In addition to Michael’s findings, Hope was experiencing her own distress by the names on the list. One of them was extremely familiar to her…Mr. Richard Butt. He was a financial advisor—her father’s financial advisor, in fact. The very one she watched carrying out her father’s monetary affairs when visiting the Exchange. His name on the list could very possibly mean…
Not sharing her fears with Michael just yet, Hope quickly scanned the records in front of her for any indication of her father’s involvement.
Feeling a strange tendril of dread crawling up her spine, Hope slowly looked up from her own frantic perusal to find Michael staring at her like he had just seen his best friend killed.
With her heart in her throat, Hope forced herself to ask, “What is it, Michael?”
“I found, ah, another name for the list. It is…it is…”
Tears welling up in her eyes, Hope whispered, “It is my father, isn’t it?”
A bleakness appeared in Michael’s eyes as he nodded. “You knew?”
Shaking her head, she replied, “No, but…” The tears in her eyes began streaming down her cheeks as she said, “This man, Richard Butt.” Hope paused to show Michael the name. “He is my father’s financial advisor. When I saw his name…well, I had hoped…but I guess… Oh Michael—” Too choked up to speak any further, Hope simply looked at him in anguish and despair.
“Oh, Hope,” Michael sighed, pulling Hope into his arms, “I am so sorry.”
Giving into the warmth and comfort of Michael’s arms, Hope finally allowed herself to cry in earnest. How could this be happening? Yes, her father had been acting suspiciously as of late and he was hoarding money, but did that make him a criminal of this magnitude? Hope would not…could not…believe it.
Sitting up, Hope wiped her eyes with the handkerchief Michael had thoughtfully handed her and she looked at him with determination. “There is no way my father could have done this. I refuse to even consider the idea.”
Reaching up to cup Hope’s still damp cheek, Michael replied softly, “Then it will be up to us to prove his innocence.”
“You don’t believe he did it, either?” Hope asked, astonished that Michael would so willingly discard what was some pretty damning evidence, even by her own estimation.
“I don’t know,” Michael said honestly, “but I believe in you. And if you say he didn’t do it, then that is good enough for me.”
And Hope simply melted.
“Oh, Michael,” she sighed and, without even thinking, she leaned in and kissed him squarely on the lips. She was surprised how warm and dry they were and when they began to move softly against hers, Hope thought she would die from the pleasure it evoked. Never in her wildest dreams did she think a kiss felt like this.
It was then she realized what she was doing. Hope broke off the kiss and was on her feet so quickly she almost fell over. Covering her mouth with her hand, she blushed so deeply she was sure her hair was going to turn red.
“I’m so— Oh my G— I never…” Hope stuttered and stammered in complete mortification. “Ohhh…” she moaned as she plopped back down in her chair and buried her face in her hands. What was the matter with her? Had all her morals flown right out the window? Proper young ladies did not let themselves be kissed and they certainly did not initiate the kissing. What must Michael think of her?
…
Michael was, frankly, in shock.
It had all happened so quickly, but he was rather sure that Miss Hope Stuckeley had just kissed him. She had kissed him, of all things. A positively goofy smile spread across his face, and he reached up to touch his still tingling lips. It was unconventional, to say the least, but Michael found he was not at all upset that Hope had taken matters into her own hands.
However, the same could not be said for Hope. She looked so completely horrified, it almost hurt for Michael to look at her. But he refused to let her turn what was the most amazing event of his life into something shameful. There was something downright wicked about being kissed by Hope Stuckeley. She was so prim and proper on the outside, but Michael was beginning to see that inside…inside, Hope was pure woman. It couldn’t hurt to help her explore this side of her, could it?
Michael chuckled at Hope’s consternation but didn’t try to placate her. Instead he pulled her into his arms once more. Their first kiss had been far too quick, in his highly biased opinion.
Michael breathed in Hope’s scent like a man starving for air. When their lips finally met, Michael reveled in the spark of desire that had him tingling again. This was what a kiss was meant to be. More than just lips against lips, but soul intertwining with soul.
As Michael explored Hope’s petal-soft lips, he wondered why it had taken him so long to realize what an untapped treasure Hope was. He supposed he had been too focused on his own sudden change of status to pay attention to those around him. The last thing on his mind had been finding a possible mate. He still wasn’t sure if he was ready for such a thing, but in that moment, with Hope wound tightly in his arms, Michael didn’t care.
Spurred on by his own thoughts, Michael deepened the kiss. When Hope parted her lips at his insistence, he immediately delved into the warm, sweet depths of her mouth and reveled in the taste of her. Groaning with pleasure, Michael tightened his hold on Hope as one hand worked its way down her back and to the curve of her buttocks in gleeful exploration.
After many minutes of sheer pleasure…and torture…Michael knew that he had to put a stop to this madness. They were in her study with the door wide open, for goodness sake. Anyone at any time could walk in and catch them in this indecorous act.
Therefore, with an act of sheer willpower, Michael slowly ended the kiss. When they finally parted, he simply looked at Hope. She was smiling softly and her eyes were closed in apparent bliss, and Michael thought she was the prettiest thing he had ever seen.
…
When her lashes fluttered open, the first thing Hope saw was Michael looking at her. And she blushed. Looking away shyly, she pressed a hand to her cheek and then waved at Michael with a vaguely shooing motion. “Stop,” she said coyly.
“Stop what?” Michael replied.
“Stop looking at me like that,” Hope said with an embarrassed giggle. How did one face a man after a kiss like that? Surely she should not have been so willing, so eager. She felt positively wanton, but for the life of her, she could not bring herself to feel ashamed or regretful. But that did not make looking at Michael any easier.
Chuckling, Michael leaned in for one last sweet kiss before turning and gathering up all the committee documents. “It’s getting late, my dear. And if I stay in this room one more minute with you looking like that, I will never leave.”
“Oh, all right,” Hope said with lament.
“I think the people we should look into for more information are Cochrane-Johnstone and that advisor, Butt. I think the key to this scheme lies with them. We need to come up with a plan and maybe do some investigation tomorrow. Can you meet me at Lady Lancaster’s tomorrow afternoon around four?”
Hope thought about that a moment. “Yes, I don’t see why not.”
“And if the day goes rather late, will that be a problem?”
“No,” Hope answered quite honestly. “I could probably stay out all night and no one would even notice.”
At Michael’s surprised look, Hope shrugged. “My step-mother and I are not close and my father is always at the club these days.”
…
Struck by a sense of complete understanding, Michael suddenly realized why he felt such a connection to Hope. He, too, had grown up without a mother and with a disinterested father. More often than not as he was growing up, Michael felt alone in the world without anyone to care for him or even about him. Perhaps that was why joining the army, and later the war office, seemed so right for Michael. There he was needed, appreciated, and frankly, given more rules and guidance than most would like, but he thrived upon it.
He wondered
if Hope had joined Elizabeth’s club for much the same reason; she felt lonely and adrift. “Very well, then. I will see you on the morrow at Lady Lancaster’s.”
Hope nodded smartly. “Four in the afternoon. I will be there.”
Michael grinned and with one last kiss—this time on the cheek (No need to test myself further, Michael thought reasonably)—he made his farewells.
Chapter Ten
“Nothing is really real until one has shared it with his friends.”
~The Duke of Lancaster
Hope was still walking on air as she made her way downstairs the next morning, but her good mood deflated a bit when she did not find her father at the dining table for breakfast. That meant one of two things: either her father had not come home last night, or he had left very early that morning. Hope was more inclined to believe the former than the latter. In her experience, Mr. Stuckeley was not an early riser, evidenced by the fact that breakfast in the Stuckeley home wasn’t even laid until after nine a.m. most days.
However, that did beg the question of why he did not come home. Yes, he was spending more and more time away from the house, but he always managed to make it home to join Hope for the early meal. These days it was their only real opportunity to see each other.
Disappointed and rather worried, Hope decided she wasn’t particularly hungry so, grabbing only a warm scone and a cup of chocolate, she wandered through the house to her study. Rivers had left the daily paper on her desk (as was his habit), and Hope was looking forward to reading it for any new details about the events that had happened two days ago.
Has it really only been two days? Hope wondered to herself. Surely more time had passed than that when one considered all that had happened to her in that time. The most important of it taking place right there in her study, in fact. Rather remarkable, that.
Feeling a bit of a smile return to her lips, Hope munched on her scone and drank her chocolate as she leisurely perused the news. As she suspected, there was an article on the oddness of the soldiers riding through town spreading the news of Napoleon’s death. The article also reported, in no uncertain terms, that Napoleon was still alive and that the billet parade had been a massive hoax, most presumably perpetrated in an attempt to defraud the stock exchange. Unfortunately, no more than that was reported.
“It seems I know more than the London Chronicle for once,” Hope said glibly, folding up the paper and looking at the clock. It was not yet noon. Still plenty of time before she had to leave for Lady Lancaster’s to meet with Michael. Michael, Hope thought with a sigh and so many questions. First, he arrived with flowers that had pleased her to no end, only to have those feelings immediately quashed by his courting “proposal.” He seemed to be attracted to her one minute and almost running from her the next. Yes, he had kissed her, but only after she had made an utter fool out of herself by kissing him first. What else could he think but that she was a lady of easy virtue? Lord, but she hoped he didn’t think that. She wanted him to respect her.
“Hmmmm, someone has some explaining to do,” a familiar voice drawled from the doorway.
Snapping to attention, Hope looked up to see Sarah and Emily standing there, staring at her.
Rivers was under standing orders to let Hope’s friends run freely amok in the Stuckeley house. It went against his nature to let someone in unannounced, but orders were orders; therefore, at any given time, Hope could find herself suddenly entertaining a friend or two. And that was the way she liked it.
Usually…
Trying not to blush, Hope replied airily, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Well,” Emily continued, “originally, Sarah and I were going to ask why you were absent from Rose’s dinner party last night, but now we absolutely must know why you look so utterly guilty…”
“And does the look have anything to do with the also very absent Lord Lichfield?” Sarah added slyly.
Hope watched as the girls approached her and, for the life of her, she could not get the image of two animals circling their prey out of her head. When they finally settled into the chairs across the desk from her, Hope heaved a sigh of relief. For a moment, she wasn’t sure if they were going to sit politely across from her or wrestle her to the ground and sit on her until she confessed her every sin. Which, admittedly, were few, but it was the principle of the thing.
Kissing a man to which one is not married isn’t a sin, right? Hope thought frantically. No, no, of course it wasn’t. Now, if he were a married man, then she might have something to worry about in that regard, but he wasn’t…and she wasn’t…so it wasn’t.
Once again sure that her soul was safe, Hope returned her attentions to the matter at hand. “As it happens, I was working on a case last night.”
“And…?” Sarah prompted.
“And what?”
“And unless it was the case of the missing canary, and you are the one who swallowed it, a mere mission would not explain that look.” Sarah stared at Hope pointedly. At her continued reticence, both Sarah and Emily leaned forward and stared menacingly at their friend.
“All right, all right,” Hope said, throwing up her hands. “I may have had a little help from Lord Lichfield…”
“Ah-ha!” both women exclaimed in unison.
“What kind of help are we talking about here?” Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow.
“The kind of help that involves sifting through piles of paperwork and compiling a suspect list.”
“Suspected of what?” Emily inquired at the same time Sarah blurted out, “What! No kissing or anything?”
Both Emily and Hope turned to gape openly at Sarah. Generally, kissing was not spoken of so blatantly in polite circles; however, Sarah was never one to stand on convention. She simply crossed her arms and looked back at her friends, completely nonplussed.
Turning to the now clearly blushing Hope, Emily said, “I would like to withdraw my question and instead second Sarah’s inquiry.”
“Of course you would,” Hope muttered, shaking her head.
Sarah nodded approvingly at Emily, and they looked at Hope.
Hope, giving in to the fact that she was not going to win this battle, sighed and said, “Fine. I will admit that there may have been some romance involved—”
“I knew it,” Sarah chortled. Leaning forward to rest her chin in her hands, she added breathlessly, “Tell us everything—and don’t leave anything out.”
Emily nodded as she, too, got nice and comfortable.
Rolling her eyes, Hope tried to appear put out by the request, but truth be told, she was fairly bursting with the need to tell someone, anyone, just how confused she was. And who better than two of her best friends? Especially these two, who were both still searching for their own “happily ever afters.”
“Well, to tell you the story properly, I must go back a few days, to the morning I went to the Stock Subscription Room to investigate some strange trades…”
…
More than an hour later and after many, many interruptions, Hope was finally able to finish with, “and after one last lingering kiss on the cheek, Michael left, vowing he would see me ‘on the morrow.’”
At that, all three girls sighed in unison and spent the next few moments lost in their own thoughts.
Emily was the first to break their reverie. “Oh, Hope…that is the most amazing tale. But also some unexpected behavior from Michael. From beginning to end, it seems. I wonder at the change.”
Sarah, of course, added, “Not an end, Emily…a beginning. Just think, Hope, this could be just the beginning.”
As hopeful as she was, Hope felt the same doubt as Emily. It was just a kiss, after all. “I know, Sarah. It could be a beginning. We’ll just have to wait and see. I’m starting to realize that the men in our imaginations can be vastly different than the men in reality. But who knows, any day now, the men of our dreams could fall in love with us and we would be just as happy as Hannah. I can feel it in the air.”
“Stranger things have happened,” Hope replied jauntily before standing. “Now then, ladies, I have an appointment, as you are aware…”
Sarah and Emily rose to their feet amiably enough. “Of course. You are planning to investigate the financial advisor this afternoon, correct?” Emily confirmed.
Hope nodded as she made her way around the desk to escort her friends to the door. “Hopefully, we will be able to tie him to the hoax somehow.”
“I suspect a list of his clients may shed a bit more light on other possible perpetrators.”
Focusing her attention on gathering her cape and pelisse, Hope hummed a non-committal, “Mmm-hmm.”
Hope did not like to keep things from her friends, but in her retelling of the events of the last few days, she purposefully left out any mention of her father. Honestly, Hope wasn’t sure she could bear to see the pity that was sure to be in their eyes. They would support her completely, tell her that, of course, her father was innocent, but all the while, they would wonder…wonder if perhaps the man wasn’t guilty after all. How could they not wonder, Hope thought sadly, when she, herself, felt a niggling doubt?
Sighing, Hope put a smile on her face before she turned to her friends once again. “Would either of you care to accompany me to Lady Lancaster’s?”
“We both will, naturally,” Sarah replied in a no-nonsense manner. “We did come to call to enjoy your company. Why ever would we cut our visit short, if it is not necessary to do so?”
Emily agreed heartily and Hope suddenly found her smile much easier to come by than just moments before. With friends such as these, how could one be sad for long?
Chapter Eleven
Great knowledge does not always equal great wisdom.
Tempting Her Reluctant Viscount (Entangled Scandalous) Page 7
