“Not really,” Luke replied. “Mrs. Harvey has just left after cooking up a big batch of food for us. We didn’t know exactly when to expect you, but we wanted to be prepared so she agreed to fix enough to last us for a few days. She might rather you’d wait until tomorrow morning to visit, seeing as how she will want to get her own house in order first.”
“Fair enough,” Justin agreed. “We can go first thing tomorrow. In any case, I’m not eager to sit in that curricle again for a few hours.”
Soon after the two brothers had excused themselves to go to the kitchen to warm some of the food, Merriana reappeared, looking much rested and so beautiful that Justin jumped to his feet. He noticed that de Dalmy did the same.
Merriana was dressed not in the green traveling dress Justin had expected but in a soft sprigged muslin tied with green ribbons. It was cut low across her bosom, and green ribbons were threaded through her golden curls. A shawl of Norwich silk was draped across her shoulders.
“Isn’t it lovely?” Merriana cried as she twirled before the two men. “Lord Cardleigh, your sister must be a delightful girl. She had this carried over from Hilltops and left here for me to wear when I returned. There was a very sweet note with it begging me to make use of it. I must write her a note thanking her for her kindness.”
Justin leaned back in his chair, letting his eyelids droop so that Merriana couldn’t see how his gaze was devouring her. There was no doubt in his mind that she was the most delightful creature he’d ever seen, but he didn’t want her to become aware of his feelings just yet.
He remained silent as de Dalmy offered his arm, then escorted Merriana to a place near the fire, chattering all the while about her beauty until Merriana ordered him to stop. “For you’re making me blush,” she told him. “I’m not accustomed to compliments and don’t know how to respond in the playful way you are so adept with.”
The Frenchman was vehemently denying any lack of sincerity when Luke came in to set the table, and Merriana insisted on helping him. “I know how to do this,” she informed Luke, “and I’m sure you have other things to do.”
Luke agreed and, after one swift glance at Merriana’s finery and another at Justin’s face, seemed more than pleased to escape to the kitchen. De Dalmy insisted on helping with Merriana’s chore, but there was really little for either of them to do.
Justin had remained silent, but when the table was completed and the two turned back toward the fire, he suggested in a soft voice that de Dalmy might wish to freshen up. “I imagine you’ll be housed in the front bedchamber,” he informed the Frenchman. “You’ll have no trouble finding it on the right at the top of the stairs.”
There was little de Dalmy could do but to excuse himself and leave Justin alone with Merriana, a circumstance Justin had been endeavoring to achieve since leaving France.
As soon as the door had closed behind de Dalmy, Merriana turned toward Justin, a frown pulling at her brow. “Are you angry with me, my lord, for wearing your sister’s dress? For if you are, I assure you that I’ll be pleased to change. I realize that you didn’t plan on her being so generous, nor did I, but—”
“I don’t care in the least, Mary,” Justin interrupted. “I’m not angry with you at all. Why would you think I am?”
“You’ve been so quiet since I came into the room, it seemed to me that something was wrong.”
“Something was wrong. I was trying to think how to get rid of de Dalmy. He’s an excellent fellow but considerably de trop just at the moment. Come here a moment, Mary. I have something to ask you before Luke and Tom return.”
Merriana approached him slowly. “I can’t imagine what you have to say that must be said without anyone present, my lord,” she said. “If you’re going to apologize for thinking me an agent—”
“No,” Justin interrupted. “I was not going to apologize. I was going to do this.”
Whatever Merriana had been expecting, it was not to find herself suddenly enfolded in the earl’s arms. Nor, when she looked up at him in startled amazement, to discover him lowering his lips toward hers. A second later he was kissing her softly and tenderly.
And although she was far from the exhaustion that had weakened her on the occasion of their first kiss, she was amazed to find her heart beating faster and her legs growing weak. Perhaps, she told herself, that was why she wrapped her arms around him.
But in all honesty, she’d been longing for days to repeat their kiss, and when his tongue gently touched her lips, she opened her mouth to welcome him openly and with all the passion he aroused in her.
The kiss was much shorter than Merriana would have preferred, but she suspected that Justin paused because he knew their privacy might be invaded at any moment. Still, although he stopped kissing her, he pulled her to him tightly, burying his face in her hair and whispering into her ear. “Mary, my beautiful Mary. God, but I want you. I want to hold you and love you forever. Tell me you want me too, Mary.”
“I do,” Merriana murmured into the folds of his cravat. “You make me so happy with your kisses. I wish they never had to stop.”
“They don’t, Mary. Forget about going to this uncle of yours. Let me buy you your own home. Let me take care of you for the rest of your life. I promise you that nothing will ever come between us. Even after I marry, you will be the woman I cherish. You’ll never be sorry, Mary, if you put yourself under my protection, I swear that to you.”
Dark spots started swirling in Merriana’s line of vision as she stiffened and then pulled away from Justin’s embrace. “You are offering me carte blanche?” she whispered.
“Why, of course, my darling. But never believe that it’s to be merely for my convenience. I’m making you a commitment to look after you for all of your life. You’ll have servants and a carriage and anything else your heart desires. I can’t wait to see you draped in the jewels I’ll buy for you.”
Justin’s smile gradually dimmed as Merriana stared at him in horror. Obviously aware that she was less than thrilled with his offer, he reached for her again but Merriana twisted away from him and hurried across the room. She was staring out the window at the frozen yard when Tom and Luke came in carrying large trays of food. They were busily setting this bounty out on the table when de Dalmy reentered the room.
Forcing herself to turn back to the others with a smile on her face, Merriana took her place at the table and responded to Tom or Luke or de Dalmy whenever it became necessary for her to uphold her end of the conversation. She ate a few morsels, although she had no appetite, but she had far too much pride to allow her distress to show. She could hardly explain, after all, that she feared she had given her heart to a man who was interested only in her body, and so she made a special effort to appear relaxed and happy. She decided she must be succeeding fairly well, for Justin glanced at her occasionally with obvious irritation in his eyes.
Merriana excused herself early from the table, saying she was tired and had a touch of the headache. Justin rose politely as she stood but in no other way showed that he was affected by her defection. Luke and Tom expressed dismay that she was not feeling up to par and de Dalmy suggested that she rest as late in the morning as she wished, because he and the earl had an errand to run before the three left for London. Merriana managed a smile and assured them that a good night’s rest was all she needed. After effectively escaping to her room, she cried for two hours before falling into a sleep of exhaustion.
Chapter 9
Merriana awoke early the next morning and—since two buttons were still missing from the back of the gown she’d worn on her journey to and from the coast—she managed to dress without assistance. She folded the muslin and laid it on her bed, where she also placed a note of thanks she’d written to Justin’s stepsister. In the note she promised to return the other clothing as quickly as possible.
Now she had only to sit and wait. She heard the earl and de Dalmy as they tiptoed down the hall to go to breakfast. Although she’d eaten little the evening befo
re, she wasn’t hungry and would not have gone downstairs even if she were. Eventually, she heard the sound of the earl’s curricle being readied, and she risked a glance out the window when she heard it pull out of the stable yard. Both Justin and de Dalmy were leaving on the errand the Frenchman had so fortuitously mentioned the night before.
Merriana took a deep breath and hurried down the stairs. She needed help and she was not sure she would find it. Fortunately, Tom was in the common room cleaning up the table where the four men had broken their fast.
“Tom,” she called as she hurried into the room.
“Mary!” Tom turned to her. “You just missed Justin and the Frenchman, but there’s plenty of food left. Let me warm you something.”
“No,” Merriana exclaimed. “I don’t want any food. Tom, I need your help.”
Tom approached her, a frown on his face. “What, Mary?” he asked simply.
“I want to get away from here before Justin returns. Isn’t there a stage due this morning? Isn’t there some way of signaling it to stop?”
“Yes,” Tom agreed slowly. “But why would you want a stage, Mary? Justin plans to take you right on to London with him today. That would be easier traveling.”
“I don’t want to go with him,” Merriana said. “I can’t explain, Tom. Please don’t ask me to.”
“I know you’re in love with him, Mary, if that has anything to do with it.”
“Yes,” she agreed, fighting back tears. “I suppose I am. But he doesn’t love me, Tom. He wants me, yes. He made that plain when he offered me carte blanche, but I—”
“Offered you what?” Tom interrupted to ask.
“Carte blanche. That means he wants me to be his mistress, Tom.”
“What? Why the blasted fool! Does he think you’re a lightskirt, then?”
“No,” Merriana smiled through her tears. “If he thought that, he would never have honored me with such an offer.”
“You mean he knows you’re a decent girl but still made you an offer like that?” Tom stared at her with widened eyes as though hoping he’d heard wrong.
“It’s often the way with noblemen, I believe,” she explained. “But it’s not an offer I can accept. I want to go to my uncle, Tom, but I don’t want to have to travel with Justin. Can you understand that?”
“I’m not sure that I can,” Tom replied. “You don’t have to be afraid of Justin. If you just tell him that you’re not interested—”
Merriana shook her head. “He won’t give up that easily, believe me. But I’m not afraid of him. I simply feel that if I never see him again, it will be easier for both of us. What he wants can’t be, and if it ends now rather than later… Well, you do understand, don’t you Tom?”
“I guess I do, Mary. But I don’t know about letting you just disappear. If Justin cares for you at all—and any fool can see that he does—he’ll at least want to know you’re safe. So would I, when it comes to that.”
“Very well. I’ll write my uncle’s address out for you. Then, if Justin wishes, he can come to check on me there. If for any reason I can’t stay with my uncle, I’ll leave word with someone there as to where I can be reached.”
“That seems fair enough. You write that address down while I go get some money. We can flag the stage down in about half an hour.”
“Oh,” Merriana exclaimed. “I’d forgotten about money. I can’t let you pay my way to London.”
“Sure you can,” Tom said, grinning. “We haven’t given you a bit of wages for all the work you did here, and I fully intended to pay you when you got ready to move on. I guess that time is now.”
Forty-five minutes later Merriana was safely aboard a stage traveling to London with some extra coins in her reticule, and Tom was walking back to the inn with the slip of paper containing the address of Merriana’s uncle carefully tucked into his pocket.
While Merriana was preparing for her journey on the stage, Justin and de Dalmy were enjoying the sunshine that warmed them in the curricle. They had turned off the main highway onto a smaller road leading to the Harvey farm, and because the way was rough, Justin had slowed his greys to a walk. De Dalmy chattered about the joy he anticipated at seeing De la Nuit again. “For,” he said cheerfully, “we went through a great many trials and sorrows together in Paris a couple of years ago.”
Justin wished his guest would be quiet, because he’d have preferred to think about his future with Merriana rather than listening to the Frenchman’s reminiscences, but he didn’t allow his feelings to show.
He realized that he’d shocked Merriana, and he cursed himself for not using more care in approaching her. He’d known she was an innocent, and he’d bungled his proposition royally. He should have gone much more slowly, perhaps even waiting until they had reached London and searched for or found her uncle before telling her of his plans. Still, he didn’t give up hope. It was obvious she cared for him, and he was determined to let her come to this conclusion for herself. Perhaps he would appear to lose interest in her. Then, when she was wondering if she had lost him for good, he would approach her again.
“So you and De la Nuit worked together in Paris?” he asked, aware that he had to respond to de Dalmy although he wasn’t really interested in his story.
De Dalmy’s voice grew sad. “There were three of us,” he said, “including a friend of De la Nuit who was a young man of the aristocracy but not, I fear, extremely careful. He trusted a woman with too much information and she betrayed him. He was tortured before he died, but he didn’t implicate any of the people he’d worked with.”
“I’m sorry,” Justin said. “Were you able to repay the woman for her treachery?”
“No, for she disappeared, and we had no idea where to search for her. De la Nuit was devastated, but there was nothing he could do.”
Both men rode in silence for several minutes, de Dalmy apparently lost in his unpleasant memories of Paris and Justin busily scheming for ways to repair the damage he’d done in his hasty proposition to Mary. Thinking of her, he began, unconsciously, to whistle the song that she had so often hummed. He stopped when de Dalmy grasped his arm in a grip so tight it startled him.
“What the devil—” Justin began, but de Dalmy interrupted him.
“Where did you learn that tune?” he demanded.
“Let go of my arm, you fool,” Justin said. “The horses are still frisky.”
De Dalmy complied but demanded again, “Where did you learn it?”
“Why?”
“De la Nuit taught it to me and to our young friend who was betrayed. De la Nuit said that only the three of us in the whole world knew that song. We used it as a signal. When one of us whistled that tune, the others knew that we were in need of help. Now I ask you again, where did you learn it?”
Justin didn’t answer for several seconds. When he did respond, his voice was tight. “From Mary.”
“From Mary?” De Dalmy tossed his hands up in a gesture of confusion. “But what does this mean?”
“I don’t know. I asked her about it once, and she told me someone in her family composed it. I don’t remember now who she said. It seemed unimportant at the time.”
“But this is inexplicable,” exclaimed de Dalmy. “Or,” he continued slowly, “do you suppose Mary—”
“I don’t know,” Justin interrupted gruffly. “I don’t think so, but perhaps De la Nuit can throw some light on the matter.”
Although De la Nuit expressed delight at seeing his two visitors, Justin was sorry to see that his old friend seemed in poor condition. The former agent was still confined to the bed in Mrs. Harvey’s tiny spare bedroom, and lines of pain were newly etched on his face. Only the ebony blackness of his hair and eyes was unchanged, and that very darkness for which he had been named served to emphasize the stark pallor of his face. Still, his eyes sparkled with pleasure as he welcomed his friends.
“So,” he greeted de Dalmy, “you finally decided to get out of France, you rogue. And high time, too. W
hen I learned that Justin was going after you, I insisted on going along as a guide, but then this damn broken leg kept me here. You’re looking well, my old friend, and you too, Justin. Was your rescue mission uneventful? Did you find your way without a guide?”
Justin regarded the young man in the bed with a degree of fondness, for he had found him a likable and dependable colleague during his missions in Portugal and Spain. He was disturbed now to know that De la Nuit had escaped the war in the Peninsula with his skin intact, only to end up injured in England, but he didn’t allow his anxiety to show.
“Ah, but I had a guide,” he said. “A very unexpected and mysterious guide. I am hoping you will have some information about her.”
“How is this?” De la Nuit asked, and Justin gave him an abbreviated version of the facts, while de Dalmy added his fears that resulted from Mary’s knowing their secret tune.
“Did you ever find the woman who betrayed our colleague?” he asked.
“Never,” De la Nuit replied. “But I believe she was a much older woman than the one you describe. What do you know of this Mary’s background, Justin?”
“Only what she told me. That she was the adopted daughter of the chef at the estate of the Comte de Mérchan and that she learned the song from some member of her family. This chef supposedly took her to Paris when she was young and she grew up in an inn there.”
De la Nuit grinned. “Then that would explain it,” he said. “Actually, it was my grandmother who composed the song, which was picked up by my father’s nurse, who in turn sang it to me. But my father, I must explain, was the Comte de Mérchan. My mother sent me to England when I was a child and I was never acquainted with the chef, but if he adopted a daughter, it’s possible she heard that song and perhaps even thought it was composed by some member of her family. So I think you have nothing to fear from this young woman. I certainly do not believe she had anything to do with the treachery involving my friend.”
The Mysterious Merriana Page 8
