Sometimes Temperance envied her sister her blissful ignorance, and sometimes she wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her until she saw reason. Today, with her thoughts mostly on Lynette, she wavered somewhere in between.
“Lord Townsend is the one who caused The Scandal.” She spoke in a hushed tone, more out of habit than necessity as the walkway was completely empty both in front of them and behind. The sun was shining and there was a pleasant breeze, but the abundance of puddles had kept those with a concern for their hemlines trapped inside until the water evaporated and the mud turned back to dirt. It was a concern neither Delilah nor Temperance shared, as their dresses were far past the point of worrying about a bit of mud being splashed on the hem.
“Do you think that is why Lynette turned white as a sheet and stepped in front of the carriage?” Delilah asked, brown eyes widening.
“I suspect that has something to do with it.”
“But he seemed so very nice!”
“He did, didn’t he?” A line appeared between Temperance’s dark eyebrows as they pulled together over the bridge of her nose. “Not at all like I had imagined.” She still didn’t know exactly what had occurred between her sister and Nathaniel Blackbourne, Viscount of Townsend, but she’d gathered enough from whispers and catty sidelong glances to know it hadn’t been very good. “Do you think she is still with him?”
“At his house, you mean?”
Temperance nodded and Delilah sucked thoughtfully on the inside of her cheek.
“I suppose so, unless she is at home waiting for us in which case we are going to be in a great deal of trouble.” She stopped so suddenly Temperance nearly stumbled. “We should turn around and go back.”
Regaining her balance, Temperance slipped her arm free and pinned both hands to her hips. “We’re taking a proper jaunt in Hyde Park. It isn’t as though we’ve slipped off to St. Giles.”
“Yes, but Lynette–”
“Oh, will you stop worrying about Lynette?”
“I am not worried,” Delilah protested. “I am merely concerned that she isn’t going to know where we’ve gone. You know how upset she gets when we go off without her. The last time-”
“You promised never to bring that up again,” Temperance reminded her quickly.
“Yes but-”
“Delilah, you promised. Besides, I am willing to bet you two hair ribbons we’re the last thing on Lynette’s mind at the moment.”
Delilah frowned. “How do you know that?”
“Did you see Lord Townsend? If a man who looked like that rescued me from certain death, I certainly wouldn’t be worrying about you and Lynette.”
“He was rather handsome, wasn’t he?” Expression turning dreamy, Delilah pushed back the brim of her bonnet as she started up through the tree branches at the clear blue sky. “Do you think they’re going to fall in love and get married and have five children?”
“Five? Why five?”
“Oh, I do not know. It seems like a nice even number, doesn’t it? What?” she asked when Temperance’s lips quirked in a grin. “What did I say now?”
“Nothing, sweetling,” Temperance said with an amused shake of her head. “What do you say we take one more turn around and then go home? It is far too nice of a day to sit inside and practice our embroidery.”
“You’re only saying that because you hate embroidery.”
Temperance shuddered. “I don’t know how anyone likes it.”
“It is rather tedious,” Delilah agreed.
“One more turn around then?” Temperance said hopefully. With the sun shining after so many dreary days of rain, the last thing she wanted to do was to be confined indoors. She knew Delilah would have been perfectly happy whiling away the hours with a good book, but Temperance had never possessed the patience required of a dedicated reader. She enjoyed Gentlemen’s Sport (a magazine devoted entirely to hunting, fox hunting, and racing) but anything else, including but certainly not limited to The Botanical (a bi-weekly publication about plants) and Lady’s Monthly Museum (which was just as dreadfully boring as the title suggested), never held her interest for very long.
“Oh, all right,” Delilah said after a pause. Adjusting the collar of her faded green hand-me-down pelisse, she extended her arm. “Once more around.”
Exchanging a quick grin – the two sisters may not have always gotten along, but they enjoyed the moments when they did – they proceeded down the trail arm in arm, nimbly avoiding puddles as they went.
Lynette closed her eyes as Nathaniel’s mouth descended on hers. She didn’t fight him – given her past experience with kissing she knew it would be over with soon enough – but she couldn’t help but turn stiff as a board as she anticipated the wet, sloppy thrust of a tongue.
Instead of his tongue, however, Nathaniel used only his lips. The kiss was soft, gentle, and everything she’d ever imagined a kiss should be like. There was no bumping of teeth or rearranging of noses or poking of tongues. He took his time with her, and when he drew her bottom lip between his teeth and lightly suckled she moaned in response.
Tension drained from her shoulders, leaving her malleable as clay in the hands of a master sculptor. And there was no mistaking Nathaniel for anything but a master. As he lingered over her mouth as though they had all the time in the world at their disposal he ran his hands along the sensitive curve of her spine, fingertips tracing the tiny bumps of her vertebrae all the way up to the nape of her neck and all the way down to the curve of her bottom.
Like honey being slowly warmed over a fire, heat began to move through Lynette, starting in her toes and moving all the way up to her breasts, leaving her nipples hard and aching. Suddenly she was the one who wanted more, although what that ‘more’ was remained as elusive as a dream upon waking.
Her hands crept to his chest, small fingers splaying across hard muscle. She felt the beat of his heart through his shirt, a steady drumming that was at odds with her erratic pulse.
Was this what passion was supposed to feel like? Lynette wondered dazedly as Nathaniel cupped her jaw and deepened the kiss. It was an unspoken promise. An unanswered need. A keen yearning that filled her with heat and had her pressing her body mindlessly against his, instinctively searching for a release to the wave of pressure rapidly building inside of her. She felt an intriguing hardness pressing against her belly, and not being completely ignorant of the male anatomy knew it was proof of Nathaniel’s growing arousal.
Before the kiss she’d struggled to even speak without stuttering, but in the heat of the moment desire made her daring and before she gave herself time to think of the consequences she slipped a shy, tentative hand between their bodies and trailed the backs of her fingers down towards the hard, hot, throbbing length of his cock.
He jolted, and she thought she heard him murmur a curse but it was impossible to tell above the roaring in her ears. Empowered by his reaction, she reached even lower, tracing the outline of his member through the rough fabric of his trousers. This time he groaned and for an instant he leaned into her hand before he stepped back, ending their embrace as abruptly as he’d begun it.
Eyes dark and hooded, he dragged a hand through his hair before he turned and stalked to the window, leaving Lynette staring at his back in wide-eyed uncertainty. Her mouth opened and closed without emitting a sound, for she suddenly couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Certainly nothing that would explain her wanton behavior, and her cheeks flushed with color as she imagined what Nathaniel thought of her now.
What had started as a simple kiss had ended in something more.
Something much more.
Something that couldn’t easily be explained.
Mind spinning, she pressed a trembling hand to her lips where the taste of Nathaniel still lingered. When his arms had been around her and his mouth had been pressed against hers it had felt right, but now that it was over and they were standing apart it all felt so very wrong.
Shame heated the back of her
neck, turning the ivory skin a mottled red. For the past three years she’d been trying to atone for the sins of her past, and in a flash of spontaneous lust she’d committed the same exact sin yet again…and with Adam’s brother, no less! What was wrong with her? Was she such a glutton for punishment that she couldn’t help but repeat the same mistake over and over?
As tears born of frustration and embarrassment and guilt pricked the corners of her eyes Lynette spun blindly away, not wanting Nathaniel to see her in such a raw and sensitive state.
“I – I should very much like to return home now,” she gasped, her voice wilted as a flower withering away beneath the hot afternoon sun. At the sound of it Nathaniel turned from the window, and she caught only a glimpse of his hardened expression before she closed her eyes all together. She heard the echo of his boots as he crossed the parlor and felt the soft touch of his thumb across her cheek as he dashed a tear away.
“Lynette, look at me,” he said softly.
Biting back a tiny whimper, she shook her head with such force her hair tangled around her throat, catching on the lace collar of her wrinkled dress.
“Lynette…”
“I should very much like to return home now,” she repeated in a whisper. At her sides her hands flattened before gathering up the loose fabric of her skirt and curling into tiny fists as though by holding on to some part of herself she could somehow hold onto her emotions as well. “Please,” she added before she opened her eyes and stared up at Nathaniel through the tears blurring her vision. “I know what you must think of me, but I-“
“You haven’t the slightest idea what I am thinking,” he interrupted, the sternness of his tone belied by the gentle way with which he brushed a dark silky curl away from her face. “I took advantage of you, and for that I am sorry. But I am not sorry for having kissed you.
The juxtaposition of his apology caused Lynette’s brow to crease and she took a step back, as much to put distance between them as to clear her own head. How odd it was to have the exact words she’d yearned to hear these past three years spoken by a man who on the outside resembled the one responsible for ruining her reputation, but on the inside couldn’t have been more different than night from day.
Brothers.
Who would have thought Adam might have a twin brother?
And that she would kiss both of them?
As the absurdity of it struck her like a second blow to the head, a tiny laugh escaped from between her lips, followed by another and another until the dam she’d built from sheer willpower and determination finally broke…allowing the tears she’d been holding at bay for far too long to pour down her cheeks.
CHAPTER SIX
Nathaniel watched Lynette laugh and cry with a wary frown. He’d known women to do one or the other, but never had he witnessed both at the same time. Although given the stress under which she had been living, he couldn’t say he was surprised. A person could only endure so much before their emotions got the best of them, and he knew Lynette had been shouldering far more than her fair share of hardship.
After a restless night’s sleep that had ended a good hour before dawn painted sky with streaks of orange and pink, he’d roused his quickest footman and sent the poor lad dashing across town to gather as much information on the Swan family as possible. The footman had returned well before Lynette woke, and the results of his search had been far worse than Nathaniel first feared.
Not only was Lynette’s reputation in tatters courtesy of Adam, but both of her parents were recently deceased, leaving her and her two sisters with no family of which to speak and nowhere to turn. That they’d managed this long on their own was nothing short of a miracle, especially considering all of the debts Lynette’s father had accrued before his unexpected death. To say the man had been financially irresponsible would have been a grand understatement. He’d left his children with nothing but a long line of creditors waiting to beat their door in… and Adam had taken away the only means with which a woman of Lynette’s social standing and delicate upbringing had to secure her future.
If she at least had a dowry there might have been one or two acceptable gentleman willing to overlook the gossip attached to her name, but without so much as a shilling to offer she was adrift in an open sea without any rescue in sight. And yet for all her vulnerability there was an underlying sense of strength about her. A sense that no matter what odds she faced, she would never give up nor give in.
To look at Lynette yesterday afternoon when he first brought her home, soaked to the bone and pale as a sheet, Nathaniel’s first impression had been a poor one. He’d thought her weak, delicate, and fragile… until the moment she’d opened her eyes and he’d seen the determination shining in the deep, dark depths. Even in a wrinkled gown with her hair all askew and no idea of her surroundings, she’s stood toe to toe with him, refusing to give an inch when most people – both women and men – would have given a mile.
He couldn’t remember the last time someone had stood up to him with such vigor.
Weak? No, Lynette was not weak.
But she was vulnerable.
Without a husband to support her, she and her sisters would not be long for the poor house.
To imagine Lynette dressed in rags…her proud shoulders slumped…her eyes downcast…his jaw clenched just to think of it.
He had the means to pay off her creditors and ensure neither she nor her sisters ever wanted for anything ever again, but from the moment they’d kissed and he had tasted the sweet nectar of her lips the idea of giving her a dory so she might attract the attention of another man had sat ill with him.
Nathaniel may not have believed in love, but he did believe in lust…and atonement.
Gazing at Lynette now, admiring her beauty despite the tears still running down the soft curves of her face, he knew what needed to be done. What had to be done.
He imagined she would resist the idea at first, but when he explained how it would solve both of their problems she’d come around. She would have to, for what other choice did she have? And when she did, she would see the reason in it and the logic, for he was nothing if not logical.
Which was why he intended to make Lynette his wife.
“No.”
Nathaniel scowled. “What the bloody hell do you mean, no?”
“Unless the word has a definition I am as of yet unaware, I mean precisely what I said.” Calmly lifting her cup of tea, Lynette blew lightly across the top before taking a small sip and setting it down on its matching saucer.
After her embarrassing loss of composure in the parlor, Nathaniel had suggested they move to the dining room where he’d left her alone, giving her the precious time she needed to collect herself before he returned with a breakfast tray filled with an array of pastries and meats still warm from the oven. It wasn’t until she bit into a buttered piece of toast that she realized how hungry she was. Quality food had been rather hard to come by over the past few weeks, and – much to her chagrin – she made quick work of three pieces of toast, two poached eggs, and one generously cut slab of ham that all but melted in her mouth.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten so much, and guilt had quickly followed her sense of contentment as she imagined her sisters sitting down to a breakfast of sloppy porridge and plain fruit. But when she stood up to finally take her leave, Nathaniel’s unexpected proposal had promptly sat her back down.
At first she’d thought he was joking, but when it became clear he was very serious she had come to the natural conclusion that he was a bit mad.
Meeting his gaze across the wide table, she even felt a faint stirring of pity. Pity that was quickly replaced with annoyance when she realized he was not going to let the ridiculous matter drop until he had the answer he wanted.
“I do not believe you are giving this the proper amount of consideration,” he said, acting for all the world as if though she were being the irrational one when he had just proposed marriage over ham and toast!
/> Honestly.
What had he expected her to do? Jump up and down with joy? Some women would have, she supposed. No doubt most women, for as a wealthy member of the peerage Nathaniel was considered quite a fine catch. But he wasn’t a fish Lynette had any interest in pulling out of the water. Not when his motivations for suggesting marriage came from a place of pity instead of love.
She may have been trapped in a dire situation, but she wasn’t about to accept charity. Especially not when that charity came from the brother of the man who had placed her in such a dire situation to begin with! It was all far too convoluted to begin with, and she refused to complicate matters any further.
“Lord Townsend,” she began in the same reasonable tone she used whenever she was trying to impress a point upon one of her sisters. “I appreciate your offer and I can assure you I have given it all of the consideration it warrants. However, my answer remains unchanged.”
“And that answer is?” he asked.
“Must I really say it again?”
At his short, clipped nod, she sighed in exasperation. “No. An unequivocal, absolute no.”
“You are allowing pride to cloud your good judgement, Miss Swan.” Cupping his hands behind his neck, he leaned back in his chair until it was precariously balanced on only two legs. A honey colored curl fell across his forehead, and Lynette frowned as her fingers twitched in response.
“Perhaps I am,” she acknowledged stiffly, for pride did having something to do with it. Perhaps it was foolish, especially given the current circumstances under which she found herself, but she’d always imagined that when a man asked her to marry him he would do so out of intense feeling…not obligation. And even though he wouldn’t admit as much out loud, she knew obligation was the only reason Nathaniel was even considering such an outlandish idea. He felt responsible for his brother’s disreputable behavior, so much so that he was willing to propose marriage to make up for it.
For the Love of Lynette Page 7
