The seriousness of his voice surprised her. No teasing, no enticement, just amazement.
“I know that.” A coal sparked and spat in the grate and one greeny-blue flame flared and died. She jumped and all the fire went out of her. “My papa has said it often enough in my hearing. Why are you doing this, David? Why me?”
“Because we suit.”
Not ‘would’, she noted, nor ‘might’. Was he so confident of getting his own way? Surely he wouldn’t do anything underhanded to achieve his goal? No, she did not believe that of him, but she did believe he would do everything he legally could to get what he wanted. “A woman with no womanly wiles or allure? Hardly. You are mistaken.”
He inclined his head. “Not at all. We will fit. In every way. Me into you, you into my life. Into each other’s lives—and into my bed.”
“David!” His frank words curled around her heart. Children. Little humans to love and cherish and… No, it couldn’t happen. “That is not something you should say to me. Stop it.”
“Why?” he asked in a tone she was certain he’d chosen to goad her. “You insist you’re no young impressionable deb. Surely it doesn’t embarrass you to talk about such intimate things?”
Now she accepted he was provoking her on purpose. Josephine hoped her cheeks were not as warm as the rest of her and gave him a sickly smile. “Not at all,” she said in a deprecating way. “If I were interested, it would be something we would have to clarify. As I am not, we need not discuss it.”
David laughed. “You do the schoolmistress face and voice so well, my dear. But I can see through it. You are scared.”
“I am not.” She knew she didn’t sound as certain as she should. He, dammit, was correct. She was worried she might discover she wanted something other than that she had previously set her heart on.
“Yes you are, scared what I could say will worm its way into your brain. Make you think and wonder ‘what if’. Make your body respond, your mind work hard and your intentions alter.” He smiled. “Ache to experience my hands on you. Yearn to touch me. Have to back down and admit I am correct.”
Josephine sat with a thump. Her heart beat erratically and her hands were clammy. Tiny black dots danced in front of her eyes and she prayed she would not faint. “It would not work.”
David took both her hands in his and stroked her palms. “Lord, you are icy cold. Should I risk nipping to the library for some brandy? I forgot to have any sent up to my room.” The rough tips of his fingers showed he was no overseer, but a landlord who took part in maintaining his lands.
I don’t even know where they are or what they are. I know nothing about him, other than hearsay. Do I want to? Dare I?
“No, I’ll sip this disgusting wine and water.” She took a few swallows. “That’s better.”
“Then if you are so sure,” David said softly as he continued his unexpected, arousing caress, “that you know what you want, why not let me try to persuade you to the contrary?”
It was nerve-wracking, he admitted to himself, to wait as patiently as he had it in him, until she gave him her answer. As a man who hadn’t needed to be accountable for his actions, apart from to those who relied on him for their livelihoods, it was an unusual and uncomfortable position to find himself in.
It was several minutes before she stirred in her chair and lifted her gaze from their joined hands to look at his face. “I wish I knew why you fixed on me. I’m not viscountess or countess material, believe me. I hate the ton and all that goes with it. I’ve told you my ideas on marriage and children and still you persist. Why can’t you leave me alone?” It was a cry from the heart and it struck him hard.
“Because I think we could want the same things, albeit we approach them in different ways,” he replied honestly. It was time to bare his soul. “I need to tell you a little about my life these past few years. However, if I do, I must ask for your promise not to let the details go any further.”
She looked at him skeptically. “It has been well documented, my… Very well, David.”
He sighed. “Actually, no, it hasn’t. The only things you have heard were what I chose to be known. Mainly, I confess, to annoy my father, and to pull the wool over his eyes. Do I have your word this will go no further?”
She tilted her head to one side and bit her lip. Damn her, it was arousing. David wanted to laugh at himself. Such little things sent his libido soaring when she did them. From others it would have provoked no reaction whatsoever.
“Very well,” she said as the silence stretched far enough for David to scream at her to answer him.
And that would have done him no good. Such a female reaction. He inclined his head. “Lord, I wish we did have brandy.” He had an idea. “Why on earth didn’t I think of this earlier? May I go through your bedchamber and bathing chamber?”
“Through them?” She sounded puzzled. “Through them how?”
“It completely slipped my mind that both our bathing chambers have a door leading to a common service stair.”
“So?”
“So, I have brandy. My hip flask is in my room.” Why he hadn’t remembered that earlier he had no idea. Probably because he had been musing over more alluring things.
Josephine grinned, stood up and, with a swish of skirts that allowed him a brief glimpse of her trim ankles, walked across the room, thence to open a door with an extravagant flourish and curtsey. “Both my bed…” She paused and waited for his riposte.
David said nothing. He’d wondered how she would proceed. With aplomb, it seemed.
“And bathing chambers are at your disposal,” Josephine added without a blink. “Another thing. While I think of it, why did you not come this way?”
“I am an idiot. I forgot all about it.”
However, now he had remembered it, it would serve not only to fetch the brandy, but also to use as his unseen entry and exit to Josephine’s accommodation. If she let him. Her rooms reminded him of her. It was the scent she wore, he realized. So enticing, and so incongruous on a woman who said she had no interest in attracting a man. Of course, there was no reason why she should not wear it for her own enjoyment, but it was a fact it was pleasurable to him as well. He inhaled deeply and chuckled to himself as he registered what he had done, before he made his way to his own rooms.
So much depended on her reaction to what he was about to divulge. David found his hip flask—luckily still over three-quarters full of brandy—and two goblets and made his way back the way he’d come until once more he was in Josephine’s sitting room. She smiled as he held the bottle aloft.
“My hero.”
“If I had realized that was all it took, I would have bribed your maid to let me leave a bottle here.”
Josephine shook her head. “I’d like to see the way your head rang as she boxed your ears for your temerity. Mary, my maid, is not bribable. She is loyal to a fault. However, if you pleaded with her, explained to her that to your mind, my life would be empty without you, and only you can make me a happy, fulfilled woman, she would champion your cause. She says she despairs of me.”
“I wish I’d known.” David poured brandy into both goblets and handed one to her. May I?” He indicated the chair he had so recently vacated. “I’d feel less conspicuous and on trial if I were sitting comfortably, so to speak.”
“Don’t be daft, you are not on trial. Sit and do that silly leg-crossing thing if you want.”
He laughed and did as she said. Then sipped his brandy and let it warm his throat. Her gaze skittered to his torso and away again, only to return a few seconds later and watch him drum his fingers swiftly on his thigh. The gesture screamed he was nervous. He prayed she saw it as a good sign, not a pathetic one.
“Right, in confidence?” he asked quietly.
“Of course.”
“Then let me explain who I really am to you.” David turned what he hoped to say over in his mind. He didn’t want to show his parents in too bad a light, but if he ignored their place in it all,
it would show him in a bad—if not to say unacceptable—light instead.
Josephine nodded, and held her hand up in the wait-a-second gesture. “One moment. You say that what you are about to tell me is confidential?”
David nodded. “Very.”
“Is it illegal?”
“Not in any manner.” What a strange thing to ask, he thought, when he was about to divulge what it was. Unless, of course, she was worried he’d killed someone and she would then be in the horrible situation of having knowledge of a crime, and she’d promised not to share. “It shows some people in a less than flattering light, that’s all.”
“Very well.” Josephine nodded. She sat back, wriggled a little, presumably to make herself more comfortable—which had the opposite effect on him. It was all too innocently arousing to make him relaxed. She cleared her throat. “I think I’d better say this first. I do not want you to think whatever you tell me will have an effect on what my eventual decision will be. I promise to think about your proposal without a preconceived idea on the outcome.” She smiled and shook her head. “Actually that doesn’t make sense, does it? I’ll have to think about whatever you choose to impart, I wouldn’t be human otherwise. But I want you to know that I owe it to you for being so open, that I will listen without prejudice. How does that sound?”
“As good as it could be.” It was a concession he hadn’t expected. “I will add, before I start on the confidences, that I want a wife to be my partner, a mother and my lover. The one person I turn to in every circumstance. In sickness and in health, for better, for worse, will be said and meant. I do not want a sycophant, or someone who looks elsewhere for pleasure. I intend to be a faithful husband.”
She looked contemplative. “That gives me more food for thought. If, I suppose, I ever did think of marriage, I would want all of that and act accordingly, and more.”
She didn’t explain what that ‘more’ was.
“But to know that is not enough for me to say yes,” she finished.
He hadn’t imagined for one minute it would be. “You need me to woo you?”
“Woo?”
“Court, pay attention, escort you.”
“I know what woo means,” Josephine said with dignity. “I hadn’t even thought of that. No, for a start, I need you to do nothing that might encourage my parents to assume an announcement will be made. If you spoke to my papa, he would have told my mama even if you asked him not to. They cannot keep anything from each other. It is very frustrating. However, in a case like this, for a brief moment all their attention is fixed on me, which is even worse than being ignored. They will scrutinize every little thing we do whenever they spy us together. Then the interrogation will begin. I can’t cope with that and think about my future as well.”
“Then I suggest we remain at a friendly distance when in company, and spend an hour or so each evening here, and get to know each other that way. I promise to make sure we have brandy.” He could not say he would never speak to her father. If things went well, he would have to do so again before he formally approached her. It was only honorable. “What do you say?” He waited and half expected her to dither. She didn’t. Instead she tilted her head to one side for a second or two then nodded decisively.
How had he never noticed how long her eyelashes were? And not the soft blonde of her hair but duskier? Combined with her smoky eyes and rosy lips, it was irresistible. Strange how he had never before been attracted to blondes. All his lovers had been brunettes.
My wife will be different. Hold on, am I not getting ahead of myself?
“Very well.” Josephine’s crisp tones brought him out of his reverie. “Now tell me your deep, dark secret and let me get some sleep,” she said. “As I have been told we are going for a ride at some early hour, I better have some rest so I don’t fall asleep on horseback. But not until you have divulged what I need to know. Oh and I’ll have the other brandy you were about to offer me.”
David laughed, as he was sure she meant him to, and refilled their glasses. He had to explain and he could have no input on the outcome. “Here you are. Right. So I need to go back to when I was a lot younger. When I did as all young bucks and kicked over the traces. However, contrary to what my father and most of the ton imagined, I gave up somewhat earlier than most others. My grandfather died and left me a rather nice nest egg.” There was no need to say just how much. “I discovered the enjoyment of the stock market. Of investing, buying and selling and generally making money. Oh, as a new boy, I made mistakes, but I learned fast and amassed a considerable fortune. It came in handy.” He shrugged. “You will see, when I explain more, that it still does.”
He sipped some brandy to relax his tight throat. This was proving harder than he’d thought. The interested expression on Josephine’s face gave him strength to continue.
“Around a year ago, Lady Whitcombe put it about that I had sired her unborn child. A lie, and one I suspect said in malice as I had turned down her hint that she wouldn’t be averse to a dalliance.” He grimaced. “On more than one occasion, and once rather crudely. I did say this showed some people in a less than favorable light.”
“I had heard,” Josephine said diffidently, “that the child was her brother-in-law’s. As Whitcombe is unable to do the necessary.”
The prosaic way she said it made David choke. “I did not expect to hear that from you.”
“No?” She raised her eyebrows. “I might be a spinster, but I do have a reasonable knowledge of the world we live in. Plus, people look through me and forget I can hear all they say. That nugget was imparted by two dowagers who should know better than to chat in an anteroom that adjoins the ladies’ withdrawing room. Sadly, I cannot now add that I know what else you might be about to tell me, other than what we discussed at your godmother’s ball, and what you assured me was exaggerated. The gossip about you is very limited. All I ever heard was you were up to every lark going and ready to do anything for fun. Plus, if you deign to ask deb ‘a’ to dance she will swoon, and deb ‘b’ swears you looked at her and her heart stopped beating. So far no one has reported the state of their health when you actually do ask them to dance.”
“Good lord.” It was the first he had heard of it. “I never ask a deb to dance unless forced to by my hostess. As most of them know me, and understand that to be coerced into doing something I don’t wish to do will result in any more invitations being refused, that now rarely happens.”
“You, my lord, are spoiled,” Josephine told him in a severe tone. She then ruined it by smirking. “I’d love to have seen some certain people’s faces when you told them that, though. A couple of people who need bringing down a peg or two spring to mind.”
“Only a couple?” This verbal sparring was exhilarating. David realized he had not enjoyed himself so much in an age, even with the knowledge of the revelations he had yet to share.
“I am being polite.”
“Ah, love, never hold back for me. I am unshockable, you know.”
“I am not your love.”
“Yet.”
“Argh.” She scowled and narrowed her eyes. “Just carry on with what you have to say and stop baiting me.”
It was a fair enough request. David inclined his head. “I wasn’t baiting but saying what I predict. However, yes, to get back to my confidences. With regards to my other supposed excesses, I best formulate my defense. I did very little but made it seem as if I did a lot. As he never thought I was worth anything, I was determined not to let my father think any good of me.” He moved uneasily in his chair and waited for his scars to ache. To his surprise, that telltale sign of stress—or reminder—didn’t appear.
Had he finally turned the corner from excessive bitterness, through reluctant acceptance, and come to terms with his unhappy childhood? Was he now able to move onward with a clear mind? He hoped so. “It seemed that, with regards to my father, I succeeded, and no one ever discovered how things stood between us. We have now been estranged for several years.
As for young chits? Never, and now I am glad. I can think of nothing worse than to be always aware of their eyes on me, of being besieged.”
“Exactly. How uncomfortable. For both you and the recipient of your favors. I fear young impressionable debs get sillier each year.”
“Just so, and I don’t ask anyone to dance. Present company excepted, and that was because I wanted to.”
Her eyes widened. “Wretch.”
David grinned, his heart light. “More than likely.”
His prosaic reply made her roll her eyes. “Do you know the trouble you caused with that? My mama was all for booking the church and arranging for the appropriate notice to be worded so it would be ready to send to the Times as soon as you formalized things. Then this invitation arrived and she was in alt. My life has been impossible. I much prefer when they ignore me. At least I know where I stand then.”
“Again, my…actually no, I will not apologize,” David exclaimed. “I want you here. So where was I? Ah yes. La Whitcombe. Well, after that fiasco, my esteemed papa, with the unusual backing of my mother, decreed I must marry within a very short timescale or he would sell all the un-entailed land and ensure I got as little as possible. Which would mean that workers and staff loyal to the dukedom would be cast off, and there would be extreme hardship for a lot of people.”
“What a horrible man. How on earth can he be your papa?” Josephine burst out, then blinked. “But you are unwed. So you must have had a plan. I do not believe for one moment you would let your people suffer.”
“You know?” David said honestly. “That means more to me than anything and you are correct. You have shown more faith in me in this short time than they did in all of my thirty-five years. They were so sure of me, and not, I believe, because they thought I was concerned about our people, but instead that I was concerned about money. Thus my father gave me a list of suitable women and told me to choose one. My mother agreed with him.”
She gasped, then chuckled. “Was I on it? I doubt it.”
“I have no idea. I tore it up and scattered it over him before I walked out. We haven’t spoken since. How the ton have never found out we are estranged I have no idea but I can only be thankful. Once I left their house, I got Simmons, my man of affairs, to set up different businesses and accounts to buy everything my father offered for sale. He was as good as his word. Every last un-entailed building and piece of land was offered within a few weeks. Even so, it took the best part of a year for me to acquire it all, for he was determined to show me what I had lost. I got details, in an unsigned missive to my club, for every transaction made. Little did he know that I knew about every one. Not one acre went elsewhere, no family lost their home and no worker lost his or her job.”
The Viscount Meets his Match: A Regency Romance Page 12
