“So you didn’t come here to escape your creditors?” Allegra asked.
“They are paid off to a man,” he admitted. “Which only proves what little aptitude I have for becoming a fashionable member of the ton.”
“So you came…only because you loved me?”
“Only because I couldn’t face living without you.”
At those tender words, Allegra balled one hand into a fist and slugged him in the side.
“What was that for?” he gasped.
“For not saying you loved me the instant you arrived!”
Rubbing his side, Will reached over to retrieve his shirt. “I intended to say nothing if you seemed happy here. Only when I felt you might return my love did I dare to declare myself. And speaking of declarations—” he paused to slip his shirt over his head “—I shall call upon your grandfather this very evening and ask for your hand.”
He had just fastened the first button when a voice from the threshold roared, “A bit late for that!”
Allegra gasped and Will froze in horror as the garden-house door swung open and the duke strode in, his ferocious gaze moving from the rumpled coverlet upon which they sat to Will, his shirt mostly unbuttoned, cravat unraveled on the floor beside him, to Allegra, her bodice loose on her arms and her skirt bunched up above her ankles.
While Will hurriedly twitched her skirt back down and reached for his coat, Signora Bertrude rushed in behind the duke, to stop short as she spied them. Eyes widening, she emitted a piercing scream and fainted.
As if in the dreamy fog of a nightmare, Will saw behind the enraged duke a crowd of faces pressed to the garden-house windows, their expressions ranging from curiosity to shock to amusement.
And framed by the open doorway stood the furious figure of Count von Strossen.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
FOR ALLEGRA, what happened next transpired in a blur of shock and distress. Grandfather shooing away the gaping onlookers and bundling Allegra into his coat. Ordering a maid be sent to minister to the still-prostrate Signora. Barking at the count, who’d advanced on her, to take himself off with the others lest, as master of this estate, the duke have him thrown into irons. Finally, warning Allegra to keep silent and accompany him back to the house.
After commanding Will to remove himself at once, the duke refused to acknowledge him further. With equal stubbornness, though Will made no attempt to argue with her grandfather, he refused to leave her side.
After she’d shrugged on her grandfather’s coat, Will defiantly seized her hand, placed it on his arm and informed her grandfather that unless they shot him first, he would escort his affianced bride back to the house.
For a terrified moment, Allegra feared the duke might take the little jeweled pistol he always carried and do just that. But then, with a curt nod, Grandfather indicated that they should follow him. In silence the three of them walked along the sunlit terrace back to the house, curious footmen and peeping maids scattering before the forbidding face of the duke.
Will walked her all the way to her bedchamber before relinquishing her hand. “Don’t worry,” he reassured her as he opened the door for her. “All will be well, I promise. I’ll get word to you as soon as I can.” Casting a challenging glance at the duke, he bent and kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“I’m not,” she whispered back.
“I love you, my heart,” she heard him say before the door closed behind her.
Though she wasn’t happy that the most tender, thrilling afternoon of her life had ended in an ugly scene, she’d meant it when she assured Will she had no regrets. The hazy idea Molly’s long-ago description had given her of lovemaking resembled the reality of her experience with Will only as a penny drawing by an itinerant artist compared to the finished oil of a master portraitist, the latter’s breathtaking details and brilliant rendering making it almost impossible to believe both portrayed the same subject.
She would meet Will in the garden again in an instant if a hundred von Strossens glowered at her afterwards.
Knowing the glow of awe and pleasure wouldn’t last forever, Allegra meant to enjoy it to the fullest. Humming to herself, she poured water into a basin and gently cleansed the sensitized flesh Will had worshipped with his hands and tongue, a tingle of arousal stirring in her again at the memories. He’d demonstrated before on several occasions that he was thoughtful, kind, tender. But he’d proven that today on a different, physical level beyond anything she had ever experienced or imagined.
Will was a wonder. Her wonder. How proud she was to love him, to have been claimed by him!
Grandfather would not see it that way, she knew. She would regret leaving San Gregillio and the lavish, if sometimes stifling, love of her family, but it seemed she was truly her mother’s daughter after all. Like Lady Grace, she would abandon opulence and status without a backward glance to follow the man she loved.
After finishing her ablutions, Allegra pulled her battered trunk from the back of her wardrobe. She expected Grandfather would send her away before dawn tomorrow, to spare the family the humiliation of having their curious guests witness her banishment. While she waited for Will to send her word, she folded and packed the modest governess gowns she’d possessed when she first arrived.
Will would be devising some plan for their return to England. If her grandfather were angry enough to blacken their name in the neighborhood, it might take him some time to find a conveyance. But sooner or later, he would bring her back to Brookwillow, the bride of his heart and mistress of a country estate, just as she’d long hoped.
She placed a hand on her flat stomach and smiled. Before their first child was born, she trusted.
A gust of wind rattled the shutters. She looked up to see that the sky had clouded over amid a distant rumble of thunder. A niggle of fear gathered in her stomach.
Things were done differently in Italy, she knew, recalling the elaborate entourage of duennas, maids, footmen and grooms that had shadowed her every step. What if, instead of simply sending her away, the duke prevented Will from accompanying her? What if, by law or tradition, Grandfather had the right to exact revenge upon the man who had disgraced his granddaughter? Might he even now be planning to harm Will?
The idea was so alarming, Allegra abandoned forthwith any notion of patiently waiting here until summoned. Dressing quickly in a simple gown, she left her room.
She thought first to seek out Will in his chamber—but she didn’t know which room was his. The two servants she encountered quickly turned and walked in the opposite direction when they spied her, for which she couldn’t blame them. ’Twas likely neither of them would have given her the information she sought anyway.
From halfway down the stairs she saw Barrows crossing the foyer. She beckoned urgently, then ran to meet him.
Looking haggard and shaken, the valet bowed low. “My most abject apologies, miss—that is, Duchessa. ’Tis my fault—all of it! I was to stand guard while you and the master…anyway, thinking the gardener might return, I watched the road to the barns. I never dreamed the duke would take it in his head to escort his guests to sniff his blasted night-scented jasmine! I can’t beg pardon enough—”
“’Tis done now, so there’s nothing to gain by repining,” Allegra interrupted. “Where is your master?”
“The duke sent for him half an hour ago.”
Fear, greater now that she’d had time to ponder the matter, caught in her throat. “Will he be h-harmed?”
Barrows shook his head miserably. “I don’t know, Duchessa. I pray the duke merely gives him a thundering scold. If he should have him incarcerated or…disfigured—”
“Don’t even think it.” Allegra cut him off, shuddering. “I must do something!”
Picking up her skirts, she hurried down the hallway into the anteroom leading to the duke’s office and library.
She stopped short on the threshold when she spotted Will staring out the window, his back to her.
; “Will!” she cried, running over to him. “I’ve been so worried! I don’t know the law here, but ’tis entirely possible Grandfather may be able to take some…unpleasant action against you. Don’t see him! Let’s leave together now, this very moment.” She hugged him fiercely. “I cannot bear to be parted from you!”
“No, my darling,” Will said, his smile tender as he detached her to kiss each hand, her forehead and then her lips. “We shall not run away like housebreakers who have roused the dogs. I wronged your grandfather by seducing you under his roof. It’s only right that I stand before him and accept the chastisement I’ve earned.”
Even as he voiced it, Allegra had to acknowledge the truth. “You are right,” she said quietly. “But if you must face him, then so must I. Indeed, mine is the greater wrong, for I am blood kin.”
As Will started to protest, Allegra put a finger over his lips. “Do you mean to marry me, Will Tavener?”
“You know I do.”
“If we are to be partners in life, then let us start now—by going to see Grandfather together.”
He studied her face for a moment. “Very well, my love. We’ll go in together.”
Hand in hand, they approached the library door, knocked once and entered.
The duke, who’d been studying some papers on his desk, looked up. His expression of annoyance at being interrupted fired to fury when he recognized them.
“How dare you barge in without my leave?” he barked. “I summoned only the English devil, Allegra. You, I shall deal with later.”
“This ‘English devil’ will be my husband, nonno. We came to beg your pardon and inform you we will leave San Gregillio today. I’m sorry to disappoint you, Grandfather. I know you are angry with us, and for good cause, after we embarrassed you in front of your guests. If I could do it over, I would choose for it not to have happened like that—but if I could do it over, I would always choose Will. I love him, nonno. And I will marry him.”
“And you, Englishman?” the duke growled. “What have you to say?”
“That I, too, beg your pardon for having abused your hospitality. But I love Allegra and I mean to have her as my wife. We’d like to ask your blessing…though I know ’tis probably impossible, after everything that happened today.”
The duke rose from his chair. “My blessing!” he thundered. “You have the audacity to ask for my blessing after your inexcusable, wanton, scandalous behavior?”
Gritting her teeth, Allegra squeezed Will’s hand and braced herself for the tirade to come. Then, to her utter astonishment, the duke began to laugh.
Coming around from behind his desk, he swept Allegra into his embrace. “No, it is I who must beg pardon, my brave nipotina! I only hope you were not too embarrassed.”
Setting her back on her feet, he continued, “Why do you think I urged your Englishman to visit the garden house? Do you suppose it was coincidence he found it unlocked this afternoon? Or that, in violation of custom, I roused my guests early from their slumbers to show them blossoms that will be just as fragrant later tonight?”
“You wanted us to…?” Allegra waved a hand, incredulous.
“And deliberately brought a crowd to discover us afterward?” Will asked, frowning.
Gesturing them to a sofa, the duke took a nearby armchair. “Did you think I did not know the danger that threatened you, my child? Did you imagine that after losing my son and finding you, I would let you go to that treacherous Austrian—that foul dog who dared to threaten he would seize my land if I should not yield you to him? Never!
“I knew he would force his will upon you and allow nothing to stand in his way. But he is also proud. Desire you as he does, he could not take to wife a woman at the center of so public a scandal, even though she be an Antinori. Now he must give up his designs on you.”
Snuggling into the arm Will had wrapped around her, Allegra exclaimed, “Grandfather, you are a rascal!”
The duke shrugged modestly. “I did not survive the French nibbling at my estates and trying to devour my ancient title only to yield them to the Austrians. For over two hundred years, foreigners have dominated our land, but it will not always be so. I pray, in Alessandro’s time if not in my own, our country will be united and free.”
“I hope you are right, sir,” Will said.
The duke nodded. “It will come to pass, but I shall not sacrifice you to that cause, Allegra. Once, when I was younger and not so wise, I stood between my son and what he loved—and lost him forever. I would not do so with his daughter. But for now, you must leave for England. Once von Strossen accepts that he cannot force you to be his wife, he will see in your disgrace other possibilities. I trust your Englishman can deal with him, but ’twill be better if you were both gone before he can marshal his resources here against you.”
The duke stood and held out his arms. Still marveling at her grandfather’s wily, improbable scheme, Allegra went into them willingly.
“If you send your man to the small shed behind the stables,” the duke told Will as he released Allegra, “he will find a horse and carriage. Now, off with you both.”
Crossing to his desk, the duke took a fat pouch jingling with coins from a drawer and handed it to Will. “A small gift for your wedding day. You should reach the village on the road to Rome before nightfall. Stop at the Inn of the Crossroads and tell Phillipo you are my guests.”
“But what of my banishment?” Allegra asked. “Is there not to be a public scene?”
The duke displayed what on a lesser man would have been called a grin. “Indeed! When I summon you to appear before me in the morning and you cannot be found, there will be such a scene, no one at the palazzo is likely ever to forget it. I shall roar and fume! Gnash my teeth, curse your name and banish you forever. Ah, such a performance it will be. I am quite looking forward to it. The Austrian will never be able to say we Antinoris do not prize our honor, or that we stood in the way of his desires. You will be safe, my child, and the Antinori land as well.”
Shaking her head, Allegra chuckled. “You truly are a rascal, Grandfather.”
“No, ’tis you English who are knaves!” the duke said solemnly, pointing at Will. “Stealing my granddaughter and my carriage!”
“How can we thank you enough, sir?” Will asked.
“Make my nipotina happy. Go back to the green England for which she pines and build a life. Write to me, and when it’s safe, when this Austrian has gone like the rest, come back and bring me your children to bless.”
Taking Allegra’s hand, he put it in Will’s. “Go with him, my child. Both of you go with God.”
She would marry Will—with her grandfather’s blessing. Happiness swelled Allegra’s heart so that, were it not for the sadness of leaving her grandfather, she felt she might float up to the clouds.
“It seems I’m the granddaughter of a rogue as well as a rogue’s lady,” she told Will after kissing the duke goodbye and asking him to convey her love to Alessandro. “Shall we find that carriage, my love?”
“I feel a wave of criminal impulses about to overcome me,” Will said. Bowing to the duke, he led her away.
They slipped through the silent halls as daylight faded toward dusk. Will found Barrows and sent him ahead to load their luggage into the duke’s carriage.
As the household began stirring, they tiptoed through the private garden beside the duke’s wing that would lead them unobserved to the stables. From the window of his library, Allegra’s grandfather waved goodbye.
Hand in hand, while the rays of the setting sun turned the fountain’s spray to a sparkle of gold, Allegra and Will walked to the waiting carriage and into their future.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-0791-6
ROGUE’S LADY
Copyright © 2007 by Janet Justiss
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