Regency Scandals: Touch Me, Tempt Me & Take Me Box Set

by Lucy Monroe

  “I had thought to stay and keep her company while you gentlemen are gone,” Thea said before he could reply to his wife’s accusation.

  Lucas turned his gaze to his sister-in-law. She looked like she would cheerfully have taken the fireplace poker to him. “You may stay and visit my wife as long as you like.”

  “Then I need not go to my bedchamber?” Irisa asked with a certain amount of belligerence.

  “Will you be here when I return?” he asked.

  “You are sure my honor will prevent me from leaving. You don’t need my pledge. You will not promise me not to challenge anyone, will you?” She sounded defeated.

  “No. I am sorry if that upsets you, but I have no choice.”

  She shook her head, but said nothing and turned away.

  He followed her and turned her until she faced him. “I will do my best to avoid challenging anyone,” he offered by way of a compromise.

  Her eyes filled with sadness. “I suppose I must make do with that.”

  He leaned down and brushed her lips lightly with his, wishing he could take the time to comfort her now. At least she did not pull away. “Yes, just as I will make do with my trust in your honor.”

  She said nothing and he and the other men turned to go.

  Ravenswood stopped in front of her on the way. “Don’t worry about your husband, brat. I’ll watch out for him.”

  She twisted her hands together until the knuckles on her fingers had all gone white. “Who will look after you, Jared?”

  Bloody hell. Lucas did not like leaving her like this. She was very upset. Perhaps her sister would calm her down, but from the look in Mrs. Drake’s eyes they would spend the time he was gone enumerating his flaws.

  ***

  Thea suggested Irisa order tea and sandwiches served to them in the library. Irisa had missed dinner, but could not bear the thought of food at the moment. However, she did as her sister suggested, having even less liking for another argument. She never used to argue with anyone. Meeting Lucas had changed her in so many ways; she just hoped he would not regret them.

  She knew that the biddable creature intent on earning her parents’ and Lucas’s approval she had once been would never have challenged him over his actions as she had done tonight. She had meant to be the kind of wife that Lucas desired, but had discovered tonight that if that included approving harebrained schemes like the one he had concocted to keep the ton from talking about her, she could not do it.

  Surely the main ingredient for the perfect wife was one who cared, not absolute amiability and perfect propriety. Anyone could offer Lucas those things, but she would love him all her life with her whole heart. Surely that meant more than the other.

  She could only hope Lucas would agree.

  Thea refused to discuss the evening’s events over tea. Instead, she told an amusing story about her son’s encounter with the kitchen cat. Irisa relaxed enough that she surprised herself by consuming several small sandwiches along with her tea and even found herself laughing at her nephew’s antics.

  “Lucas is rather autocratic at times, is he not?” Thea asked after the underfootman had taken the tea things away.

  Something had pricked Irisa’s memory as the underfootman walked away, but she let it go as she focused on Thea’s question. “Yes. I try to remind myself that he means well.”

  “You’re worried about this duel nonsense, aren’t you?”

  Irisa smoothed her skirts, dusting off crumbs from her sandwiches. “Very much. Oh, Thea. I could not bear it if either he or Jared were hurt defending my reputation.”

  Thea frowned, her startlingly blue eyes narrowed in thought. “I must admit that I know very little about this whole challenging business. It was not something the English gentlemen on my island ever participated in and Aunt Harriet never spoke of it in her letters. The only mention I ever heard of it before coming to England was that my mother made in her diary in relation to Langley.”

  Irisa started with surprise. “Papa was in a duel?”

  “No, but apparently he challenged the man he found kissing my mother in the garden. The blackguard apologized and that was the end of the matter. For him at least.”

  “It’s a truly horrible practice and not at all legal any longer, but that does not seem to stop hotheaded gentlemen from issuing challenges.”

  “I would not describe Ashton as hotheaded.”

  Irisa wished she agreed with her sister. “I think he has a temper, it’s just under control most of the time.”

  “I see.” Thea looked deep in thought for a moment. “Do you really think he will challenge anyone who comments on your birth? Surely that would be going too far.”

  “I don’t know.” She wished she did. “It’s awful to think that he feels the need to protect my reputation with the same drastic measures he used on his mother’s behalf. He had little respect for her, I think, and even less affection.”

  Thea shook her head decisively. “In that you must be mistaken. No one, even a complete idiot, is going to risk his life for someone he does not care about.”

  Irisa couldn’t prevent a small smile from forming on her lips. “Are you calling Lucas a complete idiot?”

  “That might be doing it a bit brown, but it’s obvious to me that his gentleman’s pride is more involved than his head in this matter.”

  “And Jared?”

  Thea shrugged. “Jared is hot headed and will do anything he thinks necessary to protect those he loves.”

  “Yes.” If only Lucas were similarly motivated.

  It would not decrease Irisa’s concern for his safety, but at least she would not feel like such a burden to her husband. The prospect that he saw her in the same light as his mother weighed heavily on her heart.

  “How am I to stop him from going through with this havey cavey plan of his?” she asked her sister in frustration.

  “I don’t know, sister-mine. I’ll talk to Pierson about it later tonight if you wish. Perhaps he will have some insight.”

  Irisa held little hope of that. It seemed to her that when it came to foolish things like duels, most gentlemen seemed to be in the same mind. She sighed with a certain amount of resignation. “I do not see how it can hurt.”

  Thea smiled. “Do not be so downhearted. It has been a difficult few weeks, but all will come to rights soon. I’m sure of it.”

  Irisa summoned her own smile, albeit with more difficulty. “I hope so.”

  The underfootman came into the room with a message from Thea’s nursemaid asking her to return to the townhouse because one of the children had come down ill. Irisa promised to pray for her nephew and saw her sister to the door.

  Thea stopped in the hall. “I am not certain I should leave you here alone. Perhaps you should come home with me until the men return.”

  Irisa smiled reassuringly at her sister while she shook her head. “Do not be silly. I will be quite safe here in my own home. Now go. Your son needs you.”

  Thea looked unconvinced. “Will you be here when Ashton returns?” she asked, her gaze still worried.

  “Do I have a choice?” Irisa asked.

  Thea’s eyes turned dark with understanding. “Not if you love him.”

  ***

  Irisa wandered back into the library, her thoughts on Thea’s parting comment. She did love Lucas, enough that the very thought of him facing a pistol at dawn because of her sent shards of pain knifing through her heart. She looked up in surprise at the underfootman who had followed her into the room.

  “Is there something you need?” she asked.

  “His Lordship said you were not to be left alone, milady.”

  Irisa expelled an irritated breath. It was perfectly all right for him to face death, but she could not be left alone for one moment in her own home. Gentlemen could be illogical in the extreme.

  “Very well.”

  She picked up a book and opened it, but did not attempt to read. What she needed to do was come up with a plan to stop Lucas
from challenging anyone. For people were bound to comment on her base birth as the gossip became more well known. Some of them would even do so without any malicious intent, but simply out of curiosity or shock.

  “Perhaps you would like a glass of ratafia with your book, milady?” the underfootman asked.

  Considering the state of her nerves, the idea was an excellent one. The fruit liqueur was not her favorite drink, but it could have a calming affect as she had noted at her comeout ball, which had been the first and last occasion on which she drank it. “Thank you, that would be lovely.”

  He poured a glass and served it to her by the fire. As he walked away her memory stirred once again. There was something quite familiar about the set of his shoulders and his carriage from the back. Some memory that wanted to come to the surface, but if she focused too hard on it, it would not.

  She sipped the sweet liqueur, thinking it tasted even worse than she remembered and tried to concentrate on the book of natural history she had selected from Lucas’s shelves. Perhaps the elusive memory would come to her if she kept her mind occupied with something else.

  Her eyes grew tired rather quickly and she wondered if she should not ask the underfootman to light another brace of candles. Brace of candles... A storm... So cold... As the almost empty glass fell from her fingers she remembered why the underfootman seemed so familiar. He had been in the hall the day she snuck into the tower room. She remembered being worried that he would tell on her.

  She must ask him about it.

  Just as soon as she woke up.

  Her head fell back on the chair.

  My, she was tired. She wondered why.

  She hadn’t even made love to Lucas.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Lucas was not in the best of moods as his carriage rolled toward Ashton House.

  His quarry had fled London.

  The servants Lady Preston had left behind to close her townhouse informed Lucas that she had returned to the country that very day. His search for Yardley had fared no better. Whether or not he had left Town with Lady Preston was undetermined, though the two had been seen together quite a bit of late. However, Yardley had not been at any entertainments, the gaming hells or clubs Drake and Ravenswood had visited.

  Lucas had been forced to cool his heels in the carriage while his brothers-in-law investigated everything but Yardley’s rooms and the gaming hells because although he had called for a coat, collar and neckcloth before leaving home, he was hardly dressed for evening calls by the standards of the ton.

  Tired and frustrated, he did not look forward to continuing his argument with Irisa. Nor did he anticipate with any measure of pleasure telling her of his failure to find Lady Preston or Yardley.

  Bloody hell. What a night.

  To be so close to answers and forestalled by the simple expediency of his prey fleeing to the country. He should have expected Lady Preston to make such a move. She had to know that Lucas would eventually be able to discover the source of the gossip. She would not have counted on Owlpen helping Lucas do so as quickly as he had, but she clearly had been unwilling to risk staying in Town. Lucas did not like the sensation that he had been outmaneuvered.

  He could not begin to understand why she had targeted him and Irisa for her foul schemes, but he would find out. Even if it meant following her to the remote estate in the north she had shared with her husband prior to his death.

  Ravenswood broke the silence in the carriage. “Hope Irisa’s in a more logical frame of mind.”

  Lucas smiled grimly. “A pleasant prospect to be sure.”

  Drake chuckled and spoke from the opposite squab. “After four years of marriage, I have come to the conclusion that ladies do not always agree with men on what constitutes logic.”

  Ravenswood smiled and the scar on his face turned white in the dim light cast from the carriage lamp. “I can see where living with Thea might lead you to that conclusion.”

  Drake fixed his brother-in-law with a wry look. “I’ve also decided that blood will tell. You and my wife may not have been raised in the same nursery, but your sister is every bit as stubborn and certain of her opinions as you are.”

  “Then the stubbornness must come from Langley’s side of the family because Irisa’s got her own fair share,” Lucas said.

  Ravenswood shrugged and lost his smile.

  Lucas understood the reaction. His brother-in-law did not like the reminder that he had his father’s blood in his veins. Langley’s lack of honor must weigh heavily on his only son.

  Lucas had often felt the same way when confronted with his superficial resemblance to his mother. She had had the same dark hair and uncommon shade of blue eyes. When people had commented on it, he had wondered how much more he shared with her and had set out to prove that the one thing they did not have in common was her penchant for wild behavior.

  He flipped aside the curtain on the carriage window to see how far they were from his townhouse just as the coachman reined in the horses. He let the curtain drop back into place and tensed in anticipation of seeing his wife again. No doubt they would argue, but he looked forward to a far more pleasurable use of time as well.

  Drake and Ravenswood followed him into the house. The butler and one of the footmen came into the hall almost immediately upon their arrival.

  “Are Lady Ashton and Mrs. Drake still in the library?” Lucas asked.

  It was conceivable Irisa and her sister had moved to the drawing room or Lucas and Irisa’s private sitting room to increase their comfort while they waited.

  The butler’s face registered distress before the customary bland expression worn by proper English servants reasserted itself. “Mrs. Drake called for her carriage and left earlier this evening.”

  Lucas felt a shiver of premonition skate up his spine. “And my wife?”

  “I am not certain of her ladyship’s whereabouts, milord.”

  “What the bloody hell does that mean, man? Are you saying Irisa’s gone?” Ravenswood demanded.

  The butler looked pained, but did not have the chance to answer. Pansy came rushing into the hall, her mobcap askew and her expression clearly revealing a wealth of emotion.

  She skidded to a stop in front of Lucas. “Oh, milord. She’s gone! She is. I don’t know what ‘appened, but she’s disappeared. I’m that worried, I am.”

  Rage boiled inside Lucas, but he forced his tone to remain even. “I left strict instructions for my wife not to be left alone.”

  “Yes, I know, milord. I don’t know ‘ow it could ‘ave ‘appened. One minute she were taking tea with her sister and the next she was gone.”

  “She threatened to leave, but I didn’t think she would,” Ravenswood said.

  Lucas made a sharp movement with his head. Irisa would not have made good her threat. He was certain of it. “She didn’t.”

  He turned to the butler. “Are you sure she did not leave with Mrs. Drake?”

  “Yes, milord. The footman who helped Mrs. Drake into her coach has already been questioned. He said she was alone.”

  “Has the house been searched?”

  The butler did not get a chance to answer. “We’ve been searching for the last hour or more, milord,” Pansy said, her voice breaking on the last word. She surreptitiously wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her gown.

  Drake asked, “Why did my wife leave?”

  “I do not know, sir,” the butler responded.

  Lucas turned and met Drake’s eyes.

  Drake answered his unasked question. “I thought Thea planned to stay until we returned. I don’t see her abandoning Irisa to wait alone and I also don’t think Thea would want to wait one moment longer than necessary to hear our news. She can be impatient. If she left, there must have been a reason.”

  Lucas nodded and turned back to the butler. “Who was the last servant with her ladyship?”

  Pansy opened her mouth to speak again, but the butler gave her a quelling look and she subsided. “I believe that would
be the underfootman milord. Timothy. He is new to the household staff this year.”

  “Have him brought to me at once.” Lucas turned on his heel and headed to the library. Drake and Ravenswood followed him.

  ***

  “Are you sure she hasn’t run?” Drake asked Lucas, clearly remembering the night Irisa had come to his wife for help in doing just that when faced with the first blackmail threats.

  “Yes.” He almost wished he could believe she had run. It was the thought that she hadn’t run, but was still missing which sent fear unlike anything Lucas ever known coursing through him.

  “You think she was kidnapped?” Ravenswood asked, his voice disbelieving, “From under the watchful eye of your servants in your own townhouse?”

  Lucas clenched his fists in an effort not to hit something. “Their eyes obviously weren’t watchful enough. Damnation. I should never have left her tonight. I should have locked her in her room with Pansy for her own safety.”

  Timothy entered the room along with the butler and Pansy. The maid had stopped crying, but looked like she would start again any moment.

  The underfootman stopped in front of Lucas, his servant’s mask more firmly in place than the butlers. “You wanted to speak to me milord?”

  “You were the last servant with my wife?”

  “Yes, milord. I had taken the tea things away. Then a message came for Mrs. Drake calling her home. I brought the message to her ladyship and Mrs. Drake and asked another footman to call the carriage round. I stayed with her ladyship after that because your lordship had given orders she was not to be left alone.”

  Lucas stared at Timothy. “Then how do you explain the fact that my wife is now missing?”

  Timothy blanched at Lucas’s tone, but otherwise remained impassive. “Her ladyship asked me to call her maid downstairs. I assumed Miss Pansy was in the kitchens as she often is late in the evening, visiting with the other maids.” His disdain for such behavior in a lady’s maid was apparent in his voice. “After searching the kitchens and maid’s quarters, I found Miss Pansy waiting in her ladyship’s bedchamber. When Miss Pansy and I returned to the library, her ladyship was gone.”