“Language, Micah.”
“Devil take it. There are no ladies present, and even if there were…”
“You’d probably say it anyway,” Richard sighed.
“With the right audience,” Micah groaned. “I want you to take her mind off of marrying that…dandy.”
“I’d like her to marry me—but that seems an uphill battle at the moment.”
“Why?” Micah rounded on him again. “If you hadn’t acted like the village idiot, we wouldn’t be having this conversation—she’d be happily married to you right now.”
“Laying the blame at my door? That’s low, I admire your attitude.”
Micah grinned. “You can woo and win her. I know you can.”
“Under ordinary circumstances I would agree with you. However, your sister has lost her bloody mind.”
“No…she’s just having a rebellious moment. I bet she’s concocted this whole plot just to make you come running after her. She decided you needed a good kick in the trousers.”
“I wouldn’t be so certain. She’s actually come to blows with Lord Longworth’s son.”
“I never liked that little blighter. He always comes above his station and looks down his nose at his betters.”
“They came to fisticuffs over—and take heed of this, she fought him because he insulted her imaginary family.”
“Lydia always has been passionate about defending her kin. You have to admire her honor.”
“What? You missed the point, old man. She didn’t fight the little shite because she was defending you or…your mother…or even one of her sisters…but she was defending the family she created out of thin air.”
“She’s always been resourceful.”
“You’re not going to see the problem with this are you?”
“No.”
“Be that as it may, she could have lost the match.”
“Highly unlikely. I taught her all she needed to know. If she couldn’t thrash a little bastard like Oscar Longworth, then, obviously, I failed as her teacher, and that would reflect badly on me.” Micah looked more at ease now, he sprawled back into the chair he had recently vacated.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“I am rather. What’s not to enjoy? I’ve put Lydia on the path to you…she’ll be your problem in I’d say, oh, about two months, maybe less.”
“You really are begging for a punch in the nose.”
“Am I?” Micah grinned. “Let’s be serious.” He leaned forward. “You don’t want Lydia to fall into the arms of another man, and right now, while I’m more worried about Newson than Mandeville, you should be worried about both. Should she choose Mandeville, I wouldn’t be too bothered. He’s a fine chap, from a fine old family. Mama would be overjoyed and I wouldn’t complain at all. He’s not a peer like you, but that hardly matters to us.”
“Micah!” Richard exclaimed. “Are you on my side, or aren’t you?”
“Well,” Micah paused. “To be honest…I don’t know. You have hurt my sister in the past, however, our history tips the scale in your favor. While I know of Mandeville, I know you, and your family—and I would rather our two noble houses join together. Still, Mandeville wouldn’t be a bad match, and he’d be a good partner for me when I want to brush up on my boxing skills. I fear I might be getting a little rusty.”
“Lydia is proof you’re not getting rusty. So…you organized it all, didn’t you?” Micah looked up at the ceiling, attempting to feign ignorance. “The men who drive her, and…” He thought back to some of the spectators at the match. “How many fellows have you employed?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Micah said, reaching for his watch and making a show of inspecting the time. “I must away shortly, Rose expects me back by four.”
“Micah, I grow tired of you beating around the bush. Admit it.”
“Admit what?”
“Everley,” he growled.
“Fine. I relent. Yes, I knew about my sister’s yearning for adventure, and while I knew she could handle herself in some situations, I also knew she’s far too trusting and naïve about the ways of the world—especially the ways of the world in a busy metropolis like London.”
“It must be costing you a pretty penny.”
“It matters not. My sister’s safety is priceless.”
“Aye, that it is. I wonder if she realizes how lucky she is.”
“Are you in, then?”
“In what? Ever since I lost my heart to Lydia I’ve been in for a penny in for a pound.”
Micah grinned. “It took you long enough to realize what we all knew all along. You can be rather daft, and your time chasing after that other woman put quite a bit of distance between you and Lydia. She views it as the event that changed your attitude toward her. I do try to tell her that you’ve always been an annoying popinjay but she will hear none of it.”
“If you weren’t such an old and dear friend, I do believe I might have already drawn your cork.”
“You had her thinking that she was beneath your touch. I do not like to see my sister pained so.”
“I didn’t…I wouldn’t…what was she thinking?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Seeing a gentleman—who happens to be a lord—toss you aside and pursue another woman might have given her that idea.”
“I never tossed her aside—”
“Let’s not argue. I say you lavish her with attention and dispose of Newson.”
“What do you want me to do? Challenge him to a bloody duel?”
“It’s not a bad idea, but I doubt Lydia would go along with it. She’s infernally stubborn, and you know, I do believe she gets in her own way sometimes. You two share that much in common.”
“I have made a bargain with her.”
At those words, Micah looked intrigued. He narrowed his eyes at him. “What kind of a bargain?”
“It’s nothing salacious. I didn’t agree to show her the pleasures of the flesh, or anything like that.”
Micah looked a little irritated. “If you had done that—and I wouldn’t be surprised if my sister was curious about that side of life—but if you had done that, I definitely would need to wipe the floor with you.”
“You could try…”
“What bargain did you strike with Lydia?”
“She agreed to marry me, if I proved her wrong about Newson.”
“What do you have to prove?”
“I have to prove to her that he’s only interested in marrying her to acquire her dowry.”
“Well, that’s quite obviously true. Why do you think I can’t abide the man? He actually had the nerve to approach me about the dowry she would bring to the marriage. It seems he wants to marry an heiress. He asked me if she was worth it.”
“And you didn’t tell Lydia?”
“Rose told me not to do it. She said that it would only hurt Lydia and that Lydia was a smart girl and she’d find out the truth for herself given enough time to do so. But she hasn’t discovered it yet, has she? I wondered if she was aware of it, and she’d decided to cast a blind eye to it, just to spite me.”
“If that’s the case, it shouldn’t be too hard for me to push Newson into confessing all.”
“He can’t resist a bet.”
“Is that so?”
“Aye. He’s a proper little peacock. Make him strut for the crowd. He likes that. He’s a harmless enough fellow, but his pride will always be his downfall.”
“Good. I will set him up for a big fall.” Briskly, Richard rubbed his hands together. He couldn’t wait. He was a good little puppet master…now he just had to tug on Newson’s strings. “Are we done, then?”
“As long as we are both agreed. You will court my sister. Court her, and make her remember why she lost her heart to you in the first place. All she needs is a gentle prodding, and while Rose and I have done our utmost best, we can’t seem to sway her to see the light. She is determined to spite herself, so in turn, she can spite you. The truth of
the matter is, I do not know if it shall even wound you the way she intends. Do you feel anything in that granite heart of yours, Richard, old boy?”
“Of course, I feel, Micah,” he growled. “I feel quite deeply, indeed.” There was a burning passion that simmered far beneath his cool exterior, and if Micah wasn’t careful, he was going to bear witness to that deeply hidden part of his personality. He kept his passions bound deeply within him; in his line of work, he needed a nature that was not easily riled.
“There. You admitted it. So I can depend upon you to set right what you have set wrong?”
“Aye. I shall do my utmost best.”
“You will court her? And make her your lady wife?”
“Aye.”
Richard’s heart was pounding loudly. Gads. He would marry Lydia in a heartbeat, all he’d have to do was fetch a vicar. He had had ample time to search his heart. He wanted Lydia. He wanted to possess her body, mind and soul, but…after all of his idiotic actions in that regard, would she still have him? He’d made some progress with her already by becoming privy to her secret regarding her fondness for boxing. Even so, she still harbored a bit of resentment toward him, and he needed to open her heart and claim full possession of it.
“And you have no scruples against such a match? I failed her once, why do you think I shan’t fail her again?”
“If you fail her again, you can depend upon one thing, old chum of mine. I daresay I shall call you out, and I shall give you a proper thrashing.”
Richard smiled. His old friend probably would try. Would he succeed? There was no telling. Micah just might best him. However, Richard wasn’t as ill equipped as many thought. He could fight and he wasn’t afraid to—the problem was, he usually held himself back, fearing what he might do in the heat of the moment. Still, Micah had a lot of faith in him. He could only pray he was worthy of such loyalty.
“Have we struck a bargain, then? Shall you claim my sister’s heart, and by doing so, woo and win her hand in marriage? All you must do is make her remember what she once felt for you—what I still believe she feels for you to this day.”
“Well, bloody hell, Micah, that’s the problem, isn’t it? I never courted her affections the first time around. I only showed her indifference, I never saw what I had until it was too late, and to make matters even worse, I went chasing after another woman. How can I possibly redeem myself in her eyes?”
“We men tend to make a mull of things on a regular basis. It’s your job to fix what you broke. You have a second chance. Do not squander it this time around. I warn you on that front. I’m counting on you to save my sister from of a life of holy drudgery. She is an honorable lass. I fear she will marry Newson instead of you or Mandeville, and live a life of misery just to prove to you that she could mend her broken heart and find happiness, even if that happiness is just an illusion.”
“I suppose I should be grateful she’s turned her attention to Newson. If she was pursuing Mandeville, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”
“Bloody right, we wouldn’t. I cannot endlessly reproach you for your actions in the past.”
A lump formed in Richard’s throat. “I was a ruddy blind fool. I freely admit it, Micah. I made a thorough cake of myself. I ought to have seen it. I ought to have noticed how she felt about me. I shall always rue that I lost Lydia, we were once such good friends, and that I went to pursue my happiness in all of the wrong places, and to crown the whole, I went after Miss Duffy, when I should have been chasing after Lydia. I never made Lydia feel like she was wanted, and I don’t know if there’s a way to ever make up for it. And now, now, it might be too late for us. Mr. Newson has won her heart, and her hand, and I have lost the match.” He was putting on a grand show for Micah’s benefit. He couldn’t very well tell Lydia’s brother that he had considered stealing the little chit away and seducing her so she would be obliged to marry him. He rather thought that might end badly for him. Micah would certainly use his fists on him if he revealed that truth to the man. However, it had weighed heavily on his mind. Stealing her away and making her his own seemed particularly tempting at the moment.
“She hasn’t agreed to marry him yet. And now that you craftily made that marriage bargain with her, she won’t. There was a time when she was completely devoted to you, Richard. She only had eyes for you. You were her everything. You were her hero. You were the sun, the moon and the very wind that stirred her heart. She’s loved you for as long as I can recall, and yet…everyone knew it, but somehow, you seemed completely oblivious to it all. How is it that you spent so much time with her and never noticed how she truly felt?” It was as if Micah was twisting the knife in his gut. He couldn’t tell him, it wouldn’t make anything better. Sometimes, you could not walk down a path that had already been trod.
Micah scrubbed his hand over his face and groaned. “I’m trying to secure my sister’s happiness, and since you will make her undeniably happy, you are the husband for her.”
Richard snorted. “You could just let her find her own happiness without interfering.”
“And let her believe she’s finding it with Newson? No. Marrying the wrong man will ruin her life. I won’t see her turn into bitter shells like my other sisters. They married who they thought could progress their social aspirations and they all merely contend with their husbands now. There is no love, Richard. Would you cast Lydia to that terrible fate? Right now, the poor girl is plagued with indecision. Absolutely tortured by it. I can see it. Rose can see it. Lydia sees no other way. The problem is, she wants a family, Richard. She doesn’t want to become an old maid, she certainly wouldn’t want to be saddled with the nickname Lady Thornback—and in order to avoid that ghastly fate, she will have to marry, and right now, she thinks that that fool Newson is the best she can ever hope to land. She’s completely oblivious to Mandeville, isn’t she?”
“Indeed.”
Thornback was the unfortunate nickname sometimes given to old maids.
“I thought as much. She believes she only deserves him, and she’s doing it to punish herself. She could have had any other man…they were all paying attention to her, and yet, she singled that bloody buffoon out for her affections. I could lay the sole blame on your sister’s shoulders. She got poor Lydia involved in competing against him in those foolish races out in Wiltshire. She took my Lydia’s spirited ways and turned her into a right and proper little hellion.”
“Oh, I say, that is rather harsh, and like I said before if you’d like to blame Julia you can take it up with Freddie, and I daresay you won’t do that. You seem to forget, as her husband, Freddie, poor chap, is now her keeper.”
Micah paled a bit. “I… No. I don’t want Freddie involved. If the two of us came to fisticuffs, it wouldn’t end well for either of us.”
“For you, more like. You might be quicker on your feet and you might know how to make those fists of yours dance in a dizzying display, but Freddie has sheer brute strength on his side. I say he’d end up walloping you into the ground—or just putting you down and sitting on you until someone rescued you.”
Micah grinned. “I don’t know. I’m pretty tough. I just might surprise you. Freddie and I have had our disagreements before. Then, it’s settled. The die is cast. I shall be calling you brother before we know it. Good luck, old man…you’re going to need it.”
“Then, she is mine? I can do whatever is necessary to enforce that bargain?”
“Aye…within reason.”
“Jolly good. I think I’m going to enjoy this.”
“Just don’t enjoy it too much.”
“I make no promises on that front. What if it doesn’t work? She already suspects that Newson just wants her for her dowry. Even if he freely admits it in a public forum, she might decide to marry him anyway. What do you propose we do if that happens?”
“Ah, that can be simply handled. You, my friend, shall have to ruin her.”
“I beg your pardon?” Richard asked, aghast at what Micah had just prop
osed. Now, he hadn’t expected him to say that, exactly.
“I said, you shall have to ruin her. I never thought you were hard of hearing.”
“I heard you, I just couldn’t quite believe what you said. Have you lost your wits, man? What sort of brother would propose such a terribly wicked deed?”
“The sort of brother who is determined to marry his sister off to the right man. And you, sir, are the right man. You don’t have to ruin her in the way that’s jumped into your mind. You merely have to compromise her reputation. Do something scandalous in a very public place, and with enough witnesses, so she shall have no other recourse but to marry you, past bargains be damned.”
“Ruin her, then marry her, aye?”
“Aye. In that short order.” Micah grinned. “Of course, if you do anything to truly hurt her, you shall find yourself in my black book and you will have to account for it. Is that quite clear?”
Yes. He understood Micah’s terms, and he was amenable to them, even though he was a little hesitate to undertake them.
“I understand,” Richard sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. A dull ache had started right behind his eyes. “Doing so shall earn her ire.”
“You’ll find creative ways to earn her forgiveness. We men aren’t entirely powerless when it comes to softening a lady’s heart. Now, then. I shall have us shake on it, and speak no more of it, as you have accepted your courtly mission.”
Richard was so close to having everything he’d ever wanted. “I shall with all haste attempt to woo Lady Lydia. I will…” he sighed, and paused. “I shall…” Damnation. He couldn’t put it to words. He couldn’t do that to poor dear, sweet, Lydia. He couldn’t bring that kind of shame to her door. She deserved better than that. His thoughts went to James Newson. He was an all right sort of a chap…he wasn’t a brute. He wasn’t a fiend. He would be a dependable sort of husband, mayhap a bit of a crashing bore. Plenty of men pursued women for the money they’d bring to the marriage. He would treat her with the respect she deserved. As the images of them together coalesced in his mind’s eye, something akin to jealousy stirred within him. He imagined them embracing. He imagined Lydia in another man’s bed. He looked down at his tightly clenched fists that were quickly turning an alarming shade of vermillion. Lydia would marry Newson over his dead body. He would fight for her—and this time, damn it, he wouldn’t lose.
Delightfully Dangerous (Knights Without Armor Book 1) Page 8
