Noelle rubbed her arms and bowed her head in shame.
Behind her the door opened with a muted creak. The booted footfalls crossing the narrow porch toward her were not Eva’s. She didn’t need to turn around to know it was Gavin. How easily she’d grown capable of feeling his presence, even when she couldn’t see him.
His coat brushed against her back as he stepped close and his hands came down on her shoulders. She closed her eyes and lowered the side of her face onto his knuckles.
“Your sister is worried you’ve taken a turn.” He eased her back against him and slid his arms around her. “I had to convince her it was the heat of the fire you were suffering from, lest she call for the physician.”
There was understanding in his voice. He, too, had learned to read her emotions. At the moment she needed him, he’d come to her again. Her rescuer, the man she loved.
“I am excited for them, I truly am.” She felt the need to explain herself. She didn’t want to be selfish. “The last year has been overwhelming.”
Noelle felt adrift. “It was always Margaret and me together. My mother never wanted much to do with us. Our nanny was the woman who raised us. Mother saw us only as extensions of our father, and rarely spent a moment concerning herself about our welfare.” Noelle leaned her head back, and he put his chin on her head. “I knew about Eva for years and wanted to meet her. It was bumpy at first, but I grew to love her. We are three sisters now.”
She eased from his embrace and faced him. “She was already involved with Nicholas when we met, and they married shortly after. It was only a few weeks after Margaret married Harold.” She hated herself for feeling selfish but had to go on. “Now they are both carrying babies, and I feel—” Her throat closed. She was a horrible person. Just horrible!
“Left behind?” Gavin finished for her. He reached out to take her hands. She bit her lip. “You lived with a cold, heartless mother who spilled her bitterness onto her innocent children. In spite of that, you chose to love a sister whom most people would scorn for her illegitimacy. Now both of your sisters are carrying babies. It is understandable that you are envious of their good fortune.”
Her eyes widened. “You don’t think I am terribly selfish to want more time with Eva, just us two?”
Gavin smiled softly and bent to kiss her head. “It is a bit late for that, love. But don’t fret. You and she will have many days together, before and after the babe comes.” He looked into her eyes. “I saw the joy in your face for the duke and duchess. You reveled in their happiness.” He lifted her hands to his mouth and pressed kisses on each set of knuckles in turn. “As you said, this is all overwhelming. You must give yourself time to get accustomed to all the changes in your life, before you decide to drown yourself in the Thames.”
Noelle let out an unladylike snort, and her mouth quirked. “I would never take such a measure. Leaping from the Tower of London is swifter.” She sighed, her smile turning pensive. “I will be the best spinster aunt two children could ever want.” The idea of spinsterhood had never looked so bleak. She forced herself to move past her gloomy thoughts. “My sisters will resent all the spoiling.”
Gavin grinned in the lamplight. “I cannot see you tucked behind high, stiff lace, your corset so snug that you have a permanent pinched expression, and a tight bun pulling your eyes back to a cat-slant. Such circumstances are better left to young ladies without beauty or prospects. Not for you.”
The last several days had changed her somehow. It had become more and more difficult to imagine, after how much she’d enjoyed the sensuous liberties Gavin had taught her, spending the rest of her life without kisses and seductive touches.
She looked into his eyes. “I shall get used to it. Women through history have lived with much worse. I have family and wealth. I do not have to worry about living in poverty. My father made sure my mother, sisters, and I would be cared for in the event of his death. For his consideration and the freedom it brings, I will always be grateful. I can be a spinster if I choose.”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t settle for such a grim and lonely path, dearest Noelle. You never know what your future will bring.”
Noelle didn’t look up but stared at his lips as his head lowered. Silently she begged him to kiss her, and when he did, she melted into him.
Watching from the window above, Eva tensed. Blackwell kissed her sister and slipped his arms around her. Noelle hugged him around the neck and knitted her fingers in his hair. Even from a distance, Eva could see the passion flare between them. If they weren’t careful, she thought angrily, they’d set fire to the house.
“Mister Blackwell has no shame,” Eva said through clenched teeth. The forward American needed a hearty slap. Unfortunately, that didn’t look like her sister’s intention. Noelle was too busy pressing her breasts against the man to consider any sort of propriety. “Anyone traveling past the house can see him take advantage of my sister.”
Nicholas walked over and looked out. He slid an arm around Eva’s waist and snuggled her against his side. “The trees give them a measure of privacy from the street. You needn’t worry, darling. Noelle can take care of herself.” He leaned to nuzzle her temple. “If you recall, she took me to task several times when I misbehaved with you before we wed. She is a strong-willed woman and not one to rush into fire. She will make a right decision when it comes to Blackwell.”
Eva rested her head against his shoulder. The happiness and then sadness in Noelle’s face, when she heard about the baby, had wrenched at her heart. Noelle’s desire to remain unmarried was clearly warring with her intense capacity to love a family of her own. And Eva had seen the way Noelle looked at that blasted American. Though she might not realize it yet, Eva’s older sister was very much in love.
“How can I not worry? She has never met anyone like him. He was raised among savages. He could be a dangerous felon.”
A soft chuckle sounded. “There are no savages in Boston, sweet, and Blackwell is no criminal but a man of means. Need I remind you he comes from good stock? No matter how much he wants to ravish her, he will do right by your sister.”
Eva narrowed her eyes. “Can you make me a guarantee?”
“I cannot.” Nicholas ran a hand up from her waist to her rib cage and teased the side of her breast with his thumb. “I can assure you, your worry or wishes will not change her feelings. If her nature is as passionate as yours, sweetheart, there will be nothing you can say or do that will stop her from plunging into an affair.” He glanced out the window and grinned. “A steel bar couldn’t break them apart.”
“Her ravishment is what I worry about.” Eva grimaced, even as she warmed under her husband’s casual fondling. Nicholas did know how to distract her. But at the moment, she was having none of it. She caught his hand to cease further exploration. “You tease, but when she begins to swell with child, it will be you, as head of our family, who has to deal with the consequences.”
Her dark and handsome husband spun her around and tucked her tightly against him. Nicholas bent and nuzzled her neck. She sighed. “Then I will drag him before a priest myself,” he said as he nibbled her earlobe. “Men cannot seduce and impregnate a Harrington woman and escape shackles. Even if I have to chase him all the way back to Boston myself.”
Nicholas eased her away from the open draperies and pressed her against the wall. Eva knew he couldn’t be too free with his hands; the hallway door was open, and her sister and guest were kissing below. Still, a few stolen caresses would be delightful.
This time it was Eva who grinned as she slipped a hand around to cup one of his sculpted buttocks. Months of marriage hadn’t dimmed her desire for Nicholas in the least. He was a passionate man, and she was a very lucky woman. “I shall hold you to your word, Your Grace. For I intend to see my sister wed, and from the looks of the improper behavior below, I suppose Blackwell will have to do.”
Nicholas lifted his face. There was a look of pity in his eyes. “Lord help poor Mister Blackwell.”<
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Chapter Twenty-Three
Though this outing isn’t meant for my rescue, I thank you for saving me from my sister,” Noelle said early the next afternoon when Gavin arrived to take her on an excursion to Hyde Park. He wanted to ride through the park to see if he could spot the mysterious woman in the sketch, and Noelle insisted on tagging along. The day was cool and threatened rain, but when he offered to cancel and return on a better day, she literally dragged him from the house by the hand. “I think Eva has decided to practice her mothering skills on me. If she chooses to continue the practice of smothering with the baby, the poor little dear is in for quite a time of it.”
Gavin chuckled and maneuvered the gig around a stopped carriage with well-executed skill. “If she reaches for a nappy, run. Fast.”
Noelle smiled and scanned the area as the horse trotted down the tree-lined path. The air was thick and the sky overcast, yet the park was ever so lovely in vibrant green. After her recent days spent cloistered inside, this park and fresh air were a welcome respite.
Gavin and Eva had protested profusely over her choice of outing wear when she’d come down the stairs to greet him. Tucked under her cloak, Noelle had donned a courtesan disguise, complete with a wig and veil, and refused to change.
She’d suffered enough at the hands of the footpads and wasn’t about to be seen in public with Gavin, for fear of alerting possible spies to her real identity, until the criminals were rounded up and jailed.
By now they had to have figured out Gavin and his cousin were two different men. Too much time had passed not to come to that realization. The attack on Gavin at the shipyard had been perpetrated by three men without a clear set of facts. Though the earl had invested in the shipyard, he certainly wouldn’t toil there. Obviously, they’d seen only Gavin come and go from the house the day after Noelle’s break-in, and it had confused the thugs.
Noelle nervously glanced around. “Do you think you, we, are still in danger?”
“It’s hard to determine,” Gavin said. “The necklace is very valuable. It would be difficult for the thieves to give it up after all they’ve done to steal it.”
“But the earl has it now.”
“True. Do the thieves know that? It’s hard to say.” He flicked the reins. “We suspect they figured out the necklace had been returned to Charles’s town house. Bliss admitted she’d expressed fear of arrest to the maid after she’d taken the piece.”
“And she ran off immediately afterward,” Noelle said, “before the maid could get her sticky fingers on it.”
“So the maid probably assumed Bliss had gone to Charles and confessed her crime. They’d have no idea she’d fled to the courtesan school.”
“And turned the necklace over to me,” Noelle said grimly. She very much wanted to put the entire caper behind her.
“Charles left early that next morning, so I was the only person, aside from the staff, to be seen at the town house in the days following Bliss’s disappearance. The thieves are probably so confused right now, as they have no idea where the necklace is. All we can do is hope they end their obsession over the piece.”
“I agree.” If not, and the culprits were still lurking, she wasn’t about to let the remainder of the trio, and their leader, remain free to harm another soul while she sat in her sister’s stuffy parlor under a heavy pile of blankets and Eva treated her like a blasted invalid. Though she dearly loved Eva, living with her was proving to be a challenge.
Hence the disguise. Gavin could still be in danger. Everyone around him could still be in danger. Her attendance at the ball was proof of that. She hated the idea of putting herself in danger again, and had struggled over what to do. But until she was absolutely certain the trouble was over, she had to fight her fears. She couldn’t bear the idea that he could be injured or killed over the necklace. She had to help, and the disguise was the only way to stay close to him while looking for the mysterious woman.
The quicker Crawford and Gavin made sure the danger was over, the sooner Gavin would no longer have to look over his shoulder. Then Noelle could be seen with him publicly, as herself, without the thugs regarding her as a possible tool to get him to turn over the necklace.
“What of Charles? He might be targeted.”
Gavin nodded. “I sent word. He assures me he is taking precautions to keep his family safe.”
When she decided to throw off caution and become an adventuress, she hadn’t thought that just over a week later, she’d be aching for her normal life. She desperately wanted to return home and sleep in her own bed. With Gavin, if she had her druthers. Tossing and turning at night in a heated state had become unbearable. She needed him without delay. And to accomplish her wish, she had to get well enough for Eva to give her blessing for Noelle’s escape from Collingwood House.
Then her life would again be her own.
“I don’t see Mister Crawford or the men he hired to watch over you,” Noelle remarked as she looked about.
“If you see them, then they aren’t doing their job properly. Now stop craning your neck before you fall out of the carriage and ruin your disguise.”
Self-consciously, she reached up to assure herself that her lower face was still covered. Without the added blessing of darkness, she felt exposed. “Are you certain no one will know me?”
Gavin gave her a brief look. “Love, even I don’t know you,” he assured her for the tenth time.
Beneath her dove gray pelisse, she was dressed in a very low-cut gown of rose silk with cap sleeves and tiny roses framing the bodice. Her wig was pinned securely on her head, and with the powder covering her face in a thick layer of white, she portrayed a cherished courtesan, a role she intended to continue once she got Gavin alone.
She touched the beauty patch. “Truly?”
“You are unrecognizable, love.” Unlike married men, Gavin had no qualms about being seen gallivanting about London with a mistress seated beside him. As an unmarried man, he could publicly consort with whomever he chose. In fact, doing so with a lovely courtesan would probably elevate him in the eyes of his male friends.
Noelle chewed on her bottom lip. “Are you certain you weren’t followed to Collingwood House?”
“Crawford assured me he would follow whenever I go out. Since he didn’t sound an alarm, all is well.”
Still, Noelle wished she could at least know where Crawford was, in case one of the thieves decided to show himself. She was aware Gavin had a pistol tucked in his waistband, as it had bumped up against her several times during their drive. She took comfort in knowing her kidnapping would not be repeated. Gavin would kill anyone who tried.
So she settled back to scan faces in coaches and carriages for women who resembled their target. Though the weather kept most of society inside, there was a decent crowd filling the paths. She hoped to see their mystery lady in the mass.
After about five minutes, she was fidgeting in her seat again and emitting more than a few impatient sighs. Not a single face even slightly matched the sketch. “We’ll never find her. She’ll remain a mystery, and you shall have to live your life looking over your shoulder.”
Gavin pulled over to the side and reined to a stop. Eva’s fat little gray pony-horse, Muffin, dropped her head to rip up some grass. Relatively new to London, and temporarily living under his cousin’s roof, Gavin hadn’t yet purchased a carriage horse or rig. He had no need for anything but his horse or a hackney to get around, so Eva had offered hers for the outing. What the little mare lacked in the refinement of the grander horses favored by the gentry, she made up for with a sweet disposition.
And since Muffin was mostly retired from service and wouldn’t be recognized as belonging to the new duchess, she was the perfect choice to squire them about the park.
“We’ve spent an entire”—Gavin paused and looked down at his pocket watch—“seven minutes driving about. Surely you can summon up the patience to manage seven more before deciding this outing is a waste of time and energy.”
Noelle stared at his cocked brow and eyes alight with humor, and notched up her nose. “Must you fault me for wanting to see this caper end with a quick and satisfying conclusion?” She skimmed her fingers over the tender spot at her temple.
“Everyone is working quickly and diligently to see this end,” he reminded her. “You will have your justice, Noelle.”
A carriage slowly rumbled past, carrying the Baroness Brightman and her pretty but dreadfully dull daughter Minerva. Noelle resisted the instinct to wave. Courtesans did not wave at baronesses. She lowered her hand and waited until the carriage rounded the corner before turning back to Gavin.
“I plan to find the mystery woman and see her covered with honey and staked over a nest of ground wasps,” she said sharply. “And that is only the beginning.”
Gavin shook his head, smiling. “Remind me never to anger you, My Lady courtesan. You have a very evil mind.”
“Perhaps wasps are a bit harsh. A week in the stockade, then off to Australia for an existence of hard labor should be satisfactory. Anything less than life in a penal colony would be a travesty for what this woman has done to me.”
Still, no matter how the woman’s actions had caused her suffering, Noelle couldn’t see her locked in Newgate. No woman deserved that vile place. She still lived under the lingering worry that the earl would yet decide to have her and Bliss arrested. There was only Gavin’s assurance that she was safe.
“Once she has been sent into exile and this case has been settled, what are your plans?” Gavin eased Muffin farther off the path as a large coach bearing an unfamiliar crest hurried past. “Will you go back to planning your spinsterhood? Or will you cast word about that you have decided to forgo such a charming institution and are seeking a husband after all? I’m certain there are several men who would eagerly line up for a chance to wed you.”
She stared blankly into his face. Her chest tightened.
The causal way he mentioned a husband took her aback. Would he be happy to see her wed some humorless, wheyfaced nobleman with sweaty palms and a permanent pinched expression? Would it be so easy to fob her off on another man and forget her?
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