May Day was a banner day that year for London—the opening of Prince Albert’s Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, at the sparkling glass-and-iron Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. Merrick had gotten tickets, and to the children’s delight, he and Dorothy accompanied them, including Tommy and his tutor, to the grand opening ceremonies. The children were agog at the idea of setting eyes on not just the Prince Consort, but the Queen herself and possibly even some of the royal children—along with all the exhibits of course.
Thousands of pedestrians jammed into Hyde Park, lining the walks and roads, but the Guards kept a route free so those who had purchased tickets for the ceremonies could pass. Caroline was as wide-eyed as the children at being one of the privileged “few” on the inside of the line of scarlet coats. From her place in the second carriage with Dorothy and the girls, she watched the crowd nearly as avidly as the crowd watched them.
Inside, Merrick led them all to a spot astonishingly close to the red-carpeted dais erected in the middle of the main hall, under a suspended purple canopy. Of some twenty-five hundred watchers, they were perhaps among the nearest two hundred. They stood amid the highest nobility in the land, and Caroline was very grateful for the jade-green walking dress decorated with ivory braid she’d let Dorothy talk her into. Her fashionable bonnet had matching silk ribbons and cream silk roses, making her feel like a princess herself.
Wink had been allowed to wear long skirts with a small hoop and put her hair up, while Tom looked like a perfect gentleman in his new charcoal-colored suit. As usual, Merrick and Dorothy introduced Caroline as a friend of the family, and for the first time, Merrick showed off his wards to society. Tommy blinked when he was introduced as Tom Devere, but in the three days since his visit with Sir Andrew, he seemed to have adapted well to his new circumstances. When the ceremonies themselves began, Merrick popped Piers up onto his shoulders for a better view, while Tommy did the same for Jamie. Finally, with a grumble and a sigh, Mr. Berry unbent far enough to hoist Nell, who weighed next to nothing, after all, onto his own. Caroline and Wink stood on tiptoe as the royal party ascended the platform.
They stood as a group—almost as a family, she thought wistfully—and watched the opening ceremonies as the Prince handed the Queen a copy of the catalogue of the exhibits. Then they mingled while the royal entourage made their own circuit of the Exhibition. Caroline was glad to see the Duke and Duchess of Trowbridge, who’d had a place at the very front of the crowd, and waved cheerfully at the MacKays, who came over to chat. Dorothy’s friend Miss Julian joined them, and soon they were a large, lively group.
“The Queen has granted Sir Andrew’s petition,” the duke said quietly when just Merrick and Caroline could hear. “Young Tom is officially legitimate and heir to the Devere title and estates.”
“That was fast.” Caroline hadn’t known the machinations of government could work that quickly.
“It’s good to have friends in high places.” Merrick smiled. “Thank you, your grace.”
Soon, of course, the royal party returned, the Exhibition was officially opened, and it was time to explore the thousands of items on display. As usual, there was dissension among the children, but Merrick stood firm on the concept of everyone staying together as a group. Gideon MacKay joined them, offering his arm to Caroline, who declined in favor of taking Jamie firmly by the hand. Dorothy, with Miss Julian beside her, took charge of Piers, while Tommy and Wink chattered together, leaving Gideon to chivalrously offer his arm to Nell.
Nell avoided him and instead took the arm of a reluctant Mr. Berry, but she did so with such grave hauteur that even such a stuffed shirt as he couldn’t resist. Merrick eyed the group and wisely caught Jamie’s other hand, then led the way to the first exhibit.
“I was here, yesterday, officially, and checked Lord Babbage’s personal engine,” he whispered to Caroline above Jamie’s coppery head. “I believe even this one has some pieces missing. It’s very possible our villain has compiled a complete set.”
Caroline shuddered. “You need to find him quickly, don’t you?”
Merrick nodded. “Watch for anything suspicious today.”
“I will, I promise.”
Jamie dragged them closer to a display of African masks and weaponry, and they shared a smile at his enthusiasm, just as if they were really his doting parents. Another pang went through Caroline’s heart.
Until Gideon intruded with his constant flirtation. Somehow, as they studied a case full of Chinese sculpture, he managed to switch things around so he walked with Caroline, and Merrick was left with a child on each hand.
“Will you go to the theatre with me tomorrow night?” he whispered into her ear, his breath tickling.
Caroline laughed and swatted his arm before extricating herself from his hold. “No. Now, stop it. I’m here to watch the children, remember?” She rolled her eyes as she picked up Jamie’s hand again. It was hard not to like the persistent young man, though clearly, the children still did not.
“You!”
The single word was shouted with such loathing that Caroline thought at first someone new must have entered the hall—a vagrant perhaps. Then she recognized the voice and dread curdled her stomach. Not here. Not now.
“Excuse me, sir?” Merrick’s voice was cold as ice, and Caroline turned to see her cousin, Viscount Buckley, and his wife, looking down their aristocratic noses at Caroline. Around them, other visitors grew silent, intent on viewing the human spectacle rather than the exhibits.
“I find it difficult to believe that you allow this sordid creature anywhere near your wards.” Victor sniffed. “Let alone bringing her out to such an auspicious gathering. Really, just look at her behavior. She’s clearly as much of a whore as her mother was.”
Several things happened at once.
Tommy pulled back his fist. “You take that back.”
Jamie lunged at Victor’s knees, was caught by Merrick and handed off to Mr. Berry, whose eyes had practically popped out of his shiny bald head.
Dorothy glared daggers at Victor. “Your aunt may have made a critical mistake, Victor Buckman, but at least she wasn’t a supercilious bully like her brother. Clearly, you’re just as much of a braying jackass as your father.”
Caroline winced. Of course Dorothy had known her mother and her uncle. It would have been too much to hope that she hadn’t.
Merrick stepped up to Victor and grabbed him by the shirtfront, lifting the smaller man up onto his toes. Merrick’s cold, menacing voice echoed off the high, glass ceiling. “You will keep your crude remarks to yourself in the presence of the ladies, Buckley. And, should I ever hear you say one more disparaging word about my fiancée, you’ll find yourself facing me at dawn. Is that perfectly clear?”
“F-fiancée?” Victor gurgled, his weasely face turning purple.
Fiancée? Caroline staggered, but was propped up by Tommy and Wink on either side of her, both grinning widely. Oh, he was most certainly going to hear about this ludicrous claim when they got home.
“We hadn’t made the announcement yet.” Merrick dropped Victor and stepped back to wrap his arm around Caroline’s waist and haul her close against his side. “You may be among the first to wish your cousin happy, Buckley.”
Around them, the children burst into excited squeals and all tried to hug Caroline at once. Dorothy’s eyes misted as she embraced Caroline. “Welcome to the family, dear girl.” Even the austere Miss Julian gave her a pat on the shoulder with a suspicious sniffle, while Mr. Berry offered strained felicitations.
“I said you may wish us happy, cousin.” The threat in Merrick’s words rang out clear as a bell. While a viscount outranked a baronet, there was no doubt Merrick was more physically imposing and better connected within government and other circles of power.
“Of course we wish you both the best.” It was Victor’s wife who broke the simmering silence with her patently insincere offering.
Caroline responded in kind. “Thank yo
u, Lady Buckley. I’ll own, it was most unexpected, on my part as well. Sir Merrick has quite swept me off my feet.” And she was going to knock him right off his with an umbrella as soon as they were alone. What on earth could he have been thinking to make such a claim?
Chapter Fourteen
The whole way home, the boys peppered Merrick with questions about his engagement to Caro. The children were clearly thrilled, which would make it all the harder for Caroline to refuse. Good. He knew he’d put her back up with his precipitous announcement, but it was better than having him pound the living hell out of her uncle in the middle of the exhibition, which is what he’d wanted to do. Still, asking her first probably would have been a good idea.
“We haven’t made any specific plans yet,” he informed the inquisitive bunch. “I only just talked her into it.”
“Shall I look for a replacement tutor?” Edwin spoke quietly from his corner of the carriage. “Or will Miss Bristol allow me to continue?” His pointy nose practically quivered in disapproval.
“I’m sure Caroline will want you to continue,” Merrick assured him. “We will need to find a new governess, though. That’s going to be an awkward undertaking.”
Edwin nodded. “If I might suggest, Miss Bristol may have some…connections in that arena, at least one of whom could possibly be willing to work for a former colleague.” Distasteful though that might be, he didn’t add, though he probably wanted to.
“Excellent idea, Edwin.” Merrick glanced at the younger boys on either side of him, who had gone silent, eyes wide with horror at the thought of a new governess. “Though I imagine that even as Lady Hadrian, Caroline will want to remain closely involved in their education.” She was also the only woman he knew who wouldn’t object to taking on a husband already saddled with five young wards. Once they had a child or two of their own, the house would truly be full to overflowing. Oddly, he found he liked that idea very much.
As soon as they were in the house, Caroline sent the children up to the nursery and swept into Merrick’s study, dragging him by the elbow behind her. She hadn’t even bothered to remove her bonnet or gloves.
“What in the world were you thinking, you great, hulking idiot?” Hands on her hips, she tapped one toe impatiently upon the carpet.
“Oh, I don’t know.” Locking the door behind them, he slapped his own gloves down on a chair and tossed his walking stick into the general vicinity of the corner before rounding on her. “Perhaps I was thinking of shutting your obnoxious relative up and ensuring that you have some shred of a reputation left.”
“But marriage? It’s ludicrous. Do you know how much worse my reputation will be after a broken engagement with my employer? I’ll never find work in England again.”
“Caro, just what the bloody hell is so ridiculous about marriage? It’s a common institution. Lots of people find it a perfectly reasonable lifestyle.” Her indignation would have been amusing if it hadn’t been quite such an insult. Was he that unthinkable as a husband?
“Lots of people aren’t a bloody baronet who can trace his ancestry to Camelot and a Roman emperor. Lots of people don’t spend their evenings running around fighting vampyres in the stews of London. Lots of people aren’t rich as bloody Midas.” She stabbed a finger into his chest to punctuate every sentence, then stepped back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Lots of other people aren’t a penniless, part-faery bastard who teaches young children for a living. You’re above my touch, Merrick. Right now, you think we’re compatible, but it isn’t going to last. Eventually you’re going to resent being tied to someone like me, and I—I couldn’t stand that. So this farce has to end. Immediately.”
“Caro.” He took hold of her shoulders and stepped closer, forcing her to look up at him. “You’re the granddaughter of an earl and you were raised a lady. You love children, particularly my motley collection, and you’re willing to risk life and limb to protect them. God, woman, have you thought of how magnificent our own children are going to be?” It was a thought Merrick certainly couldn’t get out of his mind—the image of Caro holding an infant with her fair hair and Merrick’s brown eyes.
Her lips twitched, almost quirking into a smile before she frowned again. “More likely they’d be more terrifying than all five of the others put together.”
Merrick laughed. “Probably true. But in a magnificent sort of way.” She was starting to soften and he wasn’t about to let up. “Look at it this way. My work is dangerous. If I married some frivolous debutante, do you think I’d dare come home filthy or wounded after an assignment? How would she handle that? With you, I’d know the children were in good hands while I was gone, and when I came home, I could actually talk to you about my work.”
“If you came home battered and wounded, I’d scold you until you recovered,” she grumbled. “And what makes you think I’d want to marry someone who could get himself killed any night of the week?”
A small tickle of fear took up residence in his chest. Did she really not want to marry him? “Caro, you’re what—twenty-seven years old? And you were a virgin. You have to at least like me, to have allowed me to be your first lover. Besides, not even you can deny that the passion between us is extraordinary.”
“Mere chemical attraction,” she said with a shrug. But her eyes were wide and her lip trembled. She was more affected than she wanted to let on. “And don’t be ridiculous—of course I like you. So would any woman with eyes and half a brain. That doesn’t make this a good match. I mean marrying the governess? How cliché. You can do better, Merrick.”
“No.” He cupped her face with one hand and brushed the thumb across her full lower lip. “It doesn’t signify anyway. I’ve announced our engagement in public. Word has most certainly gotten back to Her Majesty by now, as well as my superiors. I’m not backing out now, and neither are you. The engagement continues, and let me warn you, Miss Bristol, the engagement will not be a lengthy one. I’m sick of climbing out of your bed in the middle of the night. At least after the wedding we won’t have to sneak around.” He wouldn’t have to use prophylactics either—something else he was looking forward to.
Her eyes squeezed shut, a suspicious glint of moisture on her long lashes. “Victor will go out of his way to hurt us, you know. It would be so much better if I just left London—maybe England altogether.”
“And then who would comfort Jamie after one of his dreams?” He dropped a kiss on her nose. “Who would give Nell confidence or fuss over Piers’s cough?” This time he kissed her cheek. “Who would love them, Caro?” Who would love me? She must, mustn’t she? Surely she wouldn’t have made love to him otherwise. He found he wanted that more than he wanted to breathe.
“You love those children.” He brushed his lips against her forehead. “You know you do. And they love you back. Can you envision any other potential bride even tolerating my wards, let alone raising them alongside our own children? No. And I’ll have it no other way. It’s you, or I remain unmarried. I think there’s a third or fourth cousin to inherit the title and estates.”
Her choked laugh sounded more like a sob. “You make it hard to be noble, Sir Merrick.”
“Then don’t be. Marry me, and be happy instead.” This time he kissed her lips, softly at first, but with increasing fervor when she responded, her mouth softening and opening for him. When he finally broke it off, they were both breathing heavily. Merrick dropped to one knee and took her hands in his so she couldn’t run away. “Caroline Buckman Bristol, will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”
Instead of words, she dropped to her knees as well, leaned in and kissed him. “I won’t be an easy wife, Merrick. And I’ll castrate you if you sleep with another woman.”
This time he laughed with pleasure. “I can live with that, as I’ll simply kill any other man who touches you.”
“Then yes. Since you won’t take no for an answer, I’ll marry you, Merrick. And may God help us both.”
“No. It will be the rest of the w
orld who’ll need His assistance. Together, my dear, we’ll be a force of nature.” He pulled her close and sat back on the carpet, dragging her into his lap.
“If we don’t kill each other first.” Her fingers pulled at the knot of his cravat and the buttons of his waistcoat even as they kissed.
Once they had each other naked, he laid her back against the soft rug, propped himself up on his elbows and gazed down into her lovely face as he slid into her welcoming sheath. The sensation of being bare inside her moist heat was almost enough to send him over the top before they’d even begun. “Mine,” he said. He pulled almost all the way out, then shoved back in, all the way to the hilt. “All mine.”
“Yes.” Her fingernails dug into his shoulders and her legs twined around his as she eagerly met every thrust. “All yours. And you are mine.”
“Till death do us part.” Then he began to move in earnest, and his lips claimed hers.
Only moments later, they lay on the rug, dragging in much needed breath and holding hands. The experience had been the single most erotic and explosive of Merrick’s entire life. Right now, he’d swear their hearts were pounding as one.
“The wedding,” he said with as much force as he could muster. “Will be soon.”
She choked out a laugh and replied, “Yes, dear. Whatever you wish.”
Merrick chuckled. “I doubt I’ll ever hear that again.”
“Probably not.”
He kissed her hair, then rolled to his feet and helped her to hers. “And now, we have our family to face. We’ll talk to them at dinner? All of them?” Yes, they’d heard, but since they were family, they deserved a straightforward announcement.
“Our family.” She smiled up at him. “Yes, I do like the sound of that.”
Caroline raced upstairs to wash and change for dinner, her mind in a whirl. Without thinking, she put on her rose-patterned dress and her mother’s pearls. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she smiled at her reflection. For once, she did feel as pretty and cheerful as a flower. Humming a tune, she went into the nursery to take the children down to dinner.
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