Four Times a Virgin (Irresistible Aristocrats Book 2)

by Suzi Love

  “And you, Johnston,” he asked with an air of innocence, “don’t you have demands on your time during your day? As your father’s heir, I assume you’re kept busy from dawn till dusk. ”

  Johnston laughed at his attempts to divert Carina’s attention. “Not me, Stirkton. My fastidious father overseas all our business interests and claims that I’m more of a hindrance than a help.”

  “Isn’t it tedious,” Carina asked, “having nothing to fill your days?”

  Lord Johnston threw back his head and laughed. “My dear Countess, you’ve become immured with country standards and have forgotten the rules for landed gentry in the city. If my cohorts heard that I soiled my hands by laboring like a country squire, tending stock and ploughing fields, I’d be a laughing stock amongst my friends. A true gentleman never lowers his standards and works, and even if forced to involve himself in shipping or commerce to pump up his coffers, he’d never admit such a mortifying thing in public.”

  “So titled gentlemen consider any sort of employment lowering,” Carina said pleasantly, though Max noticed her left eyebrow twitch. Having come to London from her rural property, Carina would be well-acquainted with the work involved in running farms and looking after tenants. Servants undertook the heavier work but someone of Carina’s energetic nature wouldn’t sit in her drawing room and embroider while someone else made all the decisions. She’d be actively involved.

  “You misunderstand me. Some people are put upon this earth to work, for if not, who’d cook our meals and clean our houses?”

  “Perhaps every person who walks this earth and breathes air should be responsible, in some small part, for their own wellbeing and not leave the burden to others.”

  “Ah, Lady Dorchester, you’re a sympathizer with today’s radical movements. Allowing greater freedom for the working classes is a noble cause, but allow me to offer a word of caution. If you and your sisters wish to be accepted here, you’d be wise to refrain from speaking of reforms amongst the higher classes.” He shook his head. “Especially not to any of the older matrons, such as my own mater, as they believe that men will discuss those things in parliament, in their own time, and that ladies shouldn’t admit to understanding anything about such matters, let alone speak aloud of reform. If you discussed factories or child labor at a dinner table in my home, my mother would swoon in her turtle soup.”

  Carina gave a small smile to acknowledge Brendon’s half serious, half flippant advice. “And you, Your Grace, do you believe the lower classes sole purpose in life is to work and serve the higher classes? Or are you a supporter of factory reforms and better working conditions?”

  “I take time to ensure that all my workers are fairly treated.”

  “Impressive, Max. Not many men of your rank open their eyes or ears and notice their employees’ work conditions.”

  Her assumption that all dukes were unfeeling and incapable of change was mildly insulting to someone who prided himself on using his brain and employing innovative techniques. “Though my grandfather believed that the distinction between classes must be upheld to prevent anarchy, I’m in favor of ways that improve the lot of my workers and yet allow me to remain in command. My titles and holdings bring great responsibility, but above all, I’m a human being who dislikes seeing other suffer, regardless of their class.”

  Carina’s smile was a genuine expression of understanding and agreement and the cold parts of his heart were warmed. “I uncover new depths in you every day, Max. New things to admire.”

  He shrugged, despite appreciating her compliments; because he’d so rarely been admired that he felt uncomfortable. His grandfather had doled out praise as parsimoniously as he’d given food and shelter to his servants, preferring punishment over praise to reinforce his instructions. “Contented tenants reap better profits for estate coffers, so my manager does whatever is necessary to ensure they remain productive. In the long run, it benefits all concerned.”

  Carina smiled again, and he longed to capture the moment and let the warmth chase away his nightmares.

  Lord Johnston’s voice disturbed his reverie. “A touching idea, Stirkton, but maudlin sentiment has no place in commerce. Even a non-involved son understands productivity is based on supply and demand. The rich demand and the poor supply.”

  “Unfortunately, to pay for the multitude of small pleasures you enjoy every day, hundreds of your father’s employees work from dawn till dusk in substandard conditions.”

  The young lord turned and smiled at Carina, once more setting Max’s teeth on edge. “Our pleasant walk will be spoiled by such dreary talk. Beautiful ladies don’t need to hear about workers’ uprisings.”

  Carina raised an eyebrow. “Not all ladies wilt like winter flowers when the welfare of workers is discussed, Brendon. On my estate, I play an active role in management, and I did so even when my husband was alive.”

  Johnston took hand and placed it on his sleeve. “Perhaps it’s time to improve that situation. Marrying would relieve you of those burdens.”

  Carina shrugged. “I don’t consider it a burden. Quite the opposite.”

  “Women are wonderful with social obligations, but finances are better handled by men.” He tugged his immaculate cuffs and gave a condescending smile. “One day soon, I’ll take a wife and have children. My father taught me money management, so my wife’s dowry and his legacy will be secure.”

  Carina’s breath released on a long hiss. Max felt smug satisfaction that the lady he wanted scorned this pompous idiot as he did. He folded his arms and waited, but her sisters called her and denied him the pleasure of hearing her scathing retort. To some extent, Max also thought of ladies, including his fiancée, as unequipped to manage money. Carina, however, was different. She was a vibrant and intelligent widow and had no need of a man’s interference with her estates, workers or staff.

  Georgiana strode towards him, head bowed, and pressed her small body as close to his side as respectability allowed. Glancing over her head, he saw three gentlemen on the path and knew one of them was responsible for her trembling and the gloved hands clutched to her chest. He took one of Georgie’s hands and gently looped it around his elbow and placed her hand on his coat sleeve, giving it a reassuring pat.

  The men slowed when they saw her under his protection, while Georgie squeezed closer to his side and implored him with adoring puppy eyes to save her. This fragile girl with her battered heart and frightened spirit tugged at his own ragged soul. Mindful of her fear of hefty-sized males, Max drew Georgie down a hedged walkway that was wide enough for Carina to link her arm through her sister’s free one, but that excluded Georgie’s flock of followers.

  Bending his head, Max listened to Georgie’s unsteady wheezing and murmured, “Breathe, little one. No one will hurt you ever again.” Carina gasped, but he concentrated on the girl clutching his sleeve. He patted her hand again and said, “Breathe, my dear.” Georgie sucked in a slow lungful of air and he nodded. “Excellent. Now, please believe me when I say no further harm shall befall you.”

  Georgie whispered, “I trust you.”

  Max’s footsteps faltered, alongside his heart. Time stopped. He swallowed past the lump in his throat but couldn’t speak, instead turning them to walk back to the fountain. “Ladies, it’s time we departed, so you can prepare for this evening.”

  Carina leaned around to speak to Georgie, but Max forestalled her. “Not now.” He glanced at the gentlemen trailing a few paces behind. “We can talk later.”

  By the sharp sideways glances Carina flicked towards him, she was loathe to relinquish control to any man, most especially him. He might have earned Georgie’s trust but, so far, Carina had no reason to follow suit. He didn’t slow his measured pace but spoke across her sister’s head. “Trust me.”

  For long painful seconds he waited, fearing a negative answer. She walked, eyes fixed on the water foaming from the fountain’s ornate sprouts and soaking the paving, and then gave one quick nod. Two women, with less
reason than most to trust men, trusted him and had accepted decisions made by him on their behalf; he felt ten feet tall.

  Though the truce between him and Carina was transient, memories of their past relationship hadn’t blackened his character to the extent that she refused their alliance. Past the fountain’s outer circle of enclaves and stone benches, the path widened and Brendon seized the opportunity to walk beside them.

  “Well, well, Stirkton. We’re seeing a previously unseen side of your nature. You’re making conquests everywhere, first with Lady Dorchester and now her sister.” He looked across. “Forgive me, Lady Georgiana, but you don’t enjoy the company of many gentlemen, yet you’re enamored of the man my sister is to marry. Interesting.”

  Max opened his mouth to reply, but shut it when a tug on his sleeve and Georgie’s begging gaze reminded him how skittish she was in crowds. He clasped her trembling hand.

  “We’re friends.”

  Johnston snickered. “And Lady Dorchester? Also your close friend, Stirkton?”

  How dare the bastard speak that way in front of the ladies? Max clung to his famed rigid control and kept his touch light on Georgie’s arm, but the fist closest to Johnston’s face twitched. The man’s boyishly-rounded jaw was two feet away from being smashed into pieces and his handsome features pulverized.

  “Johnston, take great care before making nasty and groundless insinuations. Soon, we shall be related by marriage and your sister would be devastated if her family was at odds.” The other gentlemen looked horrified and edged away from Johnston. “Now gentlemen, I shall drive the ladies home.”

  Carina had watched without comment and she now smiled and nodded. “Yes, Your Grace, how thoughtful. Lucy, we’re leaving.”

  If she’d sided with Johnston, he mightn’t have reined in his temper and his fit of temper—or jealousy—would have been viewed as much more than friendship. The gossiping ton would ensure that Alice’s parents heard about his close friends. Lucy had listened to their conversation but, thankfully, other than glancing at her sisters with raised brows, she hadn’t questioned why she was being whisked away from her entourage.

  Ten minutes later, Max crossed his legs and slouched into his corner of the carriage, rehearsing his speech in his head, so he didn’t sound arrogant and domineering or earn a reprimand from any of the three sisters. They fidgeted with their reticules and shawls until he couldn’t contain his annoyance any further.

  He leaned forward. “I forbid you,” he said, meeting their eyes in turn, “from forming any sort of association with Johnston.”

  Carina stiffened. She leaned forward, nose to nose with him, like a lion preparing to defend her cubs.

  He held up one finger. “I know what you’re about to say. The man may be about to become part of my family, but I don’t trust him. Not with your well-being.”

  Carina pushed his finger to the side. “I shall decide which gentlemen my sisters and I mix with.”

  “You misunderstand. Johnston has his eye on you, Carina, and I mistrust his intentions.”

  “Rubbish! But even if it were true, it’s no concern of yours. You’ve no right to issue orders about whom I will or will not befriend.”

  “I can and I will prevent it.”

  Her green eyes narrowed as she leaned in until their bodies almost touched, while the others watched and listened to every word and inference. “Rather than waste your time issuing orders to me, pay attention to that poor girl who will be your wife. She will have to cope with your arrogance for the rest of her miserable life.”

  “What are you implying? There is nothing amiss with my fiancée and me.”

  “Everything is wrong, you dolt. You terrify that poor timid child.”

  Lucy and Georgie were open-mouthed with either shock or amusement, though he couldn’t decide which. He pointedly stared out the window at the street vendors and applied the techniques of meditation, mastered his mind and chose his next words carefully.

  “My betrothal period is proceeding according to plan. And Alice is not frightened of me personally, though perhaps she is a little awed by the attentions of a duke. She’s been raised to show respect and she treats me as a well-bred young lady should.”

  Carina snorted. “Good Lord! If you believe that rot, you’re delusional. Alice’s attitude isn’t respect, but abject terror. She’s scared of what your nightly demands in bed will be; that if she refuses you, you’ll punish her. Lock her in the dungeon, torture her as your grandfather did to you.”

  Georgie said, “Carina! Apologize to His Grace. At once.”

  Carina scowled, but motioned that she was buttoning her lips.

  Georgie reached along the seat and touched her fingertips to Max’s clasped hands. “You don’t frighten me. You’re a kind and admirable man, and I envy your bride-to-be.”

  He relaxed his tense muscles and settled back into the seat’s padding, before stretching out his legs. With his hands crossed on his stomach, he raised a brow. “It’s comforting to know that not all women view me as an ogre, or take my well-meaning endeavors to ensure their safe-being as demands.”

  “Oh, please, spare me your martyrdom.” Carina threw up her hands. “Georgie sees the good in you, whereas others are only shown your worst side.”

  Lucy, sitting directly across from him, tilted her head and examined him as if he was a newly discovered species of the plants she collected. “Georgie’s a very astute judge of character,” Lucy said, “and she dislikes many men. She detests big and belligerent males so, Max,” her eyes twinkled and there was an impish twist to her lips, “we must assume that you have aspects of nobility and kindness, perhaps even gentleness, that you keep well hidden, and that our sister recognizes and causes her to—”

  “Lucy,” Carina said. “You’re rambling again and you’re embarrassing the subject of your recitation.”

  Lucy ignored Carina and, to Max’s discomfort, finished. “─worship you.”

  A creeping red blush covered Georgie’s neck and lower face, while Max worried that the heat on his own neck would also turn into a full-blown blush. Georgie didn’t look his way as she said, “Lucy, please stop. I don’t worship the Duke, and to voice such an idea is unseemly when His Grace is spoken for and to a girl we have befriended. I merely wanted our obtuse sister,” she shot a glare at Carina, “to see that he has many noble qualities which I’m thankful for.”

  Carina rolled her eyes, Lucy groaned and Max smirked. He tallied how many points he’d scored against Carina in their second round of battle. As the carriage rolled towards Lawnton Place, the sisters chatted amongst themselves of the personages they’d encountered in the park.

  Their list reminded Max of something. “Georgie,” he said, “which of those gentlemen frightened you.”

  “Oh, no, not one of those walking with us. The man in the trees scared me.”

  With stunned surprise and a depth of shock etched on their faces that matched his own expression, Carina and Lucy tackled Georgie.

  “In the trees? What was he doing?” Lucy asked, at the same moment Carina began her string of questions.

  “You saw a man? Near you? Did he say anything?”

  Their outbursts puzzled Max. Both women strained towards their sister, their faces were tight with concern and worry that was too extreme to be caused by a lone man standing beneath trees in a public park. Lucy curled the cord of her reticule into tight twists that would not easily be untangled, and Carina nibbled the fingertips of one glove, gnawing on the inanimate object the way she did when troubled.

  “Why is that a problem?” Max asked.

  After exchanging glances, they dropped their eyes to their laps and Lucy saw the damage she was doing to her reticule and attempted to unwind it. Glass beads slid down a thread and pinged as they hit the floor. All three women stretched as one towards the broken strands to catch the beads before they were lost from sight.

  Max stopped their quest with his hands. “I will replace your reticule, Lucy. Now, exp
lain what is significant about the man in the trees.” He looked at Carina and Lucy, demurely posed on their seats, but neither spoke. “Any number of men could have reason to stand under trees in a public park.” Still no response, so he shifted sideways on his seat and reached out to touch the back of Georgie’s hand with a light, two-fingered gesture of reassurance. “What did the man do to frighten you so much?”

  Georgie glanced in rapid succession back and forth between her two silent sisters, her pale blue eyes widening as she realized that she’d opened Pandora’s Box.

  “N-nothing. Nothing at all.” She shook her head so fast that her blond curls bounced and threatened to spill out from her restrictive bonnet. “He...he was j-just a man.”

  When Lucy spoke, it was in her usual rush of words, coming too fast to make a lot of sense and over the top of her sister’s stuttered explanation. “Georgie… She gets startled, and if men, as I said before, in particular big men, if they come nearer or perhaps look at her too closely, Georgie doesn’t feel comfortable and she….well…” Lucy appealed to their elder sister to save her. She spread her hands. “Well, that’s all, really.”

  Carina rolled her eyes at Lucy’s stumbling attempt to cover up whatever had frightened their middle sister.

  Max looked at Carina and smiled. “Would you like to try and improve on Lucy’s pitiable attempt at hoodwinking me?”

  “Not at all.” Carina tried for a convincing smile. “Lucy explained what happened. Georgie feels uncomfortable if confronted by strangers.”

  “I applaud your attempts at providing reasonable explanations on the spur of the moment, however, I hope you don’t have to play cards with anyone tonight.”

  Carina rolled her eyes. “I almost dread to ask, but why not?”

  “Because your faces give you away. I’ve never met such hopeless liars.” To Georgie he said, “This time I’d like the truth. Did the man come close to you?”