“Both,” she replied, just as Clark appeared with a bottle of wine.
Warmth spread through Tom just then. He had rarely thought such a moniker as ‘man of the house’ might one day apply to him.
“I suppose I’ve known it since I moved in,” Victoria murmured. Clark poured glasses for them both. When Cummings, the footman, appeared with bowls of soup, she avoided his questioning glance.
“Would you be amenable to marrying this week?” Tom asked. “Monday, perhaps?” He attempted to suppress a grin when he noted how Cummings nearly upended his bowl of soup at overhearing the comment.
“The day after tomorrow? How is that even possible?”
“Special license. I was able to pay a call in Doctors Commons yesterday afternoon to secure one. As was Haddon,” he added, not surprised when she didn’t immediately react. “I can’t imagine him being allowed to use it quite so soon, though.”
Victoria gave a start. “You don’t think Juliet will agree to wed him?”
Tom was relieved when Cummings returned to the kitchens, leaving him and Victoria alone in the dining room. He was sure the footman would see to it everyone in the household was informed of their mistress’ betrothal. “I don’t think Lady Julia will allow her daughter to wed quite so quickly,” he finally replied. “She’ll want a few days to prepare. Send out invitations. Make it less likely the ton think it a scandalous marriage.”
“Of course,” Victoria agreed. She thought of her own mother and how she would react at learning her youngest daughter had finally agreed to wed. The duchess had come to believe Victoria would end up a spinster. “I know you said Haddon would have asked for Juliet’s hand—”
“Five or six hours ago.”
“So I suppose it’s possible she’s already given him an answer,” she said in a quiet voice. “I wonder if she did so while they were on their horseback ride in the park this afternoon?”Tom remembered Haddon’s complaint about having to wait an entire day before seeing Miss Comber. He had felt the same anxiousness, though. The same urgent need-to-know the earl had experienced that night he had made an appearance at Arthur’s. The same night Haddon had threatened to wed Victoria if Juliet didn’t accept his suit. “Do you think Lady Julia would be amenable to a double wedding for her daughter?” Tom asked. “I may have promised to pay witness to Haddon’s nuptials.”
“As did I,” Victoria countered, her gaze lifting to his. “Which is awfully convenient.” She gave him a look of suspicion. “You’ve been spending more time in Haddon’s company than I thought,” she accused.
“Couldn’t be helped,” Tom replied. “He was determined to marry Miss Comber and sought my assistance in that regard. And I am just as determined to marry you.”
“So you sought his assistance?” she asked in alarm.
He shook his head. “He offered. I wasn’t about to turn him away. He has your ear as well as your brother’s.”
Victoria inhaled. “Which brother?”
“Lord Michael, of course.”
She seemed to relax a bit, but then her brows furrowed. “Pray tell, when did you have occasion to arrange for the purchase of Fairmont Park?”
Tom stiffened, knowing she wouldn’t be pleased to learn what her brother had intended for the estate. “Lord Michael has been here in London for over a week,” he replied. “I should also mention that he is one of my investors, Victoria. He had contracts to sign. Alliances to arrange on behalf of your father. It was during our meeting when he brought up the need to sell Fairmont Park.”
She winced. “He thought to force me out?”
Tom shook his head. “Not at all. He wanted to protect it from being gambled away by your brother whilst finding an investor who would allow you to continue living here.” He straightened and then gave a shake of his head. “When he brought it up, I didn’t think I would be the one buying it,” he murmured. “But now... I cannot imagine Fairmont Park in anyone else’s hands.” He felt some relief at seeing Victoria’s expression soften.
“Lord Michael intends to pay a call on you on the morrow.”
“I am aware,” Victoria replied. “He spent his first night here in his old bedchamber when he arrived in London. A couple of days before you came for the first time,” she added, remembering Michael had been as concerned about her inheritance as he was about his own. “He arranged for you to pay a call on me here, did he not?”
“He did. I think he feared you might not go to my office of your own accord.”
She inhaled, obviously annoyed at having been managed by her brother. “He could have stayed here at Fairmont Park instead of in town. There are several completed bedchambers. I even invited him to do so.”
Tom shook his head. “He’s frightened to death of you,” he said with a grin.
Victoria’s mouth dropped open. “But, why?”
“You, my lady, have been a formidable woman when it comes to your family. Which I find simply perfect, since he will be my brother in a few short days.”
Despite her initial anger, Victoria allowed a wan grin. “Serves him right.”
“He only wished to protect your fortune from Lord Jeremiah,” he murmured.
“And his.”
“So... you don’t hate me for having purchased Fairmont Park for you?”
Victoria sighed, her shoulders drooping. “Tell me. Did you agree to buy it before you met with me that day?”
“Of course not. I never buy anything sight unseen.”
“Then you learned of my plans for the place that first day you were here. Knew I had already invested a good deal into the stables and the track... and yet, you still decided to buy it? Knowing all that?”
She looked so crestfallen, Tom leaned over placed a hand over hers. “Only after our dinner the other night. When I knew I wanted you to be my wife. And then only as a gift for you, of course,” he whispered.
Pulling her hand from his hold, she stared at him. “But, what if I hadn’t agreed to marry you?”
Tom’s eyes darted to the side. “I... I can be very persuasive,” he hedged. “If you had turned me down, I... I don’t know what I would have done. Maybe requested I be allowed the use of a few common areas? Taken a bedchamber and moved in? Vexed you incessantly until you agreed to marry me?”
Victoria gave him a dubious glance. “What a scandal that might have caused,” she whispered, a grin finally appearing to brighten her face. She was about to return her attention to her soup, but paused. “Speaking of moving in, when might that happen?”
Relief settled over Tom, and he once again grasped one of her hands in his. “Whenever you allow it. Tomorrow, perhaps? My coach will be here at ten in the morning.”
“You’ll be leaving then?”
Hesitating to answer when he heard the surprise in her voice, Tom asked, “That all depends. Will I be welcome to stay?” He didn’t add that the coach would be arriving with a trunk of his clothes and another filled with items from his rooms at Arthur’s. The last-minute packing had been done on a whim, one he was now glad he had entertained.
He had no intention of returning to town until Monday, and only then because he would need to pay a call at the office.
“I’m not yet sure if you’ll be welcome, exactly,” Victoria teased. “But surely I can find a suitable bedchamber for you.”
“Next to yours, I hope. Although I expect I’ll only use it to dress.”
“Oh, so you think you’re going to spend your nights in my bed?”
His eyes darted sideways again before he said, “Only if you’re not spending your nights in mine.”
She swallowed. “The first room at the top of the stairs has a connecting door to my bedchamber,” she said in a quiet voice. “I cannot say that it’s a master suite, exactly.”
“It will do,” he said with a grin. “Or is it pink?”
Chuckling, Victoria said, “That’s the third bedchamber. The one Juliet sleeps in when she’s in residence.”
“Perhaps we can see to
renovating the suites at the end of the hall. To create an apartment if there isn’t one already.”
Victoria’s eyes widened at hearing his suggestion. At hearing him say “we.” The word seemed to have come easily to his lips. “Did your parents share a bed?”
Tom nodded. “They still do. Which is probably why I have five sisters and four brothers.”
“Noted,” she replied with a smirk.
The bedchamber arrangements settled, they spoke of her plans for the other rooms in the house. For new furnishings for the parlor and modern plumbing for the rest of the bathing chambers.
When they finished dessert, Tom refused the offer of port and asked that Victoria show him the ballroom.
“There’s a piano-forté in there, but no one to play it,” she said as Tom lifted her into his arms.
“Then we shall have to hum the music,” he said. “Point the way.”
“It’s not large,” she warned as she directed him down the hall to the opposite end of the house. “And it’s rather... gold,” she added. “Lots of gilt. I cannot decide if I like it or not, so I have done nothing to it.”
Tom stopped in front of the carved double doors and carefully lowered Victoria until she could stand. She turned the handles and pushed the doors open to reveal the dimly lit room.
An Axminster carpet stretched over the length and most of the width of the floor. Wider than the dining room by half, it wasn’t quite as long, but it was bathed in gold. As Victoria turned up the gas for the chandeliers, the full effect of the gilt became apparent.
“Blazes,” Tom murmured as his gaze swept the ballroom.
“It does sort of look as if it’s on fire.”
“It reminds me of one of the salons in a palace I once toured,” he remarked.
“I think Father bought the house because of this room,” Victoria explained. “Thought to impress my mother.”
“Did it?”
Victoria grinned. “Not in the way he imagined. But she did host a ball here once when I was a child. I remember hiding near the top of the stairs so I could watch the couples as they made their way down the hall.”
“Aristocrats, no doubt,” Tom guessed.
She nodded. “That was the first time I saw her best friend from when she attended finishing school.”
“Oh?”
“Lady Elizabeth Carlington,” Victoria said as she arched a brow.
“Now Viscountess Bostwick,” Tom offered.
“She was then as well. Lord Bostwick was escorting her, and I remember thinking he looked so besotted. As if he truly loved her.”
“That’s because he does,” Tom replied. “I had drinks with him at White’s earlier this week.”
Victoria gave a start, glad when he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. Although she had been able to balance her weight on her one good foot, she feared it would grow tired before they had a chance to dance.
“Is he a client?” she asked.
“Yes, but that’s not why I met with him,” he replied. “I wanted to discover which shoemaker his wife employed for her charity, so I would know where to have your shoes made.”
Victoria winced.
“I knew she would only employ the best,” he quickly added.
“Of course,” she replied, heartened he didn’t say it was because she had a misshapen foot.
Tom suddenly allowed a chuckle. “I wondered how it was you knew Haddon. It’s because of your mother’s friendship with Viscountess Bostwick, is it not?”
She nodded. “Christopher is younger than Elizabeth, of course. In so many ways. And despite his being seventeen years older than me, I can remember when he had just finished university,” she murmured. “He came to Wiltshire with Elizabeth and George for a house party. Every day he played with my brothers as if he was still a little boy. I remember feeling jealous of my brothers because he showed them so much attention.”
Tom regarded her a moment before he asked, “Were you in love with him?”
Pulled from her reverie, Victoria blinked. “I think I was four years old at the time, so perhaps,” she admitted as a teasing grin appeared.
“You minx. You had me rather worried just then,” Tom admitted. He glanced around the room, taking in the ornate fireplace and the upholstered chairs that lined one wall. “May I have this dance?”
Victoria faced him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Are we doing a Viennese waltz?”
Tom’s eyes darted sideways. “It’s the only one I know,” he said sheepishly.
“You’ll remind me of the steps?”
“I won’t need to,” he replied. He began to count, “one-two-three,” in a whisper, humming as he took her other hand in his and led her through the first three steps. “Is your foot all right?”
Victoria nodded, and then joined in the humming of the music. She nearly giggled as they circled the room, the feeling of euphoria making her feel as if she was weightless. Despite Tom’s rapt attention on her, he kept them from colliding with the furniture or dancing into the walls. His hold on her—his hand at her waist and the other supporting her hand—was firm and sure as he led them in the circles that made up the invigorating dance.
“One-two-three,” she whispered, when she could no longer hum the music.
“I love thee,” he countered in a quiet voice, just as they had completed a second circuit.
Victoria nearly lost the count, her gaze locked on his. Their moves slowed until they nearly stopped. When she suddenly winced, and Tom quickly took her up into his arms.
“That’s enough for tonight,” he whispered, bestowing a kiss on her forehead. “Stables next?”
Victoria had forgotten her earlier request to visit the horses. “Could we?” she asked, her voice breathy.
“Of course,” he replied as he took her out to the vestibule for a wrap. Once they were bundled up against the cold, he carried her down the corridor to the back door. Several lanterns were still lit in the stables, providing enough light to illuminate the pavers as Tom made his way.
Their arrival had several horses nickering and Tom grinning. “They look forward to your visits, don’t they?” he whispered as he lowered her until her feet touched the hay-strewn floor.
“Especially when they think I have treats for them,” she replied.
“Jake apparently has a preference for apples,” Tom said, making his way to a wooden bucket half-filled with the fruit.
“I think they all do,” Victoria replied as she stroked the cheek of the nearest beast. Tom handed her an apple, and she in turn offered it to the horse, watching as he devoured it. She moved to the next, grinning as Tom continued to hand her apples. “You do realize you could be making friends with all of them if you were the one doing this.”
“Ah, but I think they know I’m the one giving them to you,” he countered, admiring how at ease she was with the animals.
When Victoria had finished greeting every horse except Sam, she allowed a long sigh as she confronted the Thoroughbred. “You haven’t limped once while Mr. Comber has been seeing to you,” she accused. “I know because he told me so.”
Sam neighed.
“You’ll not limp with me. Ever again. Understood?” She held the apple beyond his reach until the horse nickered. When she offered it to him, he nickered again before noisily downing the fruit.
Allowing another sigh, she turned and found herself engulfed in Tom’s arms. “I don’t care if you always limp with me,” he whispered, just before his lips covered hers.
Victoria mewled as she returned his kiss, finally understanding just how different her life would be going forward.
She had just pulled away and was about to suggest Tom take her back to the house when the sound of a clearing throat had her giving a start.
“Mr. Thompson,” Tom said as he turned, not at all surprised to find the groom holding a gun. “Her ladyship has just been saying her good-nights to the herd.”
The groom relaxed his stance. “
You’re here awfully late.”
Tom dipped his head. “As I will be every night from now on.”
When Thompson’s expression darkened, Victoria said, “Mr. Grandby has just purchased Fairmont Park.”
“As a wedding gift. For my bride to be,” Tom added, glad when Thompson seemed to relax and finally lowered the gun.
“Oh. Well. That’s a relief,” the groom replied. “Perhaps I’ll be allowed to return to my usual assignment. After you’re wed?”
Tom furrowed a brow and gave Victoria a quick glance. “Usual assignment? What might that be?”
Thompson glanced about, as if ensuring no one else was listening. “Investigations, sir. On behalf of Lord Michael.”
Victoria stiffened in Tom’s arms. “What... what sort of investigations?” she asked.
When Thompson didn’t answer right away, Tom inhaled. “Would your... employment have anything to do with Lord Jeremiah?” he ventured.
The groom nodded. “Lord Michael is trying to stay a step ahead of his brother’s expenditures, you might say. I let him know what and where there’s been a transaction, and he sees to cancelling the orders ’afore they cost Somerset any blunt.”
“Which means you haven’t been able to do that for the last few months,” Victoria reasoned. “Seeing as how you’ve been working here.”
Thompson’s eyes darted to the side before he said, “Actually, I still do what I can, which is why I’ve been gone missing at times,” he admitted.
Victoria stared at the groom, her brows furrowing. “So... my brother hired you to... to provide protection for me?” she asked as a pained expression crossed her face.
Nodding, Thompson said, “Lord Michael, yes. He wanted to be sure you was protected from any fortune hunters. And from Lord Jeremiah. Mr. Grandby here gave me a bit of a worry ’til I learned he had a fortune of his own. Doesn’t gamble, neither.”
When Victoria noticed that Tom didn’t seem surprised by the groom’s comment, she said, “You knew.”
“I guessed,” Tom countered. “The night we went to dinner at Rules.”
Victoria stiffened in his arms. “I do not appreciate being managed—”
“Nor will you be,” Tom said quietly. “But your brother was right to have someone on the premises looking out for you and your servants,” he added. He turned his attention back to the groom. “I’ll see to returning Lady Victoria to the house now. I expect you and Lord Michael to make some new arrangements for your time when he’s here on the morrow.”
The Choice of a Cavalier (The Heirs of the Aristocracy Book 3) Page 28
