A Wild Night's Bride (The Devil DeVere #1)

by Victoria Vane

  A Wild Night’s Bride

  Victoria Vane

  Breathless Press

  Calgary, Alberta

  www.breathlesspress.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or

  persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A Wild Night’s Bride

  Copyright© 2012 Victoria Vane

  ISBN: 978-1-77101-131-0

  Cover Artist: Victoria Miller

  Editor: T. S. Chevrestt

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations

  embodied in reviews.

  Breathless Press

  www.breathlesspress.com

  Dedication:

  To my soul sister Jill

  Acknowledgments:

  This fabulously fun book would never have happened without the talented eye of my editor, Tara Chevrestt. I am deeply grateful for your support and guidance in this endeavor.

  PROLOGUE

  St. James, Westminster – 1783

  “Ned, you must wake up.” The frantic whisper and tickle of silky hair pleasantly penetrated the periphery of Sir Edward Chambers’ drink-induced, sexually sated, and fog-enshrouded consciousness. “Come, Neddie,” the soft voice implored. “You must wake, or there will be the devil to pay.”

  He groaned, rolling onto his side to the simultaneous awareness of a pounding head and the soft, warm presence beside him. He groped blindly, defining a shapely feminine backside that tauntingly wriggled against his groin, stirring quite another part of him to a wakeful and throbbing state. He nuzzled her neck while his burgeoning erection sought the warmth betwixt her thighs. “Annalee, my sweet Annalee,” he murmured into her hair.

  The warm, welcoming body became cold stone. “Phoebe,” a voice intoned.

  Ned’s bleary eyes popped open, his attention immediately riveted to the massive bed, the heavy velvet curtains of rich crimson and gold, and the towering hand-carved posts of mahogany. He jerked upright as if doused with ice water, his gaze settling on the voluptuous, blue-eyed blonde lying amidst the tangle of luxurious linens. “Kitty?”

  “No. Phoebe,” she answered. “My name. It’s Phoe-be.”

  “Phoebe?” He frowned in puzzlement. His gaze darted from his thoroughly tumbled bedfellow to the opulent room. He frantically scrubbed his face and looked wildly about the room, eager to light upon something, anything, to assure himself he wasn’t going mad. The vision of his surroundings sent him scrambling to his knees, entangling him in the bed sheets, and tumbling him to the floor. Lying stunned on the thick Turkish carpet, his confused conscience absorbed the soaring twenty-foot, shadow-boxed ceiling depicting classical heroes.

  “Kitty, Phoebe, or whoever-the-devil-you-are,” he spoke through clenched teeth. “This isn’t Carlton House, is it?”

  “No.”

  His heart beating apace, Ned willed himself first to breathe and then to modulate a tone verging on panic. “I was with DeVere last night. Where is DeVere?”

  “DeVere is locked safely in the linen closet.” She hugged her breasts, her expression suddenly wary. “Don’t you remember anything?”

  He vigorously shook his pounding head only to bring forth a chaotic kaleidoscope of last night’s events, and the impossible truth persisted to push its way to the surface.

  His gaze glued to the bed, Ned made a mechanical backward retreat to the center of the room where he had a clearer prospect of its crowning glory. His vision rose to the top of the headboard, to the heraldic shield seated betwixt the carved figures of a lion and a unicorn. His gaze slid with dread to the engraved scroll beneath. Dieu Et Mon Droit. God and my right, the motto of the king. His chest seized. The room began to spin. He looked to Phoebe, aware that the blood was draining from his face, and that his voice emerged as a strangled sound. “May the same God save me...for I’m going to be hung, drawn, and quartered for spending last night rutting in the King of England’s bed!”

  Chapter One

  Covent Garden Theatre, Westminster

  Although the normal flurry of activity persisted, with bodies coming and going and articles of clothing flying hither and yon, the communal dressing room of Covent Garden Theatre was a somber twin to its normally gleeful self, the chatter and bonhomie of the players subdued and even forced. What the company all knew but refused to voice aloud was that most of those performers not already taken on by Mr. Sheridan would be unemployed once tonight’s curtain dropped. It was the last performance of the season and the one that would officially close the venue for renovations needed to keep up with its chief competitor, the Theatre Royal at Drury Lane.

  It was Phoebe Scott’s third season. She had joined the troupe with dreams of gracing the stage as Ophelia or Lady MacBeth, but, to her growing frustration, she’d yet to advance beyond ladies’ maids and other bit comedic parts. The rest of the time, when she had no speaking parts, she earned her keep by the generosity of the deputy stage manager, Mr. Hull, who paid her five shillings per night to act as a tire woman to the lead actresses. Such was the case tonight, but with the doors closing tomorrow, even this meager income would soon be lost.

  Although she eked out the most parsimonious existence, Phoebe wondered how long her savings would keep her, and more dismally, if she would even have a chance of rejoining the theater troupe next season when it reopened its doors in all of its shining, new glory. With so little true acting credit to her name, her chances were slim. Tonight, however, she refused to allow the uncertainty of her future to dim her enjoyment of the show. It was her favorite play, Mrs. Cowley’s Belle’s Stratagem. In her three years at Covent Garden, Phoebe had never missed a performance of it and had even committed every bit of dialogue to heart.

  Donning her chambermaid’s costume, she forced a cheerful smile upon her painted lips and took herself off briskly to the leading actress’s private dressing room, where she would help to outfit the not so young Miss Younge for her starring role as Leticia. Knowing any number of surprises might lurk behind closed dressing room doors, Phoebe rapped thrice before entering, only to find the room devoid of the star player.

  “She ain’t ‘ere, luv,” said Mistress Andrews, an aged bit-part actress, now full-time wardrobe mistress.

  “Miss Younge? Not here?” Phoebe repeated blankly.

  “Aye. Whilst you know I hate to be the tale bearer, some says she wasn’t happy with her new contract and now claims to be bedridden with the ague.” The plump woman gave a conspiratorial wink. “And word is Mrs. Mattocks has a sprained ankle, though I hear she was seen driving in Hyde Park earlier today.”

  Before she could elaborate, Mr. Thomas Hull burst through the door with a rubicund face and jowls aquiver, shaking a sheet of parchment and looking apoplectic. “The devil you say! Miss Younge and Mrs. Mattocks, both? No one is permitted the ague or ankle sprains on a command performance night! The bloody ungrateful wretches! We’ve now thirty minutes to curtain, and I’ve no Leticia and no Mrs. Racket!”

  “No Leticia? No Mrs. Racket? You don’t mean to say—”

  Hull cut Phoebe off. “Cancel the performance? Let Hell and a thousand furies seize me before I let pampered actresses run roughshod over me. I’ll show them no one in this company is indispensable. The show bloody well will go on!”

  “But how are you to manage that when you want for two of your leading ladies?” the wardrobe mistress asked with a smirk.

  �
�I must ask you to reprise your last role, Peg.”

  “As Mrs. Racket?” She laughed outright. “Even if I did by some miracle remember all my lines, little good ‘twill do when ye also want for a Leticia.”

  Phoebe’s heart slammed against her breastbone, her gaze flying with uncertainty from Mrs. Andrews to Mr. Hull. Yet desperate to grasp this once-in-a-lifetime chance, she stepped forward. “I—I know the parts, Mr. Hull—Leticia, Lady Touchwood, Miss Ogle, Kitty Willis. I can play any of them. I swear I won’t disappoint you. Please, will you give me a chance?”

  “Hmph.” Hull regarded her with narrow-eyed scrutiny while Phoebe held her breath, feeling much like a horse at auction. Before Hull could say anything more, Phoebe spun around, grabbed an ornate fan from the dressing table, and transformed into the character of Leticia.

  She sashayed across the room, pert nose raised above her fluttering fan. “Men are all dissemblers, flatterers, deceivers! Have I not heard a thousand times of my air, my eyes, my shape—all made for victory!” She lowered the fan and struck a pose. “And today, when I bent my whole heart on one poor conquest, I have proved that all those imputed charms amount to nothing.” She snapped her fan shut with a toss of her ringlets.

  Turning eagerly to Mr. Hull, she bit into her lip as she studied the aging actor’s face with desperate hope and apprehension. He regarded her for a long moment, his expression unreadable.

  “While there is an air of freshness about you that is sorely lacking in our other performers of late, and I daresay such a fair face and figure as yours would cover a multitude of sins with our male audience...” Her pulse sped with rising hopes only to be dashed back to earth. “However, I fear I can’t risk the disfavor I would incur by allowing you a starring role.”

  “Disfavor? What do you mean?” Phoebe asked in bewilderment.

  “The disfavor of our chief patrons, my dear. Surely, you can’t have lived amongst us for so long without understanding how it is.”

  “How what is?”

  “Patronage, my dear. The theater is but an imitation of that world around us and as such, thrives on patronage. Anyone who aspires to be anyone must have a benefactor. The more powerful the benefactor, the better one’s roles and the more profitable for us all.” He chucked her under the chin. “Surely you understand that by now?”

  Phoebe nodded with dawning comprehension. Deep down she had known but had chosen not to acknowledge the stage manager’s frequent role as pimp to the noblemen who patronized the dressing rooms. Many times, she had witnessed actresses using their connections with noble lovers to further their careers and had seen the initial flames of passion burn out. The gentleman always moved on to fresher conquests, leaving the lady to seek another protector. It was a vicious cycle and not the kind of life she had envisioned in joining the theater.

  “I’m sorry, my dear. While you do show some potential, and with work, I could very well picture you as the delectable ingénue, Leticia, I fear I must move Miss Stewart into the role.”

  Phoebe’s heart contracted with a painful mix of disappointment and disillusionment. The lines she had just spoken echoed her thoughts —she had once more engaged her whole heart for nothing. Naively, she had believed hard work and perseverance would prevail, but now she wondered if she would ever have another chance. Yet she refused to give up completely.

  “But surely, Mr. Hull, if you must switch the parts of the leading players, there is some small role I can play? Please,” she begged. “I won’t disappoint you.”

  “Indeed? But I question how badly you want it—”

  “Desperately.”

  “But what are you willing to sacrifice?” His gaze narrowed as it swept her top to toe. “If I grant your wish and put you on stage tonight, I wonder if you are prepared to make the best use of it?”

  Phoebe knew what he was asking, and it was the last thing she wanted—to barter what little she had preserved of her self-respect. Having already experienced the faithlessness of one man’s heart, her greatest fear was to base her entire future on another’s fickle affections. Experience had taught her the folly of trusting pretty words and the emptiness of murmured promises. She had once given freely, and it had cost her dearly. Yet, she now found herself at an unavoidable, unenviable, and ultimately inevitable crossroad.

  At least this time, she stood to reap a tangible reward for her favors. What more did she really have to lose? “Yes, I will,” she whispered her life-changing decision. “I will make the most of any chance you give me.”

  “Very well then.” Hull nodded to the wardrobe mistress who tossed her an elaborate silk gown with a feathered and bejeweled domino. Phoebe caught them with a racing heart. “Kitty’s masquerade costume? I have the part of Kitty?”

  Hull gave a curt nod. “Apropos, don’t you think? If it is patronage you seek, a well-played Kitty shall surely deliver. I just pray you don’t squander the opportunity...as it could well be your last.”

  “But it is a meager six lines.” Phoebe stared dismally after his departing back.

  “E’s right enough, duckie,” Mrs. Andrews clucked. “’Tis not the lines but the delivery what counts. Every great actress knows when a part is well-played, the audience believes the player for the real person. Kitty is a shameless little baggage. If your six little lines are well-played, you will have gents queued at your dressing room door—that is if you have the pluck for the part. That, dearie, is the decision you must needs make.”

  Accepting the role of the disreputable Kitty would certainly determine her path. With this truth staring her otherwise bleak-looking future right in the face, Phoebe lifted her chin, squared her shoulders, and jutted her bosom with a hand placed saucily on her hip. “If that is so, Mrs. Andrews, I promise to be a Kitty they won’t soon forget.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Boodles Club, St. James

  Sir Edward Chambers ducked into the crowded public room, eagerly scanning the occupants. His gaze lighted upon the individual he sought, and a broad grin threatened to split his face as he elbowed his way to the familiar figure. “Hang me if it isn’t the devil’s agent!”

  “Chambers? B’gad, it is that Dull Dog Ned!” Viscount Ludovic DeVere rose to clap his best friend heartily on the back. “I’d nigh forgotten what you looked like after all this time! What curse has kept you away for so long? We’ve what? Three years to catch up on?”

  “Aye.” Ned sobered. “I quit coming to town when I lost Annalee. There seemed little purpose after that.”

  “Three years is long enough to wear black,” DeVere said. “’Tis damn-nigh time you came back to the living, and I’ve a mind to be your bloody guide!” DeVere signaled the drawer. “Damme, but let’s make it a bowl of royal punch. By the bye, Ned, there’s a new nunnery in St. James—”

  Ned raised a hand. “The effort is wasted on me, my friend. I’ve not your taste for tarts and even less yen to acquire the pox.”

  Ludovic laughed. “Things have changed since you last came to town. The better houses make accommodation for a gentleman’s safety by providing cundums and such.”

  “I truly have no interest, Vic.”

  DeVere gave a knowing grin. “Then you’ve finally taken a mistress. I’ve an eye on a new one myself. She appeared out of nowhere closing night at Covent Garden Theatre. Quite a taking little thing and knows it too. The baggage turned them all away at the stage door which, of course, only added to her appeal. I’m determined to have her.” He gave his friend a cynical smile. “If she’s like all the rest, she’ll give herself to the highest bidder, but competition only makes the fruits of victory all the sweeter. Perhaps you should give her a go, ol’ chap. You are not without means and have a certain rustic charm.”

  Ned shook his head in abashment. “I’ve no wish to use any woman in such a manner.”

  DeVere looked first confounded and then guarded. “Don’t tell me you’ve acquired a penchant for buggery?”

  “Gad, no!” Ned exclaimed with a shudder. “Is it impo
ssible for you to comprehend that a man might choose to simply control his baser urges?”

  “You mean celibacy?” DeVere regarded his comrade as if he had two heads.

  “Indeed,” Ned said. “You needn’t look like I’m a freak of nature!”

  The exchange was interrupted by the drawer returning with a large bowl of royal punch. DeVere filled two cups with a scowl, as if deliberating the most profound of philosophical questions. “Why the devil would any man choose to deny himself an essential element of life? Every man has needs, Ned. Indeed, medical science advocates the regular emission of the male essence to ensure good health. Damme, but I surely can’t fathom it!” He shook his head and emptied his cup in one long draught. “Then if it isn’t good, clean, plentiful quim that’s lured you to town, what has?”

  Ned hesitated. “If you must know, it’s a delicate matter pertaining to my daughter.”

  DeVere blinked. “You have a daughter?”

  Ned made an exasperated noise. “Come now, DeVere! You know I do. You were at her christening and are, after all, her bloody godfather!”

  “Was I sober at the time?” DeVere’s lips quirked into a mischievous smile. “Just how old is little Vesta now?”

  “Little Vesta is no longer so little,” Ned said. “She’s past seventeen and coming into the full bedeviling bloom of womanhood. I hardly know her anymore.”

  “Seventeen?” DeVere gave a low whistle. “Has it been so very long?”

  “Aye. Eighteen years next month since Annalee and I married. We still miss her terribly and would both have been lost long ago without the redoubtable Diana.”

  “Diana?” A strange look passed fleetingly over the viscount’s face.

  “Yes. Annalee’s cousin, Lady Diana Palmerston-Wriothesley. I can’t believe you could have forgotten her.”

  “Palmerston-Wriothesley? Yes, I do remember now. She’s the relict of the feckless baron who gamed away his entire fortune?”