The Naked Gentleman

by Sally MacKenzie

“There are horrid caricatures of him up in all the print shops.” Emma looked pointedly at Meg’s head. “Which you would know if you could go about in society.”

  Meg resisted the urge to put her hands to her shorn hair. She hadn’t left Knightsdale House since Mr. Parker-Roth had brought her home. Fortunately, Lizzie and Robbie had been attending Lord Fonsby’s affair and had hurried them into their carriage before the situation could get more out of hand than it already was.

  “They won’t prosecute him, will they?” If Parks were brought to stand trial for such an offense…it didn’t bear thinking of. “Lizzie’s cousin Richard was never charged, and he definitely…well, everyone knew he and his valet were…” Meg didn’t know the details of such relationships, but it was no secret Richard Runyon had engaged in one.

  “But Richard didn’t advertise his proclivities on a London street in plain view of half the ton.” Charles sighed. “And since he also frequented London’s brothels, both fashionable and not, there was some doubt as to his habits. Parker-Roth, on the other hand, has been more discreet in his activities. However, that means society has to guess what his preferences are, and the ton always prefers to assume the most salacious possibilities.”

  “There is no need to assume anything after the exhibition in front of Lord Fonsby’s townhouse. If Lizzie’s description is even half accurate, the man was practically making love to Meg on the street.” Emma crossed her arms and glared at Meg. “What in God’s name were you thinking, Meg?”

  “Um.”

  “Your sister has a point, Meg. Your behavior has been less than exemplary.”

  “Less than exemplary?” Emma’s voice rose. “Call it what it is, Charles. Meg has been behaving like a common harlot.”

  Meg swallowed. She felt as if she’d been kicked in the stomach, but Emma was right. Her behavior had been shocking. Completely scandalous. She closed her eyes briefly, remembering the hideous moment when she’d been pulled out of her madness by the sound of Lord Dunlee’s voice.

  “Don’t you think you are overstating the case slightly, Emma?”

  “I am not. What else do you call it, when a woman engages in such…pursuits…on a London street?”

  Charles blew out a long breath. “Well…” He looked at Meg. She looked down at her slippers.

  “Even if you’d been dressed in your finest gown, Meg,” he said, “you’d still be compelled to marry Parker-Roth. You see that, don’t you? This is at least the second time you’ve been observed in close embrace with the fellow.”

  Emma threw up her hands. “I don’t understand what the problem is. You obviously don’t find the man repulsive. I cannot understand why you are resisting, unless—” Her tone sharpened. “Have you been behaving this way with other men?”

  “No!” Meg looked up, horrified. “How can you say so?”

  “Because you’ve been disappearing into the shrubbery all Season. Even I will not assume you were only examining the foliage.”

  Meg flushed. “Well, I was not…um…doing what I was doing with Mr. Parker-Roth.”

  “Thank God for that!”

  “Why are you resisting, Meg?” Charles asked. “I know Parker-Roth offered at the Palmerson ball. And, as Emma says, you obviously have some feelings for him.”

  “Feelings,” Emma said, “that should only be expressed after you have received Mr. Parker-Roth’s wedding ring, miss.”

  Charles and Emma stared down at her. What was she to answer? She didn’t understand it herself.

  “I don’t believe Mr. Parker-Roth wants to marry me.”

  Emma snorted. “He clearly wants to do something with you—and he can only honorably engage in that activity after he puts a ring on your finger.”

  Meg flushed. “You don’t understand. He really doesn’t want to have anything to do with me. It’s just that…well, I annoy him.”

  “That’s one way to describe it.”

  “Emma…”

  “Charles, the girl is being foolish beyond permission. If she can’t see the man is beside himself with lus-love, she is blinder than I am.” Emma flourished her spectacles.

  Charles laughed. “Well, perhaps Parker-Roth is just as blind as you are—not that I expect you to compare spectacles, of course—because I suspect he doesn’t recognize his own emotions. I don’t know why.” He shook his head. “I just about gave him carte-blanche to seduce Meg.”

  “You didn’t!”

  “Charles!”

  For once Meg felt Emma was in complete accord with her. They both gaped at Lord Knightsdale.

  He shrugged, though his cheeks were markedly redder than normal. “It seemed clear to me the two of them were attracted to each other. I just encouraged Parker-Roth to move things along. I was tired of worrying—and having you worry, Emma—about the situation. I can’t say I’m impressed with his response.”

  “I can’t imagine you would do such a thing,” Emma said.

  Meg could not find the words to express her horror. Charles had actually told Mr. Parker-Roth to…? How mortifying. But even more mortifying was the fact the man hadn’t acted on Charles’s invitation. If she’d ever needed proof Parks did not wish to marry her, she had just had it handed to her on a silver platter.

  “If he would just stop concerning himself with my activities, I would not be in this predicament.”

  Emma glared at her again. “If you would just stop kissing him, you would not be in this predicament.”

  “He kissed me first.”

  “Ladies, please, you are becoming ridiculous. It makes no difference. Parker-Roth has already gotten the special license. He and Meg will be married tomorrow morning.”

  “What!” Meg leapt up. She was getting married tomorrow? “When were you going to tell me this?”

  “Now.” Charles grinned. “I saw no point in taking your fire any sooner than I had to.”

  “I do think Mr. Parker-Roth should propose to Meg.” Emma looked at Meg and raised her eyebrows. “Again.”

  “Why should he?” Charles said. “Neither of them has any choice in the matter.”

  “I do have a choice.” Meg scowled. Granted, she had behaved badly. She had made some poor choices. But she was not a child. She could make her own decisions. “I could leave England.”

  “Leave England?” Emma acted as if she’d suggested jumping naked off London Bridge.

  “Yes. I hadn’t told you yet, but Miss Witherspoon invited me to accompany her and her friend to the Amazon. It would be a wonderful opportunity to—”

  “Are you mad?” Emma clasped her hands tightly together. Meg was certain her sister would rather have wrapped them around her neck. “You can’t go to the Amazon. And even if by some odd stroke of fate you could, you could not go with those women.”

  “What do you mean, ‘those women’?”

  “Let’s just say Agatha Witherspoon and Prudence Doddington-Prinz are extremely—extremely—close.”

  “Oh.”

  “Ladies.” Charles held up his hands. “This is all beside the point. It is Parker-Roth, not Meg, who needs extricating from this scandal and he cannot simply flee. He has an estate to manage.”

  Emma nodded. “And leaving the country wouldn’t solve his problems in any event. A scandal of this nature will reflect on his entire family. Perhaps his parents and his married sister can weather the storm, but his brothers and his other sisters will not be so fortunate. Certainly it will ruin the younger ones’ matrimonial prospects.”

  “It won’t.” Meg felt ill. Emma must be overstating the case.

  “It will, and it will make it impossible for Mr. Parker-Roth ever to marry.” Emma put a hand on Meg’s arm. “This is not a small scandal, Meg. It is on everyone’s lips now—everyone ’s. It will not be forgotten. Even I know the ton has a very long memory.”

  “Especially for something of this nature,” Charles said. “Parker-Roth was not merely caught with someone’s wife. In the eyes of society, he’s a sodomite. Men as well as women will avoid
him.”

  “No.”

  “Yes, Meg. Think about it. He was clearly seen passionately kissing what looked to be another man by twenty or thirty people. What is society to think?”

  Meg covered her face with her hands.

  “The only solution to his problem is for him to marry immediately, and you are the logical choice. I’d say you were honor bound to wed him.”

  Charles was right. She couldn’t let Parks face this alone. Meg dropped her hands and looked up.

  “All right,” she said. “I will do it. I will marry Mr. Parker-Roth.”

  Damn, damn, damn.

  He hated being coerced, but even he recognized he had no choice in this matter. If he didn’t wed Miss Peterson, he and his family would be shunned. Hell, it had started already. The parade of footmen sent to withdraw invitations had filled the Pulteney’s lobby the morning after his ill-timed embrace of Miss Peterson.

  He was getting an excellent notion of how a leper must feel. When he ventured out of the hotel, people not only gave him the cut direct, they crossed the street to avoid him. He’d been told he was no longer welcome at White’s, and even the Horticultural Society had sent a letter withdrawing his membership. No one in London wanted anything to do with him.

  Except for a few. He flushed and turned to look out the coach window, hoping his mother would not notice his heightened color.

  Who would have guessed Lord Easthaven had such unusual predilections? He’d crossed paths with the earl after he’d been turned away from White’s. He’d been so happy to have someone speak to him that he hadn’t given much thought to stepping into that alley with the man. He understood Easthaven might not wish to be seen with him, but when the earl had put his hand on his arm and explained exactly why that section of his garden was so overgrown, he’d made a hasty excuse and bolted for the thoroughfare.

  It was a hard call which was worse—that experience or his encounter later that day. He’d been sitting on a bench in an out-of-the way part of Hyde Park, contemplating the bleakness of his existence, when a servant had approached and gestured to him. He’d recognized the silver and green livery as Baron Cinter’s, so he’d followed the man to a leafy glade. Lady Cinter was there waiting for him. He’d greeted her cautiously, but she’d had no designs on his virtue. She’d merely wished to watch him engage in carnal play al fresco with the footman.

  He closed his eyes. The servant had dropped his breeches in record time, a tactical error. Parks hadn’t waited to explain the misunderstanding—he’d left at a run. The man gave chase, but fell, tripped up by his own clothing.

  No, he had no alternative to marriage.

  “I’m so sorry your wedding has to be under such unpleasant circumstances,” his mother said. They were on their way to Knightsdale House so he could tie the knot and end the storm of gossip.

  He shrugged. “You should be happy. You’ve accomplished your goal. Are you going to turn your attention to Stephen now and get him a leg-shackle?”

  Pain flashed over her face. He wished he could take the words back, but he was too angry to apologize.

  “Johnny, you know I only want you to be happy.”

  He nodded and looked out the window again. He did know it, but that didn’t help him feel better about his predicament. And yes, he realized his troubles were largely his own fault. If he hadn’t succumbed to his urges and kissed Miss Peterson, he’d be traveling home to the Priory now instead of to Knightsdale House. But Miss Peterson was equally to blame. If she’d been a proper female, if she’d stayed out of the bushes, if she’d stayed in her skirts, he also wouldn’t be heading toward this meeting. He had only been chivalrous. He had only tried to save her from her own folly.

  All right, so the folly wasn’t only hers. Kissing her in front of Fonsby’s townhouse had been the height of lunacy. He’d experienced an atypical loss of control…

  Bloody hell. Losing control was all too typical around Miss Margaret Peterson.

  “We’re here.” Mother turned and hugged him. He patted her shoulder weakly.

  “I think you can be happy with Miss Peterson, Johnny, if you will only try.”

  He nodded. What did she expect him to say? She knew he did not want to step into parson’s mousetrap, and yet that was what he was going to do within the hour.

  Bloody hell.

  He helped his mother down from the coach. The carriage he’d hired for Miss Witherspoon was just pulling up. He’d not trusted himself to ride with the woman who’d been, in effect, the author of this farce. If she hadn’t suggested Miss Peterson travel with her to the Amazon, if she hadn’t told her about Miss Doddington-Prinz’s bizarre masquerade—

  To put it nicely, he was not feeling charitable toward the woman at the moment.

  “I wish your father and the rest of the family were here,” Mother said as they waited for the Knightsdale butler to open the door. “But you and the marquis are quite right. The sooner you wed Miss Peterson and the notice appears in the papers, the better.”

  He grunted. He was beyond coherent speech. He wasn’t certain which emotion was strongest—anger, dread…or, yes, lust.

  He decided anger was most likely to get him safely through the next hour.

  Chapter 18

  “I need to speak with you, Meg.”

  “Hmm?” Meg looked out on the square. Was that Mr. Parker-Roth’s coach pulling up? Her stomach clenched into a tight knot and she felt a wave of heat sweep up her neck. She bit her lip. She both longed to see him and dreaded it. What was the matter with her?

  The footman was opening the door and letting down the steps—

  “Meg!”

  “What?” She pulled her attention away from the window. Emma stood just inside her bedroom door, dressed for the wedding but holding Henry—a very, very quiet Henry.

  “Oh, dear.” Meg hurried over and put her hand on Henry’s forehead. He didn’t move, just kept his head on Emma’s shoulder and sucked his fingers. He was burning up. “Henry’s sick now, too?”

  Emma nodded and kissed Henry’s sweat-dampened hair. “I meant to come talk to you last night, but Charlie was still throwing up, and Henry started this morning. At least Charlie seems through the worst of it. He’s in the nursery with Nanny, sleeping.”

  “Poor Charlie.” Meg rubbed Henry’s cheek and he smiled weakly. “Poor Henry.” She looked at Emma. Her sister’s eyes were bloodshot, and lines creased her forehead. “Poor Emma.”

  Emma smiled slightly. “I hate it when the boys are sick. I worry so.”

  “Of course you do. You love them.”

  Emma pressed another kiss to Henry’s head. “I love you, too, Meg.”

  Meg flushed again. It really was overly warm in the room. “I know.” She looked away, cleared her throat. “I’m sorry I gave you such cause to worry, Emma. I never meant for you to drag the boys and Isabelle and Claire to London.”

  “I know.” Emma sighed. “And I’m sorry you have to wed in this helter-skelter fashion, but it can’t be helped. If you could have moved about in society yesterday and today”—she looked pointedly at Meg’s hair. Emma’s abigail had trimmed and shaped it, but there was no escaping the fact that it was woefully short—“you’d have seen how awful it is. People are saying terrible things about Mr. Parker-Roth.”

  Meg closed her eyes. Another wave of heat surged through her, and tears gathered behind her lids. It wouldn’t do to start crying now and go down to her wedding with a dripping nose and blotchy face. “I’m sorry Mr. Parker-Roth is compelled to marry me to extricate himself from the mess I created.”

  Emma snorted. “Well, that is one thing you don’t have to regret. The man is obviously besotted. I don’t know why he didn’t persuade you to have him sooner.” She frowned. “Unless…have you taken a dislike to him, Meg? Is that the problem? Charles and I didn’t think it was, but…” She sighed. “I’m very sorry if that’s the case, because there’s really nothing to be done now.”

  Meg put her hands on her heated
cheeks. “No, I haven’t taken a dislike to him, precisely. I just…” She shrugged. Her head was beginning to ache. “It’s too hard to explain.”

  Henry fussed a little and Emma rubbed his back, rocking from side to side. “Shh, baby. Shh.”

  Would she have her own baby to comfort this time next year—hers and Parks’s?

  Her stomach twisted. She couldn’t think about that now.

  “Is it time to go down?” Suddenly, she just wanted to get it over with.

  “Yes, but first we need to have a little talk.”

  “We do?” What could Emma wish to discuss now? They’d already had a little talk. Parks was downstairs waiting.

  “Yes. As I said, I’d meant to come last night, but Charlie was sick.”

  “I see.” Meg waited. Emma kept patting Henry. She made no move to break the silence. Perhaps her sister needed some encouragement. “So, what did you wish to say?”

  Emma flushed. “It’s a matter of some delicacy.”

  “It is?” What could she be getting at? “I don’t underst—oh.”

  Emma’s color deepened. “Yes—oh. I…well…” She cleared her throat. “Perhaps the best way to proceed is simply to ask if you have any questions about…about marriage and what happens”—Emma pointed with her chin at Meg’s bed—“you know.”

  She didn’t know. She was terribly curious—and terribly embarrassed. Ridiculous! This was no time to be missish. Women should discuss such things—an unmarried woman such as herself should know exactly what to expect when she climbed into her marriage bed. Unmarried men certainly knew—most had already experienced the…event. Parks certainly had no questions.

  Her stomach twisted. He was waiting for her downstairs.

  She wet her lips. She would ask now. Just a moment of courage, a few words, and she would know.

  How could she ask? She had a rudimentary understanding of the procreative procedure from stumbling upon various animals engaged in the act. To think Emma and Charles had actually performed that bizarre exercise…yet Emma was holding the irrefutable evidence that they had.

  “Are you certain you don’t have any questions?”