How to Marry a Royal Highlander
Page 1
HOW TO TEMPT A ROYAL HIGHLANDER
“The only thing I can hope for is that the scandal attached to my name will eventually fade so I can trap some poor fellow into marrying me, despite my many faults.” She wrinkled her nose at him, turning her complaint into a jest. The last thing she wanted was his pity.
He took a step closer, so close that she had to tip her head back to look at him. “Any man with a brain would consider himself lucky to call you his wife. I know I would.”
His deep voice seemed to rumble through her, like a small earthquake. It rather made her knees quake, too, and she could feel herself blushing like a schoolgirl. She’d heard hundreds of fulsome compliments over the years, calculated to set a girl all atwitter. But his unvarnished statement sent her poor heart thumping even harder. Her body’s response told her she stood at the edge of a precipice.
“Perhaps you can write a letter of reference for my former suitors,” she said, trying to hide behind the joke. “I fear they’ve quite forgotten my ample charms.”
When his gaze dropped to her bosom, she felt herself going from warm to hot. She’d certainly walked right into that one.
“Perhaps I’ll keep you all to myself instead,” he murmured in a voice that spoke of dark nights, velvet caresses, and a man’s knowing hands on her body. . . .
Books by Vanessa Kelly
MASTERING THE MARQUESS
SEX AND THE SINGLE EARL
MY FAVORITE COUNTESS
HIS MISTLETOE BRIDE
SECRETS FOR SEDUCING A ROYAL BODYGUARD
CONFESSIONS OF A ROYAL BRIDEGROOM
HOW TO PLAN A WEDDING FOR A ROYAL SPY
HOW TO MARRY A ROYAL HIGHLANDER
AN INVITATION TO SIN
(with Jo Beverley, Sally MacKenzie,
and Kaitlin O’Riley)
Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation
HOW TO MARRY a ROYAL HIGHLANDER
VANESSA KELLY
ZEBRA BOOKS
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
HOW TO TEMPT A ROYAL HIGHLANDER
Books by Vanessa Kelly
Title Page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
Copyright Page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As always, my love and thanks to my husband Randy—a great life partner, critique partner, and writing partner. He also does a mean load of laundry. My gratitude as well to Debbie Mason, my pal and critique partner, who never fails to be there when I need her—even when I’m whining. My writing sisters at The Jaunty Quills and Rock*It Reads are also inestimably kind, and I’m very thankful to have them in my corner.
I’m in serious debt to the wonderful folks at Kensington, especially Vida Engstrand, Alex Nicolajsen, Jane Nutter, Michelle Forde, Karen Auerbach, and Ross Plotkin. A special shout-out to the Kensington Art Department, who always give me the most amazing covers.
Finally, my deepest thanks to my agent and to my editor, Evan Marshall and John Scognamiglio. They have provided me with thoughtful, kind, and intelligent guidance and support, and I’m so grateful for their help.
Chapter One
London
November 1815
It was turning out to be the worst day of Edie Whitney’s life. If she’d harbored any doubts, her family’s reaction to the unfortunate events at Lady Charlfort’s ball last night had dispelled any illusions.
She halted midpace when she heard the hurry of footsteps in the hall. When the door to her bedroom opened, and her twin sister rushed in, Edie almost collapsed with relief. Evelyn had moved out of the Reese family town house after her marriage a few weeks ago, and the empty bedroom next to Edie’s seemed to echo the sense of absence she now felt in her life.
Since they were little girls, the sisters had lived in each other’s pockets. She and Evelyn shared not only their looks but their thoughts, emotions, and secrets of the heart. Edie had always known that marriage would someday separate them, but she’d never truly prepared for it. When Wolf Endicott had waltzed back into Evelyn’s life a few months ago, it had changed everything.
Grateful that her twin had finally found happiness with the man she’d adored for years, Edie still couldn’t help feeling that the most essential element of her own life had gone missing. That made her feel like the most selfish wretch on the planet. To say that her emotions were in a muddle was a capital understatement.
“Dearest, what’s going on? Why is Mamma in such a tizzy?” Evelyn asked, stripping off her gloves to grasp Edie’s hands. She frowned. “Your fingers are like ice, and you look positively whey-faced. Are you ill? You never fall ill.”
Edie let the familiar pressure of her sister’s hands establish its calming hold. She tried to dredge up a bracing smile. “I’m fine. Better than fine. It’s everyone else who’s gone batty, not me.”
Her twin drew her to the silk chaise in the window alcove. “You know you can’t fool me. What did you do now?”
Edie flopped onto the chaise. Evelyn settled quietly next to her, as precise as a pin in her perfectly tailored carriage dress, her spectacles lending their usual air of bluestocking gravity.
But Evelyn also glowed with happiness, which polished her unassuming beauty to a high gleam.
“I’ve made a regular cock-up of things,” Edie said with a sigh. “Even Mamma is furious with me.”
“Surely not. Mamma is never angry with you.”
“She’s been banging on constantly since breakfast about how I’m the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. Surely she said something to you about my fatal transgression, as she keeps calling it.”
“No, I wanted to see you first before speaking with her. I sent Will into the drawing room to take the first volley.” Evelyn flashed a quick grin. “You would have thought I was sending him to face a regiment of bloodthirsty French dragoons.”
Edie couldn’t hold back a snicker at the idea of her brawny brother-in-law, a former military spy, quailing before their mother. While Wolf had known Lady Reese his entire life, he still found her an intimidating presence, as did most everyone.
Everyone except Edie. She’d always been able to manage Mamma, and everyone in the family depended on her to do just that in order to keep the peace. Lately, though, she seemed to be losing her touch.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Mamma is quite enamored of Wolf these days. She keeps referring to him as her favorite son-in-law.”
“He’s her only son-in-law,” Evelyn replied drily, “but never mind about that. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Edie bolted up from the chaise, too frazzled to sit. She’d slept little last night after the incident—to use another of Mamma’s melodramatic turns of phrase. But despite Edie’s determined efforts to downplay the events of the previous evening in her own mind, a sense of near panic had kept her awake
long into the night.
She took a hasty turn around the room before returning to stand in front of her sister. Evelyn sat quietly, clearly as ready as ever to do what was necessary to support her twin. It gave Edie the courage to blurt out the whole sorry mess.
“Well, you see . . .” She never got tangled up in words, but now her tongue was tied in ten thousand knots. “I, um, was at Lady Charlfort’s ball last night, as you know, and I was caught in a rather . . . awkward position.”
A look of foreboding crossed Evelyn’s face. “How awkward?”
“I went for a little stroll down the hall, the one that leads to Lady Charlfort’s orangery. It’s rather out of the way, as you know.”
“Please tell me you were alone, or at least went with someone respectable.”
Edie wrinkled her nose. “I was with Sir Malcolm Bannister.”
Evelyn looked horrified. “You didn’t!”
“I did,” Edie said with a sigh. “And we got caught, too.”
“Doing what, exactly?”
Edie waved her hand impatiently. “Kissing, of course. Why else would one wander down a secluded hallway with a notorious rake?”
Evelyn slapped her hand atop her chest, looking like a scandalized virgin, though her sister certainly now had more experience when it came to intimate relations between the sexes than Edie. A great deal, if her twin’s vague hints were any indication.
“You were kissing Sir Malcolm right there in the hallway?”
“Well, we were in a window alcove. One does want a little privacy in these matters, after all.”
Actually, what she’d wanted was to get back to the ballroom, since she’d immediately realized what a colossal mistake she’d made. Sir Malcolm, unfortunately, had had other ideas. Edie had been about to land a hearty kick to his shins when their doom had appeared in the form of Lady Charlfort and her gossiping old harpy of a mother, Lady Morgan. Both had, apparently, wanted to take a stroll down the hall at the same time.
Evelyn let out a disbelieving laugh. “I’m assuming someone caught you.”
“Obviously,” Edie said sarcastically.
Her twin winced. “Sorry. Of course someone must have caught you.”
Edie sighed. “No, I’m sorry. I had no right to bite your head off.” She sat down again on the chaise. “I’m just tired and out of sorts.”
Evelyn took her hand in a comforting clasp. “Goose, as if you ever need to apologize to me. You’ve never done anything but take care of me and protect me.”
Edie had done her best to take care of Evelyn over the years, shielding her from their mother’s incessant carping and blocking anyone who tried to take advantage of her sister’s shy nature. But, in truth, it was Evelyn’s loving presence that had given Edie the courage to stand up to those who tried to lord it over her sister. People believed that Edie was the strong and fearless twin, ready to challenge the world, but she knew better. Evelyn had true courage—inner steel that enabled her to stand up for things that really counted.
“Who found you?” Evelyn asked. When Edie told her, she grimly shook her head. “Lady Morgan is the worst gossip in London.”
“Don’t I know it,” Edie gloomily replied.
“Just how compromising was the position?”
“He was kissing me rather vigorously, I’m sorry to say.” In fact, the dreary man had shoved his tongue halfway down her throat. Edie had been kissed a few times before, but she realized now how tame those earlier embraces had been. Sir Malcolm, in contrast, had acted like a starving man attacking a slab of rare roast beef.
“But you were fully clothed at all times?” Evelyn asked anxiously. “There was nothing exposed?”
She punctuated her question by waving a vague hand at Edie’s bosom. Fortunately, Edie had managed to keep Sir Malcolm’s wandering hands from latching on to that portion of her anatomy.
Edie held up a hand, as if taking an oath. “Not a ribbon, button, or pin out of place. Unlike some people I could mention who found themselves in a similar situation.”
Evelyn acknowledged the hit with a wry smile. “Thank God for that, at least. Once that happens, the outcome is usually fatal.”
Fatal, as in an inevitable trip to the altar. A similar situation had befallen Evelyn and Wolf some months ago, although everything had turned out perfectly in the end.
“You’d think Mamma would agree,” Edie said, “since it was really nothing more than a stupid kiss. And not even a very good one.”
“I’m assuming you have no wish to marry Sir Malcolm.”
“Absolutely not. Nor does he wish to marry me. He bolted out of the house as if his coattails were on fire.”
When Evelyn’s only response was a frown and a slow, thoughtful nod, Edie let out a resigned sigh. “Evie, I know that look as well as I know the back of my hand. You might as well just say what you’re thinking.”
Her twin gave her an apologetic smile. “Dearest, you know I would never criticize, but why would you put yourself in such a perilous situation? Especially for a cad like Sir Malcolm.”
Edie started fiddling with the end of the satin ribbon that trimmed the waist of her gown. But Evelyn had an endless supply of patience, and Edie knew her twin would wait her out. She tried for a less direct approach. “Evie, did you ever want to a kiss a man before Wolf? I mean really kiss him.”
“There was no man before Will,” her sister said wryly. That was true enough, since Evelyn had been in love with Wolf since she was a young girl.
Still, Edie needed something more to go on. “So, you never wanted to kiss anyone else, not even Michael? You were practically engaged to that poor man for almost two years.”
Everyone in the family had been convinced that Evelyn would marry Michael Beaumont, a kind and gentle man who’d been very fond of her. Wolf’s return home after the war had put the boots to that idea within a matter of weeks.
Her twin pondered the question. “I didn’t loathe the idea of kissing Michael,” she finally said, “but it didn’t make me jump for joy, either.”
“And I take it that Wolf’s kisses do make you jump for joy?”
Evelyn’s cheeks turned pink. “That’s one way of putting it.”
Edie huffed out a disgusted snort as she jumped up and started pacing the room again. “It’s just so unfair. I’m twenty-five, and I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Her sister’s gaze lit up with understanding. “I see. You were experimenting. I suppose in that context it makes sense you’d pick Sir Malcolm. One would naturally assume that a handsome and notorious rake would be good at it.”
“One would assume wrong,” Edie said, coming to a halt by her bed. She braced a shoulder against one of the posts. “I know my plan was demented, but I’m beginning to wonder if there’s something wrong with me. I can’t seem to find anyone I’d really enjoy kissing, and . . . doing all those other things one does.”
“You just haven’t found the right man yet. It’s easy as anything once you do.” Evelyn studied her. “Although I could swear there’s someone who—”
Edie held up an imperious hand. “Do not even dare to whisper that man’s name.”
Her twin cut her a sly grin. “I clearly don’t need to, do I?”
Edie felt herself blushing. But Captain Alasdair Gilbride, the most attractive and the most infuriating man she’d ever met, flustered her beyond all reason. Since Edie made a point of never getting flustered, it was very disconcerting. “Evie, I’m warning you.”
An annoying little smile curled the edges of Evelyn’s mouth. “Yes, dear. Whatever you say.”
A quick tap on the door interrupted them, and a moment later their lady’s maid—or, rather, Edie’s lady’s maid now that Evelyn had married—came into the room.
“Lady Reese wants to see you both in the drawing room, Miss Eden,” Cora said. She directed a critical eye at Edie’s coiffure and then let out an exasperated sigh. “Your head looks like you stuck it in a rose bush. I told you not to t
ug on your curls.”
“I’ve been doing no such thing,” Edie protested, “and you needn’t speak to me as if I were a little girl.”
The maid steered Edie to her dressing table. It took her only a few tweaks to restore order to her thick locks.
“All better,” Cora said, giving Edie’s shoulders a reassuring squeeze. “We don’t want to give Lady Reese anything to complain about, do we?”
“You mean on top of all the other ammunition I’ve given her?” she replied sardonically.
“Everything will be fine,” Evelyn said, coming to her. “Mamma never stays angry with you.”
Edie rose to her feet. “I don’t think so. She was mad as blazes last night. She even yelled at me when we got into the carriage, and she’s never done that before.”
Evelyn and Cora exchanged startled glances, which didn’t make Edie feel any better. She’d always been her mother’s favorite child, the one who never got more than the mildest of scolds for any infraction. But last night even the plumes on her mother’s turban had vibrated with anger.
Evelyn took her hand. “We’d better go down and get it over with.”
“Good luck, miss,” Cora said, grimacing.
She gave her maid a weak smile before she and Evelyn proceeded in silence down the hall to the staircase. Edie could tell her twin was getting anxious.
“I’m not going to the gallows,” Edie said. “There’s no need to measure me for a casket just yet.”
“I’m sure everything will turn out just fine,” Evelyn said. “More than fine. Splendid, in fact.”
“Good God,” Edie said with a sigh.
She carefully held on to the banister as they made their way down the stairs. She’d adapted years ago to her wretched eyesight. Though she didn’t wear spectacles like her sister, she never took unnecessary chances. The last thing she needed today was a tumble down the staircase.