Lady Hawk's Folly

by Amanda Scott

  “I was mad as fire when Mollie wouldn’t let me go with her to Margate, you know,” he confided to the room at large, “but Brighton will be something like, so I don’t mind it so much now.”

  Mollie glanced quickly at her husband, wondering how the boy’s casual reference would affect him, and found to her own discomfort that Hawk was regarding her searchingly. She remembered then that at least one member of the house party was going to prove difficult for her to cope with, since Prince Nicolai would undoubtedly come along with Monsieur de Lieven. She had said nothing before, and she did not choose to mention it now, but she knew she could not let much more time pass by before bringing her worries to Hawk’s attention. Even as she looked away, she realized the conversation had been brought back from Brighton to the subject nearer to everyone’s thinking. Ramsay was choosing his words with care.

  “I say, Hawk, what if there’s a problem? Should we not discuss the possibilities a bit more?”

  “Perhaps tomorrow,” his brother replied easily. “I doubt there is anything to fear, you know. I thought we had gone over that ground already.”

  “Well, we have,” Ramsay said slowly, piquing Mollie’s curiosity even more, “but I daresay it wouldn’t come amiss to discuss it again. I’m new to this business, you know.”

  She could scarcely demand an explanation with Harry right there, but Mollie had been suffering from recurrent bouts of rampant curiosity ever since Hawk’s casual announcement that he meant to hold a house party. He had so far returned no satisfactory answer to any of her questions, and she decided there and then that before the night was out, she would have more information from him if she had to tie him to his bed and torture him to get it. The mental picture created by this thought brought a smile to her lips, but when she glanced at her husband, she found him watching her again. Flushing, she turned pointedly away to stare into the leaping flames in the great fireplace, and Mandy, mistaking her absent stare for a wish for attention, stretched languidly and wandered over to press a cold, wet nose into her hand. Mollie patted the little dog, then gathered her into her lap to stroke the silky fur. Perfectly satisfied to oblige her mistress in this fashion, Mandy curled into a ball in her lap and went to sleep.

  Later, in Mollie’s bedchamber, while Mathilde du Bois brushed out her long tresses and plaited them, Mollie considered how best to go about discussing her worries about the house party with her husband. She knew there was some sort of intrigue afoot, and she doubted that he meant to take her into his confidence about the precise nature of that intrigue, but she hoped he would not be averse to discussing more personal matters. And perhaps from such a discussion, she might successfully manage to discover more than he meant for her to know.

  Finally, Mathilde finished her tasks and departed, wishing her mistress a pleasant good night. Cathe, who had been conscientiously putting Mollie’s clothes away, moved now to bank the little fire in the grate before likewise departing. The room seemed cozy and warm, lit only by the branch of candles on the dressing table, now that the flames had ceased their dancing. It was odd, Mollie thought, how a room that ought to feel new and strange, considering that it had been her own for so short a time, could feel right and comfortable.

  “Will there be anything more, m’lady?” Cathe asked, straightening.

  “No, you may go to bed.”

  “Good night, ma’am.”

  Barely waiting for the door to close behind the serving girl, Mollie hurried to the door leading into the sitting room and pulled it open. Hawk stood there in his bright-red dressing gown, his hand poised to turn the latch.

  Standing there as he did, with the gloom of the sitting room behind him, he looked larger and more solid than ever, and Mollie found the breath catching in her throat at the sight of him. Would she never, she wondered, be able to look upon this man in a casual way?

  “I wondered whether you were ready for bed, sweetheart,” he said, smiling down at her.

  “I’m sorry to have been so long, sir,” she replied, surprised for some odd reason to hear her voice sounding so matter-of-fact. “You must be weary, though. I was not certain you wanted me to come to you.”

  “Don’t be daft, Mollie. Of course, I want you. Your place is with me, sweetheart, not alone in that bed yonder.” He took her hand as he spoke and drew her nearer, putting his arms around her and waiting patiently until she tilted her head up. Then, gently, he placed a kiss upon her lips. When he moved as though to draw her toward his own room, she reached up to hold his head where it was, urging him not to stop his kisses so soon. In answer, he scooped her into his arms and carried her to the other bedchamber.

  14

  WATCHING HAWK AS HE draped his dressing gown across the back of a nearby chair and prepared to join her in the huge bed, Mollie remembered the days when she had first met him. His attentions had been flattering, but not so much more flattering than those of the other young men who had constantly surrounded her. Still, there had been something about him that set him apart from the others, something that fascinated her.

  It was not so much that he was handsome and dashing, nor that he dressed with a careless air of unstudied grace and elegance. The fascination went deeper than that. Really, she thought now, watching as he strode naked to check the dying embers in the grate, the feeling she had had about him then had more to do with the way he made her feel about herself than with the way she had felt about him. She had liked herself more when she was with Hawk than when she was with other young men. He had made her feel less, somehow, as though she were playing some silly game or other.

  She had even thought at one time that she might be more than a mere challenge to him. When her father had informed her that Hawk had actually come to him to ask permission to pay his addresses to her, she had thought he must feel some of the tenderer emotions toward her. That belief, however, had not survived their wedding night, when Hawk had gone rigid the moment she had cried out at his initial penetration. He had withdrawn from her as much in a mental sense then as he had physically. Though he had continued to treat her with his customary gentleness and consideration, things between them had not been easy after that, and he had leapt at the opportunity to join Wellington with much the same attitude that a drowning man might snatch at a straw.

  Hawk came toward her through the shadows, and the bed moved with his weight as he slipped under the quilts and pulled her into the shelter of his arm.

  “Shelter,” she mused, savoring the feeling.

  “What’s that, sweetheart?” His breath stirred the wispy tendrils of hair at her temples as he murmured the question.

  Mollie hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud, but she turned her head in the hollow of his shoulder and replied easily, “I was thinking about how comfortable we are now.”

  “Aye, ’tis a good-enough bed,” he said drowsily.

  She chuckled. “I meant with each other, Gavin.”

  Hawk pushed himself up a little on the pillows, and his voice was a shade crisper. “Are we, Mollie?” His arm shifted a little beneath her shoulders, and his hand stroked her upper arm. “I had hoped so, but I was not sure.”

  “Is that why you have invited Prince Nicolai to this house party of yours?” she asked softly. “To test me?”

  With a sound perilously akin to a groan he shifted his position again, that he might look at her more directly. The dim glow from the fireplace was enough to define the searching expression in his eyes. “Is that what you think?” he demanded, low.

  “I-I wondered,” she murmured. “You don’t like him, yet you invite him here with the others.”

  “He comes with de Lieven,” Hawk said, as though that explained everything.

  “Why?” Mollie asked. “Surely, Monsieur de Lieven does not always travel with his aides. And since you have insisted that our party is to be merely an entertaining interval for your guests, why should the prince come if you do not wish it?”

  She had kept her tone carefully offhand, but he was not fooled. �
�I have little doubt of your intelligence, sweetheart, and I am well aware that you are already in possession of many facts that do not concern you. To tell you more might be to endanger your safety. Don’t press me for details I am not at liberty to divulge.”

  “I daresay it is all to do with spying,” she said, sighing expressively. “I know Ramsay must have told you we saw Nicolai with d’Épier at the Argyle Rooms. Is his highness part of the investigation, or is he one of the spies?”

  “That’s enough, Mollie.” His tone was harsh now. “Such questions are naught but foolishness and can do nothing except cause trouble. Don’t let me catch you airing those opinions where anyone else can hear you, or it will be the worse for you, my girl.”

  A little daunted by his tone, she nevertheless asked, “Is Nicolai a spy, sir?”

  His arm twitched under her as if he would give her a shake. “Dammit, Mollie, leave be.”

  “But I want to know. Perhaps I can help.”

  At that, he sat up in the bed and yanked her upright, his two hands braising her shoulders. “You are not to think of such a thing for a moment. Do you hear what I’m saying to you?” A firm shake emphasized his sternly spoken words. “Your task is to see that our guests are comfortable, nothing more. You are to talk to no one about these ridiculous suspicions of yours. Is that perfectly clear, madam?”

  “Are they merely suspicions?” she asked evenly, adding more quickly when his grip on her shoulders tightened again, “I have a right to know, sir, if we are harboring spies and traitors beneath our roof.”

  For a moment it seemed as if he would shake her again, but then his grip relaxed and he gave a little sigh of resignation. “I do not know why I profess to be astonished by your persistence in this matter. Lord knows, you have made it clear enough that you will never be a conformable wife.” He chuckled. “I confess, I have already come to the conclusion that I never wanted such a wife, so I cannot think why I make any effort to force you into that mold. Habit, I suppose. And just when I thought I was doing so well, too.”

  “Sir?” Once again he was confusing her.

  He grinned. “I let you make a figure of yourself riding Ramsay’s damn horse all the way from East Grinstead to Forest Row, did I not?” When Mollie replied with a gurgle of laughter, he pulled one of her curls, then spoke more seriously. “I do not know all the answers to your questions, sweetheart. I do know that to ask such questions of anyone else might prove dangerous for you.”

  “Is Nicolai a spy?” she asked again.

  “We don’t know. He is very smooth and so far has eluded any traps we have set. Moreover, I cannot be absolutely certain that my own prejudices have not influenced my judgment against him. We do know that someone with lofty connections has been providing information to the French. Nicolai’s connections are lofty enough, and it is quite possible that the spy is part of the Russian delegation. However, it is equally possible that the man we seek is among the Regent’s people or Lord Bathurst’s. The information that has gone missing has been available in all three places, but only at the highest levels.”

  She gave a little shiver. “Is that why you have invited the de Lievens, the Regent, and Lord Bathurst to Hawkstone?”

  “Not entirely. The Regent, as you know, has a talent for inviting himself. I had no expectation of entertaining him when I arranged this little party. Bathurst and I had hoped to clear matters up before Prinny left London, simply because the more messages there are to be carried, the more difficult it will be to plug the leak, but he has interested himself in this matter from the outset. So when he discovered our plan and insisted upon being present, we could not be surprised. Indeed, his presence here will actually lend more credence to the rumors we have been so carefully spreading.”

  “What rumors?”

  But that he refused to tell her, further recommending that she keep a still tongue between her teeth when their guests arrived. “I cannot emphasize strongly enough, sweetheart, how dangerous it would be for you to hint at any knowledge of this affair.”

  “Very well, sir, but I hope you realize that I may have difficulty with Prince Nicolai. I was not prevaricating the night I told you he had forced his attentions upon me. I might have behaved in such a fashion before that as to lead him to believe I would not be averse to receiving such attentions from him. But even if you were right about that part of it, I can still assure you it was never my intention, and I did nothing that night to invite his attentions.”

  To her surprise Hawk chuckled. “Such exhaustive periods are not necessary to convince me, sweetheart. I have come to believe, regardless of the words I spouted at you out of my jealousy, that you were unaware that you were flirting with him. Well,” he amended, “maybe not that, precisely. But I do believe you had no expectation that your smiles and sallies would bring him so quickly to worship at your feet.”

  “Worship at my feet! Believe me, sir, he had more than worship in mind.”

  “I do not doubt it. At the risk of repeating myself, I can only say that he had your reputation to encourage him. No, don’t poker up, sweetheart,” Hawk said. “You still deserve to hear a few choice words on that subject. The only reason you have not heard many is that I, too, have had much to answer for. Moreover, from what I have been able to observe, you have not gone much beyond the line since my return.”

  The conversation was taking a turn Mollie had not anticipated, not to mention one she wished with all her heart to avoid. Since she knew she could not successfully press for further details about his plans, she did the only thing she could think of to stem the lecture she feared might be budding. He still had his hands on her shoulders, so she leaned heavily against them, tilting her face up to his.

  “Kiss me, sir,” she said.

  He chuckled. “Would you disarm me, madam?”

  “Yes, sir, if it can be done.”

  “It can be done, sweetheart,” he assured her, “by the lifting of your smallest finger.” Within moments it became clear to her that Hawk had forgotten his weariness entirely, and it was much later before she was allowed to sleep.

  The following day was a busy one, during which, what with last-minute preparations for all their guests, she and Lady Bridget seemed not to have a minute to call their own. But late in the afternoon Mollie managed to escape long enough to don her breeches and waistcoat and ride to the south meadow for an hour’s practice with her bow and arrows. To her delight she discovered that the archery butt had been recovered in her absence with brand-new, freshly painted canvas. And to her great satisfaction, the only holes in the new fabric when she left the meadow were to be found in the two inner rings of color.

  As she rode her horse along the rear causeway, she had a sudden sense of déjà vu, for there were horsemen approaching the main entrance of the castle along the other causeway. For a crazy moment, she half-expected to see the Hawkstone banner waving above them, but then she saw that there were only three riders. The rest of the party consisted of a coach with a crest upon its door. The distance, however, was too great for her to be able to make out whose it might be. A moment later, however, a face appeared in the coach window, and Mollie instantly recognized her sister-in-law. The sight caused her to give spur to her mount, and seconds later she clattered through the postern gate into the stableyard.

  Her first inclination was to ride straight through to the central courtyard to greet the visitors, but while Lady Gwendolyn would probably not be much shocked by her appearance, Mollie knew perfectly well that the more conservative Worthing would be astounded. And she was nearly as certain that Hawk would not approve of showing herself to his brother-in-law in such garb as she was presently wearing. Lady Bridget, too, would be discomposed if Worthing or the two gentlemen with him, whoever they might be, were to express disapproval to her on the subject. Consequently, Mollie slipped quickly from the saddle, tossed her reins to the waiting Teddy, and hurried into the castle through the rear hall. Taking the stairs two by two, she soon came to the upper landin
g and was hastening across the worn stone floor when her husband emerged from her own bedchamber.

  Hawk grinned at her. “Where are you headed in such haste, my lady? Hoping to avoid a lecture from Aunt Biddy?”

  “No, sir, but Lord and Lady Worthing have arrived, and I want to greet them properly and thought I’d best change my clothes before doing so.”

  He shook his head, laughing, and caught her up in his arms. “Sometimes I think there are two people inhabiting that beautiful body of yours, sweetheart. One is a child constantly on the lookout for adventure, and the other is an elegant lady, at home to a peg in the finest drawing rooms.” He set her on her feet again and turned her toward her bedchamber.

  Knowing from previous experience what to expect, she skipped hastily forward, thus neatly avoiding a smack on the backside. Tossing him a saucy grin, she pushed open the door and stepped across the threshold.

  Hawk laughed again. “Make haste, sweetheart. I shall endeavor to entertain our guests until your arrival. By the bye, did they chance to see you?”

  “Yes, no doubt they did as I rode along the postern causeway. However, they will not have recognized me,” she added confidently.

  “And just how are you so certain of that fact, I wonder?” His eyes narrowed with an arrested look, and profoundly discomposed by that penetrating gaze, Mollie flushed deeply and hastily shut the door behind her. For a moment she waited just inside the door, lest he be tempted to come after her, to pursue that dangerous topic. But though there was a moment’s nerve-racking silence, she heard his footsteps at last, moving away toward the main staircase.