self-serving than I led you to believe. I was afraid of the scandal as well. But if I’ve learned anything from you, it’s that scandal doesn’t matter, not when it comes to love. I liked you from the first moment we met, and I shouldn’t have tried to come between you and James. You make him so happy, wonderfully so, and he deserves that happiness more than any man I know. You’re the perfect woman for him, no matter where you came from or who you once were. What matters is who you are—the woman he loves, the woman who makes him happy.”
Indeed, how true that is, Gillian thought with a small smile. She and James had planned to wed around Christmas, but she had missed her menses only two weeks after being engaged, and they decided not to risk talk in the ton in order to protect the child she was quite sure she carried. There had been a storm of whispers at the first few dinners she had attended, and many ladies had been upset that James was no longer a bachelor. He found it rather amusing, and soon Gillian had relaxed, once she was positive the gossips weren’t harming him or his sister. In fact, the intervention of Lady Society had helped, just as he and Adam had hoped.
Audrey had penned a delightful article about Gillian, which most of the ton seemed convinced by. The whispers around her had been mostly about her mysteriousness and her quiet beauty and natural grace than they were speculation as to her familial circumstances. And Gillian could not forget how quickly she’d been welcomed by her half brother, Adam, and her half sister, Caroline, as family.
“I’m so happy you’re a part of our family,” Letty added. “That day I met you at the modiste’s shop, I had a feeling about you. A sense of kindred spirits.” Her eyes shone with tears of happiness, and then she hugged Gillian.
“Thank you! I never imagined I would gain two sisters in one month, but I’m so glad we are family now.”
“Agreed! It’s so much fun to have a sister in the house.” Letty squeezed her again, smiling. “I have to go find my brother. The guests will be here soon.”
She left Gillian alone again in the dining room. She reached out to touch the delicately made porcelain pitchers. The colorful china patterns of red and gold flowers reminded her of James and the long rides they liked to take in Hyde Park as they watched the leaves turn to gold. All around her, life was beautiful, and her future shone like a bright star in the winter sky.
“Trying to steal a bit of cake?” James’s teasing tone made her smile. He entered the dining room, looking fine in his black jacket, waistcoat, and tan trousers. His brown eyes gleamed like hot chocolate.
“I admit, I am tempted. The idea that I already eat for two is a bit daunting.” She placed a palm over her still-flat belly. She hadn’t forgotten Horatia’s difficult labor or how frightened everyone had been. James came over, curling his arms around her waist and pulling her flush against him. Their faces were mere inches apart. They shared the same breath, eyes locked upon each other.
“We’ll face it together. Anything that frightens you, I will be at your side.” His vow was whispered in a soft voice, yet with the conviction of a knight of ages past, vowing to protect his lady fair. As much as Gillian insisted she’d never needed rescuing, knowing that he would fight for her gave her a new kind of strength. She knew her own virtues because she’d supported herself for so many years, but knowing she had a partner at her side made a world of difference to her. They could face anything together.
“Do I truly make you happy?” she asked as she toyed with the folds of his snowy-white cravat. She supposed it would take a while to banish the fears that she wasn’t enough for him. A lifetime of doubts did not vanish overnight.
There were no shadows in his eyes as he cupped her cheek. “There has only ever been joy for me when I’m with you. When you’re here, it’s like feeling the sun on my face after a cold winter. You breathed life into me. No one has ever come close to making me feel that way. No other name will fill my heart but yours.” His eyes burned with startling intensity. “What must I do to prove you’re the only one for me?”
There was nothing he could do. He’d already proven it time and again.
She swallowed. “I simply cannot believe that fate would give you to me. That I am worthy of such a gift.” She leaned her face into his hand, closing her eyes and drawing in a slow breath. “For so long I dared not to dream, dared not to believe I could have a full life, one of joy and love. I feared I would always be on the outside of a window looking in at a world that could never be mine. How can I possibly deserve you and all of this?” She gestured to the beautifully decorated dining room, but she referred to so much more.
“Everyone deserves love and a good life,” James said “You and I were simply luckier than most to find ours together.”
He lowered his head, his mouth covering hers in a heated kiss. She imagined she could get drunk on such a taste, on his arms holding her tight and the feel of his heart beating so close to her own. Her once-tired soul had been roused by the passion and ferocity of his love. She smiled as she remembered that day a month ago when they had spoken John Donne’s poem “The Good Morrow” together:
* * *
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.
* * *
Every word of it had been true then, and it would remain so always.
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You’ve just read the 7th book in the League of Rogues series. The other books in the series are Wicked Designs, His Wicked Seduction, and Her Wicked Proposal, Wicked Rivals, Her Wicked Longing and His Wicked Embrace. The next book is
His Wicked Secret, which will come out the Summer of 2018!
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If you’d like to read the first three chapters from the next book in the Wicked Earls’ Series The Earl of Seville by Christina McKnight!
Come on, you know want to turn that page…
Earl of St. Seville
By Christina McKnight
Prologue
January 1822
London, England
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James Lane, the Earl of Desmond, strolled down the darkened lane bordering Covent Garden without benefit of the gaslights that were commonplace in the more civilized areas of London. Pall Mall, Oxford Street, Bond Street, and even Savile Row in Mayfair. The earl pulled at the lapel of his coat to keep the crisp evening air from sending wave after wave of shivers through him. He wasn’t as young as he’d once been, nor was he as strong or confident as the young lord who’d claimed the love of Ivory Bess not far from this very spot.
The clip of horses’ hooves sounded behind Desmond, reminding him that losing focus and letting his guard down in such a neighborhood—and so late into the night—could mean his death. He glanced over his shoulder. No one followed as he hurried toward his carriage, halted at the end of the street—only four dark and abandoned buildings away—his driver idly passing the time huddled in his thick, wool coat on his perch where Desmond had left him two hours prior. His footman kept watch near the boot of the carriage.
