The Townsbridge's Series

by Sophie Barnes

  He grinned. “It is my house. I bought it while you were away. With my father’s help, I’ll admit, but I’ve recently acquired a job at the Home Office, so I’ll cover the necessary expenses myself. In time, I hope to repay him in full.”

  “How wonderful for you.” She seemed to study the space with greater interest than before. “I must say I’m impressed with your desire to be self-reliant since I’m sure you don’t need to be.”

  Her happiness on his behalf was so genuine he couldn’t resist. He pulled her into his arms and gazed into her upturned face. “You inspired me to figure out what I want for myself and work toward it.”

  “I did?”

  “Yes,” he murmured. “You did.” He flattened his palm against her back and drew her closer still. Her floral scent filled his nostrils, intoxicating his senses. A surge of desire swept through him, tightening every muscle and filling his heart with increased yearning.

  The need to taste her was too insistent. He couldn’t ignore it any longer, especially not after dropping his gaze to her parted lips and catching a glimpse of her tongue.

  His mouth met hers with a sigh of pure pleasure. God, how he’d longed for this moment and heaven above if it didn’t feel perfect. Her lips were like velvet and as he deepened the kiss, he was rewarded with a taste that could only be described as wholesome goodness.

  A small whimper escaped her, vibrating through him until he forgot everything besides her. She was all that mattered; her softness pressed against his harder planes, her sweet surrender as she wound her arms around his neck and met his advance, the honesty of the caress.

  “You’re everything I expected and more,” he murmured while kissing his way down the side of her throat.

  “William,” she sighed, his name half plea and half benediction.

  “Everything will work out, Eloise.” Her skin was perfection itself, her scent so alluring he wanted to bury his nose in it forever. Eager for more, he pulled at the sleeve of her gown until he revealed the gorgeous slope of her shoulder. He pressed his mouth to her skin before working his way along the edge of her bodice. “You’ll have your dream and more – we’ll both get what we wish for. I promise.”

  Half-drugged by William’s passionate kisses, it took a while for his words to sink in and another for them to make sense. But the moment they did, Eloise froze. “What are you saying?”

  He was still kissing a scandalous path across the edge of her décolletage, so Eloise placed her hand against his chest and gave him a nudge before stepping back. She looked into his hungry eyes and forced herself not to pull him back for another scalding caress.

  His chest rose and fell in response to his rapid breaths. He blinked. Shook his head as if to clear his lust-infused brain. “You want to open a culinary school, right?”

  “Yes,” she agreed with instinctual wariness.

  “Well, this will help you do so quicker than you intended.” He spread his arms to indicate the space in which they stood. “You can use this house to teach anyone who’d like to learn how to cook.”

  A nervous bit of laughter escaped her. “You cannot be serious.”

  “I wasn’t sure precisely what you might need which is why it’s so vital you see it so you can tell me. I’ll convert whatever rooms in any manner you suggest and—”

  “Why on earth would you do this?” The gesture was extraordinary – completely out of proportion when keeping in mind the length of time he’d known her.

  “I don’t think you should have to wait ten years for your dream to come true.” He smiled down at her. “Not when I am in a position to help you realize it right away.”

  She shook her head, incredulous. Her pulse was leaping with furious excitement. This had to mean he loved her. It had to mean he was willing to face all manner of condemnation in order to make her his. It could only mean that he would propose, and while she hadn’t allowed herself to hope for such an outcome, it seemed it was happening, just as Vincent had told her it would.

  “What about your mother? I am still in her employ.”

  “I know, I still need to discuss this with her, but I am certain she’ll understand once she learns why I did this.”

  “And that is?” she dared to ask while her heart raced on, faster and faster until she feared it might fly from her breast.

  “Because I need to have you in my life, Eloise. Because these past two weeks without you have been the most unbearable weeks of my life.”

  No words of love yet, but that was all right. She could see the emotion shining in his eyes. “So I would be…”

  “Able to fulfill your purpose.”

  Every thought inside her head collapsed in a heap of disappointment. She’d expected him to say, my wife, or Mrs. William Townsbridge. “My purpose?”

  “You desire to teach your culinary skills to others and so you shall. This may be my house, but it will also be a business, I suppose, which means we can both live here together without a single person raising an eyebrow. And that—” he clasped her hand and raised it to his lips for a kiss “—means you and I can finally be together, hidden away from prying eyes every evening, and able to enjoy each other’s company to the fullest.”

  Eloise’s heart wilted. “I see.” She withdrew her hand and took a step sideways, deliberately adding distance. “So helping me open a culinary school is a bribe. Yes?”

  He frowned. “No. It’s—”

  “I will not be your mistress. I thought I made that perfectly clear. And yet you have crafted this elaborate plan in the hope of winning me over.”

  “I’m giving you what you want.”

  “Non,” she exploded while forcing back tears, “you are giving yourself what you want.”

  “Eloise.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “We are both adults here. Please don’t pretend to deny what’s between us.”

  “It’s a lovely house, William. I congratulate you on purchasing it, but I shall never live here with you.” Turning away, she started toward the door.

  He grabbed her upper arm and spun her back to face him. “Do you prefer Matt? Is that it?”

  Now she was truly confused. “What?”

  “I’ve seen the way he looks at you and the way you look at him too. Christ, you’re like a giddy young girl when you’re in his presence. I wonder if—”

  “Arrêtes! This is enough. My head is starting to pain me.”

  “Not nearly as much as mine pains me whenever I think of the two of you spending time together.” He tightened his hold and leaned in. “It kills me inside, knowing he has more right to you than I do.”

  In spite of his error in judgment, sympathy filled her. “There’s no need for you to be jealous of him. Matt is a friend, nothing more.”

  “You’re wrong, Eloise. He wants you as much as I do, I’ll stake my life on that.”

  “In that case we ought to prepare for your funeral,” she told him gently. Her hand cupped his cheek. She felt broken inside – shattered – and yet she had to keep moving forward somehow. “You see, mon coeur, Matt doesn’t want a woman in his bed, but if you mention that to another soul, I shall run you through myself, no matter how much I love you.”

  William’s hand fell away as his mouth dropped opened, and Eloise took advantage. She flung the front door opened and hurried out onto the pavement.

  “Eloise!”

  Her name followed her as she ran. She knew he would likely be faster than she if he chose to give chase, only he’d have to collect the basket of vegetables first and lock the door, by which time she planned on being well out of reach.

  How could he do it? How could he break her heart so? It felt as though he’d taken an axe and chopped it up into little messy pieces. Worst of all, she actually understood him. He couldn’t envision marrying her, so he’d tried to find another solution. But he’d underestimated her pride and her willingness to sacrifice her own dream in order to safeguard her self-respect.

  They were idiots.

  Both o
f them.

  He for going so far as to purchase a house and she for loving the blasted man. On second thought, she was the bigger fool for revealing how she felt. The words had popped out in pure frustration. It was too late to take them back. Unless she drugged him and then convinced him that he’d imagined the last half hour. Now there was an excellent thought.

  Panting for breath she hurried back inside the kitchen the moment she reached Townsbridge House, past a series of startled servants, up the servants’ stairs to the main floor, and straight toward the small feminine office where Viscountess Roxley spent her mornings.

  After everything that had just transpired, Eloise had little choice. She knew what had to be done, and she had to do it now. Before William arrived.

  Chapter 5

  Stunned by the conversation she’d just had with Mrs. Lamont, Margaret sat at her escritoire for a moment after the cook had departed, her mind a muddled mess of incomprehension. Her first instinct was to seek out her husband, but she doubted he’d offer any more clarification on the issue at hand, so she finally chose to speak with her youngest daughter instead.

  She found her in her bedchamber, nestled on her window seat with her sketch pad in her lap.

  “Has breakfast already commenced?” Athena asked, straightening herself when Margaret entered the room. “I was just about to come down. Right after I finished this sketch.”

  Margaret closed the door. “I’m not here to fetch you down for breakfast. In fact, I’m not sure there’ll be any breakfast now that I think of it.”

  Athena’s brow crinkled. “Whatever do you mean?”

  “Well.” Margaret clasped her hands in front of herself. “Mrs. Lamont just gave me her notice.”

  “What?” Athena was on her feet in a second, her eyes wide with dismay. “Why on earth would she do so now when she obviously returned with every intention of continuing her employment?”

  “I’ve no idea. When I asked about her reasoning, she did her best to avoid the subject.” Margaret thought back on Mrs. Lamont’s rigid posture and how she’d averted her gaze to avoid meeting her own head on. “She seemed uncomfortable, which troubles me. I know you consider her a friend, so I was hoping you might be able to enlighten me.”

  “No. I…” Athena stared at Margaret. “She loves working here so if she’s leaving it’s not because she received a better offer, in which case it can only be because of William.”

  Margaret hadn’t thought it possible for her confusion to deepen further and yet it did. “What on earth can William possibly have to do with Mrs. Lamont leaving us?”

  “I don’t believe she’s leaving us, Mama. I believe she’s leaving him.”

  Surprise caught Margaret completely unawares. Her mouth dropped open and a prickly heat settled against the back of her neck. “Please tell me he hasn’t made untoward advances. Good grief. I’ve done my best to raise him well, with the right moral compass, and dear heaven I thought I’d succeeded. But does a parent really know their own child? One would like to think so, and yet it is clear from what you are saying that—”

  “Mama?”

  Margaret blinked. “Yes?”

  “You’re babbling.”

  “Well of course I am. What else do you expect me to do when you’ve just informed me that one of my sons has behaved so deplorably, he’s managed to frighten away my cook?”

  Athena sighed. “It’s just a theory, Mama. We’ve yet to prove it. And if her leaving does have something to do with William, then I believe it has more to do with her fondness for him and his dimwitted inability to recognize his own feelings.”

  Fearing her legs might give way beneath this added piece of shocking information, Margaret crossed to Athena’s bed and lowered herself to the edge of it. “They’ve formed an attachment?”

  “I believe so. Yes.”

  “But how?” Margaret tried her best to grasp what her daughter was saying. “She works in the kitchen, and he’s been so busy since he returned from Lisbon, we’ve hardly seen him. So when on earth would he even have managed to speak with Mrs. Lamont for long enough to allow a tendre to develop?”

  “I, um…I’m sure I don’t know,” Athena said.

  Her cheeks were a shade too pink for Margaret’s liking. She narrowed her gaze on her. “What aren’t you saying?”

  “Nothing.” She coughed. “From what I gather they met in the kitchen a couple of times. He escorted her to the market once.”

  “And?”

  Athena puffed out a breath. “Very well. If you must know I may have orchestrated a private meeting between them before Eloise left for France. William joined Eloise and me for our morning outing one Sunday while you, Papa, and Sara were attending church.”

  Margaret felt her eyes widen in dumbfounded shock. “Have you learned nothing from meddling in other people’s affairs?”

  “Only that it can have an excellent outcome.” When Margaret opened her mouth to comment, Athena hastily added, “Charles and Bethany would have been miserable had I done nothing to help them. You know it’s true.”

  “While I may be willing to agree, this situation is entirely different.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, because…” Margaret stared into Athena’s fiery gaze and sighed. “Class differences matter whether or not they ought to. You cannot pair a servant with a nobleman, Athena. Not successfully, at least.”

  “I don’t see why not as long as they care for each other more than about what other people might think.”

  Margaret slumped. “I’ve always prided myself on my strong constitution, but I may need smelling salts to get through this.”

  Athena sat. She took a deep breath and expelled it. “There’s something else.”

  “If you tell me she’s with child I’ll—”

  “No, no. It’s nothing like that. It’s just…” A defeated look overcame her. “Eloise made me promise not to say anything because she feared she’d lose her job if you knew.”

  “What. Is. It?”

  “Well, she’s not exactly ordinary.”

  “And that means...?” Margaret did her best so remain calm and patient, but it was becoming increasingly hard with each passing second.

  “You cannot tell William,” Athena said with uncharacteristic sternness. “You cannot use what I am about to tell you to force a match. He has to want her for who she is as a person, because he loves her and is prepared to marry her no matter what. Do you understand?”

  Margaret gave a nervous laugh. “Please don’t tell me I hired a foreign princess to cook for me, Athena.”

  Athena grinned. “It’s not quite that glamorous, Mama, but I do need for you to give me your word before I reveal anything more.”

  “Of course. I promise to keep whatever you’re going to tell me a secret.”

  “All right.” Athena bit her lip. She didn’t look happy about betraying Eloise’s trust, and for a second, Margaret was tempted to tell her she didn’t have to. But she hesitated a moment too long and then Athena said, “Eloise Lamont is the Marquis de Villeneuve’s granddaughter.”

  A whoosh of fluttery heat swept through Margaret. “So she’s titled.”

  “Not really. Her grandparents perished at the guillotine, along with her aunts and uncles. Only her mother survived, rescued by a footman and his father, the Villeneuve chef. The title no longer exists and Eloise refuses to use it for her own personal gain, partly because she doubts anyone will believe her story, but mostly out of respect to her father and grandfather.”

  “I understand. She loves her family dearly and would never want to suggest they’re not good enough. But what you’ve just told me does change things. She’s a far more appropriate match for William than I would have thought. Not—” she raised her hand to stave off Athena’s alarmed protest “—because I suddenly approve of her based on her connection to a title, but because this means she knows what being a member of the upper class entails. As a lady, her mother will have raised her with some sense of awa
reness. I’m certain of it. And that means Mrs. Lamont will know what she’s getting herself into if she marries William.”

  “Only we can’t persuade him one way or the other by giving away her secret.”

  “No, but if he truly cares for her as much as you have suggested, then perhaps we can guide him toward a revelation.”

  “Why, Mama…” Athena smiled slyly. “I do believe you’re starting to think like me.”

  “God forbid,” Margaret murmured, but she smiled at her daughter and suggested they go find her brother.

  William started down the front steps of his house. He was determined to chase Eloise and convince her to change her mind. Until he recalled the basket of vegetables she’d left behind. He also had to close the door and lock it. Exasperating tasks that delayed his progress.

  His brain was still reeling. He’d planned everything so carefully, had thought it all through until he’d been certain Eloise would agree to what he suggested. After all, he’d offered her the immediate answer to her dream. With his help she’d be able to open her culinary school now instead of ten years in the future. Additionally, this would allow them to be together, and judging from the manner in which she’d responded to his kiss, there was no doubt in his mind that she wanted him just as badly as he wanted her.

  Except she’d said no. More than that, she’d run off as if he’d struck her.

  It made no logical sense, which had to be why he’d responded in anger. Because he’d been so excited to start a new life with her by his side, her response had hurt. It wasn’t right, of course. He’d allowed jealousy and heartache to take control, for which he owed her a most sincere apology. Perhaps French Landscapes in Color could help in that regard.

  Reaching Townsbridge House after deciding to take the long road back for the sake of gathering his thoughts, William trudged up the front steps with heavy footfalls. He entered the foyer.

  “May I take your basket, sir?” Simmons inquired.

  William started. He’d completely forgotten about the thing. “If you’d please take it down to the kitchen, I’d appreciate it.”