Heart of the Diamond

by Carrie Brock

  She went to take a step, but the mud hung on to her boot and only her stocking foot came free.

  Blake bent and tugged her shoe from the mire. Without warning, he swung Nicki into his arms. All she could do was hold on to his strong shoulders as he strode up and out of the ditch, deposited her on the road, then handed over her shoe. Before she could speak, he turned on his heel and returned to the cart.

  Dripping footwear in hand, Nicki wondered at her odd behavior. She should be just a little disappointed that the earl had not been squashed flat, as such an occurrence would have freed her from the engagement. But all she felt was relief that he was safe.

  Within moments, the men had pushed the wagon free and the oxen lunged back onto the road. Nicki took advantage of the time to pour the muck out of her boot and put it back on. She assessed the damage she had done to her clothing by charging into the ditch like a madwoman—not to mention what had transferred from Blake's clothing and arms to her when he picked her up.

  “What were you thinking, jumping out of the carriage like that, Nick? You could have been badly hurt.”

  She avoided Teddy's gaze as she swatted ineffectually at the mud caking the front of her skirts. “I suppose I was not thinking at all, Teddy. That is my way, is it not?” Irritation made Nicki's words sharp.

  Already she was regretting her impetuous behavior and imagining Angelica's expression when she returned from a harmless carriage ride drenched and looking as though she had been in a stable yard tussle.

  “Get in the carriage and let's get you home and into something dry.”

  After examining the back of her cloak Nicki looked to the fine leather of the seats. This was the only carriage her family had managed to hold on to, the others having been sold to pay the creditors.

  “Perhaps I should walk alongside, Teddy. I've ruined my gown, I should not want to destroy the carriage as well.”

  Nicki heard the cart rumble off down the road and turned to see Blake striding toward her leading the handsome bay he had ridden yesterday. Somehow, he had managed to wipe away most of the dirt from his face. A lock of coal hair dropped over his forehead. Despite the chill, he had not redonned the black coat slung across his saddle. He looked devastatingly masculine in his shirtsleeves with his sodden leather pants clinging to his body—and leaving little to the imagination.

  He flashed a very pleased grin. “Bartholomew. I had no idea you were here, but there you are, sitting in the carriage. Far from harm's way.” Blake motioned in the direction of the disappearing cart. “Did you not recognize some of the farmers from Rosewood? I should think you might have said hello.”

  Unwilling to believe she had just heard Blake's words, Nicki looked at Teddy and the rage she saw in his face assured her that her ears had not deceived her. Before Teddy could speak, she turned to the earl.

  “I missed you this morning, my lord. I thought you meant to come for tea.”

  His silver gaze flashed to her, intense. “I did not realize my presence would be missed. I shall not be so derelict of my duties in the future.”

  That answer was not at all what Nicki had meant to glean, but at least in speaking to her he did not bait Teddy. “I realize you must be busy. I . . . well, I merely wondered. It is not as if I pined away all morning.”

  A slight smile turned up one side of his mouth and he placed a hand over his heart. “You wound me, my dear. I had hoped—”

  “Stop being difficult, my lord.” She met his gaze. “Are you hurt at all?”

  “Only my pride. If I had known you were watching I would have demonstrated my prowess, not landed on my back in the mud.”

  She attempted to appear austere, but a smile escaped. “I am devastated that I nearly caused you to come to harm.”

  “Then it was well worth the humiliation.”

  Nicki thought he did not behave as though he had been embarrassed. In fact, she wondered if there existed anything on the face of the earth that could shake Lord Diamond's imperturbable calm.

  “If the two of you are finished, Diamond, I'd like to get Nicki out of the weather.” Teddy's voice held an edge of frustrated fury.

  She brushed at a strand of hair that had somehow managed to escape the confines of her bonnet. “Will you come to dinner tonight?”

  Blake met Nicki's gaze. “I must decline, much as it pains me to do so. I have made arrangements to go over Rosewood's tenant accounts with Samuel Willis.” He fastened Teddy with a cold stare. “You remember Samuel, Bartholomew? His father used to do the accounts for your father. Nice man. I think I shall enjoy working with him.”

  “You bas—” Teddy broke off his words and made to rise, but Nicki lifted her filthy skirts and scurried to the other side of the carriage.

  “We should be going.” She made several attempts to climb inside, but the weight of her damp gown and the lack of a stepping stool impeded her progress.

  As she felt herself grasped about the waist and lifted from behind, Nicki caught her breath. Quickly, her feet touched the floor of the carriage and Blake released her, but she continued to feel the strength of his hands blazing into her skin through her clothing. Such talented hands, creating heavenly music the night before, then put into service to help those farmers today. Her knees buckled unexpectedly and she collapsed into the seat.

  Trying to appear nonchalant, despite the frantic racing of her heart, Nicki met the earl's amused gaze. She opened her mouth to speak, then changed her mind. Any words she might have uttered would surely make no sense with her faculties in such turmoil.

  His grin broadened. “I will see you tomorrow. I promise.”

  She flushed, feeling as though he had been inside her mind listening to her thoughts. Before she could respond, Teddy slapped the reins smartly and the carriage jolted into motion.

  Nicki retrieved her abandoned muff and slipped her cold hands inside. She dared not look back. But then, she did not need to. The earl's image had somehow become burned into her mind.

  Fragile drops of rain once again escaped the molten grey skies overhead and Nicki lifted her face to accept their sweetness. She knew if she asked him to, Teddy would keep moving and never stop, thus taking her away from Blake forever. But she could not let that happen. Not yet. What held her was such a tenuous thing, but it held her just the same.

  No matter what manner of vile creature Teddy believed Blake to be, Nicki saw something more.

  She could not flee without knowing for certain what lay in the depths of the Diamond's heart.

  . . .

  Blake held the reins in his muddied hands and watched the carriage move swiftly out of sight in the rain. His fiancée. Rushing off with another man.

  Nicole raised her face to the sky and he imagined her lips curving upward in a secretive smile. So lovely. And she must be extremely happy. After all, she sat next to Teddy.

  As the carriage disappeared around a bend in the road, Blake experienced a chill that burrowed deep beneath his skin and turned his insides cold. He pulled his jacket off the saddle and shoved his arms into the sleeves, but the garment did little to warm him.

  Best to get back to Rosewood and partake of a glass of brandy while he soaked in a steaming hot bath. Soon it would be time to meet with Samuel. He climbed into the saddle and urged his horse in the opposite direction from Teddy and Nicole.

  The wet wind in his face smelled fresh and clean, unlike the black air of London, and the stench on board the ship that had brought him to England. The rolling meadows of Shropshire worked on his nerves like a soothing drought.

  Today he had managed to avoid thinking of Bartholomew and Nicole, instead concerning himself with problems he could easily solve. Now he almost wished he had agreed to go to Langley Hall tonight, to remain at Nicole's side every moment so that Teddy would not be free to spill his vile poison into her ears.

  But what could Teddy tell her that was not true for the most part? Blake imagined having time enough with Nicole to allow her to know him and he to know her befor
e unveiling the past and all its painful secrets. Already she had learned he had been behind her father's financial ruin and that had resulted in her desperate attempt to fob Mina off on him. That thought brought a smile tugging at his mouth.

  Perhaps he should let her go. Obviously she wanted Teddy. Who was he to hold her to a marriage he had trapped her into?

  Chapter 10

  . . .

  Nicki ran the brush through her hair with long, methodical strokes. She watched the flash of the shining brass against her blond curls in the gold-framed wall mirror.

  No extravagant coiffures tonight, no special pains taken with her appearance. She laid the brush next to the comb on her dressing table and flicked open the tarnished clasp on the carved wooden box containing her collection of hair ribbons. Emerald, she thought. Emerald to match the silk trim of the brown dress she had chosen to wear. The velvet caught gently at her hair as she wound it through her curls to pull it tight and tie it in a small bow over her ear.

  She attributed her lethargy to the hot bath she had taken after her afternoon outing with Teddy. Then there was the frayed state of her pride every time she remembered leaping from the carriage and throwing herself into the mud without the slightest hesitation.

  Those feelings certainly had nothing to do with the fact that Blake Dylan did not intend to come to Langley Hall tonight. As far as Nicki was concerned, he could just hold up inside Rosewood forever.

  But his assertion yesterday afternoon that he intended to fight for her doused cold water on that hope. He would return. And once again she would find herself the peacekeeper while the earl baited and Teddy grasped each barb with angry vigor.

  Nicki jumped to her feet and stormed to the window. Staring into the darkness beyond the glass she recalled Teddy's desperate plea of the afternoon. Run away with him and let Blake return to the hell of his life. Emotion caught in her chest. What had turned Blake's life into such torment, and what had happened between him and Teddy?

  Her father's initial reaction to Blake had been to call him a fiend from hell. Teddy's reaction was much the same. Something had happened between Blake and her father to drive the earl to ruin their family, but she knew her father and could not imagine anything that would cause someone to hate him so. How could she marry the Earl of Diamond when he had already alienated the two most important men in her life?

  A soft knock sounded. Nicki turned at the sound. “Come in.”

  With a slight rattle of the knob and a sigh, the door swung open and Angelica entered the room. “You were late coming down. I came to see if there was a problem.”

  Nicki quickly masked her surprise and shook her head in denial. “I merely lost track of the time.”

  Angelica wore a gown of forest green that turned her eyes to the hue of emeralds. That glittering gaze took in Nicki's appearance in one swift movement. “So you were informed the earl will not be at dinner tonight?”

  “Teddy and I happened upon him on the road today and he said he had a prior engagement. Perhaps he has lost interest in me and will return to America,” she sighed, “and leave us in peace.”

  “Peace—in this household? That is some vague ideal I have not found since marrying your father. But I have found something much more precious than peace. I have found love.”

  Nicki faced the window again. “Then you are lucky.”

  With a murmur of silk, Angelica came to lean against the window casement opposite Nicki. Her fingers traced the scuffed paint on the lower sill. “I am concerned for you, Nicole. Since your father made the marital arrangement with the Duke of Melton you have behaved quite irrationally. Now I fear you are in a situation of your own making and you are at a loss as to how to extricate yourself from it.”

  “As you said, it is my situation. I shall deal with it, have no worry.”

  “Nicole, I have watched you grow from a child who was small and fragile for her age into a beautiful young woman. Your behavior has concerned me because I feared you would be hurt. I think you always felt I was attacking you, but—”

  A harsh laugh escaped Nicki's lips. “You never attack, Angelica. No, you are much too subtle for direct assault. It suits you much better to issue painful barbs and disdainful remarks that cut much deeper than any open honest criticism.”

  “It seems we are both guilty of that. The more I tried to be your mother, the more you withdrew into rebellion.”

  “I never asked you to be my mother, Angelica.” The words felt as though Nicki had ripped them from her throat.

  “Of course not, I meant only that—”

  Abruptly, Nicki pushed from the window. “Let it rest. Soon I shall be out of this house and out of your life. We do not need to hash over the past at this point.”

  Angelica straightened. “Very well. I merely wanted to make you aware that I do care what happens to you, Nicole. No matter what you believe or what I have led you to believe, I care—deeply.”

  As she stood to face her stepmother with her hands squeezed into fists at her side, tears burned behind Nicki's eyes. Stubbornly she banished them. “Did Papa send you?”

  “No. Your father has been blissfully ignorant of the true extent of your animosity for me.”

  Nicki clutched her skirts to hide the sudden trembling of her hands. “Be content with your conquest of Mina. I was older and not so naive.”

  “Nicole, please . . . ”

  “Stop! I prefer our hostile silence to this.”

  Angelica stepped closer, hand outstretched, but Nicki backed away. “I want to help you. I know how you suffer from the indecision. Perhaps if you talked it out with someone older . . . ”

  Nicki bumped into the Hepplewhite dresser, barring further retreat. She turned around to lean against the wood. The handles dug into her thighs. Her breath came in harsh gasps. Marguerite's white face danced before her eyes, terrifying and horrible because it was a mask of death and hopelessness. She drew in a steadying breath.

  “Mina has always needed you and you were there for her. I am grateful to you for that. But you and I—we are a chapter that was closed before it began. Leave it at that.”

  “I have never understood your hatred, Nicole.”

  Nicki closed her eyes. She dismissed the visions and summoned the screen that protected her from the madness that dwelt with the nightmarish memories. “The others will wonder what we have been up to.” Nicki looked up to meet Angelica's gaze in the small mirror that stood on the dresser.

  With the slight squaring of her shoulders, Angelica's control was restored. “Simms was searching for you. He had a message from Andrew.”

  Nicki nodded. A sigh, then a thud as the door closed. Blessed silence. Trembling, Nicki stumbled to her dressing table and dropped onto the stool. The last thing she wanted to deal with now was a kinder, more sympathetic Angelica. Best to leave their relationship as it stood than to delve into the emotions secreted deep in the recesses of her heart.

  Better to think of something else.

  Andrew's message. That meant a late night call to the stables. But first, she must get through the evening. That should be easy with Blake spending his time at Rosewood.

  . . .

  Blake turned page after page of the first journal provided to him by Samuel. He made several notes on a sheet positioned on his desk next to the books. After making his way through nearly half, he paused and set the pen down.

  Samuel sat up in his chair and folded his hands in his lap. “M’da taught me. I can't say I ever spent a day in a schoolroom. But th’ figures, they're complete.”

  “There you go jumping to the defensive before you have been attacked. These books are impressive, Samuel. I do not think there is much I would change.”

  Samuel reached down to touch the wooden chest at his feet, obviously to reassure himself it had not disappeared in the few moments since he had last checked. “Yer money's here, m'lord. Every last copper matches the ledgers.”

  “I have no doubt. You have been running the farms for qu
ite some time, and I would like you to explain to me all that you do. One change I would make is that from this point you should deposit the rents into an account I have arranged for that purpose. All you must do is complete the forms and Chester will see that the money arrives at the bank in London.”

  The young man took the bankbook tentatively. “I . . . I ‘aven't th’ first notion—I never set eyes on a bank.”

  “That is the purpose of our meeting. I will answer your questions and you shall answer mine. We will learn together.”

  Understanding dawned, and Samuel leaned forward. “It'd be an ‘onor t’ learn from ye, sir.”

  “My father taught me a great deal, just as yours taught you. Let us draw on their wisdom and perhaps find a little of our own as well.”

  “There was ideas me da had tha’ Sir Randolph wouldn't ‘ear of, an’ I think they was good ones. Master Ted never wanted nothin’ to do with farmin’, bein’ partial to th’ city.”

  Blake leaned back in his chair, rested his elbows on the padded arms and watched Samuel over his tented fingers. “Ah, the city. I think the world turns faster in town and all the people must rush about to keep from falling off and being left behind. It is great fun for a time, but one must return to the country to slow down and reflect, and get down to what life is truly about.”

  “Da took me to London once. It's a terrifyin’ thing, all them folk. A body could be crushed an’ no one'd pay any mind.”

  “If they stop, they might be run over by someone else. Self-preservation demands constant movement.”

  “It doesn't seem ye like the city much yerself.”

  Blake shook his head. “London is a necessary evil, Samuel, but one I shall be blissfully free of for at least several weeks. You may have to deal with my solicitor in London but that can be done through the post.” He pushed several journals aside and pulled a sheet of paper from beneath a stack of books. “This is his name and address.”

  Samuel stood to retrieve the folded page, then took his seat again and tucked the address carefully inside the bank book. He remained obviously ill at ease. “Ye're a trusting soul, m'lord.”