by Allison Lane
Nicholas was twisting his head in an attempt to see. “Don’t move,” whispered Diana. “You will distract him.” She kept her eyes nearly closed so it would look like she was lost in Nicholas’s arms if George again glanced their way. Chloe and Charles were likewise motionless.
“He can’t be distracted by what he doesn’t see,” he whispered back, sliding his hand down to cup her bottom. She nearly yelped.
“You’ll pay for that!”
“With luck.” He was inching her skirt up so he could slide his hand under the hem. Tingles spread from that minuscule movement, growing and multiplying until she was trembling. She nipped his ear in revenge, sending shudders through his body.
George tried to speak, but nothing intelligible emerged.
“God, what an ass,” said Nicholas against Diana’s throat. “I never thought to hear such a mutton-headed proposal. Whatever does she see in him?”
“I can’t imagine.”
George somehow found his voice. “What do you want, Lady Sophia? I’m sure I can give it to you. We share so many ideals.”
“Like condemning fun?” quipped Nicholas, tracing her ear with his tongue.
“Shh.”
“We’ve both got country estates. Is it a town house you lack? But that doesn’t seem like you.” He paused in thought.
Nicholas trailed kisses across her cheek. “I wonder if two such prudes can figure out what to do in bed?” Then he had to press her mouth against his shoulder to stifle her laughter.
George cleared his throat. “How about an orphanage for the street urchins you break your heart over?”
Sophia gasped. “How did you know I wanted to start an orphanage?”
“I know you so well.” The barest hint of a smile caught one corner of his mouth.
“George?” She again leaned back against his arms, looking into his eyes.
“What can I offer you, Sophia?”
“Not an orphanage. I have the money and estate for that already.”
“Then what? I’m no good at mind reading. You need to tell me.”
“Dunderhead,” whispered Nicholas. “The man’s as dense as a post.”
“Denser,” said Diana, stifling another laugh. “I’m tempted to write him a cue card.”
“Why did you offer for me?”
Five people held their breath as George hesitated.
“Come on, George,” whispered Diana. “You can do it.”
“Let’s get this over with,” begged Nicholas under his breath.
Even Charles paused to shake his head. Chloe twisted her head to stare at her former betrothed.
George closed his eyes. “I l-love you.”
“Then I would be honored to accept.”
The sighs of relief nearly fluttered the draperies. Diana sagged into Nicholas’s embrace. George was actually kissing Sophia. He must have forgotten his audience.
“Thank God,” murmured Nicholas. His tongue dove back into Diana’s mouth. She closed her eyes, no longer caring what anyone else was doing…
Someone shrieked.
“Gracious!” The new voice was coldly disapproving.
“If this is a joke, Woodvale, it is in very poor taste!” Lord Parker was angrier than Diana had ever seen him.
Wiggs had fetched the couples from the drawing room. Now they crowded into the library, shock and disapproval on every face. The room bulged. Eight parents tried to outshout one another.
“Oh, the scandal!” cried Lady Parker, collapsing against Lady Weymouth as her screeches rose into full hysterics.
Lord Weymouth shoved Sophia aside so he could tower over George. “How dare you court censure with this blatant infidelity?”
“Infidelity!” shouted Sophia, pushing him back and draping her arm around George’s waist. “Look at that trollop you tied him to!”
“How dare you preach of infidelity when you’ve kept a mistress in our own village for years?” demanded George.
“Chloe, you will go home this instant!” thundered Lord Parker.
“She won’t,” countered Charles, whisking her behind him for protection as he stood eye to eye with his prospective father-in-law.
“Not another scandal!” sobbed Lady Langley. “We barely survived your brother’s.”
“What?”
“What mistress?”
“I won’t allow you to throw over a good match!”
“You’re a fine one to talk, Mother! What about your lovers?”
“Lovers?”
“I’ll never wed George!”
“Never!”
“—bedazzled you!”
“—seduces innocents!”
“How can you deny it? I heard you, Mother!”
“That’s no innocent—”
“My palpitations!”
“He’s turned her head—” The veins stood out on Lord Parker’s neck.
“—a light-skirt!” Lord Langley’s fist slammed onto the desktop.
“How many of her children are yours?”
“Dictatorial—”
Nicholas chuckled.
“How dare you judge me!” Lord Weymouth’s hands fisted.
“Good heavens,” murmured Diana. “There’s going to be violence if you don’t do something.”
“He is—”
“Have you no shame?”
“I won’t stand for—”
“—unprincipled libertine.”
“Trollop!”
“Lady Debenham will crucify us!”
“—foolishness!”
“Fortune hunter!”
“Enough of—”
“—no dowry!”
Lord Parker sidestepped Lord Langley’s fist as George made a dive for the swords hanging above the mantel.
“Quiet!” Nicholas’s shout overrode the cacophony. Smoothing Diana’s skirt back into place, he set her aside. “This is not a battlefield. There will be no dueling in my library.”
A sword clattered onto the hearth. A dozen jaws dropped.
“Why, you—” began Lord Bankleigh, but Nicholas cut him off.
“You will be quiet,” he said implacably. “You left us no choice but to stage this charade. I have never seen more pig-headed fools gathered in one spot in my life. Perhaps one of you can explain why eight parents who claim to care for their children have done their best to ruin them?” He glared at Lord Parker.
“How dare you?” Parker demanded. “I will not see my innocent daughter in the hands of a penniless rake.”
“You would rather see her die of boredom with a man who will come to hate her as implacably as she hates him?” His glare stopped a response. “Have you ever asked her what she wanted? Have you ever even talked to her?” For the first time since his uncle’s death, he enjoyed his position. His rank stopped Parker’s objections cold. A viscount did not contradict a marquess. Especially in front of two earls.
“She wants marriage and children, the same as any other girl,” stated Lady Parker firmly.
“That is true. But she also wants adventure. She wants to see the world, to enjoy life. Forcing her to live docilely in the country would destroy her spirit. Is that what you want?”
Parker was staring at his daughter as if he had never seen her before.
“This must be another of your jokes,” complained Lord Langley, glaring at Charles. “Her dowry will never support you. Where will you live? What about Lady Bounty?”
“Lady Bounty knows my heart,” said Charles coldly. “Chloe and I will wed tomorrow – by special license, if she can gain consent. Otherwise, we will catch the packet to Guernsey. Whatever dowry she has will go into trust for our children. I alone will support us. I sail for China next week as a representative of the East India Company.”
Lady Langley collapsed onto a chair.
“China?” squeaked Lady Parker, pulling out her vinaigrette. “Heathens! Murderers!”
Lady Langley grabbed her hand to share the restorative, inciting new shrieks.
&nbs
p; “It is what I want,” declared Chloe.
“And I,” said Charles, drawing her closer to his side as his eyes moved from one parent to another.
The ladies’ tussle over the vinaigrette sent it sailing across the room.
Lord Parker was staring from George to Charles.
“I don’t want her,” said George. He recovered the vinaigrette and returned it to Lady Parker.
“I want Charles,” declared Chloe.
“Lady Bounty?” He looked at her and grimaced. Her hair was falling down, and her dress was still off one shoulder.
“I never wanted Charles,” she admitted calmly.
Lord Parker’s shoulders sagged. “Come along, children. We will discuss this in private. There is much to do and not much time.”
“Try the breakfast parlor. Second door on the right,” suggested Nicholas. “My solicitor is in the study if you need help to untangle any settlements,” he added as Chloe, Charles, and their parents left the library.
Lady Bankleigh and Lady Weymouth stared at Sophia with identical expressions of horror.
“George and I are getting married,” she announced.
“George?” asked Lord Weymouth.
“I tried to tell you that Chloe was unsuitable,” said George with a shrug.
“And what of Woodvale?” demanded Lord Bankleigh.
“What of him?” Sophia demanded. “He cares nothing for me and can go his own way with my blessing.”
Bankleigh sighed. “Are you sure this time?”
“Very.”
“I suppose anything would be better than a libertine,” he grumbled, casting black stares at Nicholas and Diana.
“Lady Bounty agreed to help me stage this charade,” Nicholas stated coldly. “I had to get rid of the chit. She’s far too disapproving for my taste. We would have spent the next forty years trying to kill each other.”
“Do you mean that you plotted this with him?” demanded Bankleigh, glaring at Diana.
Lady Weymouth gasped, pulling out her own vinaigrette. “Scandalous!”
Sophia shrugged. “I can only be grateful she did. I would have made the best of it, but we would not have suited any more than George and Miss Parker.”
Diana saw the fear deep in her eyes. George was not completely stupid. It would not do to let him suspect Sophia’s complicity in this farce.
But George was made of sterner stuff than they had expected. He straightened. “Thank you, Lady Bounty. Your selflessness has benefited all of us.” He turned to Lord Bankleigh, his face hardening. “I am appalled that you would force Sophia into so unsuitable a match. And I am incensed that anyone could threaten to sell his own daughter to a man like Griswold. Not once have you considered her best interests. All you care about is your own consequence. But making her choose between Griswold and a libertine demeans you far more than having an unwed daughter!”
“I told you it wouldn’t work,” said Lady Bankleigh, turning on her husband.
“But it did,” Bankleigh insisted stoutly. “Girl’s finally off our hands. Thought I’d never get rid of her.”
“Of all the cold—” began Nicholas, but Diana stopped him.
“Don’t start a new fight,” she whispered.
Lady Weymouth inhaled deeply from her own vinaigrette. Lady Bankleigh stared. Sophia burst into genuine tears.
“It’s all right, love,” murmured George. “We still have each other.”
Nicholas shook his head as he led Diana away. “We will leave you to discuss this in private. Might I suggest an immediate wedding and no public announcements until both marriages are official? If you present society with a fait accompli and a united front, there will be less scandal.”
Weymouth nodded, then turned back to his son. Lady Bankleigh collapsed onto a chair as far from her husband as she could get. Lady Weymouth offered her the vinaigrette as Nicholas shut the door.
“You should not have jumped in to defend me,” Diana chided him when they had reached the drawing room. “Learning that Sophia set him up will give George a grudge he will not forget in a hurry. She will have enough trouble accepting her father’s indifference.”
“I realized that a moment too late. Fortunately, Sophia covered the gaffe. But I could not allow them to believe you were conducting an affair with me.”
“Why not? That is precisely the image you were projecting to George.”
“True, but only to trigger his chivalry. I knew he could never watch me make a fool of Sophia without interfering.”
“I gather he objected to your performance at the theater.” She giggled. “I thought he would swoon when he saw Charles and Chloe. But right up to the end, I had doubts that this would work. I know those people too well. Even your loftier title should not have carried the day. We should have—”
His lips cut off her voice. “Diana…” This kiss was even headier than their earlier ones. “God, I want you,” he gasped at last.
She froze. “Heartless rogue! You can’t keep your mind out of bed, can you?”
“That just slipped out.”
“Right. When had you planned on mentioning it? After dinner? Am I on the menu as dessert? You undoubtedly expect gratitude for extricating me from that betrothal without tarnishing my reputation.”
“No!”
“Do you really expect me to believe that?”
“Diana—” He squeezed his eyes shut and drew in a deep breath. “It’s true that I want you, but that wasn’t where I meant to start, because it raises the wrong images. I never should have offered you carte blanche.”
She glared silently until he met her eyes.
He sighed. “You’re right. I’m heartless. I’ve been heartless since I left Warwickshire. When I hurled yours back, mine went with it. It’s been in your keeping ever since.”
“What game are you playing now?”
“The most important game of my life. The prize is marriage – and a lifetime of fidelity. I love you, Diana. More than ever. I never stopped, you see. Everything I’ve done in ten years has been a fruitless effort to push you out of my mind. But you are more firmly lodged than ever. I can’t live without you, my love. Can I please quit trying?”
She bit back tears. “I don’t know, Nicholas. I truly do not want a husband.”
“I’ve no designs on your fortune. You would still be financially independent.”
“You couldn’t touch it anyway.” She explained the trust.
“Good for Bounty. He was a wily one. So what is troubling you?”
She said nothing.
“Talk to me, sweetheart,” he begged, settling on the couch with her in his lap. “Why are you so determined? Was marriage to Bounty so frightful?”
“Harry?” She was genuinely shocked. “No. He was the kindest man I’ve ever known. I loved him dearly, though like a father. He knew Papa was dying before I did, and he knew what Uncle Raymond would do once he had me in his power. So he agreed to take care of me. That’s why he set up the trust.”
Remembering Harry brought a tear to her eye, but Nicholas was still stuck back on Uncle Raymond. “What would your uncle have done?”
“Sold me to the meanest, most lecherous rogue he could find who was willing to pay.” She inhaled deeply, letting the breath out slowly. “But not until he tired of using me himself. He always had a penchant for young girls.”
“I’ll break his neck!” The growl sent shivers down her spine.
“Shh.” She loosened his fingers before they could bruise her arm. “No need. His horse already took care of that – before Harry died, thank God. I’m not sure even Harry’s arrangements could have kept him from reclaiming control over me.”
“I wish I had known.”
“You had no right to interfere. And he did me no lasting harm. He stalked me more than once, but he never caught me. The closest he ever came was cornering me in the barn one day – I would have been about fourteen. But Papa arrived immediately, and I was able to escape. He was scary, but I didn
’t understand his purpose until much later. Harry took me away before Papa died, so I was never in danger.”
“Then what is wrong?”
“Nothing. At least not in the sense you mean.” She rose to pace the room. “I am just so tired of men’s lies, of their games and their mysteries. I won’t tie myself to another one. Even Harry had secrets, despite pretending to be so open. He never explained your friendship, for example. I often wondered why he refused to take me to Sherlock – I knew why he kept me away from London, of course; I couldn’t risk running into you.” She shook her head. “Papa was secretive about everything important – and not just with me. Few people knew of his financial woes. His illness had raged for two years before he told me about it. All that time I was sneaking around with you, I could have been with him. I’ll never forgive myself for the missed memories.”
“It’s not your fault he died,” he said softly. “And be honest with yourself. If we had not met, would you have known about his illness any sooner?”
She started to answer, but bit her lip instead. Would she have known sooner? Even before meeting Nicholas, she had seen her father only at occasional dinners. The dining room had been a cavernous place that was impossible to light properly, so his sallowness and even his lost weight were not apparent.
“Probably not,” she admitted. “But he should have shared something that vital.”
“He did not know you as well as I do,” he murmured, again pulling her into his lap. “You are strong and can handle the bad as well as the good.”
“Nice speech, but you’ve never been open with me, either.”
He sighed. “Ten years ago I did not know what I wanted. It is difficult to share thoughts you don’t understand yourself. That, at least, has changed. Now I can safely promise that I would never again keep secrets from you, my love. And I won’t ever lie.”
“I can’t—”
But he cut her off. “You can’t give me an heir? That doesn’t matter. I already have a perfectly good one.”
She stared. “That isn’t what I was going to say. I’m afraid, Nicholas.”
