by Ava Stone
Vauxhall? Marc could definitely be talked into Vauxhall and the dark walks and perhaps getting lost with Caroline somewhere along the way.
“I don’t—” Caroline began.
But Marc quickly said, “I wouldn’t miss it.”
Chapter 17
The ferry docked at the Vauxhall stairs, and Caroline and her daughters disembarked along with a handful of other passengers. She held onto Emma’s hand, though her attention was on Rachel, just in front of them. Caroline almost hadn’t allowed her oldest daughter to attend this excursion, but since Luke would be with them and…if Marc really did join them, Rachel wouldn’t be able to disappear down any darkened walks with both of them present, would she?
Still, Caroline wasn’t certain how she felt about Marc joining their group. After all, the two of them were already being whispered about, even in print. And then there was the matter of her daughters, Emma in particular. She was already looking at the blackguard as though he’d personally hung the moon, the same way she’d once looked at David, even though the two men could not be more different. It was one thing to risk her own heart with this madness, and quite another to risk her daughter’s. Because when things between Marc and Caroline fell apart, as they inevitably would, as all of his entanglements always had, what would happen to Emma?
Caroline and the girls ascended the stairs, and she quickly spotted Luke, Juliet, and their three-year-old son Benton, waiting for them at the main entrance to the pleasure gardens.
“Ben!” Emma squealed and pulled her hand from Caroline’s as she bolted toward her tiny cousin.
Rachel glanced back over her shoulder at Caroline and frowned. “I was never like that. I don’t care what you say.”
No, Rachel just snuck from the house in the dead of night to chase after dangerous men in masks. Though Caroline didn’t say those words aloud. That afternoon, she and Rachel had argued so long and so loudly over her daughter’s previous night’s escapade, and she didn’t want to rehash the whole thing again, not here, not now, not with a number of witnesses. “You will keep an eye on her and Ben this evening.”
“Yes,” Rachel muttered under her breath. “Just as much fun as I suspected.”
But Caroline heard her and was equally certain Rachel meant for her to. “You are fortunate,” she whispered, “that you’re even seeing the light of day. Don’t make me regret my generosity.”
Rachel followed in Emma’s wake and warmly greeted her aunt and uncle, while Caroline glanced toward the grove, wondering if Marc was already there. She didn’t see any sign of him, but he did excel at popping up when one least expected him.
Juliet handed her son over to Emma’s eager arms and started toward Caroline, a concerned expression marring her pretty face. “What exactly did he say to you last night?” she asked softly once she reached her so no one else could overhear.
He? Oh, Marc. Of course, everyone thought he’d said something awful and that Caroline had abandoned the Clayworths’ to escape him. That felt like a lifetime ago, honestly. And she didn’t have any desire to lie to her sister-in-law, especially if Juliet planned on murdering Marc for hurting her. There was, after all, no reason for that. At least not yet. “Absolutely nothing,” she confided quietly. “It was all just a ruse.”
Juliet took a startled step backward. “Indeed?” Her warm brown eyes rounded in surprise. “I can’t wait to hear all about it. We’ll send Luke off with the children to see the balloon ascent.” Then she linked her arm with Caroline’s and led her toward the others.
A moment later, Juliet urged her husband to tour the gardens with the children and made him promise to meet them at the supper box before the lamps were lit as dusk was approaching.
“There,” she said victoriously as they began to stroll down the grove. “Now tell me everything. Was it all you’d hoped for?”
All she’d hoped for? Being bedded by Marc? Not in the least, not that the situation was Marc’s fault, or Caroline’s for that matter.
She sighed and then told Juliet everything, as she’d trust her sister-in-law with her life. If there was anyone in the world who was more trustworthy than Juliet, Caroline didn’t know them. So, she told her sister-in-law about Rachel running off, about Marc searching for her, and about their interaction with the Covent Guard.
“Goodness,” Juliet breathed out. “Has Rachel lost her mind?”
“Very possibly.”
They continued down the Grand South Walk, and her sister-in-law shook her head, still not quite believing the entire tale. “It’s amazing Haversham found her. Amazing she was unharmed.”
Things could have ended so tragically, and those same thoughts had been going through Caroline’s mind all day long. And she would always be grateful to Marc for the rest of her days, but…“Juliet, what if I’m making a mistake with him?” she finally breathed out that fear aloud.
Her sister-in-law squeezed her hand. “There’s no way to know the answer to that until after the fact,” she said. “But, Caro, he clearly adores you. And your entire countenance brightens when he’s near.”
“But what if Emma loses her heart to him just like I…” She let her words trail off because she wasn’t quite ready to say that out loud. She might never be ready. But the fact that those words had almost flown from her mouth nearly shook her to her core. Had she really lost her heart to Marc? That hardly seemed possible. She’d known him forever, and she’d hated him half of that time. “If things end badly,” she began again. “Well, you know how devastated she was when David died.”
“You sound like Georgie,” Juliet said. “Do you remember how upset she was when Luke first started courting me?”
It was the only time Caroline could remember when she and her dearest friend had disagreed about anything. Georgie wanted to protect Juliet from Luke and his well-earned reputation, and Caroline had been over the moon that her brother had finally found a proper girl whom he seemed to care for. “I don’t know that it’s the same thing.”
“Close enough,” Juliet replied. “And Edmund adored him instantly. He thought it quite the thing to be labeled a scoundrel after meeting Luke. Georgie was not happy about that.”
Caroline couldn’t help but smile at the memory. “I can’t imagine anyone referring to Edmund as a scoundrel.”
Her sister-in-law shook her head. “After being under Fin’s tutelage all these years? Even Luke’s influence on my brother could never combat all the training and guidance from the very exalted Lord Carraway. No, no. He’ll be the most proper and dignified duke of the realm, I have no doubt.”
Proper and dignified. Two words that had never been used to describe Marc. “I’m just not at all certain I know what I’m doing, Juliet, and—”
“No one ever knows.” Then her sister-in-law nodded toward a couple headed the opposite direction, someone she must know, though Caroline did not. A half-second later, Juliet refocused on her. “Life is unknown, it just is. But if Haversham—”
A shadow fell across their path. They stopped in the middle of the walk, and Caroline glanced to her left to find Marc just a few feet away, his light blue eyes nearly searing her from where he stood, and the intensity of his stare took her breath away.
“Did I hear my name?” he drawled.
“Do you always think everyone is talking about you?” Juliet countered, just the slightest bit waspishly.
“Well, they usually are.” Marc shrugged. Then he winked at Caroline. “I am vastly entertaining, after all.”
He was vastly something.
“Well, I seem to have missed that entirely,” Juliet muttered.
Marc tilted his head to the side to study her and said softly, “Now, Lady Juliet, you should invite me to join you in your box this evening, loud enough for others to hear.”
“So others won’t think this was planned?”
“You are a quick study,” Marc replied.
Juliet heaved a sigh. “I’m not sure how Luke or Caroline put up with you, but as the
y do…” She cleared her throat and said loud enough for anyone passing by to overhear, “My dear Lord Haversham, you are so vastly entertaining. Please, do join us for supper this evening.”
“I do have other plans.” Marc frowned slightly. “But since you’ve asked so nicely…”
Caroline wasn’t certain how Juliet had refrained from rolling her eyes, but she somehow managed not to. “How fortunate we are, in that case.”
Marc quirked Caroline a grin as he offered her his hand. “Care to take a stroll with me in the meantime, my dear?”
Down a quickly darkening walk? She knew exactly what he was thinking. After all, this was where he’d kissed her all those years ago. He’d been surprised to learn that she’d never had as assignation at Vauxhall, and after he’d been shot, after she was so relieved he hadn’t died, he’d pulled her right into his arms and kissed her, right in front of the Clayworths and the Dowager Marchioness of Astwick. And then…well, then, of course, she’d slapped his face and hadn’t spoken to him in forever. But she felt certain he had more than just kissing in mind tonight. And at home, in the privacy of her bedchamber, she was happy to engage in more. But not here, not in public, for heaven’s sake. “I do believe they’re about to light the lamps, my lord.”
“We’ll be back in time for dinner,” he said smoothly.
“That quick, are you?” she asked.
“For just a stroll, yes.” He wiggled his fingers in her direction. “Do come.”
“Go on.” Juliet sighed once more. “I’ll see you in the box. I’m sure Luke is on his way there now.”
Caroline knew Juliet thought she was being helpful, but…perhaps she was being helpful. A little time alone with Marc would give Caroline the opportunity to straighten a few things out with him. Things that needed to be straightened out without lavender drop-loving little girls hovering nearby. So she took his hand and ignored the flutter in her belly at his touch.
Traitorous belly. There were important things she needed to say to him, and her belly should have the decency not to flutter.
“I think I’m growing on her,” Marc muttered only loud enough for Caroline to hear once they started down the walk.
“Juliet?” Caroline shook her head. “Do not delude yourself.”
“Well, she likes me better than Olivia Kelfield, in any event.”
“It would be impossible for her to like you less than Livvie does.” After all, he had made a rather horrible first impression on her cousin and had never made any sort of attempt to remedy the situation.
“As long as you like me,” he said, changing directions and leading her toward what would very soon be a darkened path.
“I do like you,” she said honestly. “More than I probably should.” Liking him, however, was hardly the issue, and they truly did need to get a few things straight. “But, Marc, I’m not certain this is the best course for us, for me.”
His step faltered slightly as he asked, “You’re not certain what is the best course for you?”
“I didn’t think this whole thing through properly.” Caroline shook her head. “I thought it would just be…well, us, in the privacy of my bedchamber, but…” Oh, heavens, this was difficult.
“But…?” Marc urged when she said nothing else.
“Well, I didn’t anticipate this would spill over into every aspect of my life. You being involved with my children. Lavender drops and paintings and—”
“What did you think?”
That they’d engage in a torrid affair and he’d leave once he tired of her. That’s what he’d always done, wasn’t it? But somehow those words were stuck in her throat. “It’s not just me I have to worry about, Marc. And I am worried, or concerned, I suppose, about what happens after all this ends.”
He did stop then, and spun her to face him, a rather dark expression on his face. If she didn’t know him so well, she’d think he looked menacing in that moment. But then again, perhaps she didn’t know him as well as she thought she did. He had kidnapped that poor Burke girl after she’d jilted him, hadn’t he? That was a lifetime ago, but, still he had done that.
“Who says this will end?”
Was he serious? “History.”
“History?”
“Your history,” she stressed. “I’ve lost count of the number of women you’ve been involved with over the years, and—”
“So you’ve been counting?”
Blast him. He was exasperating. “Marc, my children have already been through so much with David’s death and—”
“So you want me to keep my distance from your children?” he clipped out, which was an unusual sound to his voice, honestly. She couldn’t remember a time when he ever sounded angry. Seduction, amusement, and very often boredom. She’d heard all those sounds in his voice before, but never anger.
“You don’t see how Emma looks at you, like you’re the most amazing man to have ever been born—”
“Emma has excellent taste.”
Caroline scowled at him. “I don’t want to see her get attached to you and then suffer a heartbreak when you leave.”
Marc stepped closer to her and cupped her face with his hands, peering down at her most earnestly. “Caroline, I’m not certain where you got it in your mind that I’ll leave you.”
He was just being obtuse. “For heavens sake’s, Marc, all those other women—”
“The ones you’ve lost count of?”
“—how many of them did you involve yourself in their children’s lives?”
“Not all of them had children.”
“Marc!” She shook out of his hold.
He heaved out an irritated sigh. “But you were just fine with me tracking down Rachel when she’d gone missing?”
“It’s not the same thing,” Caroline replied.
“No.” He grasped her hand and drew her back to him. “It’s exactly the same thing. I am either in your life or I’m not. You can’t have it both ways.”
Caroline swallowed nervously. Oh, good heavens, what had she gotten herself into? She never meant for this. She never meant for any of it. And she wasn’t entirely certain how it had even happened, except…well, except that was a lie. She was the one who had very blatantly suggested that they begin a torrid affair, and just that morning she’d asked him to stay in her bed every night. And she wanted that, she did want him in her bed, and if she wasn’t so afraid, perhaps she’d want him in every other aspect of her life too. But that idea had never seemed like an actual possibility, not with his reputation, not with his history.
“What makes you think this time is different than it was with all those other women?”
“Because none of them were you,” he said so quickly, so evenly as though it was an unquestionable truth. “You, Caroline Elizabeth Beckford Staveley, you are the only woman I have ever loved.” And then he dipped his head down and captured her lips with his.
Oh! His lips felt so heavenly, warm and insistent, the absolute perfect pressure to make her melt against him. His hand pressed against the small of her back, his tongue slipped inside the crevice of her mouth, and all rational thought flitted away, right along with her heart. Caroline steadied herself by grasping onto his lapels, and heaven help her, she kissed him back.
Marc lifted his head, his light blue gaze so steady on her. “I don’t intend to lose you because you think I’m going to leave.” He shook his head as though the suggestion was ridiculous. “I will never leave you, not as long as there is breath in my lungs.”
Caroline’s heart was lighter than it had been in so long. He loved her? Did he really? It hardly seemed possible with all she’d ever known of him. But instead of saying anything prudent or rational or even romantic, what came out of her mouth was, “I had no idea you knew my middle name.”
“Really?” Marc laughed. “That’s all you have to say?”
“Well, it’s just surprising is all. I think my father was the last person to call me that.” And her father had been gone since she was fi
ve.
“I know all sorts of things about you, my dear.”
“All sorts of things about me?”
“Everything is about you. My entire existence. My entire reason for living.”
He was being ridiculous again. And Caroline couldn’t hide her grin as she shook her head. “And here I thought everything was about being bedded.”
“That too,” he agreed with a wink, pulling her closer to him once more. “If you’re doing it right.”
“We’ll find out soon enough, I suppose.”
That rakish twinkle was alight in his eyes. “If we escaped now, I’m assuming Beckford would bring the girls back home.”
“Oh, no, no.” Caroline shook her head. “You want to be in every aspect of my life? Part of that entails being a responsible parent who doesn’t abandon one’s children.”
And as soon as those words were out of her mouth, Caroline wished she could call them back. He had, after all, very publicly abandoned his own daughter to his Saddleworth Hall, hadn’t he?
He didn’t seem to think anything of her statement, however, as his smile didn’t dim in the least. “Now I have to be responsible? I hardly think—”
“Kirkburn, is that you?” came a voice a few feet away, and Marc’s hold on Caroline tightened, almost painfully so. What in the world?
God in heaven. Marc’s heart nearly stopped in his chest. That was a voice he could go the rest of his life and never hear again. His gaze flashed to the clearing in the hedge and St. George stood there, smiling as though he wasn’t one of the worst bastards to have ever been born.
Marc grasped Caroline’s arm tightly, and then protectively stepped in front of her as though it might be possible to shield her from the villain’s view. “St. George,” he said to the man who had come, seemingly, from nowhere.
The provocateur had aged over the last decade. There was grey about his temples and lines across his brow that hadn’t been there before. But those shrewd silvery eyes of his looked just as cunning as ever.
