by Carrie Brock
Nicole curled her fingers into the fabric of his cloak to better secure her balance. “You have a disagreeable habit of interrupting me, my lord.”
“Oh? I believe you said I was the only predator about these parts. Let me assure you, Nicole, that you are well protected in my hands.”
She turned her face away, but not before Blake saw the shadow of uncertainty flicker across her features. “You have a strange notion of protection.”
“Not really.”
One day Nicole might understand that his actions had saved her from a fortune hunter, that she was the heiress Teddy had intended to fleece. But the time had not yet come for that revelation. She would not believe him if he spoke now.
“It is your desire that I trust you to protect me when you have not bothered to hide your dislike of my father?”
He shrugged. “You are not your father.”
No, Blake did not intend to inflict any hardship on Nicole.
Her slender body stiffened in his arms. “That is where you are wrong, my lord. If it is in my power to keep any of my family from harm—I will do so.”
“Beware.” He leaned close to whisper the words in her ear. “You traverse paths best avoided, my lovely Nicole.”
Once again she twisted in his arms to stare into his face. So lovely. So determined. “You ask too much. Surely you have realized by now that I do not frighten easily.”
Moments passed before Blake realized he gripped the reins tightly. Then Banbury broke through the line of stately trees and the stone facade of Langley Hall loomed grey and forbidding before them.
A strange tightness grabbed at Blake's chest. “There is a first time for everything, my dear.”
. . .
Nicki watched Blake ride into the darkness, his cloak billowing behind him. A large, forbidding specter. Then the night swallowed him, or he became a part of it—Nicki could not be certain which. She was shivering when she opened the front door and slipped inside.
A single lamp burned low on a nearby table and aided Nicki in her journey up the stairs. Another wall lantern flickered, guiding her down the hall to her bedchamber.
As she softly closed the door, she heard a rustle and a squeal and turned just as Mina leapt from the bed and rushed to meet her.
“I've been beside myself, Nicki Langley! Where have you been all this time?”
Nicki shook the skirts of her habit, sending leaves and twigs fluttering to the rose carpet. “I hid in the woods and watched the earl's window until I saw a light.”
Anxiously, Mina searched Nicki's face. “Did he agree to your proposal?”
“My argument was simply irrefutable. He could not resist me.”
“Do you mean it?” Mina wrapped Nicki in a tight embrace. “Oh, Nicki! I'm to have a Season?”
Surrounded by the freshness of lavender and her sister's joy, Nicki admitted the risks she had taken this night had been worth each nerve-harrowing moment. “He agreed to pay Papa's debts, rent a townhouse, and finance your Season.”
Mina gave one last squeeze before releasing her. “You are the best sister! I will never forget what you have sacrificed for Papa and for me. I know you always believed you would marry for love.”
“I want your happiness, Mina, and that means going to London. I told the earl you would take Society by storm. You must not let me down.”
Nicki let Mina pull her onto the high, canopied bed. She understood her younger sister's excitement and wished she could share in her pleasure. Tucking her legs beneath her, Nicki watched as her sister perched on her knees, then grabbed up a pillow and squeezed it to her nightrail-clad breast.
“Tell me everything. What did he say? Was he difficult?”
“Most certainly he was difficult. He is like no one I have ever met in my life.” Nicki plucked at a spot of mud on her skirts. “Yet . . . somehow, I sense his hardness is a facade. What do you suppose could have occurred between he and Papa to cause such bitterness?”
“I wish I knew. Papa and Angelica did not mention the reason—as though it were by an agreement of silence between them.”
Nicki shook her head in amazement. “You were eavesdropping again. Goodness, Mina, one day you will be caught and Papa's image of your innate goodness will be hopelessly tarnished.”
“No one tells us the interesting tidbits. It is my responsibility to keep us apprised.”
“And you are quite good at it. Between your spying and Shelby's blackmail, I feel I am sadly lacking in criminal skills.”
“Nonsense,” Mina laughed. “No one can climb as well as you.”
Nicki grimaced. “So well that I climbed right into the trap set by the Earl of Diamond.”
“Well . . . yes. But Lord Diamond is much younger than Melton. That's encouraging,” her sister offered with forced optimism.
“Is it? Or shall I simply have to wait much longer for him to die and leave me to spend his fortune in glorious freedom?”
After she abandoned the sadly creased pillow to her lap where it rolled aside and dropped to the floor, Mina twisted a dark curl around one finger and set to examining the strands intently. “You might enjoy marriage to a young, healthy man.”
The suggestion elicited a gasp of outrage. “Enjoy marriage? Bah! He is already issuing demands. I shall be no more than a prisoner. Unlike our Papa, Blake Dylan is not the sort to be charmed and distracted. I fear I shall be hopelessly under his thumb.”
“Good Heavens, Nicki, you make it sound like a death sentence.”
“Death is too easy. Quick, painless.” Nicki took one of the undamaged pillows and set it in her lap so she could smooth the pale blue satin. “Marriage holds women captive—torturing them. Do you think Papa tells his buyers that his spinster daughter assists him in the research for breeding prime horseflesh? What do you think the earl will say when I ask to start up my own stables? He may not say anything. From what I have seen of him thus far, he will simply lock me in the attic with the bones of his other seven wives. Admit I am right, Mina, if a subject has nothing to do with housekeeping or babes, we are not to be consulted.”
Mina tossed the curl she had been examining over her shoulder and gave Nicki a stern look. “I truly hope you did not start this morbid and self-pitying tirade in front of the earl. Papa is well used to you—but I should think a new husband needs time to acquaint himself with your novel ideas. A gradual exposure over time is definitely your best course of action. I know you have little patience, but you should try some restraint in this instance.”
She knew the wisdom of her younger sister's advice. Mina's instincts were always on the mark. Still, the two of them were different, and Nicki had ever found Mina's instruction difficult to follow. Mina calmly assessed a situation, then arrived at a logical solution. Nicki preferred a snap decision and immediate follow through. The only problem with that procedure was that small imperfections had a way of cropping up, landing her in additional trouble. Her father called it being too highly strung and vowed he had worked many years at overcoming his own careless tendencies. Recalling the rather wild picture he presented in the Earl of Diamond's bedchamber the previous night, Nicki wondered at the success of his efforts.
“Nicki! I do wish you would stop drifting. I was saying how pleased Angelica will be to return to London. These years away have been quite miserable for her.”
At the mention of her stepmother, tension raced through Nicki's entire body. “I have done this for you and Papa. If I could have added one more stipulation it would have been that Angelica be excluded from your Season.”
Mina rolled her eyes heavenward. “Don't be rid . . . ”
A soft knock interrupted Mina. “Nicole?”
Nicki stared at Mina in horror, then down at her riding habit. Heart pounding a mile a minute, she scrambled off the bed and with Mina's help untucked the bedclothes. She had scarcely slipped beneath the covers when the door opened and Angelica stepped into the room.
First, she scrutinized Mina sitting straight-bac
ked on the bed, then her emerald gaze swept to Nicki who had drawn the covers up to her chin. The pillow Nicki had held plopped to the floor to join its counterpart.
“Girls? It is so late. What are you about?” Calm, unperturbed, Angelica's tone never changed, no matter the situation.
“Angelica, we were just . . . ” Nicki floundered for a word.
“Talking,” Mina piped in with particular brilliance.
“Yes, talking. How late is it, by the bye?”
Elegant as always, Angelica wore a green dressing gown of shimmering satin and matching slippers. She crossed her arms over her chest and glanced about the room.
“Nearly one o'clock, I should think. I thought I heard a noise and came to investigate. Did you hear a horse outside, by chance?”
“A horse?” Nicki's heart gave an uncomfortable jolt. “Heavens, no. Do you suppose one of the Thoroughbreds got out of the stables?”
Angelica held on to her long auburn braid and bent to pick up a leaf from the carpet. “I should think that highly unlikely, unless someone took one out.”
Staring at the leaf as though it was an adder, Nicki licked her lips and drew the coverlet closer about her chin. “At this time of night. I should think not. Have you heard anything, Mina?”
Silence stretched long and Nicki looked at her sister, who said nothing.
“Have you, Mina?” she prompted.
“No!”
Nodding, Angelica advanced further into the room. “Are you chilled, Nicole?”
Still wearing her heavy habit and buried under the bedclothes, Nicki was quite the opposite. “I was, but now I am quite cozy, thank you.”
“Your cheeks are flushed. Are you coming down with a fever?”
Nicki longed to duck beneath the bedclothes as Angelica reached out to brush her soft, cool hands against Nicki's forehead. “I am fine, Angelica, really. You need not bedevil me.”
A shaky laugh broke the silence and Mina gained her voice. “Really, Nicki, you needn't be so short.”
Angelica straightened and smoothed her hands along the hips of her dressing gown. “Actually, your skin is quite cool. Almost as if you had been out of doors.”
After the meeting with Blake Dylan, Nicki had no patience with this cat and mouse nonsense. She opened her mouth to say as much when Mina interrupted.
“The window was open and I shut it because Nicki was cold.”
Meeting Angelica's steady, green-eyed gaze, Nicki thought she saw a flicker of despair. But that could not be. “It is time you were abed, Mina. The earl may come calling tomorrow; we wouldn't want Nicole yawning and falling asleep in her tea.”
Mina laughed, or rather gave a nervous twitter, as she climbed over Nicki to slip off the bed. “Good night, sister.”
“Good night,” Nicki responded, but Mina had already dashed from the room.
Angelica sighed and bent down to retrieve the pillows from the floor. Her gaze met Nicki's as she leaned over her and placed the pillows on the other side of the bed. “You do realize it would be completely foolhardy to embark on any more late night escapades, Nicole.”
Clenching the covers, Nicki nodded.
“Sleep well.” With one last long look, Angelica glided across the room, then slipped quietly into the hall. As the door closed behind her stepmother, Nicki curled on to her side, staring at the moonlight shining through her window in tremulous prisms of light and shadow.
Foolhardy, perhaps, but necessary. Somehow she had to make the best of an impossible situation. That is, until she arrived at a solution for extricating herself.
If only Teddy would come back. She needed him more now than ever before, but the pale-eyed Earl of Diamond had claimed Rosewood. It seemed a bleak prospect that Teddy would return to England now that all ties were severed.
All ties save one.
Nicki slipped from beneath the covers, then hurriedly unbuttoned her habit. Catching the heel of one boot with the toe of the other, she tugged off first one, then the other. She could no more extinguish her dreams than she could stop breathing. From the moment she had pressed her hand into Theodore Bartholomew's at the age of four, her fate had been sealed. Staring into his boyish face, meeting his twinkling amber eyes, Nicki wanted never to be separated from him.
In her stocking feet, she padded across the carpet to her wardrobe and opened the door. She grabbed out a nightrail, then returned to toss it upon the bed while she removed her habit.
Teddy had always felt the same connection and he would sense her need and return, just as the knights of old appeared at the opportune moment to rescue their lady loves. Teddy was her knight in shining armor, no matter what Mina believed.
Nicki dropped the white nightrail over her head, then fastened the many tiny buttons up the front. She would go along with this marriage for now. Tomorrow, she and Shelby would suffer the earl's company on their fishing trip.
After dousing the lamp at the bedside table, Nicki swiped the leaves from the sheets and climbed into bed. For a long while, she stared into the darkness.
She would not give up on Teddy. She could not. To do so would break her heart.
Chapter 4
. . .
The earl came through the front entrance just as Nicki and Shelby reached the foot of the staircase. When he saw her, he paused. His cloaked figure filled the doorway, blocking the view of the winter morning outside. Nicki's eyes met his and she flushed.
Simms held the door. Upon seeing Nicki, he closed the door and bowed stiffly. “Will you be needing anything, Lady Nicki?”
She looked away from Blake's serious countenance to the butler. “No, thank you, Simms. We shall leave straight away.”
“Very good, Miss.” Simms bowed first in the earl's direction, then Nicki's, and swept past.
Though she forced a brightness into her voice, Nicki would rather have followed the butler. “My lord, may I present my brother, Jonathon Shelby Langley. Shelby, this is Blake Dylan, the Earl of Diamond.”
The earl stepped into the foyer and held out his hand. Shelby stiffened, but before he could plan his next move, Nicki gave him a gentle shove from behind.
“Master Shelby, you may address me as Blake. I understand you are an angler. When I was a boy it was my favorite pastime.”
Shelby took the earl's hand and gave a firm shake. He glanced back at Nicki, a slow smile crept over his impish face and excitement dawned in his shining eyes. “Papa isn't a fisherman, but Nick goes with me often,” Shelby told Lord Diamond. “She doesn't watch her pole all that well, though, cause she's always got her nose stuck in one of those books. Mother says Nick's eyesight is going to get so poor she'll do nothing but squint, and gentlemen don't like a girl with—”
“Shelby!” Nicki quickly intervened before her brother divulged every private detail of her life. “You should refrain from talking the earl's ear off before we have left the house. He is apt to cry off on our expedition.”
“It takes a great deal to cause me to back down from an . . . appointment.” Blake's silver gaze fastened on Nicki with captivating intensity. “Once I have dedicated myself to a project, I feel it necessary to follow it through to the end.”
“Some might consider such tenacity a form of obstinance, my lord.” She swallowed, but her mouth became instantly dry.
A slight smile curved his lips and the faint lines at the corners of his eyes deepened. “I prefer to call it perseverance.”
Shelby stared from Nicki to Blake. “Can we go now?”
Heat flooded Nicki's cheeks. “Of course. Em packed a picnic lunch for us. Perhaps you would carry the basket, my lord—unless you would prefer a footman to accompany us.”
“I will not hear of it. That is a fine pole you have there, Shelby. One of the first lessons I learned as a boy was . . . ”
Nicki watched with mild interest as the earl grasped the line of Shelby's fishing pole and followed the thin thread with his fingers. As Shelby strained to better see Blake's progress, he lifted the end of
his pole and immediately the hem of Nicki's skirt jerked up to an alarming degree. She squeaked in distress and batted at the layers of soft velvet and muslin to keep them from traveling any higher. With swift efficiency, the earl extricated the hook and the hem of her maroon riding habit dropped to a decent level.
As Blake deftly fastened the wayward hook to the handle of Shelby's pole, his mouth twitched at one corner. “These little devils have a mind of their own. It is best to fasten them to the base—like so.”
“An additional precaution might be to leave the fishing pole next to the door until we are prepared to leave! You might poke someone's eye out,” Nicki said sternly, at the same time the thought came to her that this expedition might prove to be more stressful than she imagined.
“Safety is foremost in any sport.” Blake's eyes sparkled with deviltry. “I have an acquaintance who is quite fond of climbing . . . ”
“Just look at the time! And here's Em with the picnic basket. We had best be going if we are to catch any fish at all. Come along, Shelby.”
The earl turned to greet Em's arrival with a wry quirk of one dark brow, even as he carefully removed the picnic basket from the plump woman's stiff fingers. The arrogant man seemed completely unaware of the cook's countenance, staring and open-mouthed. Shelby had obviously been regaling the kitchen staff with tales of the Earl of Diamond's resemblance to a demon.
Nicki retrieved her ancient rod from where it rested in the corner by the door and then led the way from the house, past Blake's fishing pole propped against the wall outside, down the steps and across the cobbled drive to a path leading through the woods. She glanced back briefly to check on Shelby and found him skipping along at Blake's side, chattering, perfectly satisfied with the brief comments the earl interjected in his drawling baritone.
As she marched along the path, stones pressing lightly into her serviceable boots, Nicki forced herself to look neither left nor right, and certainly not back. She must remain aloof from the earl. This Blake Dylan was too charming by half and was someone she could come to like—very much. An impossible prospect, indeed. When Teddy arrived to rescue her, and she was certain he would come, she needed no emotional attachments to confuse her.
