Scandalous Brides

by Annette Blair

  “I may no longer have you tied to my bed,” Alex said. “but I am going to have my wicked, seductive way with you, anyway. And you are going to—”

  “Pull you into my arms and suffer the consequences.”

  TWENTY-SIX

  ALEX BARELY GOT downstairs that afternoon before Sabrina arrived with the children to return Beatrix who had spent the night at Stanthorpe House.

  She and Sabrina watched the boys chase Bea up to the nursery, and then they went into the small salon for a comfortable chat. The minute they were alone, Sabrina put a fretting Juliana to her breast to suckle and calm her. “Now, tell me what happened,” Sabrina said. “Every detail.”

  “I will tell you my every detail, if you tell me yours.”

  Sabrina gaped, wide-eyed for a moment, then they both dissolved into laughter. Sabrina smiled. “Your seduction was… satisfactory, I take it? You are positively aglow.”

  “As are you.”

  “Ouch! Do not bite, Mama, sweet. I wish babies did not get their teeth quite so soon.”

  “Is that not the time to wean a babe, then?” Alex asked, sincerely curious, since, after the night past, she could very well find herself in the family way.

  Sabrina closed her bodice and sat her daughter on her lap to pat her back. “Yes, it is. I love the connection that nursing gives me and my babies, but I will have to stop soon.” She smiled. “I am expecting Stanthorpe’s child.”

  “Ah Sabrina,” Alex said rising and going to hug her friend. “I am happy for you. I hope you are pleased, since this is your fourth.”

  “I am thrilled, because it is Stanthorpe’s first, though you would never guess it to see him with the others, would you? And still he is as excited as a schoolboy on holiday. More so. But I think you have been avoiding my question.”

  Alexandra rose with a dreamy smile. “In response to your question, let me ask a question of my own. What do you think the Duchess of Basingstoke will say when she discovers that we broke the bed?”

  Sabrina whooped. “Oh, good show! Gideon will be green with envy, for you have managed to do something that we have not.”

  Alex giggled.

  “Ah, you are happy.”

  Alex sighed. “I am, and yet… Do you think I am good enough for Hawksworth? His father once told me that I would not be a fit wife for him.”

  “That man was a self-centered bully. He cared for none who suffered for his cause. Oh, Alex, I am so certain that you and Hawk care for each other, and yet, you seem at cross purposes the better part of the time.”

  “I have always loved him—you know that—but I assure you that Hawk is only making the best of a difficult situation. He would never have married me, if he did not need someone to care for his family while he went to war. I know that. But he is a good man and he will be a good husband.”

  Sabrina shook her head and seemed about to argue when Hawksworth came in. “I saw Demon and Rapscallion upstairs,” he said, kissing Sabrina’s cheek, “and knew you would be about. How is the little one?”

  “Asleep, thank goodness.”

  “Here,” Alex, said, taking Juliana, “let me take her up and put her in a crib, so you two can talk.”

  Hawk watched Alex leave. “She looks a treat with a little one in her arms, does she not?”

  Sabrina shook her head. “How long have you loved her?”

  “Love? I am quite certain that I am incapable of love. Why do you ask?”

  Sabrina threw her hands in the air. “Blind the two of you.”

  “I do not know about blind,” Hawk said, “but I must be stupid.” He regarded her earnestly. “I know, because I have done a very stupid and unloving thing.”

  Sabrina scoffed. “What, pray, is that?”

  “I have ruined Alexandra’s chance for happiness.”

  “How?”

  “I have made it impossible to give her the annulment she deserves.”

  “Deserves? Annulment? What nonsense is this?”

  “She merits better than a broken man like me. She should have the man she loves.”

  “Who is… Chesterfield… who… you hate.”

  “All right, then, she deserves the man she loves, as long as he is… other than Chesterfield.”

  “No wonder she needed to—”

  “Needed to what?”

  “Who the bloody devil would you consider good enough for her?” Sabrina shouted. “No one, I say.”

  “You are overwrought and talking nonsense.”

  “I am? Do you remember how downhearted I once was about not having Gideon’s love? Remember what you told me? ‘Learn to trust,’ you said. ‘Trust is everything.’ You also knew instinctively that love must be earned and returned, if one wished to keep it.”

  Sabrina patted his arm. “It is past time you learned your own lessons, Hawksworth. You were running from life when you told me those things, and I am sorry to tell you, but you are running still.”

  On Saturday, the Vicar arrived for Hildy and Giff’s wedding at quarter to one. Hildy arrived at one fifteen. At two, Uncle Gifford was yet to be found.

  While Hawk went off in search of his uncle, Baxter took Alex to one side. “I must say that I understand my cousin’s determination to keep you, no matter the cost. I must also say that I very much appreciate your help.”

  Alex stiffened. “What are you talking about?”

  “It must be grand to have so much power as to accomplish what so many men tried and failed before you.”

  “What have so many tried and failed?”

  “To bring down the great Hawksworth, of course. Ruin him. How does it feel to have been the one to finally impoverish him and… bring him to his knees, so to speak?”

  Baxter’s tone was so filled with innuendo, and his demeanor so forward, that Alex took a step back, but he stepped closer. “You do know that I inherited in his stead, because his father disinherited him for marrying you, do you not? That there was a codicil to the will?” Baxter shook his head in disbelief. “The funny thing is, Hawk might annul the marriage, or divorce you, and get his inheritance back, but he refuses.”

  Despite her horror at the revelation, Alex knew she faced the true Baxter Wakefield, a blackguard, as they once suspected. “I am afraid that I must ask you to leave.”

  “You have no say in this house.” Baxter smiled, though his eyes did not. “Ah, there is my dear Claudia.”

  Not two minutes later, Hawk came for Alex and Hildy. Giff was waiting to see them in the library, and Alex would do or say nothing to spoil her aunt’s wedding.

  Hildy trembled as Alex and Hawk escorted her into the book-lined room. “It is all right if you have changed your mind,” Hildy said to Giff as they entered.

  “My dear,” he said from across the room, looking quite forlorn.

  “Be happy, Giff. That is all I care about. Changing your mind will not break me. I am a tough old bird, remember?”

  Giff cursed and crossed to her then she was in his arms. “My tough old bird.” He kissed her brow. “And if I were worthy of you, I would be honored to be your husband. But, Hildy, I am not. You are better off without me.”

  “What nonsense is this?” Hawk asked, even as he remembered Sabrina asking him the same question, even if Giff’s unworthiness rang another familiar alarum.

  Alex touched Hawk’s hand to calm him. “Giff, what is this about? I think my aunt has a right to know, even if Hawk and I do not. Do you wish the two of us to leave?”

  “No, Lass,” Giff said, seating Hildy and sitting to take her hand. “I want you to hear what I have to say.”

  Hawk and Alex sat.

  “I am an old reprobate,” Giff said. “A scoundrel, a rakehell, worse. Put simply, I do not deserve you, Hildegarde Huntington. While it might appear that I have put my profligate ways behind me, I have only recently laid the last to rest, and even then, I was not capable of doing so on my own.”

  “Giff, no,” Alex said.

  The old man shook his head. “Enough o
f protecting me, Lass.” Giff regarded Hawk. “You have been the son I never had, and I wanted you to be proud of me, so I have kept my counsel since you returned, but I must speak now, because Hildy and Alex deserve my candor. You deserve it.”

  “Giff, honestly—”

  “I am a lousy gambler. I have always been, but it is Alex who paid the price. Your wife paid my gambling debts, Hawksworth. Your niece, Hildy, who was already responsible for the lot of us, got me out of debt. To the sum of nearly five thousand pounds. I do not know how she paid it, but I have been so afraid that the cost would break her.”

  Tears filled Gifford’s eyes. “Forgive me Alex, Hawk.” He bent to kiss her aunt’s hand, humbly bowing before her. “Forgive me, my love.”

  Hildy cupped his face and brought it up to hers. “There is nothing to forgive. But thank you for telling me. I have always been proud of my niece, but never more so than at this moment.”

  “As am I.” Giff smiled. “If you care to take this old reprobate in hand, you tough old bird, I wish very much that you would do so. If you cannot, I understand.”

  Alex rose and led Hawksworth from the room, shutting the door behind them.

  “Why did you not tell me?” he asked, when they were in the hall. “Why did you let me chastise you and make you vow to stop gambling?”

  “What was there to say?”

  Hawk seemed surprised at her hard tone.

  “Those were your words to me, remember, when I asked why you had not told me you saved Gideon? You and I talk all the time, Hawksworth, but I swear to God, that we manage to do so without speaking one word of significance. And frankly, I do not think deceit, or conscious omission, is something I can live with. As to that bill of divorcement… I was not joking. Please seek one as quick as may be.”

  Alex knew she left Hawk reeling when she went to ask the Vicar and the rest of the guests to be patient.

  When at length Hildy and Gifford arrived, their wedding was perhaps the most beautiful Alex ever attended. So beautiful, she could not stop weeping.

  Twice Hawk tried to pull her aside to speak to her, twice she managed to rebuke him. “Fine,” he whispered at the last. “Giff and Hildy’s wedding is not an appropriate time or place for the conversation we need to have.”

  The thought and ramifications of which skittered up Alex’s spine like a portent of doom.

  “But we will talk,” he promised, “and before this day is done.”

  The house reverberated with wedding guests and Christmas guests. It rang with the whoops of two little Indian boys and a small Indian princess, named Beatrix, all of them excited by the notion that in two days time, gifts would be brought in the night by a Saint named Nick.

  “Baxter, stop encouraging them,” Claudia said.

  “Shh,” Baxter whispered, pulling Claude aside. “I am trying to create a diversion, so we can escape.”

  “Are you certain this is a good idea?”

  “What, Claude, crying craven?” Baxter laughed at the whooping children. “That’s right, Rafe, see if you can scalp that blighter by the wassail bowl.”

  While Rafe and Damon performed a war dance nearby, a barking beagle and an ill-favored cat chased a hedgehog beneath a table upon which rested said wassail bowl, nearly knocking the bowl and at least one guest off their respective pedestals.

  Despite Claude’s consistent warning, Baxter encouraged the marauding savages, increasing their overabundance of energy.

  When war inevitably broke out, very little got broken, except an iced Christmas torte and the temper of a certain vicar who did not appreciate the notion of wearing same.

  To calm the guests, and the bride and groom’s nerves, Hawk and Gideon were encouraged to accompany three Indians up the stairs, each savage carrying a cat, a pup, or a hedgehog.

  “You will never guess, Uncle Bryce,” Damon said, “but Papa tells the most amazing stories.”

  “A story it is, then,” Gideon said.

  Bea climbed into Hawk’s lap to cuddle and listen to the story of a blue fairy and a handsome prince, until she got drowsy and yawned and Hawk kissed her brow.

  “I love you, Uncle Bryce,” she said, patting his bewhiskered cheek. “You will always be my most handsome prince.”

  Hawk felt a hard old knot of sorrow melt at her words and he looked up and saw Rafferty, with the ugliest cat in the Kingdom draped over his shoulder, petting it with devoted care. That boy did not see a stub tail, scarred fur the color of mud, or a torn ear. Quite simply, he loved that cat so much, he was blind to its flaws. As Bea seemed blind to his scars.

  Hawk stood, nodding for Gideon to continue his story, and went to place Beatrix in her little bed. She woke when he laid her down and asked him to take a nap with her, so he lay down beside her.

  When he woke, the color of the sky outside her window had changed to smoke. As he rose, Beatrix woke as well.

  “Did you have a good sleep, Pup?”

  She stretched and nodded. “I dreamed that instead of having Chesterfield’s baby, Alex was going to have a baby for us. Would that not be nice, Uncle Bryce?”

  Hawk stopped moving when Bea’s words penetrated, and now he could barely breathe. He kissed her nose. “Stay with the twins and Uncle Gideon, will you?”

  Hawk went downstairs to look for Alex, his heart beating a wild tattoo.

  He found, not a mob of guests in the drawing room, or anywhere, but the Duchess of Basingstoke pacing the gold salon, wringing her hands. Alexandra’s Aunt Hildegarde, with tears in her eyes, was trying to calm the woman.

  “What has happened?” Hawk asked, feeling as if he stepped into a nightmare. “Where is everyone? Where is Alex?”

  Hildy began to weep. “Alex has run off to Gretna Green with Chesterfield.”

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  ‘YOU KNOW, Alex, you can ride inside the carriage,” Chesterfield said. “You do not need to sit up here on the driver’s box, and freeze, just to keep me company.”

  “We should have taken the horses,” Alex said. “Then we could have gotten there faster.”

  “We could not take the horses. I told you, after we catch up with Claudia and Baxter—and after I shoot Baxter—we will need the carriage to take Claudia back. I suppose I shall have to wait to beat her until we get her home.”

  Alex scoffed. “Tell me again what Baxter’s note said.”

  “That he was taking Claudia to Gretna Green to ruin her reputation, and if I did not arrive with ten thousand pounds before morning, he would ruin her in truth and separate us forever.”

  “Even Baxter knows you love her.”

  “He is a fool. A dead fool.”

  “Do not be rash,” Alex warned.

  Chesterfield laughed hard and self-mocking. “I was not rash when it came to you, Alex. I did not want a simpering miss nor a green girl who would bore me to tears. Neither did I want a social butterfly who would spend all my money. I wanted a rational, mature, unspoiled female to give me an heir and grow old by my side. I was not rash when I chose you, and look where that got me.”

  “Point taken,” Alex said. “But will you have the patience for a girl like Claudia?”

  “Claude has more wisdom and maturity than we sometimes credit her for. She has been forced into growing up, has she not, having lost her parents and then her uncle, for a time?”

  “I have seen her maturity, yes, but I have also seen the little girl, the child who wants what she wants.”

  “And how does that make her different from you?”

  Alex laughed. “She overheard us that day, right after our near-wedding, when you came to the Lodge.”

  “She told me.”

  “When did she? You have hardly had a moment to talk.”

  “Alex, once Claudia knew I lived at Hawksridge, she used to sneak over there at every opportunity. We went for walks, we played billiards. She even helped me deliver a foal. We have talked; believe me, though never more thoroughly than on the night she climbed in my bedroom window at two in
the morning. That was the day you came to London.”

  “The little twit.”

  Chesterfield grinned.

  “Judson Broderick, what did you do?”

  He look affronted. “I remained on my best behavior, I assure you.”

  Alex squeaked. “I know your best behavior. I was betrothed to you.”

  Chesterfield cleared his throat. “She remains untouched, I promise you.”

  “Look at me.”

  He did, but he failed to infuse his look with the depth of innocence she would wish. “Hah. Just barely, I think. Drive faster.”

  “Hurrying now will not change anything.”

  Alex paled. “But you said—”

  Chesterfield cursed. “That is not what I meant. I meant that hurrying would not change the past, and we should probably worry about what Claude will do to Baxter,” but Chesterfield urged his matched pair on, nevertheless. “When I know she is safe, I really am going to beat her.”

  “Ah, Judson, you do care for her.”

  “Do you think Hawksworth will let me have her?”

  “Not in a million years.”

  ~ ~ ~

  AS HAWK BEGAN his trek through the shrouded fog of the chill December night, he knew that Alex was lost to him. He knew it, yet he could not stand aside and let her run off with Chesterfield.

  He had not looked back when the duchess and Aunt Hildy called to him, but walked faster than he thought possible. Continuing on to the stables, he found a guest’s saddled Arabian, ready for imminent departure, which he mounted, and rode, hell for leather, down the mews road.

  He had not even slowed his pace when Myerson and the horse’s owner tried to chase him down. He simply headed north toward the outskirts of London and straight for Scotland.

  Where the devil had he gone wrong?

  Alex, of course—she was where he went wrong. Not by marrying her, but by being so stupid as to leave her after he had been so brilliant as to marry her.

  Because of that—because of his running off to war and getting himself killed—she had become desperate enough to accept Chesterfield. But had she found it necessary to seduce the man to get him to offer marriage? Was that how she got herself with child? If she were with child, which Hawk could not bring himself to believe.