“Go inside. I’ll follow shortly,” he said. As soon as he could walk without his breeches doing him permanent injury.
She walked away, pausing to look back at him over her shoulder. Beautiful, innately and unconsciously seductive, it was a pose that showed her lush curves to advantage. And in the silvery light of the evening, she was truly the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
The realization that what he felt for her was more than lust, more even than admiration and liking, swamped him. He was entirely infatuated with her and infatuation could lead to so much more, to something that could well destroy them both. Love led to jealousy and jealousy led to the same misery that had consumed his mother. It had been her obsession with his father’s, not even fidelity but disinterest, that had led to her melancholia. She’d longed for his love. And like anyone else in his father’s life, she’d been denied it.
“I am not my mother,” he whispered aloud. He was stronger than her and infinitely more suited to coping with life. “I will not be like her.”
Chapter Eleven
Val was rushing to get into the drawing room just after the dinner the following evening. The gong had sounded already. He noted, as he paused in the doorway, the guarded expression on his cousin’s face. His face revealed nothing, but in the other man’s gaze he saw nothing but malice. As if becoming aware that he was being observed, Elsworth pasted a cool smile on his face and turned to walk away.
He’d left the house early that morning and had not seen Lilly all day. He’d been too busy trying to get the information he needed. That moment, seeing the banked animosity in his cousin, made all that he’d done that day, the hours spent ferreting out the nasty details of his cousin’s less than ethical business dealings, worth it. Whatever he’d owe to Highcliff, and even to the Hound, would be a reasonable cost. He’d also bribed a pretty maid from next door to flirt with Elsworth’s valet. He needed to know where his cousin was on the morning he and Lilly had been in the park.
Entering the drawing room fully, he stopped short. He’d known that Madame Renaud had delivered several gowns to the house that day. The men he’d set to guarding it had reported all comings and goings to him. Even knowing he would see her in something that would be more suited to her, he was struck dumb by the sight. What he saw robbed him of breath. It wasn’t the midnight blue silk of his earlier imaginings. It was the color of smoke—dark, sultry, seductive. The neckline was edged in black lace that highlighted the alabaster tone of her skin and the cut of it showed enough of her supple flesh that he wasn’t sure if he’d been permanently robbed of the ability to speak. He’d touched her there, teased her to the edge of desire and just a bit beyond. But dressed in that way, her hair styled as it was, her beauty wasn’t just something to appreciate. It was a weapon.
“Good evening, my lord,” she said.
The triumph in her gaze spoke only of the power of a woman who knew her own beauty. She knew what she was, and she wasn’t afraid to use it for him or against him, he thought. And he admired her even more for it. “That gown is exquisite on you. But you need jewelry,” he said, coming to stand beside her. “I have been remiss.”
She laughed softly. “You do know precisely what to say to get my attention, don’t you?”
“I do, indeed. Gowns and jewels. Furs, perhaps?” he asked with a grin. He enjoyed her delight in such things. He enjoyed that she made no pretense of hiding her pleasure in anything that she enjoyed.
She frowned then. “When you put it in those terms, it makes me sound as if I’m greedy or avaricious. I’m not. But I do love pretty things. Is that wrong?”
“Not in the least. You should be surrounded by pretty things. All the time. And I don’t mind if you’re greedy for that… I think I might even find it charming,” he admitted. “There’s also something imminently satisfying for a man in being able to provide such things for the women in his life.”
“Why on earth would you find that charming?” she asked.
“Because you don’t hide it, Lilly. Because when you like something, you say you like it… and when you don’t, well, you say that, too. There’s something refreshing about being in the presence of a person who tells the truth no matter what light it might cast them, or me, in.”
“Oh, dear heavens!” the dowager duchess groused. “You’ll have more than enough time for little tête-à-têtes after you’re wed! For now, mingle and be delightful as young unmarried people are supposed to!”
“About that,” Val said, halting her with a hand on her arm. “I have the license. Highcliff presented it to me this afternoon. And I also have an appointment set for us at St. Paul’s for tomorrow morning at nine sharp. Don’t tell Grandmother. I don’t want anyone in the house to know our plans.”
“Won’t we need witnesses?” she asked in a whisper.
“It’s taken care of. I assume that Madame Renaud left you another suitable costume for such an event?”
Lilly nodded. “She did, indeed. You knew that of course. The guards you posted outside are not very subtle.”
He grinned. “Spotted them, did you? I don’t want them to be subtle, Lilly. Their job isn’t to catch whoever’s trying to harm you, but to dissuade them from action. Their presence is necessary. You don’t mind them?”
“No,” she said. “I don’t. I understand the necessity. By the way, we’re going to start a lending library for the servants so they don’t have to spend their wages on books. I’m also going to teach the housemaids to read.”
“A lending library? There are first editions of Milton in that library!” he protested.
“Well they’ve no interest in Milton, I assure you,” Lilly replied. “I shudder at the thought. Apparently, the housemaids and I share a fondness for gothic novels.”
He blinked at that. “You want me to let the housemaids read Udolpho?”
She cast a beaming smile at him. “Have you read it then?”
“No. But I know what it is. You do realize those books are somewhat salacious?”
“Yes, I do. That’s rather why I like them,” she admitted. “What an entertaining evening I might have had reading in my chamber instead of coming down for dinner! Salacious. That’s a rather delightful word, don’t you think?”
He did, indeed, especially as he watched it roll off her pretty lips. “You are a wicked woman, Lillian Burkhart. Wicked and wonderful.”
“Wonderful, perhaps. Wicked? Not yet. But I will be… and wanton, as well,” she said and then moved away toward his grandmother who eyed them both suspiciously.
“Don’t let him talk you into anything, my dear,” the dowager duchess warned loudly. “Men are terrible, terrible creatures.”
Lillian smiled slightly as she looked back at him, a coy quirking of her full lips that highlighted the curves of them and the perfection of her face. “Perhaps they are, but I’m beginning to see their merits all the same.”
“Pish posh! Worthless. The lot of them!” the dowager duchess harrumphed loudly. “Valentine, escort your betrothed to dinner and try to behave as if you have some morals, please.”
*
Lilly smiled as he showed her to her seat. No doubt the dinner would devolve into another round of barbed comments and thinly-veiled animosity. The rate at which Elsworth was consuming his wine was telling enough.
“I take it you’re letting our grandmother have free rein in planning the wedding, Miss Burkhart?” Elsworth asked as he placed his glass back on the table and a footman appeared to promptly refill it.
“We have been discussing the plans,” she said.
“Well, you really should defer to her expertise. After all, what could you possibly know about planning an event for your social betters?” he asked.
“Elsworth,” Val said in a chilling tone, “if you wish to keep your tongue, you will still it. Your snide comments will not be tolerated.”
Elsworth’s lips quirked and he looked at the dowager duchess. “He’s a savage, Grandmother. Surely you won’t st
and for such barbaric threats at your dinner table?”
“On the contrary, Elsworth.” The dowager duchess enunciated each word with cool precision. “I happen to think such threats are a credit to Valentine. Any man who would let someone insult his bride-to-be in such a manner without taking action would be unworthy of the woman in question. I think, perhaps, you are overtired and should take a tray in your room.”
Elsworth began to sputter. “But, surely… Grandmother, you cannot mean to defend his choice!”
“I can, I do, and I will,” she said. “Go to your room, Elsworth. If you mean to act as a child, you shall be treated as one.”
Lilly said nothing. At that point, anything she added would be superfluous. Instead, she sipped her wine and bore the full weight of Elsworth’s furious gaze. He glared daggers at her as he rose from his chair.
“My own family has turned against me for the worthless daughter of a whore. I suppose you’re pleased, Miss Burkhart! No doubt, that was your plan all along… divide and conquer!”
Val rose then, his chair tipping backward. “Speak another syllable and I will call you out right here. Think carefully, Cousin. We both know I’m the better shot.”
“Enough!” the dowager duchess shouted. “Valentine, sit down. Elsworth, go now and say nothing else. If you so much as open your mouth, I’ll not only disinherit you entirely but cut you off from this minute forward. I will brook no such insolence in my house. Is that clear?”
Val took his seat and Elsworth stormed off, the door slamming behind him.
“Well, I think I’ve lost my appetite,” Lilly said.
“I think we all have,” the dowager duchess replied. “But we’ll eat regardless. We’ve given the servants enough to talk about for one night. There’s a lesson to be learned in all of this, my dear… rule your house. Neither servants, nor husbands, nor relatives should have more authority in it than you do. It is the only domain granted to women in this world, after all. Hold fast to it.”
“Yes, your grace,” Lilly murmured in agreement. It was sound advice whatever her future husband might think of it.
“With your face and at your age, you can afford to be an iron fist in a silk glove… the older you get, the silk gets worn and faded,” the dowager duchess warned. “Isn’t that right, Valentine?”
Val looked up at her, his lips curled upward at one side in a half-smile. “Some women, Grandmother, will be beautiful their whole lives long. Age holds no power over them.”
She guffawed. “Pretty words for your pretty betrothed.”
“They do apply to her, as well,” Val agreed. “But, in fact, I was speaking of you.”
The old woman smiled, charmed in spite of herself. In that moment, Lilly fully appreciated the power of her husband’s charm.
Chapter Twelve
Wearing one of her new nightrails and a wrapper of the softest velvet, Lilly was hardly dressed for roaming the halls but she’d had no choice in the matter. Declining Mary’s offer to help her change after dinner would have required explanations she did not wish to make. Clandestine activities with a sprained ankle were not all what they were cracked up to be. Lilly wasn’t precisely creeping along the corridor. With a walking stick and a lingering limp, she couldn’t really creep anywhere. But she was moving toward her intended destination as discreetly as possible. After the fiasco of dinner and the blatant hostility from Elsworth, she needed to talk to Val and she needed to do it privately, without the dowager duchess present.
Just as she neared his chamber, the door opened and a small man in neat livery stepped out bearing the coat Val had worn at dinner, the one that had been splashed with wine when he and Elsworth had very nearly come to blows. Lilly ducked into an alcove and prayed the little man wouldn’t look in her direction.
As he passed, she gave a soft sigh of relief. It was imperative that she speak to Val, but the last thing she needed was to be caught sneaking into his rooms. Betrothed or not, some scandals could not be recovered from. And while she wished to speak with him, she was left with the distinct impression that perhaps he also needed to see her. The animosity the two men had toward one another ran deep and was apparently a long-standing situation. But beneath it, at least on Val’s part, she sensed a great deal of sadness. They might be at one another’s throats, but she suspected very strongly that he had once loved his cousin and that he was deeply wounded by the things that now hung between them.
Pausing outside his door, she raised her hand and knocked softly.
The door opened abruptly. “Blast it, Fenton, I told you—” His thunderous expression faded slowly only to be replaced by one of shock and then utter puzzlement. “What are you doing here?”
“Preparing to be the scandal of London if you leave me standing in your doorway any longer,” she said. “Let me in before someone sees!”
He stuck his head out of the door, peered down the corridor in both directions and then stepped back to allow her entrance. “I don’t think I need to tell you what a disastrous idea this is, do I?”
“What is really going on with you and your cousin?” she demanded.
He stood there, staring at her in stony silence for a long moment. “I don’t want to tell you.”
“Well, I don’t want to be kept in the dark. I’ve a right to know,” she insisted.
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Fine, I will tell you and then you will go back to your room. You cannot be in here… it’s unwise.”
“Unwise? Are you suggesting now that your intentions toward me are dishonorable?”
“Of course not,” he said, appearing mightily offended. “It isn’t that. But damn it, Lilly, a man can only resist temptation for so long!”
“And I tempt you?” she asked, her reasons for coming to his room momentarily forgotten.
“More than anyone ever has. But that isn’t why you’re here!”
“No,” she agreed. “It isn’t. I couldn’t help but think, at dinner… it hurts you, doesn’t it? That the two of you are so at odds.”
He scrubbed his hands over his face. “We weren’t always. At one time, I thought we were closer than brothers. But the older we got, and the more certain our differing prospects in life became, the more he resented me. For being the only son of the eldest son, and heir to everything we held, for not being as obsessed with the rules of society and the notion of propriety. Whatever it is, he resents me because he feels he deserves it more.”
“That’s really it? It’s just jealousy? Surely he knows that you would be generous with him!” Lilly moved deeper into the room, settling herself onto one of the chairs before the fireplace. Her ankle did not pain her overly much, but she had no intention of leaving any time soon.
“That isn’t—the title provides power and prestige. I think it’s those things more than just the family’s wealth that he is envious of.” His tone held all the hurt and disdain he felt for letting something so unimportant destroy their relationship. “I think that is why he has fallen in with such terrible people… because he wants to feel powerful and they have spun a fine tale to make him believe he could be.”
“Is it possible that they have some involvement in the attempt on my life? If they are as terrible as you believe, and if they are determined that Elsworth should inherit… could we be painting him as a greater villain than he is?” Lilly asked.
“I don’t know,” Val answered honestly and hope flared for just a moment in his eyes. “Right now, it’s too great a risk to eliminate anyone as a suspect. And even if he isn’t responsible for the attempt to shoot you, his behavior toward you is unforgivable regardless.”
“The thing of it is… he slings words like arrows,” Lilly said haltingly. “But I find it difficult to believe that he has the nerve to do anything more than that. Even with his veiled threats, I think he only wanted to intimidate me.”
“You could be wrong. But the timing of it is suspect,” Val said, moving toward the other chair and sitting across from her. “If I marry,
he loses any hope of inheriting substantial wealth. And the morning after we announced our intent to wed, you are nearly killed. I owe you an apology, Lillian. If you want to call a halt to this, I won’t stop you. I acted rashly and impulsively and, in so doing, I have placed you in danger.”
“But you don’t know that for certain. We are still thoroughly in the dark here. It’s only a guess that it was Elsworth… but who else could it have been?”
“I’ve been considering that. I’ve been considering every possibility, in fact. There is the matter of your bequest,” he answered. “What happens if you do not meet the terms?”
She wasn’t entirely certain. It wasn’t a question that it had occurred to her to ask because she’d had no intention of letting it get away from her. “There are other relatives of my mother’s to whom it would be passed, I assume. But I don’t even know them.”
“You don’t have to know them,” he said bluntly. “If the solicitor disclosed your name, your direction would not be difficult to obtain, would it? Either way, your relative or mine, someone tried to kill you yesterday. And if it was Elsworth, the timeline of our impending nuptials could very well prompt him to take more immediate action. That is why I lied to grandmother about the wedding, and why I continue to let her believe we will be waiting for the banns to be read and getting married in a more respectable manner. The truth, that we will be going to the church tomorrow, creates more risk in this situation.”
“Oh,” she said. “I see. How will we find out who was responsible?”
“I’m working on that. Trust me to see to it,” he said. “After we’ve married tomorrow, we’ll go and see this solicitor who contacted you and get all the particulars related to other potential heirs.”
Lilly nodded. “I shouldn’t have bothered you with this tonight.”
Regency for all Seasons: A Regency Romance Collection Page 58
