A Courtesan's Scandal

by Julia London

  “How do you do, sir? I am Grayson Christopher, possibly the former Duke of Darlington,” Grayson said, and put out his hand to Jude.

  “Jude Berger.”

  “I must be dreaming,” Kate said softly.

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  I ought not be here,” Jude kept saying. “I ought not be here.”

  Kate knew precisely what he meant; she didn’t feel as if she ought to be in the green salon of Darlington House either, surrounded by fine art and expensive furnishings and rich draperies. The whole night seemed a dream— how was it possible that a man like Darlington had stood up and spoken so eloquently for someone like her?

  Kate gripped Jude’s hand as hard as she had when they were children and she’d worried that he’d attempt to steal the oranges from the crate in front of the fruit stand if she let go. Tonight, she feared if she let go, the faeries would flit away and take Jude with them, and she would awaken from this dream.

  Grayson had left her alone with Jude and had gone off to make arrangements for them to sleep.

  At first, Kate and Jude looked at one another for several long moments.

  She couldn’t imagine what he must be thinking. He looked as if he’d had a hard life thus far, yet she could see the twinkling green eyes and slow smile of a brother she remembered clearly and loved dearly. “I missed you so,” she said at last. “I looked for you, Jude, on my word, I looked for you, but you were always one step ahead of me.”

  “How’d you learn to talk like a lady?” he asked curiously.

  Kate smiled. “It’s a very long tale.”

  “Where’d you hie off to, Katie? I remember you came round a time or two after Nellie made you leave us, but then you disappeared. I figured you was dead.”

  “No, I never left St. Katharine’s. My God, there is so much to tell you, Jude,” she said, and gestured to a settee. “And there is so much I want to know. How is it you came to be at Carlton House? My friend looked for you when The Princess docked, but he said you weren’t on board. And there you were, at Carlton House. How did you ever get past the guards?”

  “I don’t rightly know, in truth,” he said. “Lady Eustis brung me.”

  Kate gasped. “Lady Eustis?” She sank onto the settee. “Tell me.”

  Jude looked uncertainly at the settee and sat carefully. “’Twas the strangest thing, Katie. I come off the ship and wanted me pint, aye? A gent comes strolling along as if he’s king and he says to me, ‘Come on then, lad, come on, I’ve got a few pounds for a good hand…’ ”

  They talked well into the night. Jude told her about Lady Eustis, and the things she’d said. That he didn’t know what Carlton House was or what he’d be doing, but that Lady Eustis had arranged everything.

  In turn, Kate recounted her life after she’d lost touch with Jude. She told him everything. All of it. The worst parts and the best. She told of how she’d become Cousineau’s mistress, of how she’d been “given” to the Prince of Wales.

  And then she told Jude about Grayson, feeling the irrepressible smile on her face.

  Jude watched her shrewdly as she talked about the last few weeks of her life, and when she’d finished, he said, “You love the scoundrel, aye?”

  She smiled self-consciously.

  “I do. More than anything.” Jude sighed and shook his head. “It’s sure he loves you too, Katie, or he’s a bloody fool. Never known a gent to do such a foolish thing as he done. He’s brought ruin on him and his with this, I’d wager.”

  Kate couldn’t help but agree with Jude.

  “Do you know where Papa is?” Kate asked.

  “Papa?” Jude snorted. “He died long ago, lass.”

  Jude told her that Nellie Hopkins had eventually cast him out of their father’s house, just as she’d cast out Kate. He’d managed to keep up with their father for a year or two and saw him buried in a pauper’s grave. That he’d been so ashamed of that, he’d shortened his surname. After that, Jude said, he was lured to the sea by some friends, and had sailed to India twice. “I love the sea,” he said. “I loved India. The people there are a bloody sight different than they are here, Katie.”

  “Is it true? Is The Princess a slaver?” Kate asked.

  “Aye,” Jude said, frowning darkly. “Wretched stuff, that.” He explained that The Princess had only become a slaver recently, that the transport of humans was so lucrative the captain couldn’t resist it. “I was right happy to see that mob in London, on me word I was,” he said, and explained how The Princess had been met at port with angry protestors, led by the crusader William Wilberforce. “It’s a nasty business, slaving. I had in mind to take me pay and hire on a different ship.”

  “Are you happy?” Kate asked.

  Jude smiled, revealing two missing teeth. “I’m happy enough, I reckon. I’m happier now, aye, that I’ve seen you. I’ve missed you, Katie, I’ll not lie. You were the only thing I had in this world. I knowed what the Lady Eustis was speaking weren’t true,” he said. “But I’d always wondered why you stopped coming for me.”

  “I never stopped,” Kati told him earnestly. “Even when you all vanished, I never stopped.”

  It was half past two in the morning when Grayson quietly interrupted them and told them rooms had been readied.

  Jude stood up. “If by that you mean a right and proper bed, milord, I’m obliging.”

  “I do indeed, sir,” Grayson said, and nodded at a footman, who indicated Jude should follow him.

  Jude looked nervously at Kate. He put out his hand. Kate took it and squeezed it. “You’ll be here on the morrow, aye?”

  “Aye,” she said and hugged him tightly before Jude went out.

  When he was gone, Kate looked at Grayson. She opened her mouth to speak, but seeing him there before her, in the flesh, with love shining in his eyes, and knowing what he’d done for her tonight, all that he’d risked— she burst into tears.

  “Kate!” he said, and enveloped her in his arms. “Kate, sweetheart… the worst is over. What are these tears?”

  “You are so foolish!” she cried, pushing against him with her fists. “You risked too much!”

  “No, Kate, I never risked enough. I love you—the only risk I cannot take is being without you.”

  “Grayson, did you see how angry the prince was?”

  “His anger couldn’t ignite a candle next to mine,” Grayson bit out, and touched her face. “He’s not important to me. You are important. Our baby is important. Jude is important. Obviously, I would have preferred to tell you in a manner much more civilized than what I did tonight, but you’d not see me—”

  “Oh, I am such a fool at times!” she groaned, lowering her head.

  Grayson slipped his fingers beneath her chin and lifted her face to his. “If you had seen me, I would have told you that I would give away everything that I have or that I am for you and our baby. All of it. I would give everything I have for you.”

  Those words left her too hopeful. And too overwhelmed. She’d lived a lifetime in poverty and peril, and this… being in his house, hearing those words, were too difficult to believe, not after all they’d been through. “You’ve changed your mind?” she asked skeptically.

  “Completely.”

  She wanted desperately to believe him. “How? How can you risk so much?” she asked, looking around at the elaborately decorated room.

  “The question is, how can I risk losing you?” he said. “I have never been in love before, Kate. I have never felt…” He sighed and pressed his hand against his heart. “I have never felt this. How can I risk losing that? I regret that it took me so very long to understand that I could not lose it, and for that, I am sorry. But I know without a doubt that I am doing the right thing for myself, for you, and our baby.”

  Her heart quickened. “But your family—”

  “I come from a long line of inventive people. We will survive this and more.”

  His eyes were filled with such desperate hope that Kate couldn’t hold b
ack her own hope. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Grayson, oh Grayson… what joy you have put in my heart!”

  Grayson gently set her back. “There is one very important thing yet undone,” he said solemnly.

  “What is that?”

  He looked at her, his blue eyes searching her face. “I never want to forget this moment or how beautiful you are. Kate… Kate… I have been lost without you these last weeks,” he said, his eyes turning liquid. “I will consider it the greatest gift from above if I am never away from you again.” He sank to one knee and extended his palm to her. “Katharine Bergeron, will you take pity on this lovesick soul? Will you do me the extraordinary honor of being my wife?”

  Kate covered her mouth with one hand, unable to speak. The possibility of it was so unreal—even now, seeing him on his knee before her, his eyes awash in hope and adoration, she couldn’t believe it. Was she walking about in some delirious dream? Had the faeries come at long last and spirited her away from a life of hardship? She was so stunned, so—

  Grayson cleared his throat. “This is typically the moment in which a lady, who is inclined to say yes to the poor gent’s offer, might put him out of his misery and actually say yes,” he said, a little anxiously.

  Kate gulped. She stepped around his hand and wrapped her arms around his head and bent over him. “Yes, Christie,” she said, hugging him tightly. “Yes, dear God, yes.”

  Grayson rose up and gathered her in his arms as he did. “Thank you, God,” he said, and kissed her mouth. “I love you, Kate. I love you with the parts of my heart that I think have never felt love. And I will always love you. I will honor you, protect you, defend you—but above all else, I will always love you.”

  “But you will never love me as much as I love you.”

  “That’s a challenge I gladly accept,” he returned, as he swept her up in his arms and carried her to the settee. He set her down, let his gaze run over her, and put his hand on her abdomen. “I have missed you,” he said. “I have felt as if my life was quite empty without you.”

  “You have me now, Grayson,” she whispered, and sighed as he kissed her neck and his hands began to move on her, riling her blood, arousing such indescribable pleasure in her, transporting her to that place of ecstasy that only Grayson could bring her to.

  It was true, it was astoundingly true—the faeries really had come. The only thing missing was the forest.

  The duchess arrived quite early the following day—and well before a proper calling time, which she was usually so adamant about. Grayson groaned when Roarke informed him that she was in the family sitting room.

  He hurried there, hoping against hope that he would reach her before she found anyone else.

  He was too late.

  When he strode into the sitting room, he found his mother standing almost toe-to-toe with Kate. A wide-eyed Jude was standing back, looking as if he needed an escape.

  But Kate… God bless her, Kate was smiling with amusement.

  “Your Grace,” Grayson said to his mother. “I was not expecting you so early.”

  “Clearly you were not,” she said haughtily. “Although one wonders how you could not expect all of London to be at your door given your ridiculously uncivilized behavior last night—that is, if I may believe the outrageous reports that have reached my ears with astonishing speed.”

  “I think you can,” he said calmly.

  “Dear Lord,” she exclaimed, and frowned at Kate. “You realize, do you not, son, that rumors and vicious lies are spreading as fast as the plague? There are things being said about you that are unkind and, I will continue to believe, quite untrue! But you must be forewarned—you have entered a storm that I fear you cannot weather.”

  “A man can ride any storm if he trims his sails properly,” Jude offered.

  Grayson suppressed a groan as the duchess slowly turned her head and peered at Jude. “Perhaps you are right, young man.” She looked at Grayson. “You were certainly right about one thing—she is indeed beautiful.”

  Kate blushed.

  “I’d say the same to her if you were to properly introduce the occupants of this room,” the duchess sniffed.

  “I beg your pardon, Your Grace,” Grayson said, and with a grateful smile, he walked into the room to make the proper introductions.

  Chapter Forty

  Everyone agreed that the wedding should happen with all deliberate speed, given the outlandish gossip about Darlington that was swirling around London. A ducal wedding was normally quite an event to behold, but this was one that would be held in the privacy of Darlington House with only family and close friends. Even if the family had been so inclined to invite others, they rather doubted that anyone in the ton would risk being seen celebrating the Duke of Darlington’s spectacular fall from grace.

  Fortunately, there were some stalwart friends and a very large family to attend the ceremony that would take place in the chapel later that afternoon.

  The Earl of Lindsey, Nathan Grey, and his wife, Evelyn, had come. She was carrying a child, too, and Kate hoped that she looked as happy as Evelyn did. The Earl of Lambourne, and his fiancée, Elizabeth Beal—Lizzie—were also in attendance, having decided to remain in London for the wedding before returning to Scotland, where Lizzie’s sister, Charlotte, lived. Kate knew that Grayson was sad that another close friend, Declan O’Conner, Lord Donnelly of Ireland, would not be in attendance. “He’s in Ireland just now. There is no way to reach him in time,” he’d told her. “But he’ll be shocked to find us all married when he returns,” he’d said with a chuckle.

  On Kate’s side, there was Jude, of course, who had struck up a friendship with Aldous. As Kate walked through Darlington House to check on preparations for the wedding, she spotted the two men standing in the massive, two-story entry, talking about the sea. Jude— who looked so strikingly handsome in his new clothes— had told Kate they were thinking of hiring on with a new ship, The Soaring Eagle, which was set to sail to East India in pursuit of the perfume trade. The Soaring Eagle had a new investor: a Mr. Reginald Digby. Digby had made a tidy little sum from his first foray into the perfume trade.

  Kate smiled at Jude and Aldous as she walked through the entry. “You are the most beautiful bride I ever laid eyes on, lass,” Aldous said as she passed.

  “I’d swear you never laid eyes on a bride, Aldous,” Kate said laughingly.

  She continued on, past the formal green salon, where a champagne toast would be held when the vows had been made. The duchess and Digby were within, engaged in yet another argument. They’d discovered in these last few days that they both had very strong opinions about many things, including weddings. Kate paused just outside the door to look in.

  “I realize that you fancy yourself something of a florist, Mr. Digby, but I assure you that in all the years I have been a duchess, I have never seen anything quite as ostentatious as what you are proposing,” the duchess said, peering up at Digby.

  “With all due respect, Your Grace, how many times will you insist on your preferences merely because you have been a duchess for many years?” Digby countered.

  “I beg your pardon! And what, precisely, are your credentials?”

  “I, madam, am a man about town,” Digby responded, and bowed with a flourish.

  “You are no such thing!” the duchess exclaimed, but Kate thought she was smiling a little. She lost what else the duchess might have said, opting to tiptoe past the open door in lieu of interrupting their debate.

  She moved on, past the dining room, where Esmeralda and Holly were carefully laying the china for the wedding supper. That had been the source of another argument between Digby and the duchess, as the duchess considered it the height of bad taste to have a supper as opposed to a traditional wedding breakfast.

  Kate had offered all the women employment, but only Esmeralda and Holly would come to Darlington House. The others rather liked their lives, and now that Grayson had given her a wedding gift of the rooms D
igby had found, as well as an empty shop below the rooms where Kate would have her bakery—she had a place for her wards that kept them safe from men like Fleming. Moreover, Digby had graciously accepted her offer to be the proprietor of her bakery and the landlord to the women. Together, they would see to the day-to-day business while Kate was free to perfect her muffins and petits fours and raise what she hoped would be a slew of children.

  “Look at this, will ye?” Esmeralda whispered to Holly, and held up a knife. “It’s as heavy as iron, but it’s all silver!”

  “Put it down, ye silly goose!” Holly exclaimed. “Anyone sees ye, they’ll think ye meant to pilfer it!”

  Esmeralda dropped it quickly. “I’d never!” she said. “I’m not a goose, Holly—I’d not give up this livelihood!” she said, and both women paused to look around at the room again.

  Kate certainly understood them for she was no goose, either.

  She slipped by and walked on, rounding the corner of the hall and walking to the chapel.

  She wanted to see it before she took her vows, to absorb the very real fact that she was about to be Grayson’s wife. A duchess. A mother. She wished only that her mother could be here to see it. Look at us, Mummy. Look at Jude and me.

  The chapel was quiet; hothouse flowers had been brought in and arranged, and the candles were lit. Kate walked to the front of the chapel, her fingers trailing along the arms of the pews as she went. She paused at the altar and looked up at the cross that hung behind it.

  “Kate.”

  Startled, she whirled around. Grayson walked down the aisle toward her, smiling broadly his gaze greedily taking her in, “Look at you,” he said, gazing at the silver wedding gown she wore. “I don’t think you could possibly be any more beautiful… except out of this lovely gown.” He touched the pearl necklace he’d given her as a wedding gift. It wasn’t the same necklace he’d sent her weeks ago, for he’d returned that one. He’d bought instead a much simpler, less lavish necklace. To Kate, it was much more beautiful.