A Baron Worth Loving: A Historical Regency Romance Book

by Bridget Barton

  James frowned. “William will not like it.”

  “William will understand.”

  Gerard waited in the hall while James disappeared through a small dining room to the sound of music and laughter beyond. He had spoken with James about William, but as he watched the other man disappear through the doorway, he knew it was another Pembroke he truly cared about. It felt strange to be here in the house so close to Nora, and yet to have made no attempt to contact her. Still, he knew that the first line of defence was Mr Pembroke, and until he had determined what misunderstanding had led to this particular exclusion, he knew that approaching Nora would be perceived as inappropriate.

  He had determined during the ride to make his intentions known to her father, even though discussions of marriage were rather unexpected until a gentleman was about to propose. Gerard wished to have his affairs in better order before asking for Nora’s hand. But he could see that the situation between Dearbrooke and Holcombe was spiralling out of control, and if he didn’t do something soon he expected to lose the chance to propose entirely.

  He waited quietly in the hall while a few servants rushed by with platters. One of them looked at him curiously, and he wondered if they recognised him and knew he wasn’t supposed to be in attendance, or if it was strange enough that a gentleman of his bearing should be loitering near the servants’ quarters. Whatever the reason, he was just beginning to feel too conspicuous when he heard James’ returning footsteps.

  “I told my father I needed to speak with him in his study,” he said crisply. “I’ll show you there now.”

  “Wait,” Gerard said, clearing his throat. “Do you mean to imply that you didn’t tell him I was here?”

  “He was with my sister at the time, and you made it clear that you wished to keep your presence a secret until matters were solved between our two families.”

  “I didn’t mean…” Gerard sighed and followed James. His presence was enough of a surprise without this added level of intrigue, but he supposed that little enough could be done now.

  James led him down the hall and into another room that was dimly lit, this one filled with books on high shelves and with a single lantern at one end. James directed him to a chair and then lit two other lanterns and a collection of candles on the desk in the centre of the room to give more light before leaving him to wait for Mr Pembroke.

  Gerard did not have long to wait, for in a few minutes he heard the approach of footsteps and stood as Mr Pembroke came into the room. The change on the man’s face was immediate. He looked at first expectant and pleasant, but when he recognised the man with whom he was really meeting, that pleasant demeanour slipped at once into a frown.

  “Lord Colbourne,” he said rather icily. “I am surprised to see you in my house, and in such a secretive way.” He looked behind him into the hall. “As you can see, we are hosting at present. Perhaps you would be better visiting when you have been properly invited.”

  These words, harsh and pointed, were enough to drive from Gerard’s mind any delusions that he had misinterpreted the lost invitation to Holcombe. He understood clearly now that an insult had been meant, and the implications for his future with Nora were dismal. He bowed, buying himself time.

  “I know that I am not welcome at this dinner party,” he said quietly, “and that is why I came in so quietly. It was not my desire to deceive you, only to steal a few moments of your time.”

  “Surely a gentleman as trained and titled as yourself could think of a better way to steal time than appearing at an event at which you are not welcome.” Mr Pembroke took a seat behind his desk, giving Gerard the distinct feeling that he was being interrogated or interviewed for some sort of position within the Pembroke business empire. He sat down at once across from the desk in a high-backed chair arranged there.

  “Perhaps,” he said with a tilt of his head in acknowledgement, “but I didn’t want another moment to pass wherein there was a misunderstanding about my intentions as regards your daughter.”

  Mr Pembroke raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Ah, so you are going to set aside the gentlemanly cloak for a moment and be direct with me? This is certainly a surprise.”

  “I think it is the mark of a gentleman to be direct, sir.”

  “That’s not what I’ve heard,” Mr Pembroke retorted, clearing his throat. “In my experience those lords who are titled and able to appear in parliament are careful to never say what they mean, lest it cause offense, and to only communicate their desires in sideways social effronteries.”

  “Such as hosting a party to which one family and one family only is excluded?” Gerard asked quietly.

  “If you are speaking a person’s language, best to get the dialect right,” Mr Pembroke answered back in the same calm tone, folding his hands on the desk in front of him.

  “So I will try to speak your language, sir,” Gerard answered, fighting the urge to grow offended in the face of such pride. “You would prefer that I be direct, and so I will tell you that I have grown very fond of your daughter during our courtship, and I am afraid that recent events may have implied otherwise to you. I have ridden here with the express purpose of assuring you of my continued affection for Miss Pembroke and assuring you as well that I have no intention of breaking off our courtship.”

  There was a long moment of silence, during which time Mr Pembroke kept Gerard in a steady, studying gaze. Gerard had always liked him, not only because he spoke what he thought, but also because he seemed to have the unique gift of saying nothing at all when he disagreed with someone rather than spewing nonsense to make them feel better. Here he was, using that very skill to put Gerard in his place without a single word spoken. At last, he tapped his hand on the desk and stood, walking over to the table nearby to pour two glasses of sherry.

  “Lord Colbourne,” he said when the drinks had been poured, offering one to Gerard and sitting down again with the other. “On one thing we can agree – my Nora is a woman very worthy of affection, and your pursuit of her tells me that you at least have the intelligence to see that worthiness.”

  Gerard nodded, but Mr Pembroke raised his hand.

  “Lest you take that as a compliment, I have known many men who were able to see a beautiful thing but unable to prove they were worthy of it.”

  Gerard hid a smile. This man, although at present at odds with him, was worthy of respect, and Gerard couldn’t help but enjoy the manner of his interrogation: calculated, witty, and cautious.

  “On this point we are agreed as well,” Gerard said quietly.

  “So,” Mr Pembroke went on, “perhaps you will clarify to me why you would proclaim your affection for my daughter and at the very same time entertain another young woman at your country home? Do not tell me that the young woman in question had no notion of romance, for I received news of this from her and her mother, and I know that marriage was very much on the minds of both.”

  Gerard nodded. “I will not mislead you in this, sir. Lady Katherine, of whom I assume you are speaking, was indeed at my country home with her mother, and it is my understanding from conversations with my own mother, Lady Colbourne, and observations from the visitors, that marriage was on their minds. That being the case, I hope that I am my own man in such things.

  The invitation to Holcombe came from my mother and not myself, and quite without my agreement. I made it clear to her that I was still courting your daughter, and that I had no intention of ending that courtship for the sake of her matchmaking. I believe, in fact, that when Lady Katherine was there, she was able to glean the same message, for she ended her stay a bit sooner than expected, and without talk of love.”

  As he spoke, Gerard watched Mr Pembroke’s face. He was trying very hard to stay aloof, but Gerard’s speech seemed to be moving him as well, and when Gerard had finished, he waited a moment before responding.

  “You certainly seem to make a good excuse for your behaviour, Lord Colbourne. And it is even more convincing because it lines up with the exc
use my own daughter made on your behalf. She seems to think that your mother, for whatever reason, has some aversion to your courtship. Is this the case?”

  Gerard could see the true answer to that question setting him even further behind with Nora’s father, and so he cleared his throat and answered slowly. “Mr Pembroke, if I were to let my mother’s opinions enter into a conversation with you about the hand of your daughter, I would be a poor match indeed.”

  “Diplomatically put, I must say,” Mr Pembroke said, but Gerard could see a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth for the first time. “You’re not doing so very dreadfully with this interview, Lord Colbourne; but don’t get too comfortable. You claim that your intentions as regards my daughter in some way involve marriage, and yet you do not yet ask for her hand. Why is that?”

  Gerard nodded soberly. “I do not believe that Holcombe is in a position yet where I might confidently ask for the hand of an established lady such as Miss Pembroke. After my father’s death, I find that finances and business are still only now stabilising, and I would like to be able to offer your daughter a more established home and income.”

  Now there was no mistaking the smile on Mr Pembroke’s face. “I like you, Lord Colbourne,” he said. “I would have distrusted you if you had not been forthright about the matter of your estate, for I am too well-connected to be ignorant of your situation, and I would not like to think that you were keeping anything important from me in that arena.”

  “Nor I, sir,” Gerard said.

  “So what is it that drew you to my daughter in the first place?” the other man said, leaning back in his chair. Gerard could see that the mood in the room was changing. His honesty, coupled with Mr Pembroke’s good nature, seemed to be melting the walls that had formerly grown up between them. “She’s a wild thing, I know. And when I first heard that you were willing to harness her spirit I was more than a little surprised. She seems a bit too avantgarde for your brand of society.”

  Gerard smiled. “Perhaps for any brand of society.”

  “And yet?”

  “And yet I have learned that the very thing that turns some people out of her life is the mark of her wit and intelligence and kindness, and I respect that in her very much.”

  “You have learned?” Mr Pembroke sat up again, a small frown on his face. “Didn’t you know this months ago when you first started seeing her in London? I cannot imagine a cultured and careful man as yourself would have allowed yourself to grow entangled with such a girl without first seeing in her some merit.”

  Gerard smiled. “Actually, sir, it is probably time that this little detail comes out – when Miss Pembroke and I first struck up an understanding, it was not entirely conventional. Your son approached me after the opening ball of the season, when Miss Pembroke unwittingly insulted one of the more imperious of the young gentlemen in London and asked if I might consider courting your daughter to help better her image. Of course, it was a welcome opportunity for me as well – there has been much pressure for me to find a wife to stabilise our family situation –”

  He broke off suddenly, for Mr Pembroke had risen to his feet, seething with fury.

  “Do you mean to say that this entire courtship began as a ruse?” he snapped, his ire again at the surface. “You weren’t interested in my daughter at all but were only chasing after her money like every other young man in London.”

  “No,” Gerard interjected, standing as well to better face-off against the man who was now all but towering over him. “I would never do such a thing. I only meant that my situation was such that the pressure would be lessened if I looked to be pursuing a worthy lady.”

  “I see how it is,” Mr Pembroke said, tapping his hand again against the desk in that restrained frustration that had marked the beginning of their conversation. “You, Lord Colbourne, claim to be an enlightened man with the interest of a fine lady in mind, and yet beneath it all you are no more than a common suitor who entertains my daughter because of her dowry.”

  “That is not true, sir.”

  “And yet you yourself sat a moment ago across from me and confided to me the troubles of the Colbourne estate. You cannot deny it.”

  Gerard could feel things spiralling suddenly out of control, but he didn’t know how to stop what appeared to be a runaway horse of suppositions. Mr Pembroke’s eyes were wide, his stance hostile. He had made up his mind about the man sitting across from him, and it was clear that he didn’t mean to give. Nevertheless, Gerard could not give up without at least trying to clear the air.

  “I do not deny our estate’s situation, Mr Pembroke, but I will say with confidence that I have come to appreciate Miss Pembroke for her own sake, not for the sake of any dowry.”

  “Of course that is what you would say now, when I’ve found out your plot at last.” Mr Pembroke came around the desk, speaking with his finger pointed at Gerard and his tone threatening and low. “I’ll not have it, Colbourne. I won’t. My Nora has been through enough. And I can see that she clearly cares about you, and she will be crushed if in the end you only use her for her fortune. I will not support a courtship where my daughter is not wanted in the family, where the imperious Lady Colbourne cannot bear her except for her money, and where you yourself were forced to enter into the relationship only on the basis of a ruse. She deserves to be loved and cared for.”

  “On that point we agree, Mr Pembroke,” Gerard ventured quietly.

  “Then you will broach no argument when I ask you to leave my home immediately,” Mr Pembroke said, crossing his arms. “There is no need for you to make more of an uproar than you already have, and you can fully expect a letter in the mail wherein my daughter will be breaking off the courtship.”

  “Sir,” Gerard said, his heart sinking with every word. “You have misunderstood me. If you will only hear me out –”

  “Leave. Now.” Mr Pembroke leaned in. “Or be thrown out.”

  Gerard wanted to say so much more, for Nora’s sake as well as his own. But he could see that there were no words that could reach Mr Pembroke in this present state. He stayed for a moment mere inches from the other man’s angry face, and then turned on his heel and made his way out into the darkened hallway beyond.

  Chapter 30

  “And it is so lovely to see you again after London,” Mrs Wallace said with a smile to Nora, reaching out and putting a hand gently on her arm. “We didn’t know if we would be seeing you again so soon after you ran off to Holcombe for the remainder of the season. Is all well with the Colbournes?”

  It was the fourth such question that Nora had received, pointed and searching, from the guests that evening. It had been an uncomfortable dinner party punctuated not only by the enquiring guests who were surprised to find neither Lady Colbourne nor her son, rumoured to be involved with Nora, at the Pembroke dinner party. But Nora was also uncomfortable realising that her father had meant the slight to be intentional. If she had been told about it beforehand, she might have been able to stave off the confusion. But she had no foreknowledge and therefore no chance of averting the discomfort.

  “They are all very well,” she answered vaguely, as she had all evening. “I’m sure they would love to hear from you personally.”

  “And Lady Katherine? Are you still wholly in each other’s company and confidence?” the older woman pressed.

  Nora resisted the urge to snap at the woman. She was clearly a gossip who wanted a bit more information to pad her already full repertoire, and it was gossip like this that had made her season so difficult in the first place. Instead of snapping, however, she smiled as angelically as she could.

  “Lady Katherine is perfection itself,” she said.

  The woman smiled and looked as though she was planning on countering that kind speech with some other manner of question, when the sound of dance music started up again in the adjoining room. Seeing an opening for escape, Nora curtsied and tried to look apologetic.