Enticing the Earl

by Christie Kelley

  “The other items?”

  “Of course, you will need several dresses for the country party,” Selina said. “Colin insisted I meet with a French dressmaker in London to complete my wardrobe.”

  “And you didn’t mind?” Thinking back to the way Selina used to comport herself, Mia wondered how such a free spirit could enjoy the torture of a dress fitting.

  “It takes some adjusting,” Selina admitted with a smile. “But it is worth it for the man you love.”

  The man you love. But what if you weren’t sure if you loved him? Mia wondered if she would ever know for certain. Maybe she didn’t know how to love a man. She had never loved either of the men she’d been with before Simon. Perhaps some women could never learn to love a man.

  But as the door opened and Simon entered the room, her heart skipped a beat. Dressed in an older-looking riding outfit of buff breeches and a brown jacket, he still looked more handsome than any other man she’d met. “Are you about finished?”

  “Yes,” Mia answered in an excited voice. “I am so tired of being pricked and measured.”

  “Good afternoon, Your Grace,” Simon said as Selina turned around to face him.

  “I thought we’d agreed upon Selina.”

  “So we did,” Simon replied. He glanced at Mia. “I believe you might wish to change before we leave.”

  “Yes, I will be down in five minutes,” Mia said.

  He nodded and bowed slightly toward them before leaving. Once he left, Mia’s heart had returned to its normal beat.

  “Where are you off to this afternoon?” Selina asked as she gathered her shawl.

  “Just a ride out to the tenants.” Mia didn’t dare say anything about their true mission with Mrs. Wilson in the room.

  “Well, enjoy yourself.” They walked out of the room together and Selina leaned closer. “And be careful.”

  “We will. Don’t worry.”

  A few minutes later, Mia raced down the steps eager to get outside and dig in the dirt. She found both Simon and Charlie waiting for her.

  “Good afternoon, Mia,” Charlie said with a sweeping bow.

  She laughed at his silliness. “Good afternoon to you, and you, my lord,” she replied tartly with a curtsy to both men.

  “Come along,” Simon said with a smile. “The footmen rode ahead to secure the area.”

  Secure the area. That sounded far more dangerous than she expected of this expedition. She just prayed they would find something of value to prove she was right about the treasure.

  “So you finally told your brother what is going on?” Mia asked as they departed the house.

  “Yes. He helped this morning in the library.”

  “Oh? Did you find anything in the library?” she asked once they were on their horses.

  Simon explained the journal he and Charlie had discovered. “That journal doesn’t prove any specific battle occurred but many times if the old house or castle was near to ruins, the new lord might build a new one in the same place.”

  When they reached the area, Simon asked her to stay back with Charlie while he spoke with the footmen. She watched him ride off and worried her lip.

  “You really do love him, don’t you?”

  Mia turned and stared at Charlie. Did she love Simon? Did she even know what love was? Her heart skipped a beat when he entered a room. She wanted to soothe his worries and keep him from harm. She wanted to share her life with him until they were old and gray. “I think I do,” she whispered.

  Her world spun around for a minute. She loved Simon Blakesworth, the Earl of Hartsfield.

  “About time you realized it,” Charlie said with a laugh.

  “What do you mean?”

  He smirked. “The minute he walked into the library yesterday, you couldn’t take your eyes off him. You watched his every movement and smiled up at him when he escorted you into the dining room. Even at dinner, you spoke with me, but more often stared at him.”

  “Charlie, do you think this is a mistake?”

  “No, sweetheart, I don’t.”

  “I don’t know how to be a countess,” Mia said softly as she returned her gaze to Simon.

  “You will learn.”

  Simon waved them over to the area behind Mrs. Perkins’s cottage. Just as they arrived, Mrs. Perkins ambled out of her home.

  “Hartsfield, you never said that bastard would be here too,” she said, pointing at Charlie.

  “He promised not to eat any of your berries,” Simon replied.

  The old woman scowled. “There’s something about that boy. I still don’t like him,” she mumbled before returning to her house.

  Simon and Mia laughed as Charlie shook his head. “It was just a couple of berries. Why can’t that woman understand that I was a hungry growing boy.”

  “Come on,” Simon said. “The footmen have checked the area and there is no sign of anyone nearby.”

  Mia picked up a shovel and then scanned the area to determine the last place she dug. She’d marked it mentally by the right side of the cottage. Twenty paces from that. Today, she walked thirty paces from the house.

  “Mia, how deep do you normally dig?” Charlie asked.

  “No more than a foot.” She turned her head back to him and noticed he measured off the distance of a foot between his hands and showed Simon. When Simon saw her gaze, his cheeks turned red with embarrassment. Was this an issue related to his difficulties with mathematics? He was a very intelligent man and had talent with his landscapes.

  Mia returned to digging her area to lessen Simon’s discomfiture. She’d never heard of a person with difficulties like his. Her mother’s books might shed a clue onto what is causing the problem, or at least give him some comfort if there was nothing to be done about it. There was a child of a former tenant who had a similar issue with words and reading. That boy had also been extremely intelligent but had difficulties learning from books.

  After scooping out a pile of dirt, Mia bent down and searched the pile. A few pebbles and rocks but nothing much was in the soil. She searched the hole and found nothing there either. The next hour went the same way, many holes but nothing of any value. Unfortunately, neither had Simon or Charlie.

  “This is mad,” Charlie said, tossing his shovel to the ground. “There is nothing here!”

  Mia understood his frustration better than anyone. “Charlie, I’ve dug this land many times. I have only found four items. It takes time and patience to dig and discover something.”

  “Who’s to say there is anything left to find? For all we know, Lambert or Davies already found the rest of the gems.”

  Simon shook his head. “I doubt it, Charlie. The only disturbed land was this general area.” He pointed to land directly behind Mrs. Perkins’s home. “I think we need to spread out more. If this was an encampment, there could be items over a much larger area of land.”

  Charlie nodded sharply before picking up his shovel again. “Very well, I shall dig over here.”

  They dug for a few more hours before giving it up for the day. Maybe Charlie was right and there was no more treasure. Mia sighed as she placed her shovel in the small outbuilding. Her back and arms ached from the exertion, which seemed all for naught. The only one who seemed unaffected by their disappointing day was Simon.

  “Why aren’t you upset that we didn’t find anything?” She asked as he assisted her onto her horse.

  “Because unlike you and Charlie, I never expected we would find anything. I used to gamble, Mia. What are the chances that we would find something valuable in all this land?”

  Mia nodded. “I suppose quite small.”

  “What you found in the past was purely luck.” He jumped up on his horse and led the mare around.

  She didn’t want to believe him. Something deep inside her told her there was more out here.

  “Besides, this land is vast. If there had been a battle here, more would have been uncovered when they tilled for the spring crops.” Simon urged his horse to
a slow trot.

  She hated when logic overran her feelings but Simon made far too much sense. Charlie rode ahead at a fast gallop either out of frustration or to give them some peace. It didn’t matter which was the reason, Mia enjoyed the slow trot home.

  Home.

  “What are you thinking about? You have the oddest look on your face.”

  “I was just thinking that we were heading for home. It’s rather strange to think of your big house as home.”

  “It will be in just a few days.”

  “I know.”

  Simon pulled up and grabbed the reins of her horse. “Are you all right with this idea of marriage?”

  She reached over and caressed his cheek with her gloved hand. “Yes. Can we walk home? I need to stretch my limbs.”

  “Of course.” He smiled deeply before capturing her hand and kissing it. He scrambled off his horse and then assisted her down. He clasped his hand in hers as they strolled to their home.

  “Can I ask you a question that might embarrass you?”

  He rolled his eyes. “If you must.”

  “When did you or your family realize you had an issue with mathematics?”

  He remained silent for a long time before finally saying, “From the time the governess tried to teach me when I was five. She told my father, I would never learn and there must be something wrong with me.”

  Mia closed her eyes as the pain of a five-year-old boy washed over her. “What did he say?”

  Simon laughed hoarsely. “That I was the next Earl of Hartsfield and I would learn my numbers. I will give the man credit in that he tutored me extensively after that. I could do the sums but always made mistakes.”

  “But you are an excellent reader.”

  “And writer. But some things don’t make sense for me. Music for one. I could never learn to play an instrument. You saw Charlie show me how low to dig. Without his assistance, I most likely would have dug too far or not far enough. I don’t judge distances well.”

  She frowned slightly. “You did fine when we were throwing knives.”

  “Still, if you had told me to stand back twenty feet, I wouldn’t have been able to judge that without walking twenty steps, and hoping it was right.”

  This didn’t sound like anything she could cure. In fact, she wondered if anyone else in his family had the same problem. “Do your brothers or Caroline have the same issue?”

  “No,” he answered quietly. “Only me.”

  “Did you know if you took a fall when you were very young?” Sometimes a fall to the head can cause a lifetime of problems.

  Simon shrugged. “Not that I remember.”

  “You should ask your mother when you see her next.”

  “Why? Are you afraid I’ll give this to our child?”

  Mia smiled up at him. “No. But we should know to look for it in our children so we can get them a very good tutor who will work with the issue. If it was a fall to your head, that might have caused the mathematics issue.”

  “And the music?”

  “It’s all part of the brain. You have met the duke’s footman, Randall. He took a serious fall when he was little and has never been the same.”

  Simon pulled his hand away. “Now, you’re comparing me to Randall?”

  “No, it’s just that when you land on your brain, certain functions can be diminished. There is nothing a healer or surgeon can do about it.”

  “I see.”

  “Thank you, though.”

  He looked down at her with soft gray eyes. “For what?”

  “Trusting me enough to tell me such a painful fact.” Mia grabbed his hand and squeezed it in hers.

  “After doing the books, I assumed you figured it out. Or thought I was an idiot.”

  “I never thought that,” Mia replied. “I have known you for as long as I can remember and you are very intelligent.”

  He pulled her into his arms and kissed her softly. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Being the most understanding woman I have ever met.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “And for trying to help me out of my financial difficulties. Most women of the ton would have run away from that as soon as they learned of it. Except, of course, the untitled wealthy women who just want to be a countess.”

  Mia stared at the ground for a minute. “At least they could solve your monetary woes. Maybe it would be better—”

  He cut off the rest of her sentence with a hard kiss. “Never even think it. You are the woman I want to marry. I could go to London tomorrow and be engaged by the end of the week. But I don’t want one of those women who will demand that we spend months in town and around all those people. I want you.”

  Mia’s heart skipped a beat. She had no doubt that she loved him and wanted to be the woman he came to love. “You don’t have to worry about me demanding time in London. I have only been there twice with my father and don’t hold it in the highest of regard.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s so crowded and noisy there. Out here, all we hear is the birds and insects. You can’t even hear them in London over the carriages and the people.”

  “I have to agree with you on that point. However, there are some beautiful noises in London you can’t hear in Hartsfield.”

  Mia tilted her head. “Such as?”

  “The opera,” he said wistfully. “While I might not be able to play an instrument, it doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate music.”

  “I have never been to an opera.”

  He smiled down at her. “I shall take you next year.”

  “Indeed? The crowds won’t bother you?”

  He furrowed his brown. “I can face them for you.”

  Mia smiled as her heart swelled. She didn’t think she could be any happier than she was at this moment.

  Chapter 18

  The next few days flew in a whirl of dress fittings and preparations for the wedding. By Tuesday, Mia was exhausted and ready for the wedding to be done. They had returned to Mrs. Perkins’s garden only once since their last futile dig. Mia had decided there must be nothing left there. The few pieces she’d found had probably been all there was at the site.

  Tomorrow at nine, she would become the Countess of Hartsfield. She walked to the window in her bedchamber and stared out at the twilight sky. Pinks and purple streaks against the darkening sky greeted her. A lone rider headed back toward the stables. In this light, she couldn’t be sure who it might be, but it seemed odd to her. She watched the rider dismount and then toss his reins to the stable boy. As the man strolled toward the house, she realized it was only Charlie out for an evening ride. He stopped at the fountain, brushed dirt off his knees, and then ran his hand through the water. He cupped some water in his hands and splashed his face a few times. She wondered if he’d taken a fall to get so dirty.

  With a shrug, she turned away from the window and stared at the ivory silk gown she would get married in tomorrow. It was more beautiful than anything she could have imagined wearing. There were pearls along the neckline of the dress and lace at the cuffs.

  A knock scraped the door. “Come in.”

  Simon peered into the room with a grin. “May I come in for just a moment?”

  “Of course.”

  He walked in with a small box in his hands. “I have something for you to wear tomorrow. I heard a rumor you were wearing ivory and thought my grandmother’s pearls would be a nice touch.”

  She gasped as the box revealed the most lustrous set of pearls she had ever seen. “Where did you get them?”

  “My grandfather bought them as a wedding present for my grandmother.”

  “They are beautiful.” She reached out tentatively and touched the smooth jewels. “These are worth a fortune.”

  “I am not selling my grandmother’s pearls,” he replied.

  “Of course not,” she said with a shake of her head. “But they are too valuable for me to wear.”

  “Enough of that talk. You are a countes
s.”

  She looked up at him through her lashes. “I might never get used to that.”

  “Yes, you will.” He drew her into his arms and kissed her softly.

  Mia wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his. As his tongue touched her, she was lost to the sensual taste of him. She skimmed her hips against his growing erection.

  He pushed her away slowly. “Enough of that or I won’t leave you alone tonight.”

  She tilted her head and gave him her most seductive smile. “No one said you had to.”

  “Tomorrow night as man and wife.”

  “Very well, I shall have to wait until then.”

  He kissed her cheek. “Good night, Miss Featherstone.”

  “Before you go,” she said as he reached for the door, “is Charlie all right?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I saw him come in from a ride and he looked dirty like he might have taken a fall.”

  Simon frowned. “I shall check on him and let you know if he needs your assistance. Good night.”

  “Good night.”

  Simon walked down the corridor wondering at Mia’s statement about his brother. Charlie had said he was retiring after dinner. Perhaps he changed his mind. Simon knocked on his brother’s door.

  “Come in.”

  Simon opened the door and looked inside only to find Charlie in bed with a book. “Are you all right?”

  “Of course, just a little tired and thought you might want some privacy with Mia. Why?” He put the book down on the bed.

  “Mia thought she’d seen you coming in from an evening ride. She thought you might have been hurt because you were dirty.”

  “Strange. I’ve been right here.” He picked up the book and showed him the cover. “Thanks to my future sister-in-law and you, I have picked up the family history journals from the library. Fascinating stories. Did you know that one of our ancestors fought with Henry at Botsworth?”

  Simon laughed. “I really should read those books sometime. I had never heard that.”

  “When I’m done, I’ll let you read them.”

  “Excellent. Have a good night, then.”