‘She’s an idiot and doesn’t deserve you.’
‘Drace had to beat and abuse her to make himself want a woman enough to even try to get her with child, Wulf. Then I threw myself at her like a greedy boy before she had hardly even taken in the fact her prison door was open. The longer it goes on the worse the puzzle and any scandal gets when we’re found out. I suppose I’m not much of a catch anyway.’
‘You would make yourself one if she said yes,’ Wulf told his brother. ‘You might have been raised a gentleman, but you’d work for love if only she would let you.’
‘Well, she won’t, not even when the Earl decided to blackmail me with our lovely little secret. If I didn’t marry a fortune and hand it to him, he said he would tell the world Lady Drace’s daughter is my bastard.’
‘So you offered for Isabella?’ Wulf whispered as if saying it out loud might break them both.
‘I should have let him do his worst.’
‘He would have done it. He would have ruined the woman you love out of pique if you didn’t do as he bid you.’
‘Yes,’ Magnus admitted bleakly. ‘So I let Isabella be the ransom.’
‘Did she know?’
‘Not then. When I asked her to marry me, you can imagine how relieved I was when she said no. Then she came back to me with a scheme to pay the old devil part of her dowry on condition Aline, Dorrie and Theo lived with us. I hadn’t told her about Delphi and our affair, of course, but Isabella saw through the old man’s surface charm and insisted he assign guardianship of Dorrie and Theo to me before he’d get a penny of her dowry. Isabella insisted she didn’t want to be in love and a rational marriage would suit her very well. I suppose she could see how unhappy the girls were at Carrowe House under the Earl’s thumb, too, and we were such good friends, Wulf. And once I’d offered for her, how could I withdraw? So we agreed to wed and I believe that must be where you came in.’
‘You nearly married her.’
‘I expect we would have come to our senses sooner or later.’
‘Don’t lie, you would have wed Isabella because you couldn’t marry Lady Delphine and no woman deserves that.’
‘Isabella least of all?’
Wulf glared at the tree Magnus was leaning against as if he needed it to hold him up. ‘I love her,’ he confessed at last.
‘Shouldn’t you be telling her instead of me?’
‘Yes,’ Wulf grumbled. ‘How did she find out about Lady Delphine?’
‘Another letter.’
‘Lady Delphine’s maid seems to be on your side.’
‘Not noticeably.’
‘Then why interfere?’
‘Because of the child and maybe she wants her mistress to be happy and cared for despite herself as well. Perhaps I never deserved to be happy after what it did, but you deserve Isabella.’
‘I don’t, but living without her is worse than offering for her so she can turn me down.’
‘You’ll always regret not taking a chance, but how are you planning to make this grudging proposal?’
‘You’re not the only Haile who can offer an elopement to a lady.’
‘However you offer for her be sure you make her happy, Wulf. I might have to kill you if you don’t. If Carnwood or Shuttleworth or your friend Kenton don’t get there first, of course.’
‘She has to say yes first,’ Wulf said gloomily.
Chapter Seventeen
A whole weary week had passed since she humiliated herself in front of Wulf and most of his family at Carrowe House. Isabella counted off the days and decided her reckless throw of the dice had been a failure and she didn’t know what else to do. Maybe she was going to have to drag herself through the new social Season without him after all. Even the idea of pretending she couldn’t imagine anything more delightful than hot rooms, sharp-eyed critics and too much warm lemonade made her feel slightly sick, so the reality was bound to be even worse.
‘I hope you really are planning to have your new gowns fitted this time, Isabella,’ Charlotte said with a frown when she saw Isabella’s outdoor clothes and her best bonnet waiting to be set on her perfectly arranged locks.
‘Heloise won’t let me escape twice.’
‘Good, you’re going to need every one of them for the new Season now you’re unattached again,’ Charlotte said cheerfully and carried her still-teething baby daughter back into the sitting room as if there was no more to be said.
‘I’ll be glad to go home, too,’ Isabella muttered at the closed door and only just managed not to stick her tongue out. ‘Come, Heloise, if you had kept a still tongue in your head, I wouldn’t have to do this, so don’t try to creep upstairs as if you never even heard the word mantua-maker and don’t dote upon every aspect of fashion.’
‘Your gloves, Miss Alstone,’ Heloise said and held them out reproachfully.
‘Thank you,’ Isabella said, slipping them on and trying not to remember a hot night at Haile Carr when she’d used her evening gloves to fan her hot cheeks. She turned briskly for the door.
‘Your bonnet, Miss Alstone.’ Heloise caught her up with a look of deep shock that any lady would go out without one.
‘Confound my bonnet,’ she said and jammed it on as she ran down the steps.
‘Never damn a bonnet like that one, Miss Alstone; it’s probably sacrilege,’ Wulf said as she reached the bottom and realised he was waiting there for her. He took off his silk hat and bowed gracefully, then offered her his arm as if they had trivial social encounters of this sort every day.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘Well, that’s not very polite. You should send your mistress off to learn better manners somewhere very refined indeed, Heloise,’ he told her maid and the wretched woman tittered and got ready to follow them as if she thought the whole event run-of-the-mill as well.
‘Never mind my manners, you are not the type of man to wear clothes like that or stroll about Mayfair as if you have all the time in the world and not a lot to do with it.’
‘I do today. I am busy walking the beautiful Miss Alstone to an engagement, or at least I would be if you could start moving instead of standing there glaring at me as if I’ve just said something outrageous.’
‘But why?
‘Why not?’ he countered as if it was quite normal for him to come here looking like that, offer her his arm and expect her to meekly go with him. He looked even more dark and dangerous than usual in the elegant day attire of a gentleman he wore with his own unique flair. And now she was supposed to stroll along by his side as if the very sight of him in full daylight didn’t make her knees wobble?
‘You did say no more hiding in dark corners,’ he pointed out helpfully, and what else could she do but take his arm with that demand in her mind to say this was her fault?
‘True, but I can’t believe you listened.’
‘Neither can I,’ he said with a rueful smile that made it even more difficult to stroll along at his side as if they were polite acquaintances. ‘I haven’t been very good at it so far, have I?’
This was her own fault. She had asked for him to admit he wanted her company in full daylight as well as the intimate darkness they usually met in, but the best thing about the dark was that it was intimate. They could feel each other move with slavish fascination and nobody could hear or see them and whisper about them behind their backs. Out here, strolling along the broad streets and squares of fashionable Mayfair, it felt far too exposed and public. She was even more conscious of his lithe body as they walked side by side because she couldn’t reach out and touch him. It would cause a scandal if she did any of the things she longed to do right now. So of course she only wanted to do them all the more.
‘No, but I’m so glad you decided to this time,’ she said and smiled because he had listened to her for once and come out of the darkness.
If she had to endure not doing any of the things they had been doing in the shadows since the night they met, it was worth it to walk at his side and show the world she knew and appreciated the youngest Haile brother no matter his parentage. Knew him and was so proud to walk side by side with him on a beautiful spring morning she didn’t want to say goodbye when they reached the dressmakers’. They couldn’t linger and stare into each other’s eyes here, though, because this was how things were when you were out in the open, under the critical gaze of the fashionable ladies and gentlemen strolling up and down the most fashionable of streets. He bowed in farewell and raised one eyebrow at her as if he knew about all that heat and breathlessness and wanting she was trembling on the edge of.
‘Mrs Shaw believes we might happen to meet in the park at the fashionable hour tomorrow. Apparently her new barouche has plenty of room for a chance-met acquaintance if I get there quickly enough to oust all the other ones who will be queuing up to claim a ride around the park with the beautiful Miss Alstone,’ he said so calmly she had to wonder if she was the only one burning up with need.
‘Shouldn’t we make our own assignations?’
‘We aren’t very good at arranging them in the open, though, are we?’
‘No,’ she had to admit and this was the new reality she had wanted, so she supposed she had best get used to it.
* * *
Driving in the park together, walking to museums and art galleries, sharing Charlotte’s box at the theatre with half a dozen others, and even a small and exclusive evening party for a few hundred of the hostess’s closest friends where Wulf made what he called his ‘debut in polite society’ was very well, but Isabella enjoyed the day they spent at Develin House with his family, inspecting works done and planning what would fit where, so much more. Isabella had changed so much since this time last year she hardly recognised herself as the same woman when she looked back. The old Isabella was prepared to settle for less than her sisters had. She didn’t believe in love, so for her love would never exist because she had reasoned it away. Marriage to a good friend for the sake of a family and rescuing his sisters from a dire situation seemed so sensible why turn Magnus down when he asked her to marry him? This Isabella who lived in the now cringed at the idea of her then self blithely ignoring all the passion and need inside her and for what? For the sake of building a safe little box to put her life in, then forget how small she had to make herself in order to fit inside it.
At least today they had been allowed to drive back from Hampstead in Ben Shaw’s pared-down racing curricle alone but for the tiger—the groom dressed in striped livery—as long as they stayed in sight of the others following them in Charlotte’s barouche. The diminutive tiger was so busy clinging on and watching Wulf’s driving with an eagle eye to listen to them, so it was almost like being alone. All these proper social meetings had left Isabella feeling desperate for half an hour’s unregulated conversation with the Honourable Wulfric Haile.
‘You do know I don’t need all the trappings of fashionable life to be happy, don’t you, Wulf?’ she asked and watched the hazy, smoky city grow ever closer in the evening sunlight as she tried to pretend his answer wasn’t vitally important.
‘You don’t need to meet your family and friends and talk and shop and maybe even gossip a little now and again?’ he asked as if he wasn’t quite so sure about that.
‘I do need them, but not half the peerage and a few hundred of their hangers-on along with them. When I said I wanted to meet you in the light of day, I didn’t mean you should change into someone else to make it happen.’
‘I’m not; I’m finding out who I am and who I’m not. You said you needed us to know each other by daylight and I’m Wulf Haile as well as Dev and FitzDevelin now, so we need to find out who he is between us. The me I am at heart sometimes ends up shut in a room for days until I get a chapter or a book or even a page just how I want it and I doubt I’m very easy to live with.’
‘You think finding out about the man you really are behind all the dash and devilment will frighten me off, don’t you? You should know that I am quite capable of amusing myself, then. Don’t lump me with the spoilt little socialites who need constant attention and flattery if they’re not going to turn into a Mrs Fonthill or another of your bored lady friends the moment a husband finds something serious to do with himself. Perhaps I’m more like you than you think as well, because I’m only just getting to know myself as well and I owe a lot of that to you, Wulf.’
‘I thought you were pretty much perfect as you were the night we met,’ he said as if he meant it and she had to be flattered even if it wasn’t true.
‘No, I was lonely and uncertain of what I wanted that night and even a touch terrified by what I’d done in agreeing to wed Magnus. I thought I could never be in love because I didn’t want to be; it wasn’t to be trusted and I thought good sense, a few mutual interests and plenty of friendship and respect made a better basis for marriage than some fleeting passion that would melt away as soon as desire faded. I was so wrong, Wulf, about that and so many other things. I have never been perfect and never will be, but I’m not prepared to accept second-best ever again or be second-best for someone else.’
‘How could you be?’
‘Ask your brother,’ she said with a wry smile.
‘I already have and you were right, I did need to know his sad story.’
‘And now you do know it, what’s next?’ she asked as they reached the city and her heart sank at the idea of parting from him again until their next frustrating encounter in front of too many people.
‘Will you marry me, Isabella?’ he asked, an anxious glance betraying how much her answer mattered to him.
‘Why?’
‘Well, not because of my lack of fortune, noxious reputation and dubious charm obviously. So it would have to be because I love you. I can’t promise you much, but I can promise you’ll never be second-best for me, Belle.’
‘You love me?’
‘I wouldn’t have dressed up like a dandy or made my debut in polite society if I didn’t.’
‘You don’t sound very happy about it.’
‘I would be if I wasn’t waiting for an answer and even more desperate for you than ever in so many different ways.’
‘Of course I will, you idiot. I thought you were never going to ask.’
‘And I can’t believe you said yes,’ he said on a huge sigh of relief and a look of pure joy that made her love him even more. ‘Don’t make me wait long, Belle. I think I might burst into flames out of sheer frustrated desire if you don’t marry me very soon.’
‘Your brother promised me an elopement, but I suppose one Haile brother will do as well as another,’ she joked and joy was so real in her heart now. Then there was that wicked ache deeper down and it felt utterly wonderful to be alive and by his side, even if they did have to wait a few more days for much more.
‘This is one thing I intend to do a hundred times better than Magnus and I’ve got off to a fine start by loving you with every fibre of my being. I’m so glad he’s an idiot.’
‘No, he’s a good friend, but that’s all. I used to wonder why I wasn’t in love with him now and again during the years after I met him during my first Season. He’s a fine and handsome man and I truly hope he’ll find love again and this time with a woman who has enough courage to love him back whatever anyone has to say about them being together, but he’s not you, Wulf. That’s why I could never quite persuade myself to fall in love with him. It’s why I misbehaved so scandalously with you in the dark that first night at Haile Carr. You’re you and he’s simply my friend Magnus.’
‘Well, that’s a relief, then. We won’t have to emigrate after all.’
‘Do you really want to live in a new country?’
‘Only the one you’re in, love; if you want to explore one, I do as well.’
‘
Not just now I don’t; we have far too much to do here to go skipping across the Atlantic Ocean and back because you feel like a change again. Maybe when your sisters are happy and your mother is quite settled and your brother is himself again we could think about an adventure or two.’ Isabella considered that list and couldn’t leave off the biggest reason they had to stay because they had to begin as they went on and be honest with one another from now on. ‘And then there’s your father’s murderer to be tracked down and punished before someone else gets the blame.’
‘Are you sure you want to share in our notoriety, Isabella?’ he asked as if she might throw his love aside even now because she lacked the courage to recognise it for the huge gift it was.
‘I want your closeness and our love and laughter, all the shared jokes and sharp corners and loyalty, Wulf, and the Earl truly doesn’t matter any more. His murder is important because your family will only be free of him when it’s solved, but his petty jealousy and self-indulgence and meanness are dead and done with and I love you and want to share everything that makes you as you are for the rest of our lives.’
‘Good, then if you still want to elope, I can be free next Tuesday.’
‘I need a gown,’ she said in a panic all of a sudden because it was only five days away and she couldn’t marry him with the trousseau she had made when she was going to marry his brother.
‘I’m not sure I agree with that statement,’ he said wolfishly and she laughed joyously and, as they were back at Ben and Charlotte’s now, he threw the reins to the tiger and lifted her down from the precarious vehicle as if she was little more than a featherweight.
A Wedding for the Scandalous Heiress Page 20
