Undercover Duke

by Sabrina Jeffries

  “You climbed trees?” he said incredulously.

  She chuckled. “Short ones. I was quite the little hoyden until I received my first fashion doll at twelve. Then Grey had to switch to taking me shopping.”

  “As a big brother might.”

  “Yes.” She had a faraway look in her eyes as if remembering the past. Then she shook it off. “He was never a cousin to me. He was my big brother in every way but legally. Although Mama wanted us to marry, neither of us even considered it.” She shuddered. “I can only imagine how uncomfortable that would have been.”

  “No doubt.” He steered them to a bench where they could both take a seat, though he made certain they could still see her uncle and his mother. “Not to change the subject, but will your mother take my mother’s accusations out on you?” The thought of Lady Eustace doing so chilled his blood. Vanessa was blameless in this.

  “Because I sided with the duchess? Probably. But Mama is primarily bark and no bite. Even back then her main crime was in looking the other way while Papa did as he pleased with Grey. Just like Papa, she wanted Grey’s properties. But she never had the audacity to lift a hand to him herself.”

  “Are you sure she won’t hurt you?”

  She seemed touched by his question. “Most of her ire will be reserved for your mother. No doubt I will have to endure an hour or so of ranting, but that’s nothing new.”

  “I’m sorry if the incident today became uncomfortable for you and your uncle.”

  “Honestly, it’s been a long time in coming.” She nodded over to where his mother and Sir Noah were now engaged in a low conversation at the foot of the statue. “As for my uncle, I think your mother is making up for whatever discomfort he experienced.” They sat in silence a minute. “Did you know ahead of time that your mother was planning to confront mine with the past when you brought her with you?”

  “God, no. I would have left her at home if I’d even guessed.” Mother clearly had forgotten the purpose of the visit. Not that he blamed her.

  “So . . .” Vanessa continued to stare across to where the others stood. “Why exactly did you bring her?”

  Damn. Now he was treading dangerous ground. “She wished to pay a much-delayed call on you, actually, to thank you for attending Thorn’s party.”

  Her eyebrows rose so high, they nearly reached her hairline. “I hardly think any unmarried woman in her right mind would have turned down such an invitation. Certainly I wouldn’t have.”

  “Ah.” He wasn’t sure what else to say.

  “The thing is . . . you’ve come to visit me every day since that night—”

  “As a man who is courting a woman should do,” he was quick to point out.

  “Yes. But your part of our bargain was that you would court me to make Mr. Juncker jealous. My part—such as it is—was that I’d acknowledge you were right if he proved not to care about marriage.” She stared down at her gloved hands. “Neither of us has completed our part conclusively. And I can’t even do mine until you do yours, which you haven’t been doing at all. I mean, how can I make him jealous when he’s not around to see you courting me?”

  “An excellent point.” Bloody hell. He’d known he wouldn’t get more than a few visits to question Lady Eustace before Vanessa started to wonder at his motives, but he needed more time. Still, she’d been very patient, and without understanding what he was up to. “I do take your meaning. How do you suggest I solve the problem?”

  She met his gaze, the faint blush on her cheeks unleashing an oddly savage feeling in his chest, a fiery need to possess her. At once. In every way possible. Which was madness, of course.

  “That’s simple,” she said. “You bring him as your companion next time, not your mother.”

  “But what reason can I give to convince him to join me in calling on you?”

  “Let me think.” She mused a moment. “I know! You can say you need a companion to distract Mama so you can talk to me in private and pour out your heart to me.”

  “That would work.” It would, but he wasn’t sure he liked it. Involving Juncker was unpredictable. The man might treat her ill. Or break her heart. Or lay his hands on her for wicked purposes.

  No, he didn’t have to worry about that. Because he refused to leave her alone with the chap.

  She cast him a soft smile. “Then, if Mr. Juncker cares for me at all, he will try to take your place and pour out his heart to me himself. And I will know for certain whether he wants me as his wife.”

  “And if he doesn’t take the bait, you will acknowledge that I’m right about him?”

  “Yes.” She stared hard at him. “I merely need to know the truth.”

  He could see how she would feel that way, but it annoyed him she was so fixed upon Juncker. The man was a ne’er-do-well, cocky for no reason. She didn’t belong with Juncker. She belonged with—

  No, that wasn’t acceptable. Never mind that her sweet side intoxicated him and made him want to claim her as his own. He was not looking for a wife. She might have a generous dowry, but it would never be enough to salvage the Armitage dukedom. And right now, saving the dukedom and figuring out who was behind Father’s murder had to be his whole focus.

  But her arm against his felt so right, and her scent of lilies fogged his brain so much that he forgot why he mustn’t marry her. Lost in the glory that was her wearing a flattering gown, he was having trouble concentrating. Now that the moon was rising, lending a romantic glow to the garden, he could too easily imagine her in his bed, those ample breasts freed of constraint, and her curls, as black and shining as his freshly polished top boots, recklessly tumbled across a pillow while he—

  Sir Noah and Mother came toward them. God, he hoped darkness and his greatcoat covered his body’s reaction. No man wanted his mother to see him in such a state. He could only pray his desire didn’t show in his face.

  But clearly both Mother and Sir Noah were too distracted to notice such things. “Vanessa,” her uncle began as the pair reached them, “I am going to accompany the duchess home in my curricle. I don’t think I can face your mother right now. Tell her I will call on her tomorrow.”

  With a scowl, Sheridan stood, then helped Vanessa up. “No need for you to trouble yourself, sir. I will see that my mother gets back to Armitage House myself. Besides, my carriage is a damned sight safer at night than an open curricle.”

  “I’ll be fine with Sir Noah,” his mother said. “And didn’t you want more time to visit with Vanessa?”

  Vanessa sighed. “Alas, I’m not sure either of you would be welcome inside our house just now. But if I don’t go back, she will stew in her own anger until she takes it out on the servants. So it’s best I return to soothe her temper.”

  Mother looked torn. “I’m sorry you got caught in the middle, my dear.”

  “I’m not sorry.” Vanessa’s ghost of a smile showed she meant it, too. “You spoke the truth. I can always hope she got a lesson out of it, although knowing Mama, I doubt it.” She looked at Sheridan. “I should go back.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Sir Noah said. “But I’m not going in.”

  “You’ll leave your niece to bear the brunt of her mother’s anger alone?” Mother surprised Sheridan by saying.

  “I suppose that would be unfair.” Sir Noah sighed. “But don’t expect me to like it.”

  Then he offered his arm to Vanessa, who glanced at Sheridan. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “I’ll be there at the same time I came today,” he answered. Then he watched as Sir Noah and Vanessa headed back to the Pryde abode.

  He gestured to his footman waiting on the steps of the Pryde town house, and the servant hurried off to fetch the carriage.

  “You’re coming here again tomorrow?” his mother said.

  “Yes. I promised Vanessa I’d bring Juncker with me.”

  “So you and Vanessa can make him jealous.”

  “Exactly.” But it wasn’t something he was looking forward to. And he still hadn�
�t found out what he wanted to know from Lady Eustace.

  “That woman is not interested in Mr. Juncker, you know. She wants you.”

  He shook his head at her. “You just think she does because you can’t imagine her wanting anyone other than your son.”

  Mother snorted. “I can tell a woman who has set her cap for someone when I see her.”

  “Trust me—she’s not interested in me. Long before she and I grew . . . cozy, she told Grey of her interest in Juncker.”

  “If you say so.” Mother sounded skeptical.

  Time to change the subject. “What were you and Sir Noah discussing? Or dare I ask?”

  “Mostly we talked about Cora. He wanted a fuller explanation of what I was accusing her of, and I wanted to know where he’d been when all of it was happening.”

  “Ah.” Sheridan put his arm around his mother’s shoulders, reminded of how small and fragile she really was, despite her fierceness. The grief of suffering three husbands’ deaths would weigh anyone down. “What did he say?”

  “He reminded me of something I already vaguely knew from way back when Cora and I were friends—that his estate is far up north in Cumberland, which is one reason he and his wife rarely came to London before her death. The other was she was ill a great deal. So he didn’t like to leave her.”

  “That all sounds perfectly reasonable.”

  “Unfortunately, he couldn’t so easily explain Cora to me: why she’s the way she is, what makes her so mean, and how she managed to raise a daughter as fine as Vanessa.”

  “I actually think Grey might have had something to do with that.” Briefly he told her what Vanessa had said about growing up with Grey as an “older brother.”

  His mother sniffed. “I think she merely got lucky with Vanessa. But more and more I believe Grey is right about Cora. She has the best motive of anyone to murder my husbands, if only out of resentment toward me. I married the duke she coveted, and then after she killed him, I landed in clover again with Thorn’s father. After she killed him, I married a man she would have seen as inconsequential and, anyway, he was out of her reach in Prussia. Until he became a duke, too, once again giving me what she wanted—prestige and wealth. So she had to kill him.”

  Sheridan stifled a smile. “And the fact that she was vile to one of your children has nothing to do with why you believe this.”

  Mother tipped up her chin. “It just shows she is vile in general.”

  “There are two problems with your theory. The first is that the Armitage dukedom hasn’t had wealth in years, thanks to Uncle Armie’s spending.”

  “But she didn’t know that.”

  “Which leads to the second problem. Your theory doesn’t explain why she would wait all those years and suddenly decide to kill Uncle Armie to bring Father back to England, thus making Father into a duke as well. Wouldn’t his new status contribute to her envy?”

  Mother’s lips thinned into a severe line. “Well . . . I mean, we don’t know for certain that your uncle Armie was murdered, do we? We’ve just assumed it was part of the pattern. But it might not be.”

  That brought Sheridan up short. She had a point. If Uncle Armie had genuinely died from drunkenly falling off his horse and breaking his neck, then their father coming back and becoming duke might have merely infuriated Lady Eustace that Mother was once again “landing in clover.”

  “It’s something to think about, I suppose,” he said as their carriage approached. “I’ll mention it to the others.”

  The carriage halted, the footman put the step down, and Sheridan helped his mother inside. Once they were settled into their seats and on their way back to Armitage House, Mother asked, “Are you angry with me?”

  “For what?”

  “Letting Cora have it with both barrels. I know I was supposed to question her about the house parties, but I just saw her sitting there with her cat-in-the-cream smile, and I . . . I wanted to tear her hair out after what she did to Grey.”

  “How could I be angry over that? She deserved it.”

  “But it makes your task all the more difficult.”

  Mother had no idea. He’d be lucky if he could even get inside the Pryde house now. “I will work it out, never fear. At the very least I have to uphold my promise to Vanessa that I will bring Juncker to visit.”

  “Ah, yes. And how will you convince him to join you?”

  “She and I concocted a plan. I just need to hunt him down tonight so I can set the plan in motion.”

  “I see. Good luck to you then. Both of you will need it.”

  How true that was. Worse yet, after tomorrow he’d have no more reason to see Vanessa. Either she would have caught Juncker at last, or Juncker would have made it clear once and for all that he had no interest in her.

  You could court her yourself. Make her your wife and have her in your bed where you want her.

  He tamped down on the instant surge of heat coursing through him. Aside from not wanting to be the consolation prize for a woman who’d lost the main object of her affections, he needed to marry an heiress with a large fortune. And Vanessa’s dowry, as generous as it was by all accounts, still wasn’t enough for that.

  So tomorrow would have to spell the end to his time with Vanessa, no matter how much he knew he would miss it. And damn, how he would miss it.

  Chapter Ten

  Vanessa and her uncle returned home to discover that her mother had gone to bed and “didn’t wish to be disturbed.” That was one of the many tactics in Mama’s arsenal for ruling her roost, and it had worked well during Vanessa’s childhood. When her mother was so upset with her behavior that she wouldn’t even speak to Vanessa, Vanessa had often gone to sit outside Mama’s door pleading with her not to be angry and asking what she could do to make it better.

  It had taken her years to realize that her mother wielded silence like a weapon to make Vanessa think the world would crash down about her ears without her mother. Mama enjoyed watching Vanessa beg. Or having Father do so, for that matter. But he’d resorted to begging less and less as the years went by, choosing instead to storm about and then leave to find recourse with one light-skirt or another.

  When Mama was unhappy, everyone else must be unhappy. That was how the silent treatment worked.

  Fortunately, by the time Vanessa was seventeen, she realized that ignoring her mother’s silence was her best recourse. One couldn’t punish someone with silence if that someone didn’t take it as a punishment.

  Apparently Uncle Noah had learned that lesson, too, from growing up with Mama, for Vanessa couldn’t miss the look of profound relief on his face when he heard that his sister had already retired for the night.

  “It’s probably for the best,” he said. “She’ll have calmed down by morning.”

  Vanessa sincerely doubted that.

  “And at least we can have a peaceful evening,” he added.

  “It’s all right if you want to go, Uncle. I’ll be fine.”

  He stood there in the foyer and stared up the staircase. “Are you sure? I can stay if you wish.”

  “No need. I’ll have a tray in my room, and then I’ll read until I fall asleep.” Besides, it would give her plenty of time to prepare for every contingency tomorrow—Mama raging, Mama sullen, Mama threatening to cut off the connection Vanessa had with Grey and his family.

  “All right, then.” Uncle Noah bent to kiss her forehead. “Tell your mother I will call on her again tomorrow.”

  “I will.”

  “Oh, and don’t count Armitage out yet. If he’s the sort of fellow you richly deserve, he will come to his senses on his own. Because clearly he likes you a great deal.”

  “I hope you’re right. Because I like him a great deal, too.”

  It was true. During their previous visits, they’d talked quite a bit. She’d expected familiarity to breed contempt. Instead, she’d found him to be more of the sort of man she wanted—responsible, thoughtful, and intelligent. She didn’t care if he also needed her
money. She would give it to him gladly if he helped her escape the likes of Lord Lisbourne.

  After Uncle Noah left, Vanessa crept up the stairs, hoping her mother really had retired for the night and wasn’t just waiting to pounce on her. But Mama had either fallen asleep or she’d drunk the larger part of that perry Sheridan had brought and had passed out. Either way, Vanessa got to have the evening to enjoy the calm before the storm. Because there would most certainly be a storm, if not tonight, then tomorrow.

  True to form, her mother woke her the next morning around nine and stood over her while Vanessa was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

  Mama crossed her arms over her chest. “There will be no more visits from that witch, do you hear me, little missy?”

  “Do you mean the Duchess of Armitage?” Vanessa asked, still trying to clear the cobwebs from her mind.

  Her mother snorted. “I will not do that awful creature the honor of calling her Duchess. How dare she malign me in my own home! And to think we were friends once. I must have been mad to allow her within my circles.”

  Vanessa had to concentrate on sitting up in bed to keep from laughing in her mother’s face. Somehow she doubted that the Duchess of Armitage had ever needed help in society, even before she married Grey’s father.

  “And there will certainly be no more visits from Armitage,” her mother went on.

  Her heart sank. “But Mama, he had nothing to do with—”

  “No! I will not listen to your pleading. I can see what you apparently cannot—that Armitage means to court and marry you for your dowry. If he succeeds, I will be linked to Lydia forever. I shan’t have it, I tell you!” She leaned down. “And given that he probably intends to call on you again today, I have made sure you won’t defy me. I have already instructed the butler to say we are not ‘at home’ to any visitors today. Perhaps that will make you think twice before you side with the enemies of your mother again.”