by Alexia Praks
“Mr. Oliver?” Christine mused with her brows raised.
“Good bye, your grace,” Lady Hart said.
“Yes, God speed,” Max said.
They all stood there watching the carriage moving away. Finally, Christine turned to pay her attention to Ivy.
“Ivy, I like that name. She is a beauty don’t you agree, Merrick.” She looked at her husband.
Merrick just eyed his wife with amusement.
“As for you, your grace, you have never told me you have such a beautiful little cousin. You should have brought her to London for our wedding. She could have been my bride’s maid,” she said, nodding her head. “Now then, come along and I shall introduce you to my cute, little son. Yes, by the way, call me Christine.”
Ivy smiled as she was dragged into the castle. They met Mrs. Price at the grand stairs.
“Do show Her Ladyship to her room, Mrs. Price,” Max said from the doorway.
The housekeeper inclined her head and smiled at Christine. “Do follow me, my lady.”
Christine and Ivy followed Mrs. Price up the stairs to the first floor.
“What lovely castle this is,” Christine commented as they walked pass the corridor.
“Do you like it?” Ivy asked.
“Aye, it’s very nice. You and His Grace must be very close.” Christine beamed at the younger woman.
“Nay.” Ivy shook her head.
“But you seem so close. Why both of you are practically staying under the same roof and you don’t even have a chaperone. Is the duke your guardian?” Christine turned her gaze to Ivy from admiring the various paintings hanging on the walls.
“Well, you could put that way.” Ivy blushed.
“This is your room, your grace,” Mrs. Price said once they had reached one of the grandest guest rooms.
“Thank you,” Christine said and walked in. “Oh my, this is indeed very nice,” she mused to herself, staring at the very large, freshly furnished room.
Ivy followed her in and saw two maids busily unpacking the many bags beside the bed.
“Do come along, Ivy, and meet my son,” Christine said and took a hold of Ivy’s wrist. “There he is.” They walked toward the nursemaid who was holding a baby in her arms.
“He is sleeping, your grace,” the nursemaid said.
“Oh, my little sweetie,” Christine said, taking the baby from the maid. “Thank you, Pat.”
The maid smiled and left them.
“He’s very beautiful,” Ivy said as she stared down at the baby boy. Her eyes started to brew with tears. She felt the love and the lost at the same time. She wondered if she would be able to have such a beautiful baby like Christine.
“Why, what’s wrong, Ivy?” Christine asked, alarm when she saw Ivy tears.
“Oh.” Ivy blinked and tears rolled down her face. “’Tis nothing,” she said and turned to wipe her eyes.
“’Tis not nothing, I know we’ve only met but I just feel that we are meant to be the best of friend. Don’t you agree?” Christine asked.
Ivy felt the same way and nodded her head.
“Then you must tell me, but you don’t have to tell me now. It can wait if that makes you feel better.” Christine smiled, patting her shoulder. Ivy nodded.
“Here, you can hold him.”
“But I’m not at all good with baby,” Ivy said, scared that she might drop the precious baby.
“Oh no, I’m not good with baby either, but you see I love him, and I want to hold him for there is only one today. When he grows up, I won’t be able to hold him any longer now, do I?” She gently touched the boy’s delicate pink lips with her finger.
Ivy looked at Christine and smiled. She nodded her head and took the baby into her arms. “He is quite light,” she said in surprise.
“Why don’t you sit down?” Christine suggested, leading her toward the bed.
Ivy was sitting down with the baby in her arms when she realized that the two maids were watching her. She turned and smile at them. They curtsied and then proceeded to giggle like a couple of school girls.
“Jan, Betty, do stop giggling like that and stop staring at Ivy. I’m sure she isn’t at all comfortable with you two staring at her so,” Christine said.
“’Tis not that, my lady,” Emma, the tall maid said with her gaze still on Ivy. “We were just wondering how the duke could possibly find himself such a beauty to live with when most women would run in the opposite direction, that’s all.”
“Emma,” Christine said in outrage, “how could you say such a thing? Ivy is the duke’s cousin.”
“Cousin?” Betty, the plump maid said in astonishment. “My lady, they don’t look one bit alike. I mean their hair color is a complete contrast and their features--”
“Cousins don’t have to look alike now, do they?” Christine turned to look at Ivy who was blushing at the attention she was receiving.
“Err, we are a very distant, my lady,” Ivy said with her gaze on the baby’s cute face.
“See?” Christine said to the two maids and turned to Ivy. “Stop calling me ‘my lady’ by the way, call me Christine instead, it’s more friendly, ‘my lady’ is too stiff.”
“But—”
“No buts, now who is this Mr. Oliver?” Christine asked, and her eyes twinkled with excitement.
Ivy raised her brows in surprise. “Oh, he lives in the town, my...I mean, Christine,” Ivy said hesitantly.
“In the town? I would love to visit it one day. I saw it on our way here, quite nice. Ah yes, Mr. Oliver and what is his first name? From what I’ve heard so far, there is something between you two.”
“Oh no, not at all,” Ivy said quickly.
“What’s this, my love? You are teasing Max’s little cousin already? Can’t you see she is blushing with embarrassment?” Merrick said from the door.
Ivy turned her gaze to the door and saw the two men standing there. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Max staring at her most intensely. She tried not to look at him as they walked into the room.
“I was going to show our little boy to Max. Seems we came in at the wrong time. Look at him, he’s a sleep.”
“Oh, he shall be awake soon enough,” Christine said, taking the baby from Ivy.
Ivy stood up and said, “You must be very tired after the long journey. I leave you to rest now.” She hurried out the room as though the devil was chasing her.
Christine smiled and said, “Lovely young woman, I bet she’ll be snatched up in no time at all if she lives in London.” She turned to Max and her brown eyes twinkled. “You’ll have a heck of a time looking after her and shooing all those London dandies away from your doorstep, your grace.” She laughed.
Max did not like that comment one bit. He frowned darkly and left the room without a word.
CHAPTER 17
Ivy stared at her plate a footman had just placed in front of her. Although the roasted veal looked very appetizing indeed, she didn’t think she could handle anything at that moment. She thought she would probably throw up in front of everybody if she were to overfill her small appetite.
The fact that the duke’s sharp eyes were constantly on her person didn’t help with the matter either. This caused her to be unreasonably nervous despite that it was only an informal dinner with only herself, the Duke of Lynwood, and the Count and Countess of Huntingdon. How she wished with all her heart that dinner would finish soon.
“Ivy, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?” Christine said as she placed her glass of champagne down on the table.
Ivy looked up from her meat that she was forever playing with the perfectly polished, silver knife and fork to the countess, dreading that very subject to surface into their conversation. She eyed the other woman for a fleeting moment, smiled hesitantly, and lowered her eyes again to look at her now lumpy, cold meat.
“I do not think I have anything of interest to talk about,” she started and placed the knife and fork down.
“Non
sense, everyone always has something interesting to talk about,” Christine said as she tossed her long, chestnut tresses over her shoulder. “Do you play music by the way? Because I don’t.” She smiled cheekily and winked. Her eyes were bright and her cheeks were very rosy after the couple of glasses of champagne she had drunk.
Ivy shook her head and grinned. “I’m rather short on education, my lady.”
“You’re not alone there,” Christine said with a frowned and moved to whisper so that only Ivy could hear what she was going to say next. “I feel rather ashamed for my lack of education. I would hate to think that this flaw of mine might embarrass my husband in the eye of the ton.” She moved back and sighed. “But it couldn’t be help. I’m trying my very best to learn all that a young woman of society needed to accomplish, which might I say is very many indeed.”
“I’m very surprise, my lady, did you not learn it prior to your marriage?”
“Christine please, Ivy.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Merrick said from the other side of the table. “My wife has the habit of making everyone her equal.” He laughed merrily as though he didn’t mind that very fact.
“What’s wrong with that?” Christine turned to her husband with her brows raised a notch as though in a challenge.
“Nothing is wrong, my love,” he replied and grinned.
Ivy saw the dangerous gleam in his sea-green eyes as he said that, and the tone of his voice implied something deep and personal, just between the two of them. She heard Christine gasped in respond.
Would she be able to feel like that, she wondered, and turned her gaze to Max. She saw his sharp eyes on her again. Instantly her stomach hallowed, and she lowered her eyes to look at her now inedible meat.
“I have not the chance, Ivy, to learn of such accomplishment that young woman of the society needs to know,” Christine said. “I know this might sound rather silly but you see, my family had not the mean. I was very ignorance of the way of the society at the time.”
“Aye, my love, very ignorance indeed,” her husband said, “and you gave me one hell of a headache with your hellion behavior and stubbornness.”
“If not for my stubbornness, my lord,” Christine retorted, “you might not be here today, sitting there reminding me of my shameful flaws. May I remind you also, my lord, that you might have been murdered?”
“Aye, and I am very grateful for that, my love.” He gave her a devilish smile that caused her heart to skip a beat.
The darn man, Christine thought, he was too handsome for her weak heart. No wonder they thought him the catch of the season two years ago. He had taken her heart the very moment he had saved her from being beaten to death. If it was not for him, her family could have starved to death; and if it was not for him, she would have never met her father, the Earl of Queensbury.
“Murder?” Ivy asked in shocked.
“Aye.” Christine turned to her friend. “Can you imagine that it was his own flesh and blood that wanted him dead?” She shook her head in incomprehension. “Money could really make people do impractical things.”
“Christine, I do not think Lady Ivy would want to listen to such story,” Merrick said over his wine glass.
“Dear me you are right, Merrick. We shouldn’t really talk of such things during dinner.” Christine nodded her head in agreement. “Now let’s converse about something else. What about you, Ivy? Tell us a bit about yourself.”
“I, err...” Ivy hesitated.
“Why don’t you tell Christine a bit about your past, Ivy?” Max said from across the table. The tone of his voice was so deep that Ivy thought she heard it echoed in the dinning room.
“Yes, that would be marvelous,” Christine said as she turned her gaze back and forward between them staring at each other. “Go on,” she urged.
“Well...” Ivy glanced away from Max’s intensive gaze and looked about her surrounding, remembering her father. “Papa was very generous to me,” she began, “although he was never home much. He was always in London and...”
“And your mama?” Christine probed gently.
Ivy turned to look at Christine and her eyes had that faraway look. She clamped her lips together and said very quietly, “She was always here, with me.” She turned to look at the candlelight before her and whispered, “Papa was sick. He died eight years ago.”
“Oh Goodness, what’s wrong with him?” Christine asked as she rubbed Ivy’s arm gently to comfort her.
“I’m not so sure. The doctor said he was very depressed. I do know that he was in debts. When he died we had to sell our home to...” She turned her gaze to Max again.
He stared at her. His eyes were sharp and intense on her face. It was like he was searching deep into her soul. She shivered in respond but could not seem to shift her gaze from his.
“To who?” Christine asked as she looked at them staring at each other across the table again.
Merrick cleared his throat to break the prolong silent. Ivy blinked and lowered her eyes. Max still had his gaze fixed on Ivy.
“Christine,” Merrick began, “love, why don’t you be a dear and pass me a piece of that apple loaf?”
Christine looked at her husband with a frown. “Really, Merrick, my lord sir, I’m sure your hands are long enough to get that yourself.” She sighed as though men couldn’t be helped with this kind of thing and said, “But since I am a good wife I will pass it to you.” She smiled, reached for a piece sitting on an elegant, big plate beside her right elbow, and handed it to him.
“Many thanks, love,” he said.
“Not a problem,” she nodded once, and wasting no time, she turned back to Ivy. “Now, to who?”
“To the, err,” Ivy stole a quick glance at Max and continued, “the highest bidder.”
“That’s so sad,” Christine said and padded Ivy’s back.
“We were forced out of our home,” Ivy continued as she stared into nothingness.
Max narrowed his eyes at her.
“I wish I will never meet that cruel man,” Christine said. “He has no heart to have forced you all out of your own home like that. A man like that should never live in peace. He would forever be tormented with guilt, I assure you, Ivy.”
“Christine, love, don’t you think the man has his own reason to have done what he did?” Merrick commented with one of his brows lifted up a notch as he raised his glass of Madeira to his lips.
“Why, Merrick, are you trying to defend this ogre?” Christine accused and dumped her own glass of champagne down on the table.
Merrick slowly sipped his wine while he eyed his wife. God, she was beautiful with her chestnut hair formed into ringlets and there were some long tendrils dancing near her face and brushing against her petal white skin. Her gown was of a sea blue color that had quite a low neckline thus showing her soft skin to him, enticing him.
“Nay, my love,” he started as he looked at her breasts with half-closed eyes. He felt quite excited and very warm indeed.
“I’m not defending this ogre as you so call him,” he said, and he remembered the first time he had seen those enchanting breasts. They were very round and there were droplets of water on them.
It had been a beautiful summer afternoon, and he had returned from a dinner party--annoyed and frustrated because he hadn’t been able to understand why he had this overwhelming desire to bed his own ward. And there he found her bathing naked in the lake. The moment he realized that his ward was actually a fully grown woman, and a damn beautiful one to boot, he had fumed. When he had decided to teach her a lesson because she had been masquerading as a boy in front of him, he found that he couldn’t wait to get started and he dame well couldn’t wait to touch her either, everywhere.
“That ogre, my lord sir, had forced our Ivy out of her home. He is a man with no heart I assure you,” Christine said and then turned to Ivy. “You know, at the very least he could’ve allowed you time to find another place to stay.” She shook her hea
d and then looked at Max. “And where were you, your grace?”
Max raised his blonde brows at her.
Merrick chuckled at her attack.
“Where were you when all this was happening? You are her cousin and yet you weren’t there to help them when they were in obvious crisis.” She shook her head. “You men.” She sighed as though they men couldn’t be helped.
Max laughed. She was such a character, he thought, this Christine. He could still remember the first time he had met her. She was Merrick’s ward then, and he knew straight away that this ward was dressing herself as a boy was in fact a beautiful woman in disguised. He hadn’t forgotten that sunny morning when she was helping the gardeners cleaning up the pond either. She was pulling weeds, and he, the unconventional Lord Devil that he was, had offered to help her. When they both tumbled into the muddy pond, Merrick had screamed at them and had ordered her to return to the Hall. She had refused, however, and his angry friend had caught her and had meant to punish her, Max was sure of that. The stubborn girl, however, had a mind of her own and in the end they were wrestling in the mud instead. And he had found himself laughing like he never did before.
Max’s deep, timbre voice caused Ivy to look at him. When he stopped laughing, he turned his gaze to her. “Perhaps your mother had done something to deserve such a fait, my dear.”
Ivy gritted her teeth and said, “My mother did nothing of the sort.”
“Your grace!” Christine gasped. “How could you say that?”
“Mayhap it is the truth,” Max said and turned his attention to his Madeira.
“Do ignore him, Ivy, men are insufferable. Mere male, you know. Now tell us where you went after this heartless man had thrown you all out of your own home?” Christine continued.
Ivy blushed. She didn’t want to talk anymore of her past and insisted said, “We should change the subject.”
“Ivy, please, we are friends now,” Christine persisted.
“Have you been to Staffordshire Town?” Ivy asked.
Christine clamped her lips together. “Well,” she said, “no, but I’d love to.”
