Sweet Temptation

by Leigh Greenwood

  “Ye know we willna,” Rose assured her roughly, wiping away her own tears. “Just lie back and enjoy yer visit.”

  “You can help me with the design of this quilt until Gavin arrives,” offered Olivia. “I fear it will never be ready in time for Christmas.”

  Gavin’s arrival unsettled the quiet of the room. He examined his mother with loving but critical eyes, before bending over to give her a kiss. “Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t feeling well?”

  “It’s no more than what happens several times every winter,” the Countess assured him, presenting her cheek for his salute. “I know I look a perfect hag, but I keep hoping you won’t notice.”

  “You still look beautiful to me.”

  “So how come ye didna arrive this morning like you were supposed tae?” questioned Rose. She had been Gavin’s nurse, and she had never relinquished her right to deal with him more harshly than his mother ever would.

  “Go away, Rose. I didn’t come to see you,” Gavin said. “I make mother unhappy enough without you drawing attention to my misdeeds.”

  “You never make me unhappy,” his mother was quick to assure him.

  “Yes, I do.” He put his hand gently over her lips to quiet her objections. “You never reproach me, but I know you’re disappointed in me.”

  “Then why do you not give up your loose women and take a proper interest in lands that will be yours someday?” demanded Olivia. “You can’t expect your father to live forever.”

  “If you two can’t leave Gavin alone, I shall ask you to leave,” the Countess warned as severely as she could. “This is my visit, and I won’t let you ruin it by putting him into a temper, with questions which are really none of your concern.”

  “It’s time they were asked,” insisted Olivia.

  “When I want them asked, I shall do so,” Georgians said gently, but with a tone that caused her companions to gather up their belongings and depart, Olivia with an offended air and Rose muttering dire predictions of disaster.

  “They mean well. Unfortunately, they’ve forgotten what it was like to be young. But I want to talk about you, not them. Your father tells me you’re about to be married,” she said smiling. “I’ve waited so long for this news, I was afraid I would never hear it.”

  “I knew it would bring a gleam to your eye. I never knew a female yet who didn’t get excited at the prospect of some man being clapped in irons for life.”

  ‘That’s because we know what wretched creatures you are. Even the most admirable man is in need of a little polishing every now and again.”

  “According to my esteemed sire, I need a good deal more than polishing.” Gavin could not keep the bitterness from his voice.

  “There’s nothing wrong with you that settling down and raising a family won’t cure. Now tell me, who is the young lady? I hardly know anyone these days, and your father refused to say a word.”

  “You know this one. She used to visit us at Christmas.”

  “Do you mean Sara Raymond?” Georgiana exclaimed in surprise. “Poor child. I haven’t seen her in years, but I think you’ve made an excellent choice.”

  “She wasn’t my choice.”

  “I wish you would try to be more enthusiastic,” Georgiana reproved her son gently. “She used to admire you so much. She would sit for hours talking about how well you rode, how handsome you looked, and how you never seemed to be afraid of anything. I think we females must be exceedingly timid creatures,” she observed with a merry twinkle in her eyes. “Why should we otherwise admire a man who dashes about attacking all comers, when we know he’s behaving quite foolishly?”

  “What an unflattering picture, Mama.”

  “Men are the dearest creatures, but not even the silliest female would do half the things they do and think them something to be proud of.”

  “If that’s how you feel, why do all women wish to be married?”

  “I suppose it goes back to being timid. We need a man to protect us. In return, we work dreadfully hard to make something useful of him.”

  “How come you’ve never told me this before?”

  “It’s a trade secret,” Georgiana whispered with a smile. “Now we’ve talked enough nonsense. Tell me, when are you to be married? I have so longed for the day when I could hold my first grandchild in my arms. You are going to live in Scotland, aren’t you?”

  “Of course.”

  “I know you’re much fonder of London than I am, but I had hoped your children would grow up where you did.”

  “I hope Miss Raymond likes Scotland.”

  “I’m sure she will. She used to tell me how much she preferred the country to London. Poor girl, she hardly ever had a proper home. Her mother died soon after she was born, and then her father was carried off by some dreadful disease he contracted in India. I was distressed when your father discontinued her visits to Estameer, but this tiresome malady made it impossible for me to get out of bed.”

  “So father kept her locked away in some convent…”

  “Miss Rachel’s Seminary for Young Women.”

  “… until it was time for me to gobble up her money, just like he did yours.” Ordinarily the pained expression on his mother’s face would have stopped Gavin, but he was still too full of the sense of his wrongs. “Rose and Olivia complain that I don’t take an interest in the estates, but I’d rather be called a womanizer and a wastrel than to be forced into constant association with him!”

  “You’ve never understood your father—”

  “I understand him all too well.”

  “No, you don’t,” the Countess reaffirmed, showing a temper of her own. “Oliver did take my money, and there have been times when he has not treated any of us with compassion, but he suffers under the cruel necessity of having to be thankful for my fortune. No one can go on being grateful for years on end without choking on it sooner or later. I hope you and Sara manage better than we did. You never did get to know her, and you don’t remember her kindly, but try to give her a chance to learn to love you. She has led a sheltered life, and is untutored in the ways of the world. Take care you don’t frighten her so from the very first that she will have any difficulty coming to you willingly in the end.”

  “I don’t want a terrified virgin who has to be coaxed into my bed,” Gavin said, too angry to watch his words.

  “Neither, I should hope, do you want some shameless tart for whom you have no use outside of it,” retorted his mother. “Being gently born does not mean a woman is incapable of learning to please her husband,” Georgiana pointed out more kindly. “It merely means she hasn’t had the experience allowed men. I never wished for a lover, but I do think it unfair that men should be admired because they know so much about the world, while a woman with the same knowledge is shunned.”

  “What do you think we ought to do?” asked her unrepentant son with twinkling black eyes. “Set up schools of worldly knowledge?”

  “I was thinking more of sending every boy to a monastery until he marries,” answered his mother, returning his gleam of mischief. “Then both would start on an equal footing.”

  “Then nobody would know how to begin,” Gavin responded. “You wouldn’t have a dozen babies a year in all of England.”

  Shamelessly listening with her ear to the door, Rose was relieved to hear mother and son laughing naturally, but when she entered the room, the Countess was looking quite exhausted.

  “I’m pleased ye had a nice visit with Master Gavin, milady, but it’s time for yer rest.”

  Gavin stood immediately. “You have a good nap,” he said, planting a kiss on his mother’s soft, withered skin, “and be sure to tell me everything the doctor says.”

  “What do they ever say to purpose?” asked his mother with a weary sigh. “They poke and prod, ask questions and consult, then say they must go to make their decision. But they only come back with someone new, who must prod and ask more questions before he goes away to ponder a decision no one ever makes. I don’t
know why I bother.”

  “Because it pleases them that love ye,” said Rose. “Now go away, yer lordship, or yer mother willna be strong enough tae see ye for a fortnight.”

  “Remember, have patience and be kind,” Gavin’s mother reminded him. “What you’re trying to build has to last longer than one night.”

  “How ye do talk, milady! I blush to hear it,” scolded Rose.

  “You’re an old maid. You blush at anything.”

  “Nevertheless, I know a thing or two,” insisted Rose.

  “Then maybe you can teach both of them to my future wife,” Gavin said.

  “Get along with ye,” Rose admonished him severely. “I never did understand what a respectable woman wanted with a man. It seems tae me, they must always be hankering after what will give them a worse bellyache than green apples. Ye can get over green apples, but ye can no’ get over a worthless man.”

  “How about a worthless woman?” countered Gavin.

  “There’s no such thing,” replied Rose with her first full-mouthed smile. “Now be gone with ye before I have Miss Olivia chase ye off. ‘Tis on a merry chase that boy shall be leading his wife,” she prophesied after Gavin had gone.

  “She adores him and thinks he can do no wrong,” said the Countess.

  “Then he’d better take her off to Scotland before she learns any better,” announced Olivia, returning with the ever-present quilt.

  Georgiana lay back, while the two women busied themselves settling her in for her nap.

  “I want ye tae have a bonnie rest,” Rose said. “Ye be looking a bit peeked tae me.”

  “I’m too excited to sleep,” the Countess answered. “I’ve prayed for years he would find some nice girl who would love him in spite of his bitterness, but Sara is so innocent, she can have no idea of the things that sometimes drive him to act with great unkindness.”

  “Then let’s hope she never finds out,” observed Olivia, settling in with her needle and thread. “Now you go to sleep. I’m going to work here while I still have the sunlight. It’s not half so good in my room.” Rose took out some tatting that was to be her wedding gift.

  For a while the Countess talked of Gavin’s childhood, of her life in Scotland before she became too ill to leave her room, and of how much she looked forward to seeing Sara settled at Estameer and the mother of half a dozen strong sons. But she soon grew tired; her eyes closed and she fell into a light sleep. Rose and Olivia rose noiselessly.

  “She’ll never go back to Scotland, much less see any grandchild,” Olivia said to Rose, after the bedroom door was closed behind them.

  “She knows that,” Rose said sadly. “The day we left Estameer, she said she wouldna see its walls again.”

  Chapter 5

  “Stand still,” Miss Adelaide commanded in her sternest voice. “How can anyone set your dress to rights with you bouncing about like a hoyden?”

  Sara’s limbs froze, but too much had happened to her in the last week for her to stand still very long. She could hardly believe she was really about to be married, yet here she was surrounded by seamstresses making last-minute adjustments to her wedding dress. Outside, the Earl’s town coach waited to carry her to St. George’s Church. A second coach—piled high with the boxes that had filled the parlor until an hour ago and which contained dresses, gowns, hats, shoes, and every other possible item of clothing a new bride could want—had already preceded her to Parkhaven House.

  “The Earl will meet you at the chapel,” Miss Adelaide was saying. “It’s only natural that he should give you away, since none of your family has taken an interest in you all these years.” Sara suspected that Miss Adelaide defined interest as willingness to defray her school fees. “It should be quite touching to see him hand you over to his own son,” said the schoolmistress, revealing a streak of romanticism Sara had never suspected. “I wish I might see it.”

  “Aren’t you coming?” Sara asked, surprise making her stand still at last.

  “The Earl decided a private ceremony would be best,” replied Miss Adelaide, recovering her austere demeanor. Sara was not really fond of Miss Adelaide, but she was genuinely disappointed that no one was going to be present to support her.

  “You must come,” she insisted. “You’re as much my family as anyone else.”

  “I think it’s best that I remain here,” Miss Adelaide replied rather stiffly, in a vain effort to keep from showing how much Sara’s invitation gratified her.

  “Please,” Sara begged. “I know the Earl wouldn’t mind.”

  “But I’m not dressed,” protested Miss Adelaide, thrown out of her habitual cool control by the obvious genuineness of Sara’s invitation. But Sara noticed the older woman was wearing a gown of rich cobalt blue silk, a dress she normally reserved for special occasions.

  “It won’t matter. There’ll be no one there to see you. Please, won’t you come? I don’t have anyone else.”

  Miss Adelaide’s heart had remained steadfast against the importuning of young girls for more than thirty years, but it was not proof against the entreaty in Sara’s light blue eyes. “Ail right, but you must explain to the Earl that I’m only coming at your insistence.”

  So the three of them climbed into the waiting coach, and Miss Adelaide passed the time in giving Sara good advice. Sara tried to listen, but found her concentration straying from Miss Adelaide’s instructive homily to wondering what her future husband would look like. Betty’s thoughts were also elsewhere, and from the nervous movement of her hands as she held the wedding veil, Sara could tell they were far from tranquil.

  “And until you feel more comfortable, I would suggest that you depend heavily on the Earl’s housekeeper. I don’t know much about households of the nobility, my family being of merchant stock, but I imagine everyone will expect the Countess’s arrangements to be maintained.”

  “Are you certain we are going to live with the Earl?” Sara had been dismayed to learn that her clothes were being sent to the Earl’s town house.

  ‘That was my impression, though naturally the Earl has not favored me with his confidence on that point. However, I expect that as long as the Countess is so very ill, Lord Carlisle shall wish to remain close by.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” Sara replied, but somehow her daydream lost a little bit of its luster.

  “And, of course, you will take your lead from your husband in all social matters. I would not ordinarily presume to mention this to you,” added Miss Adelaide, “except that you have no mother, and the Countess is far too ill to take your education in hand. There will be a great deal to be learned in the next several months, and it is extremely important that you learn it quickly. I may not belong to the aristocracy, but I’ve seen enough of them to know they rarely forgive mistakes. With you, an outsider, capturing the biggest matrimonial prize of the last ten years, there will be many only too happy to see you fail.”

  Sara’s eyes hardened with determination. She vowed she would never embarrass Gavin or give him reason to be ashamed of her. Her eyes searched eagerly for him when they arrived at the church, but it was the Earl who met her.

  “You will see Gavin at the altar. It’s considered bad luck for the groom to see the bride on her wedding day.” His bleak smile did little to bolster her confidence. Betty followed Sara out of the carriage, doggedly clutching the veil to her bosom. “I’m glad you came,” the Earl said, turning to Miss Adelaide.

  “Sara insisted,” the lady explained.

  “And well she should. Your unflagging attention to her well-being is something that cannot be repaid.” The Earl’s words were so devoid of warmth or feeling and his eyes so expressionless, that Sara wondered if he might not have opposed his son’s marriage. Her uneasiness grew when the Earl showed Miss Rachel into the chapel, directed Betty to wait in an anteroom, and guided Sara into the priest’s cubicle.

  “I must apologize for not visiting you during the last few days, but the Countess had been quite ill.”

  �
��Will she be able to attend the wedding?” Sara asked anxiously.

  “She cannot leave her bed,” the Earl replied. “We still have hopes that the doctors will find a cure, but she suffers from constant pain.”

  “I remember her kindness whenever I visited Estameer. I hope I will be able to see her.”

  “She has commanded me to bring you to her straight way from the church, so she may give you her blessing. Now let me say a few words before we go to the chapel. When your father spoke to me of becoming your guardian, it was in the hopes that someday you would wed Gavin. As each of us had only one child, it was a natural aspiration. Your father did not foresee his tragic early death, and I did not foresee that my wife’s illness would make it impossible for you to visit Estameer during these last years.” Sara tried to interrupt, to protest that she had never expected to be taken into the Earl’s home, but he continued without pause.

  “I had expected that you and Gavin would grow to know each other in a natural way. As you are a gently bred young woman with no experience of the world, you may be shocked by some of his behavior. It will be your duty as his wife to pass no judgement. He will not expose you to his dissipation.”

  Sara’s ignorance provided few clues as to the kind of dissipation the Earl might mean, and she could only stare tongue-tied as he continued.

  “You must always bend your will to his. He is your husband and the only reason for your elevation. You must know you have been blessed beyond your just expectations. Few daughters, even of the nobility, are privileged to marry a peer.” Sara stiffened. She didn’t want to, but she couldn’t help it. After all the years of being looked down on by the daughters of impoverished nobility, was her father’s own partner going to do the same thing to her? She wasn’t sure she could stand much more of it.

  “You are young and inexperienced and will fall into many needless errors, if you go your own way without proper guidance. You must allow your husband to guide you in all things, but strive not to become a trial upon his good nature. Obey him in everything, great and small, and you may someday be a worthy addition to the Carlisle family.”