by Amelia Grey
Chapter 28
Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.
—Twelfth Night, act 3, scene 1
Bray strode through the front door, taking off his gloves. He threw them and his hat onto a side table. He heard barking and looked up to see Saint heading toward him. The dog jumped into his arms. Bray rubbed the top of his head and was happy to see Saint for about three seconds. Then it dawned on him, What is the spaniel doing here?
Was Louisa so outraged with him that she took Saint away from the girls and brought him back?
Did she hate him so much that she would punish her sisters and not let them keep the dog? This went beyond the pale, even for Louisa. He would not have it. He kept Saint in his arms and picked up his hat and gloves. He would show her who was in charge. He was taking the dog back to the girls, whether she wanted him to or not. Saint was their pet, and she might as well like it—because the spaniel stayed with the girls.
“Your Grace,” Mr. Tidmore said, rushing into the vestibule. “I’m so glad you are home.”
“Not anymore, I’m not. I’m heading right back out.”
“But, Your Grace, didn’t you get my message?”
Bray opened the door. “No, but whatever it was, it can wait. I’m taking Saint back to the Prim sisters.”
“But the sisters are here.”
Bray quickly turned back to his butler. “What did you say?”
“The Prim girls are here—all five of them. They are in the dining room, having dinner. They arrived about midafternoon, and when it neared dinnertime and they made no attempt to leave, I didn’t know what to do except prepare for them.”
“Here? In my dining room?” Bray asked again, just to be sure.
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Bray stuffed the dog, his hat, and his gloves into the butler’s arms. His mind was swirling with different possibilities as to why Louisa and her sisters might be at his house, but he was too stunned at the moment to make sense of any of them.
He walked into the dining room, and the most inviting and welcoming feeling he’d ever felt flowed gently over him like a pail of warm water, covering him from head to toe.
The girls immediately rose from their chairs and stood silently beside them. Flames crackled in the fireplace. A white cloth, lighted candles, and beautiful china, silver, and crystal sparkled on the table. Bray had never seen his dining room set for dinner.
His gaze lighted on Louisa’s face. She looked beautiful and wary, almost frightened, as if she thought he might throw them all out.
“Please, sit down,” he said. “Finish your dinner.”
“I’m sure they won’t be much longer, Your Grace,” Mr. Tidmore said behind Bray.
“We’ve just started,” Louisa said softly. “Would you like to join us?”
Would I?
Bray didn’t speak but went to the head of the table and pulled out his chair. They all sat down.
Mr. Tidmore said, “I’ll have your place set at once, Your Grace.”
One maid served the girls while another laid a plate, silver, and a glass in front of him. He kept looking at Louisa. He didn’t want to make any more mistakes. He didn’t know what had brought her and her sisters to his house, but now that they were here, he didn’t want them to leave.
He’d been at countless dinner parties with the finest china and silver, and the best wines money could buy, but he’d never sat down at his own table. He really didn’t know what to do, so he picked up his wine and sipped it.
After everyone had been served beef, potatoes, and something green, Bray noticed that no one picked up her fork.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” he asked, looking from one sister to the next.
“You are at the head of the table, Your Grace,” Gwen said. “We are waiting for you to pick up your fork.”
“Oh, yes.” He knew that but had forgotten. Bray reached for his fork.
“Do I have to eat that green mash on my plate?” Sybil asked.
“You know you do,” Louisa admonished, and picked up her fork.
“I don’t want to eat it either,” Bonnie said.
“It looks like—”
“Sybil,” Louisa said, quickly cutting her off. “Mind your manners.”
Bray didn’t like the looks of the green food either. “Would you girls like to know what we used to do with food we didn’t want to eat when I was at Eton?” he asked, setting down his fork.
“Yes,” came the loud and collective answer.
“The rolls were always hard.” He picked up his roll and hit it twice on the table. “Much harder than these, as I remember.” He took his knife and cut a hole about the size of a penny in one end of it and laid the piece of crust aside. “After you’ve cut the hole, take your knife like this and scrape out the entire soft center. Be careful you don’t break the crust.”
The girls watched him with rapt attention, and so did Louisa. He kept returning his attention to her. He couldn’t believe she was actually sitting at his table.
“Once you have the bread out of the middle, take your spoon and carefully poke the green mash into the hole like this. You may not get it all in there, but you’ll get most of it. Then shove the little piece of crust back into the hole like this to cover up the evidence. See.” He turned the bread around and showed them there was no sign of green mash inside the roll.
They clapped and laughed.
“I’m going to do it,” Sybil said.
“Me, too,” Bonnie agreed.
“Do you know what you are teaching my sisters, Your Grace?” Louisa asked.
He looked at her. There was no reprimand in her tone or her expression. “Yes, Miss Prim, I do,” he said, and picked up his fork again.
The girls laughed and chatted as they worked on their rolls.
“May I speak, Your Grace?” Lillian asked.
“You can always speak in this house, Lillian.”
“I learned the score that plays on your music box. I can play it on the pianoforte for you after dinner if you would like.”
“Lillian, you shouldn’t—”
“No, wait, Louisa,” he said. She looked tentatively at him. He gave his attention back to Lillian. “You learned to play it after hearing it only a few times that afternoon?”
She nodded. “It was a simple tune.”
“Then yes, I’d love to hear you play it after dinner.”
“I can show you my button collection,” Sybil said while stuffing her green mash into her roll. “Louisa let me bring it with me so I would keep my hands to myself and not touch anything.”
He looked over at Louisa, and she smiled shyly at him. He smiled, too.
“I have some real old ones and some military ones you might like to look at,” Sybil continued. “And if you have a collection, you can show me yours if you want to.”
Bray laughed softly. “I don’t have a button collection, Sybil. I’ve never seen one, but I would love to see yours.”
“I have a doll,” Bonnie said. “You can hold my doll if you want to. Her name is Caroline. She’s a girl, but she won’t mind if you hold her. I’ve told her you’re a nice gentleman.”
“Thank you, Bonnie,” he said, and looked at Louisa. “I’m glad there is at least one young lady at the table who thinks I’m a gentleman.”
“You’ll like Caroline. She’s soft.”
“I’ve never held a doll, but I suppose I could learn how to do that, too.”
Bray sat back in his chair and thought, So this is what family dinner was all about: sharing.
“Gwen, do you have something you would like to show me tonight?” he asked.
She looked down at her plate, hesitating. “The only thing I brought with me is a letter from Mr. Standish. I think it will be all right if you read it.”
Good. The rake had listened to him. “Only if you want me to.”
“And what about you, Louisa? Do you have anything to say tonight?” he asked.
“I have a
question for you, Your Grace,” Louisa said.
He looked at her and wanted to kiss her so bad, his hand tightened on his fork.
“Will you marry me?”
Gasps sounded all over the room, and the loudest came from Bray. He rose, almost knocking over his chair. “Hell yes.” He stopped and looked down the table at the girls and added, “That’s a biblical word, girls, and you might as well get used to hearing it.”
Louisa rose as well, and he wrapped her in his arms and hugged her to him as closely as he could. Damn, she felt good. He looked down into her sparkling blue eyes, thinking it would upset her, but he was going to have to kiss her right in front of all her sisters.
“I love you, Bray,” she whispered earnestly, softly. “I want to be your wife. I can accept that you only want me and don’t love me.”
He placed his fingertip to her lips and hushed her. “I do love you, Louisa. It must be love, and I love this big noisy family you have given me. I accept.”
“Does the hug mean you’ll marry Louisa?” Bonnie asked.
“Yes,” Bray said. “Now, all of you close your eyes because I’m about to kiss your sister.”
Bonnie, Sybil, Lillian, and Gwen jumped up and started screaming.
Bray kissed Louisa with all the love he was feeling for her. Suddenly, he felt a set of small arms go around his waist, squeezing him, but he kept kissing Louisa. Another pair of small arms went around him and then another. He broke the kiss and looked down to see that all four girls were hugging him.
“Does this mean we will live here with you?” Sybil asked.
Bray reached out his arms and hugged all the girls to him. “Yes, all of you will live with us until you marry, but don’t scream,” he said, but it was too late—they were already squealing and jumping for joy.
Bray tuned them out and claimed Louisa’s sweet lips once again.
Epilogue
And ruin’d love, when it is built anew,
Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.
—Sonnet 119
“Your Grace.”
A soft voice stirred Bray’s slumber, but he mentally batted it away like a pesky fly.
“Your Grace?”
Bray’s lids fluttered open, and he was looking at a pair of six-year-old blue eyes leaning right over his face. Startled, he jumped up. Bonnie jumped back, too. He quickly pulled the sheet up to his neck to cover his bare chest.
“Bonnie, what are you doing? How did you get in here?”
She pointed behind her. “I walked through the doorway.”
He looked. Sure enough, the bedroom door was open. Damn! He must have forgotten to lock it last night when he and Louisa came to bed. That was a lesson for him to be more careful, no matter how eager he was to get his beautiful wife under the sheets.
He glanced over at Louisa. She was still sleeping soundly beside him. Her beautiful hair was spread across the pillow. Her softly rounded shoulders were bare, so he eased the sheet over her skin.
“Bonnie, what’s wrong? Why are you in here?”
“Louisa doesn’t usually sleep this late, so I came to wake her up.”
He cleared his throat and thought on that a moment. “Ladies sleep later once they are married. So you won’t need to check on her anymore in the mornings. You wait until she comes looking for you, all right?”
Bonnie nodded.
“Good. Go back belowstairs now and close the door on your way out.”
She nodded again and turned away and stumbled and fell. Her feet had gotten tangled in his trousers. Damn! His and Louisa’s clothing were scattered from the doorway to the bed. They had not been careful in their haste to undress last night.
Bonnie untangled her feet, picked herself up, and laid his trousers on the bed. She smiled sweetly at him. And he thought, for the first time in his life, that he blushed. She quietly walked out and closed the door behind her.
That should not have happened, he thought.
Bray rose and stepped into his trousers and then threw his shirt over his head just as the bedroom door burst open. Sybil and Bonnie came skipping inside.
“Damnation,” Bray mumbled under his breath. He’d barely gotten his trousers buttoned.
“Louisa, look what just came for you and the duke.”
Louisa woke with a start and she jerked the sheet up to cover her nakedness as she sat up in bed. “What’s going on?” she asked, brushing her long tangled curls away from her sleepy eyes. “Sybil, Bonnie, why are you here in our bedchamber?”
“I came to give you this,” Sybil said, and tried to hand the envelope to Louisa. “A man at the door gave it to me and said it was from the Prince and very important. He said I should give it to the Duke and Duchess of Drakestone right away.”
“Sybil, you know you are not to answer the door,” Louisa admonished.
The little girl gave her sister an annoyed look and continued to hold the envelope out to her.
“You take it, Bray,” Louisa said, since she couldn’t let go of the sheet covering her to open the envelope.
Bray grinned at her, a bit amused that she was caught in the same situation he was in just moments ago. He reached over, took the envelope from Sybil, and opened it.
“What does it say?” Bonnie asked.
“It says that the Prince is inviting us to attend a private showing of the Elgin Marbles with him next week.” Bray looked at Louisa.
“Can I go see the marbles?” Bonnie asked.
“I want to go, too,” Sybil said. “I have some marbles. Do you think the Prince would want to see my marbles, too?”
“We’ll take all of you with us,” Bray said, “but for now, out. And girls, from now on, when that door is shut, knock and do not open it to come inside until you have received an invitation. Understood?”
They both looked up at him with big blue mischievous eyes and nodded.
“All right. Now, get out of here and wait for us belowstairs.”
Bray locked the door behind the girls. With those two, he might be safer putting two locks on the door, just to be sure. He had a lot to get used to about family life, and he was going to enjoy every moment of it.
He sat down on the bed and pulled Louisa into his arms and kissed her warm lips.
“Thank you for not getting angry with the girls for coming into our room without knocking.”
He laughed and squeezed her. “I did get angry. But I can handle it.”
“I love you for that.”
“I love you, too.” He kissed her again and then laughed. “I really can’t blame them. It’s my fault. I should have locked the door last night, but I was in too big a hurry.”
She laughed. “I believe I was in a hurry, too,” she said, laying her head against his shoulder and snuggling into the crook of his arms. “I guess that the invitation means we were married in time to save the Prince and England from certain embarrassment.”
“Yes, and we didn’t even try. I married you so fast because I didn’t want to spend one more night without you in my bed.”
“But the Prince doesn’t have to know that, does he?”
Bray shook his head. “No, and he never will. We can let him think he was the mastermind behind me finally living up to my vow.”
Louisa looked up at him. “But we know it was love.”
He looked back at her with all the love he was feeling for her. “Yes, it was the love of a woman and the love of family.”
Louisa pushed Bray down on the bed and rose up over him. “Perhaps I should show you just how much I love you.”
“Perhaps you should.”
Louisa settled her body on his.
Bray thrilled to her touch.
Author’s Notes
I hope you have enjoyed the first book in my new trilogy, The Heirs’ Club of Scoundrels. I’ve had immense fun writing this book. I grew up with four sisters and two brothers, so I put a lot of my knowledge of a large family to good use in this story.
My pl
ot in this book depicting the Prince Regent was all in fun and jest and merely to add entertainment to the story. I don’t know of any recorded history where the Prince wagered any of England’s treasury or antiquities. All that I wrote about the Elgin Marbles and the controversy concerning them was true, except, of course, for the Prince using them in a wager. However, it is well documented in history that the Prince was known for his spirited, high-stakes gambling. Also widely written about is his love for and his uncontrollable spending on art, antiquities, gardens, and grand buildings such as Brighton Pavilion.
I first heard the statement, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if” from the late editor Jackie Bianca, who was with Harlequin Books at the time. It is my goal with every book always to leave the reader with the feeling of “wouldn’t it be wonderful if this happened to me.” Sometimes that means as an author I stretch the boundaries of the imagination and skewer and blur the historical facts for the sake of writing a fantastic work of fiction.
I love to hear from readers. Please e-mail me at [email protected], visit my Web site at ameliagrey.com, or follow me at Facebook/AmeliaGreybooks.
Happy reading,
Amelia Grey
Read on for an excerpt from Amelia Grey’s next book
The Earl Claims a Bride
—coming soon from St. Martin’s Paperbacks!
A soft smile lifted just one corner of her lips and Harrison felt warmth and tightness surge through his loins. She was more than fetching. She was downright desirable.
He watched as she untied the ribbon under her chin and swept off her hat. He reached for it and she handed it to him. She was naturally sensual and she didn’t even know it. Another twinge of desire shuddered through him. He had undressed many ladies over the past few years, but he was certain he’d never acted the servant’s role for a young lady before. He didn’t realize how stimulating it could be. He found her every move tremendously seductive.
She pulled the apron over her head. She wore a simple pale gray dress with a round neckline that laced up the front of the bodice. The thought of untying those laces gave him ideas he didn’t need to explore when he was alone with her in a garden. It would be too easy to pull her to him and see if her lips were as soft and tasty as they looked.
