by Hatch, Donna
His relief was like a ray of sunlight spearing a storm cloud. He pressed her hand to his lips. “I am in your debt. Mary and Charles will come for you in their carriage, and I will eagerly await you there. The birthday celebration is Tuesday next.”
She smiled. “I’ll be ready.”
“I can hardly wait.” There was a bounce to his step when he left.
After dinner, the baron joined her with a challenge to play backgammon.
Alicia moistened her lips as they set up the game pieces. “My lord, with your permission, I’ve been invited to attend a birthday celebration. If you have no objection, I’d like to accept.”
“You need not ask my permission, Alicia. I shan’t attend, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t.”
Wanting to be perfectly forthright, she added, “Cole asked me to be there. Something about helping protect him from the ladies who are always pursuing him.”
He lifted his head and she felt his heavy gaze even through the mask. “I see.”
“Mary and Charles are to pick me up in their carriage. I’ll only see Cole at the party.”
He leaned back and steepled his fingers. “What exactly are your feelings regarding Cole?”
She fixed her gaze on the chess board. “I find him arrogant and annoying. But he can be diverting. Charming, at times. I see why Cousin Mary and Aunt Livy are fond of him.”
“Is that all?”
She faltered. “My lord, I have not betrayed you, nor do I plan to, with Cole or any other. I won’t go if you wish me to—”
He made a negligent wave of the hand. “Go.”
“You…you don’t mind?”
“You may do as you please.” He rose and left the room.
She stared at the pieces of their unfinished game and wondered when she’d become so selfish.
****
The evening of the birthday celebration, Alicia asked Monique to do something special with her hair. As a result, a cascade of ringlets showered down the back of her head, lightly brushing her shoulders. She dressed in a cream silk gown and donned a tastefully simple strand of pearls.
The baron appeared in the doorway and said in an even voice. “I hope you have a good time.”
Before she could reply, he turned and left.
Perhaps after their failed attempt at marital intimacy, he planned on going through with a divorce, despite the irrevocable scandal, and simply had no interest in her activities now that he had decided to cast her off.
Guilt shot through her. She couldn’t blame him. She was using him and giving nothing in return except a good reason to throw her out on the streets. It was also possible he had found consolation in the arms of a mistress. The image disturbed her more than it assuaged her guilt.
She pressed a hand over her face. It had all become so tangled!
A footman knocked at the door and informed her that Mary and Charles’s coach had arrived. Without any joy, she rose and descended the stairs to the waiting coach. However, Charles and Mary’s lively conversation kept her diverted. She cast off the gloom and enjoyed their company, and they became a merry group.
Charles and Mary introduced Alicia to the host and hostess, and their surprisingly bright-eyed centurion. The crowd was full, though not the crush it would have been during the London Season. Still, for an off-season gathering, a goodly number of well-wishers had arrived.
Cole sidled up to her the moment she’d been announced and had finished greeting the host and hostess. “Dearest cousin, you look magnificent. My sister Margaret is here; I’ll introduce you. Come.”
Eyes watched Alicia as she walked with Cole. Some nodded, others whispered. Gazes, openly admiring, fixed upon Cole.
She glanced at him from beneath her lashes. Only a fool would not stare at him in admiration. Broad, striking, exuding strength and masculinity, as well as a sensuality she had never felt from another man, his very presence taunted a lady’s sensibilities. He misunderstood his appeal. He wrongly assumed that he was the target of any member of the ton, or any fortune hunter merely as a wealthy viscount and heir to an earldom. He did not seem to understand that no woman alive could look upon him without desiring him.
Pride swelled within her as she realized that, of all those women, many of them beautiful, he had chosen to be with her. As they walked together through the crush, he gave no outward indication that he saw any of the ladies clustered in their finery hoping to catch his eye. Pity she could no more attain him than they.
Guiltily, she swallowed. Her husband should be claiming her thoughts, not his errant cousin who so blithely escorted her in his stead. But her husband had practically washed his hands of her.
Cole led her through the crowd to an imposing lady with sleek hair the same color as his. “Alicia, may I present my sister, Lady Hennessey. Margaret, this is Alicia, Nicholas’s new wife.”
The intimidating woman turned to her. “Alicia, I’m very happy to finally meet you. Cole has told me so much about you.” A smile began in her mouth and finally reached her eyes, casting off the earlier imperiousness.
Margaret glanced back at Cole and something unspoken passed between them, reminding Alicia of the way she and Armand often communicated with a mere glance. Others used to comment on their finely tuned intuitive ability to converse in avenues beyond normal comprehension. A sharp pain shot through her heart. How she missed him!
Cole touched her arm. “Alicia?”
Alicia blinked and focused on Cole’s face, realizing her expression must have betrayed her thoughts. She forced a smile and turned to Cole’s sister. “I’m very pleased to meet you, my lady.”
Cole excused them from his sister with only a glance and placed his hand under her elbow, guiding her away from the crush. “What is it? You’re pale.”
She shrank from his touch and averted her gaze. “Nothing.”
“Do you wish to leave?”
“Ahh, the infamous Viscount Amesbury.” A booming voice drew their attention to an older gentleman who peered at them through a monocle.
Cole glanced at Alicia, worry creasing his face, but replied dutifully to the gentleman. “My lord.”
Alicia, grateful for the interruption, quietly excused herself to gather her wits before Cole had the opportunity to introduce her. She felt his eyes follow her as she wound her way through the crowd to a seat.
Cole had suffered enough. If she revealed how deeply she still felt Armand’s loss, she would hurt him again. She remembered the tormented expression she witnessed in him every time the subject arose. He did not need her condemning behavior adding to it.
As the music began, the hostess arrived with a young man with dark curly hair. “Lady Amesbury, please allow me to introduce Sir Reginald.”
Alicia and the gentleman exchanged greetings and very proper pleasantries. Then he asked her for a dance.
In spite of her aching heart, Alicia managed a smile and accepted his arm. He was pleasant, if a touch arrogant. The dance had barely ended when another gentleman was presented to her and he, too, asked for a dance. Her mood lightened as she danced and conversed with her partners.
Cole arrived for a dance, begging for rescue from the harpies. She smiled up into his beautiful eyes, forgetting everything but the feel of dancing in his arms. The warmth of his hands, the glint in his eyes that alternated between playful and dangerous, the potent sensuality of his nearness, all combined into a force she could not easily deny. He awoke every nerve in her body.
At the close of the set, he bowed and stepped back as another arrived to claim a dance. Each partner varied in age and temperament but danced reasonably well. All lacked Cole’s athletic grace, his stirring masculinity, his potent gaze, his expressive mouth. None possessed eyes as beautiful, a face as perfectly sculpted, and shoulders as broad. No one had his quick wit, his ready smile, his manner of treating her as though she were the only woman in the room.
She had to purge him from her thoughts somehow. Such thoughts would only lead to heartac
he. And betrayal.
Remembering his plea to be saved from the ladies of the ton, she scanned the crush and finally found him in a circle of older gentlemen. He stood in urbane boredom, blatantly ignoring the ladies who did indeed seem to circle like great predatory birds awaiting his departure from his haven of male companionship.
One of the gentlemen said something to Cole and he nodded. The group moved toward an exit together. Cole paused, his eyes scanning the room until they fell upon her. His brilliant smile flashed and he mimed billiards. She smiled and nodded to show she understood. That would be a safe, if temporary, reprieve from the harpies. With a sheepish shrug, he left with the men to the obvious disappointment of the ladies watching him.
One of Alicia’s partners tactfully pointed out that a piece of lace at her hem appeared to be dragging. She thanked him for the dance and the observation, and retreated to the withdrawing room where a willing maid quickly stitched the lace back into place. After paying the maid a vail, Alicia smoothed her hair in the mirror and took a moment to make sure no other trimmings had come undone. A group of ladies came in, chattering like a gaggle of geese.
“Don’t worry, Josephine, he won’t spend all night in the billiards room,” a petite, plump brunette said.
“I will secure him this summer, just you watch. He always chooses a widow, something about not wanting to infringe upon a gentleman’s wife,” a redhead who must have been Josephine explained to another, much younger young lady.
The younger lady’s face fell. “Oh. So he wouldn’t agree to a liaison with me because I’m married, then?”
“Oh, no. Besides, you’re much too young, Violet,” the plump brunette informed her with a knowing tone. “Lord Amesbury prefers ladies with more experience, and, therefore, skill.”
Alicia gave a start. They were discussing Cole.
A fourth giggled. “I’d be tempted to slip too much opium in my husband’s drink, if the result might be a romance with him.”
“But we must agree to still be friends no matter who he chooses.”
There were murmurs of affirmative all around while Alicia’s heart sank. Standing frozen for fear of drawing attention to herself, Alicia prayed they would leave soon. She did not want to know details of Cole’s debauchery.
“The problem is, he seems to be besotted by that country miss,” Josephine said. “Whenever he’s in public, he’s with her.”
“Who is she?” asked another.
“No one of consequence.”
“No, not his usual type. She seems rather, well, too innocent for his taste, if you know what I mean,” added the brunette. “And too young.”
“I heard she’s married, so he’s either breaking his earlier vow, or it’s an innocent friendship.”
“Innocent? Our viscount?” The ladies all laughed raucously.
Alicia forced her hands to relax when her nails dug into her palms. How dare they speak about Cole in such a manner! What did they know about his type? Clearly none of them knew him. Cole was right; women only saw a conquest when they looked at him.
But was it true? Did he truly have a new affaire every summer? Was she his latest target?
“Well, you’ve had a romance with him, so it’s my turn,” the redhead informed them with an imperious wave. “And I will do whatever it takes to lure him to my bed. As long as we can keep any ideas of marriage out of his head, we’ll have him for a few more years.”
“He’ll have to marry sooner or later. After all, he’ll be an earl, and he has an obligation to his family line.”
“I’m sure a mere marriage won’t stop him from his dalliances.”
“I’m not so sure. He’s a difficult man to predict. But what a lover.” She heaved a lusty sigh.
“Well, we all know he never pursues virgins, so perhaps he’ll choose a widow for a wife. Why not one of us?”
The plump brunette’s eyes fell upon Alicia and her expression turned frosty. The chattering fell away and all eyes rested upon her. Their hostility rippled through the room.
Josephine sneered. “Oh. The latest favorite.” Sarcasm dripped from her words.
“Enjoy him while you can, dearie. He won’t be yours much longer,” warned the redhead.
Alicia squelched her instinctive desire to make a hasty exit. Her clear duty, and her privilege, lay in protecting Cole from such shallow, vicious women.
She raised her chin. “If any of you possessed any depth of character, you’d know there is much more to Lord Amesbury than his looks or his fortune. I doubt very much any of you possess the intelligence, or the grace, to see the man inside.” She smiled victoriously at their amazed expressions. “Excuse me.” She swept past them.
Cole had returned from his billiards game when Alicia came out of the withdrawing room. His smile, genuine and affectionate, lit up his face as he wound his way through the crowd to her. His gaze focused, his graceful, athletic stride purposeful, he completely ignored the ladies who followed him hungrily with their gazes.
When he reached her side, he raised her hand to his lips. “I’ve been looking for you. They’ve announced dinner.” He wound her hand through his arm and pressed his hand against it with a slight squeeze. “Are you enjoying yourself?”
She tried to push back the haunting words of his debauchery the ladies had revealed, and managed a smile. “Very much. Have you evaded the harpies so far?”
He grinned. “The night is still young. I will need your continued protection, if you can drag yourself away from your many new admirers.”
As they approached the table, Alicia saw that she had been placed several places away from Cole. He gave her a secretive smile and moved to his place. As she moved to her place setting, a young lady tilted her head condescendingly. Someone introduced her as Miss Stockton.
Miss Stockton said, “Lady Amesbury. Ah, yes. You are married to that horrible cripple who never shows his face. How terrible it must be for you.” Her expression of triumph underscored her mocking pity.
Alicia raised her chin. “On the contrary.”
Miss Stockton shivered dramatically. “I’d rather remain unmarried than have a beast for a husband.”
“My lord is a kind and devoted husband, and I’ll thank you not to speak ill of him.” The hypocrisy of her words twisted in her stomach.
Guiltily, she glanced at Cole who gave no indication he had heard the exchange. Then his eyes flicked her way briefly.
Even though she and Cole were not true paramours, they played a dangerous game which would surely lead to disaster if they continued. And, if the ladies in the withdrawing room were correct, she would only become one in a long line of illicit lovers should she succumb to his advances.
After dinner, the host made a toast to his grandfather and they all raised their glasses to the man who had reached his one hundredth birthday. The guest of honor gave them all a toothless grin, and in halting tones, thanked them for their friendship.
Later, as the lights burned low, and the strains of a waltz began, dancers sought out lovers and drew closer. Others left together in search of a more intimate setting. Cole drew her to the dance floor. She hesitated, but went with him.
“What is it, love?” he murmured, his warm breath stirring the tendrils next to her ear.
She shivered. “Please don’t call me that,” she pled weakly.
“Why?”
“Because you don’t mean it.”
He eased her closer, his beautiful smile warming his face. “Do you want me to mean it?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
She steadied her breathing. “You should know.”
Cole’s intoxicating male scent permeated her senses. His light touch was fire through her silk gown, awakening an undeniable ache for him. His smile deepened further and his eyes darkened with a longing that exceeded hers. The potency of his desire made hers even more acute.
No. Not him.
“Please.” She sounded plaintive, childlike to her own ears.
/>
“Please, what, Alicia?” He asked in low, provocative tones.
A deep quiver began in the bottom of her stomach. “Please don’t look at me like that.”
“I don’t think I could stop myself if I tried,” he murmured close to her ear. His breath warmed her cheek and neck, and only succeeded in deepening her desire.
Several ladies circled purposefully, and Alicia realized that Cole needed to find a wife, if only to protect him from the lecherous women who had targeted him. And he was right, he needed an heir. Then why did he attempt an affair with a married lady instead of seeking a wife? She refused to be merely another conquest.
“And then what? Add my name to your rather long list?”
He pulled back enough to study her features. “What list?”
“The one that includes Josephine and Violet.”
A puzzled frown creased his brow and he pursed his lips. “Josephine Winchester?”
“I don’t know her surname, but she was a tall lady with red hair.”
Cole’s frown deepened. “That sounds like her. What list?”
“The list of all your past paramours. I heard them in the withdrawing room, discussing you and that you prefer widows and how you choose a new lover every year.”
Deadly serious, he led her from the dance floor without waiting for the end of the dance. He took her out of the ballroom and began to open doors until he found an empty room. He drew her inside, closed the door, and turned to her.
The look he fixed upon her left her with the urge to squirm. He shook his head, hurt and betrayal shadowing his eyes. “I had hoped you knew me by now.”
“I thought I did, but…” she trailed off helplessly.
“Remember the harpies? You clearly met them. I have a reputation, that’s true, but believe me when I say that it is grossly exaggerated. I did have an affair with a widow last year, but she decided to go live with her sister in Scotland, and we parted ways. But I was very discreet; no one knows of it. There have been few other love interests—not Josephine Winchester or anyone named Violet, whoever she may be. If they claimed to have been my lovers, they are lying.”
