He took another step but Jane held up her hands and he stopped. “Listen here. I would never be your mistress, David! I would never have considered that under any circumstance. And I cannot believe you would approach me with such a notion, especially at the ball celebrating your own engagement!”
The expression on his face was more confused than angry. “Jane, your family position is precarious. Certainly, you must know how difficult it will be for you to marry well. If you took my offer, you would have money, pretty clothes-”
“Stop!” Jane stomped her foot and David shut his mouth. “I will not hear another word. I do not accept your vulgar offer.”
She spun around to leave and found herself face to face with Madeline’s father. The Duke’s expression left very little of his anger to the imagination. He did not look at her, but past her to David. She glanced over her shoulder. David was standing in the middle of the room, his face ashen as he realized his future father-in-law had heard enough of his offer to Jane to ruin his plans. To ruin everything.
“Good evening, Lady Jane,” the Duke said, sparing her a quick, kind glance.
“Your Grace,” she breathed. “I-”
“It’s all right, my lady,” he said softly. “Please close the door on your way out.”
She nodded once, then ran from the room. She shut the door behind her, leaving David to whatever fate awaited him and then hurried down the hallway toward the lady’s retiring room. She needed Wesley, now more than ever. But when she went to him, it wouldn’t be because of David. Not ever again. When she went to him, it would be to reveal her heart. And once she calmed down, she was ready to do just that.
#
Wesley glanced at the little clock that was on the mantelpiece in the billiard room. Eleven-thirty. Almost time. His heart rate doubled at the thought.
“Are you going to take your shot, Stanton?”
He looked at Lord Greyson. The young Earl was staring at him, head cocked and brow wrinkled.
“Sorry, yes.” Wes lined up his shot carefully. The game was just beginning. Greyson had only just come in from the party for a short match.
“Very nice,” Greyson said as one of the billiard balls rolled into the pocket. “Too bad the party will be cut short tonight. I’d forgotten what a worthy opponent you are, Stanton.”
Wesley straightened up. “Why would the party end early?”
“Well, with the engagement being called off…” Greyson stopped at Wesley’s blank expression. “Oh, yes. You’ve been in here all evening. It just happened a few moments ago. David took off in his carriage like the hounds of hell were at his heels. Poor Maddie ran up to her room crying and the Duke looked ready to kill.”
Wesley’s grip tightened on his cue stick, even as he tried to keep reaction from his face. “The engagement is off? Any idea why?”
The other man shrugged as he stooped to take his shot. “No one can say for sure. But I did hear a rumor that Lady Jane Davenport was seen going into the library with David a while before. Some say he’s renewing his addresses to her, but you know how women talk.” He let out a curse when he missed his shot and straightened up. “Pretty thing, that. A shame about her family connections.”
The room began to swim as Wesley’s vision clouded. He set his cue stick aside and gripped the table with both hands. Jane had seen David alone… just as he had told her to do the day before. And now David was no longer marrying Madeline Reynolds.
Those two facts had to be related, whether or not the gossip about David’s renewed attentions toward Jane were true.
“Stanton? Are you well, man? You look pale.” Greyson suddenly lifted a hand to his mouth. “Dear God, you’ve been courting Jane as of late, haven’t you?”
Wesley winced as he pushed away from the table. “Jane and I have no understanding. If she wishes to return to David, I have no claim on her. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I feel a sudden-a sudden headache. I am afraid I’ll have to cry off the rest of the game. Perhaps we can rematch another time.”
Greyson nodded, his expression sick. “Of course. Good night, Stanton.”
Wesley nodded as he made his way out of the room and down the hallway. He didn’t see anything around him. He didn’t hear the buzz of the crowd as the news of the broken engagement spread like wildfire through society’s upper echelon. He felt their stares, but didn’t see them. He didn’t even know how he found himself at his carriage, but he somehow did. And within moments, he was heading home.
As the vehicle rolled through the crowded London streets, he rested his head against the cushion behind him while his mind spun.
Jane had spoken to David. David was no longer engaged.
That refrain repeated in his head over and over again, beating the painful truth against his temples until his head throbbed with the ache he had only pretended earlier.
“Damn it,” he muttered as he exited his carriage and made his way to his door blindly.
What a fool he was to think that a few weeks of pretended connection could keep Jane from taking what she’d spent months pining for. What a fool he was.
#
“What do you mean he’s gone?” Jane repeated, staring at Felicity as she tried to temper her tone. She’d been looking for Wesley for more than an hour, but no one knew anything about his whereabouts. The gossip that David’s engagement to Madeline had been broken was too loud for anyone to talk about anything else.
Worse, people were looking at her like she had caused the trouble. Whispering just like they had after her father’s hideous fall from grace.
She hated the whispers.
Felicity looked at her with a pitying stare. “He claimed a sudden headache after he heard the news of David’s broken engagement.”
Jane’s heart rushed to her throat as a tremendous sense of dread filled her. She swallowed past the lump. “What did he hear?” she whispered.
“Apparently that gossip Lord Greyson told him you had been with David right before the engagement was broken.” She shook her head. “That man is worse than any whispering matron!”
Jane stumbled back. “Wesley heard the rumor that David’s engagement is broken because he is courting me again?”
Felicity nodded, her expression long and solemn.
“May I borrow your carriage?” Jane asked, grabbing her friend’s arm and dragging her toward the foyer and the carriages parked outside. “I need to get to him. Now!”
#
Wesley clenched and unclenched his fist as he stared at the unfinished whiskey on his desk. He should never have encouraged her to go to David. He should have demanded her answer to his request for a real courtship that afternoon at his grandmother’s when she had been wrapped up in desire.
No. It was tempting to wish he had used her confusion against her, but if Jane truly desired David over him, that would have come out eventually. She would have regretted her choice if he’d forced it.
And if he couldn’t have her whole heart, he wouldn’t settle for just some sliver.
“My lord?”
Wesley lifted his eyes to see his butler in the doorway. The same one who he had told not to disturb him under any circumstances save those that included copious amounts of blood. His eyes narrowed. “What is it?”
“Lady Jane Davenport is here, my lord. She asks if you are in residence. I told her you were not, as per your orders, but she demanded I check a second time to make sure. What should I tell her?”
Wesley’s heart actually shifted in his chest. “Jane?”
“Yes, sir. Should I-?”
He got to his feet. “Bring her to me. Now.”
As the servant bowed away, Wes walked to the mirror and did a cursory check. He didn’t want her to see just how ragged this night had made him. Especially if she were only there to tell him of her renewed feelings for David in person.
That thought made him sober as Jane swept through the door. She was lovely. Her ball gown was a yellow one she had worn often before, but it brought out t
he soft highlights of her hair and made her eyes warmer. He had watched her all night, from a safe place where she couldn’t see him. He had looked forward to catching a whiff of honeysuckle perfume that matched the gown.
Now those fantasies might be coming to a permanent close.
After the butler had gone, Jane clenched her hands in front of her. “Why did you leave? Were we not to meet at midnight?”
Wesley clenched his jaw, fighting the urge to go to her, touch her, demand she feel the desire he had inspired in her before. “I could not bear to congratulate you, Lady Jane.”
He turned away and paced to the desk where he swigged the remainder of his stale whiskey.
“Congratulate me?”
He set the empty glass down with a loud clink and spun on her. “I heard you managed to extract David from his engagement after all. That you regained his affections.”
Her mouth twitched, though her eyes remained unreadable. “And you believed those rumors?”
“I don’t know what to believe.” He shrugged. “I don’t know anything.”
“I see.” To his surprise, Jane turned to the door and pushed it shut. Before he could protest the utter impropriety of that action, she faced him a second time and began to peel her gloves from her hands. “I have come here for a purpose, my lord.”
He could hardly breathe as he watched her strip the fine kid away from her skin.
When he didn’t answer, she continued, “I wish for you to seduce someone for me.”
He lifted his gaze to her face, remembering her request that he seduce Madeline. That seemed so long ago. Disappointment wracked him. “I told you, I cannot do that. And it seems unnecessary since David’s engagement has ended.”
A little smile tilted up one corner of her lips. “How unfortunate, because I was hoping you might seduce me.”
Wesley couldn’t help but stagger back a step at her utterly unexpected reply. It took a moment for the words to register in his mind. “What?” he asked, feeling like an idiot to make her repeat what was screaming with such clarity through his mind.
“You asked me if I could give you everything, Wes,” she whispered and it was only then he realized her voice and her hands were trembling despite how calm she seemed. “I am here to offer you everything. Everything in my heart.”
He still couldn’t quite fathom that this was real. Not after the earlier pain of the evening. “But David… they said you spoke to him just before his engagement was ended. They said-”
Her smile faded. “They say many things, Wesley. I did speak to David tonight, he waylaid me on my way to you. All I told him was that I would never accept his offer to be his mistress.”
Wesley’s blood froze with surprise and anger, but before he could reply, Jane continued.
“The engagement was broken because Madeline’s father heard his offer and my response.” She shook her head. “Tonight I was faced with proof of what a fool David is. And what a fool I was for ever thinking he could make me happy. I was so stubbornly trying to make myself love him that I missed the moment where I fell in love with you.”
Wesley’s hands fisted at his sides as a joy unlike anything he’d ever experienced rushed through him.
“And it wasn’t when you kissed me and it wasn’t when you asked me to make this courtship real.” A tear slipped from her eye and began a slow trail down her face, even though her smile returned. “It happened a little every time we danced together. It happened every time you made me laugh at myself. It happened every time you included me in some philosophical debate. I fell in love with you in tiny pieces until my whole heart belonged to you. When you kissed me that night after the ball, when you demanded I give you more than just some silly, pretended courtship… those things only woke me up from a deep slumber.”
Wesley found himself crossing the floor and then Jane was in his arms. He pulled her against his chest and held her there, loving the feel of her arms around him, loving her tremble as he stroked a hand down her back. Loving her. As he always had. And always would.
He drew back to look down into her face. She was crying openly now, despite her wide smile.
“I assume that means you won’t be telling me we should only be good friends,” she sniffled.
He laughed. “Of course we shall be friends. I could never marry anyone but the woman I consider my very best and truest friend. The woman I love more than anything else in this world.”
Then he dipped his head and kissed her.
A Scandal to Keep
Chapter One
London, 1822
Felicity Ellis’s fingers danced over the pianoforte keys, filling the room with music. She shut her eyes as she played, feeling the melody surround her, make her whole. Her heart was so free when she played. She could forget almost anything.
“That is lovely. Do you intend to play it at the recital tomorrow evening?”
Felicity’s eyes came open and she glanced across the room. The Dowager Countess Abigail Stanton was doing her needlework, a smile tilting her lips and lining her face.
“Yes.” Felicity slowed her fingers and slowly turned the music until the piece changed into Lady Stanton’s favorite. Her companion’s gaze lifted from the fabric in her hands and met Felicity’s.
“It’s always such a pleasure to have you come here and play.” Lady Stanton sighed. “Wesley hardly ever comes here anymore, now that he is married.”
Felicity barked out a laugh as she continued the music. “A marriage you had quite the hand in creating.”
“Only me?” Lady Stanton arched one fine brow. “You were a most willing spy and partner in my schemes, my dearest.”
Felicity sighed. “Yes, I most certainly was. At any rate, I know for a fact that Wesley and Jane were here just yesterday afternoon.”
“Hmmm. Seems you are still a spy.”
Lady Stanton set her work aside and grabbed for her cane. She motioned for the maid who stood stoically beside the parlor door. The young woman hurried over and helped the elderly lady from her chair. Felicity continued to play even as she watched, ready to come to her friend’s assistance if need be.
How hard it was to watch Lady Stanton grow older, her body more frail, despite her sharp mind. It made Felicity think of the future. A distant and foggy thing that often seemed unpleasant and lonely.
The maid stepped back when Lady Stanton had gained her balance and her ladyship shuffled toward Felicity. “Sometimes it seems like everything is changing. Some changes are for the good, like Jane and Wesley’s union.”
“What else has changed lately?” Felicity asked. For her, life seemed ever the same. By design, perhaps, but still sometimes achingly boring and endless.
“Oh, I did hear some news, though I’m not sure if it is a change for the better or for ill.” Lady Stanton braced her hands on the pianoforte. “The old Duke of Windsworth finally took his last breath.”
Felicity’s fingers crashed against the keys in a mangled and smashed note. Lady Stanton’s eyebrows went up.
“Dear heavens, are you well?” she asked with a tilt of her head.
Felicity stared at the sheet music before her, but the notes swam and ran together as her vision blurred and her heart raced. She caught her breath and quickly regained her composure.
“Yes. My hands merely slipped.”
Lady Stanton’s eyebrow arched. “I have never known your hands to slip before. And with such drama.”
Felicity forced a smile. “Ah, you have uncovered my secret. I am not the perfect player that you thought me to be.”
Her companion smiled and reached out to lightly tap her nose with the tip of one finger. “No one is perfect, my darling.”
Felicity dipped her gaze to the piano keys. “No. No one.”
If Lady Stanton noticed the emotion that boiled in Felicity’s chest, she made no indication of it. Instead, she sighed. “The Duke was not known as a kind man or a good man or even a prudent man. But perhaps things will be better now that h
is son has inherited.”
Felicity’s hands were shaking and she clenched them into fists to make them stop. “His son is dead.”
Her ladyship’s brow wrinkled. “What? Oh no, you are thinking of the elder son, Jonathon, who died in India a few years ago. This is the younger son, Gabriel. When Jonathon died, he became the heir apparent.”
Felicity’s body was starting to relax. Her muscles unclenched and her trembling slowly subsided as the initial shock of hearing such news wore off. It meant nothing to her, of course. She had not been acquainted with that family for… well, it was a long time now. Many years. The death of the Duke, the assumption of the title by the younger son she’d never met, those things had nothing to do with her.
“I’m sure Society will be clamoring to see this new Duke,” she murmured before she pursed her lips with displeasure. That meant the next few months were going to be terribly uncomfortable. Until the novelty wore off, he would probably be invited to every party. The entire summer would likely hold little pleasure for her, only constant reminders of a foolish moment in her past.
She sighed before she refocused her attention. Lady Stanton was speaking, answering the comment she’d really meant only for herself.
“I should say so!” Lady Stanton strummed her fingers along the pianoforte. “After all, he’s more than just a new Duke. He has his father and his brother’s sordid reputations to overcome. And the man has hardly been out in Society at all!”
Felicity tilted her head. She shouldn’t care about this, should avoid the subject, but she found herself curious nonetheless. “Why?”
“His mother and father were estranged. She took the younger child, Gabriel, and retired to the country when the children were quite small. The Duke took the older son and stayed in London and his other estates. From what I understand, Gabriel hardly saw his father until after Jonathon’s death.”
Again, Felicity flinched as a long buried pain surged back up, dulled but still in existence. Her only consolation was that since this new Duke had not been around all those years ago when… well, when the thing she refused to think about happened, at least he wouldn’t look at her with those cold eyes like his father had. Stare at her with accusation and distain.
Almost A Spinster Page 7
