“I see you have good taste,” he remarked, as he placed her back onto the ground. She whirled around, and regarded him. He had made her quite breathless.
“Now that I think of it, you remind me a little bit of the heroine in that book. I think you will like it,” he murmured, his eyes sparkling.
“Surely, you jest, sir. No heroine could possibly be like me. I am dull and insignificant. I have no courage. I have no backbone. Therefore, I cannot be a heroine.”
“There you go again. You truly do need to start believing in yourself, and your talents, Ruby. A woman with no courage would not have planned such a life as you did. They would not have had the nerve to travel across the country on a public conveyance. They certainly would not have had the courage to change their lives the way you did. You have the sprightliness and innocence of Sophia, and you are a squire’s niece, a little bit different from here, I grant you, she was a squire’s daughter, and I would imagine your mother is a bit like Sophia’s father.”
She laughed. “I shall tell you whether or not that is true once I read this book. Thank you, sir,” she said, curtsying, and attempting to dart out around him so she could run for the sanctuary of her bedchamber.
He reached out for her hand. “Don’t forget the second volume, and…” he said, handing it to her. “I think you shall like this book as well.” As his hand brushed hers, she shivered. His touch was quite unlike any other. It made her feel as if she could take on the world. It made her feel like she should throw herself at him, and beg him to ravish her. Shaking her head, to clear her thoughts, she sighed, and started to walk away from him. Glancing down at the book, she saw that he had given her The Bride of Lammermoor. “Ruby,” he said, raising his voice to a commanding tone.
“Yes, Your Grace?”
“You promised me that you would allow me to court you. Why don’t we go out walking? If you would like, we can take Lady Miranda and Lady Cordelia along as our chaperones.”
She laughed. “Aye, they do like to keep watch over us, don’t they? As you see, sir, I am not ready. I have no bonnet…no gloves…and the slippers I am wearing are hardly fit for a long walk.”
“Go and fetch them, Miss Massey, for I shan’t let you out of my sight today until we can spend some time together. I am deeply grieved when you are not with me.”
She considered his words and then, smiled. Carrying the books from the library, she walked up the steps with a skip in her step. She was finally allowing herself to be happy—and she liked it far more than she cared to admit.
The Duke made her feel as if she could do anything. He made her feel safe enough to try it. She had fallen in love with him, and every day, she prayed that her love would not betray her—she prayed that he would not prove to be just a dream.
*****
It was nighttime again, and Ruby didn’t want to sleep. She didn’t want to fall asleep, and listen to spooky noises, again or wake up to finding a treat left to her by a woman who was no longer alive.
Her fear still hadn’t left her. Days had passed without hearing the mad Earl’s voice, and yet, she could not get it out of her head. Whenever she took time to think about it, she could still hear the creepy laugh in her head. She could still remember the way the maid had looked after she’d had her fright.
The times of quiet and solitude like this invited morbid thoughts like the one she was having at the moment. She almost screamed as the sound of someone rapping loudly at her door. Haltingly, she walked over to the door, and opened it.
A footman stood, holding a silver tray with a missive on it. With her heartbeat quickening, she took the missive. “Thank you,” she murmured. The footman nodded his head, and left.
Apparently, he didn’t require a reply.
She sat back on her bed, broke the wax seal on the letter, and started reading.
Dear Miss Massey,
I respectfully request your presence at dinner tonight. Dinner will be served promptly at eight. Please do come properly attired.
Ever Yours,
Finn
So that was how he liked to be styled. Not Phineas, Finn. Still, if he thought she was going to call him by his Christian name, he was bloody mad. She couldn’t be that familiar with him, could she?
He was quite serious about courting her. She wanted to go to him, and yet, her sense of propriety told her to remain where she was, safe from scandal in her bedchamber. So much had happened between them in the last few days, and she could see the intent in his eyes. He was preparing himself to propose.
Would she—could she say yes?
She had run from this kind of a relationship. She had run from Lord Prescott because she could not entertain the notion of ever loving him like that, and she had run from the despicable Reverend Beasley because no woman in her right mind would want to leg-shackle herself to that sort of man.
Finn, Finn was perfect. He stirred her heart, and made her feel things for him that she had never felt before. Thinking of becoming his wife didn’t scare her the way it always had before. Maybe, just maybe, he could lure her into the bonds of matrimony.
She looked at the clock. It was already seven thirty. She couldn’t possibly be ready in time. Moreover, why was she even considering it? No matter how much she wanted to be with him, they danced on the edge of a scandal by spending so much time alone. And she knew why she considered it. She considered it because if she didn’t, he would come up here and drag her out of her bedroom.
Finn wasn’t a man accustomed to hearing no. She knew he wouldn’t take no in this instance. All he wanted to do was have dinner with her.
Sighing, she walked over to her trunk, and unlocked it. If he wanted her properly dressed, she could oblige him. She would wear the red dress that Julia had given her. It was a beautiful confection, and though it was a bit more daring that what she usually picked, there was no reason to hide where she came from anymore. She might as well wear the diamond earrings her uncle had gifted her with on her last birthday. They were so lovely, and she hadn’t worn them. She hardly gave herself permission to wear them.
Closing up her trunk, and locking it securely, she rang for a maid to attend her. Oh, how she missed Henderson. No one could do her hair quite so well.
*****
Finn waited by the staircase. Tonight, he would ask for Ruby’s hand in marriage. He prayed that she would say yes. He had already arranged it with their vicar. If all went well, they would be man and wife by Allantide.
He had never thought that he would find such a woman. He had been resigned to the single life, thinking that he couldn’t find a woman that could touch his heart. He thought only that he had to satisfy his lust with a mistress instead of a woman who had substance.
Ruby…Ruby astounded him, Ruby breathed new life into him, and every time they were together, he forgot about all of the heartbreak he and the girls had suffered in the last six months.
He wanted to see Ruby when she alighted the stairs, draped in candlelight. He wanted to drink in every inch of her. He wanted to commit the moment to his memory, forever etched in the recesses of time.
He wanted to believe that she would accept his invitation to dinner. If she didn’t…well, if she didn’t, he would probably go up to collect her, and she had probably already guessed that. She was astute enough to know that things had drastically changed between them, and wise enough to the ways of the world to know of what he intended.
As she came into view, his eyes feasted on her, as if they had been starved for days. She wore red. His eyebrow rose. A bold colour choice for any unmarried lady, especially one as outwardly timid as Ruby. No matter—the colour suited her, and it was a lovely shade of scarlet. It made her look so alive. It made her glow. It made her look like the lady she was. She wore diamond earrings in his ears, and the earrings sparkled magnificently in the light. He guessed that her uncle had bought them for her, and they must have cost a fortune. She was obviously cherished by her uncle, and the fact that she had run from him, confuse
d Finn. Why would she run from a man who doted on her? Surely, he would have been able to protect her from her dragon of a mother?
As she came down the second flight of steps, he extended his hand to her. She looked at it, as she always did—warily.
He wasn’t offended, even though he felt he should be. She was cautious. To a certain extent, he appreciated that. That told him that he never had to worry about her doing something reckless.
With a reluctant sigh, she took his offered hand, and walked down the last few steps.
“You are quite exquisite,” he murmured. “I have never seen anyone wear that colour quite as well as you do. It makes your eyes look so…bright.”
She smiled at him. “I thank you,” she said, her face going almost as red as her dress. “If my mother was here, she would be horrified. Unmarried couples should not speak to each other the way you speak to me. Your compliments, sir…your compliments, while appreciated, should not be so freely given.”
“And yet…who else could possibly know?” he whispered.
“Your staff would know.”
“My staff is loyal. They would never sell my secrets to the newspapers.”
“Are you quite certain of that, Your Grace?”
“We shall not end up in a scandal, Miss Massey.”
“If only I could be as confident as you are, sir.”
“Please—you simply must call me Finn.”
“I shan’t call you by your Christian name. I…I shan’t,” she said stubbornly.
“I see I shall have to do more to convince you, Miss Massey.”
She smiled. He wanted to call her Ruby all of the time, but he realized that he couldn’t do that all of the time, and certainly not when they were around his servants. Once she was his wife, he could call her whatever he pleased. The sooner the better as far as he was concerned, as his wife, she could put her mind at rest. She would no longer have to worry that they would invite a scandal to come raining down upon them. His servants might be discreet, but they wouldn’t understand him being quite so casual with her.
She looked at him with a withering stare, and in reply, he gave her a charming smile. He knew she looked at tonight as a few hours she would have to survive.
“Marry me,” he said, as they walked to the Dining Room. “Become my wife—become my duchess. Ruby, I want you to be my wife by Allantide.”
She remained silent, and as they entered the Dining Room, she finally gave him his answer. “Yes.” Her voice was soft and a little shaky. He hoped she wanted to become his wife as much as he wanted to become her husband.
One word, and yet, it had just secured his happiness. He could now die a happy man, for he finally had his bewitching jewel.
He had his Ruby.
Ruby and he ate their soup in relative silence. She hadn’t said anything since he had given her the ring he wanted her to wear that would signify their betrothal. It was a ruby and diamond ring, and it looked quite beautiful on her dainty little finger.
They had just finished their soup, and were about to have their fish. Finn was adding pepper to his, when Mr. Chegwin rushed into the Dining Room looking quite panicked. Finn hastily set aside the pepper, and Mr. Chegwin took a furtive step backward, and sneezed. “Oh, I do beg your pardon, Your Grace,” he mumbled.
Finn wanted to know why his butler looked so distraught. He feared a maid had had another run in with their most recent addition to the ghosts that inhabited Penryn House. Finn fortified himself to hear this confession, and stared expectantly at his butler.
“Calm down, Mr. Chegwin. Whatever has happened cannot be that serious. Catch your breath, man.”
“Your Grace…we have a visitor…I suppose you could call her a guest.”
“Her?” Ruby squeaked, losing all of her colour.
“Who is the visitor, Mr. Chegwin?” Finn asked calmly.
“She says that you and she are well acquainted, Your Grace. She introduced herself as Mrs. Brant. She is rather loud, sir, and I fear…”
Now, he was the one that felt a little faint. He had Ruby, and now… now it looked as if that would be threatened. He wouldn’t let Giselle ruin what he had built with Ruby. He would not.
Devil take the bloody woman. Hadn’t he given her enough to satisfy her greed? Why hadn’t she found another influential man’s bed to warm? Damnation.
“Oh, thank God,” Ruby whispered, relief painted across her features.
He didn’t think she would be so thankful when she found out who their visitor was. He suddenly felt quite topsy-turvy.
“I told you to take me to the Duke, you odious man, and you left me alone with the footman. It is not to be borne. You should be dismissed. You are a rather incompetent butler.”
Had Giselle’s voice always been that high pitched?
He stood up, just as Giselle burst into the Dining Room.
“Finn, darling,” she said, in her cooing way, as she walked over to him, and kissed him full on the mouth. He didn’t respond, and the cold glint in her eyes told him that she felt his change toward her. “I…I see you have a guest,” she said, giving Ruby a sweet smile. Her eyes crackled with energy, and he feared what she would say next.
“This is Miss Ruby Massey…” Finn began, as Ruby stood up, and curtsied to her. Boldly, Giselle didn’t return the curtsy. If she thought she was of a higher status than Ruby, she was gravely mistaken.
“I should go…” Ruby said, moving to dash away.
“No…you stay,” he said, it came out more of an order than a request.
“I see you have already replaced me, dearest. I am a little hurt. I didn’t think I could be so easily replaced. I thought I meant more to you, Finn, darling. But what’s done is done…all will be forgiven, eventually,” she said, forming her mouth into a pout that he used to find irresistible.
“I am…I am…” Ruby said stiffly. Her green eyes roved over Giselle, and the tension in the air was palpable. She struggled to say what he wanted her to say. Instead, she sighed, and said, “I am the governess, nothing more, nothing less.”
“Oh, I’m sure you are. I’m sure you do many things around here, including giving your favours to the Duke.”
“Giselle that is quite enough,” he said angrily. “You shall go no further in your quest to malign Miss Massey.”
“You needn’t fear, Miss Massey. I am here to take over—this kind of a job is no place for a girl like you—although I am certain the Duke has had a jolly good time teaching you.”
Finn wanted to strangle Giselle. She was being a horrid little bitch and enjoying every moment of it.
Her face a burning scarlet, Ruby sighed, and left the Dining Room. Mr. Chegwin followed her.
“Ah, I thought the little chit would never leave. I don’t know why you picked her to replace me, Finn. She is such a plain little thing, and rather amply proportioned. I wasn’t aware that you liked them so…curvaceous.”
“You need to stop before you dig your hole any deeper, Giselle.”
“I am your mistress, and I have come here to take my place by your side. I have come here to marry you, you silly little man. I have come here to save you from yourself. I have come here to save you from that. So, let us kiss and make up, and we shall spend the night planning our wedding, and thinking of various academies that we could send your precious little nieces to.”
“I don’t want to marry you, Giselle. And Lady Miranda and Lady Cordelia are not being sent away from Penryn House. Do you understand?”
“You proposed to me once.” She seemingly hadn’t heard his judgement on sending the girls away. She hadn’t wanted to hear him that was it.
“That was a mistake,” he said tersely. How had he ever made love to this woman? She was repulsive. She had no heart to speak of. Her selfish and vain attitude made him want to have her thrown out of the house.
“A mistake, you call what we shared a mistake? And taking me—and keeping me the way you did in London…that was a mistake as well?” she asked icil
y. She was eying him as if she would stab him with one of the knives on the table.
“Yes. It was a grievous error on my part. Besides, we both know you weren’t an innocent when it came to that sort of a life. You had been kept by Lord Lumley until his coffers dried up. You had a hand in that though, didn’t you? You encouraged all of his vices…you encouraged him to gamble it all away. You probably thought it a merry little game, or you saw me and decided that you had to move onto the fatter gander.” Oh, he had been such a fool. He reviled himself. He had been so weak.
“I am weary,” she said tiredly, feigning a yawn, and daintily placing her hand over her mouth.” I have traveled forever and a day to see you here. I even hired myself my own carriage. I shan’t be turned away so easily. I fight for what is mine, and that little minx is nothing against me. I shall make short work of her. She looks so timid—why, she looks as if she is afraid of her own shadow,” Giselle tittered, gaining quite a good deal of amusement out of her assessment of Ruby.
“I am, and never was, yours, Mrs. Brant. You were a passing diversion. You were a good little bit of fun. However, that fun has ended. I have remunerated you quite well for all of your services. If it wasn’t enough, I shall give you another one thousand pounds.”
“One thousand pounds is a bloody paltry sum compared to what I could have as the Duchess of Camblesforth. I want it all, Finn.”
“You will never be the Duchess of Camblesforth. That is now meant for another, and it is not you—and,” he paused. “It could never have been you.”
She was a woman whom he had paid for the pleasure of her company. How had she ever believed that he could marry her and make her respectable? The ton would never accept her, and now…now that so much had changed, he could no longer accept her.
“Ah, don’t be so sore with me, Finn. Ah, I understand. You have fallen for that drab little chit, haven’t you? You have fallen for the governess. Oh, how romantic. Pity I now have to put an end to it all. She shan’t become your wife. I will do whatever I have to in order to keep that from happening. Come now, don’t be cross, Finn. I have come a long way to be reunited with you. And I am quite famished,” she said, sitting down where Ruby had sat. She looked at him expectantly. “Well, are you going to dine with me or not? If you are lucky, I shall reward you greatly afterward.”
His Bewitching Jewel (A Regency Holiday Romance Book 7) Page 14
