A Kiss for Lady Mary (29 page)

On the other hand, Kit had absolved his as well. He and Mary had what they’d wanted all along. “We shall meet you at five o’clock?”

“Excellent.” His grandmother turned to Lady Theo. “I saw your father recently. He misses you.”

“Thank you for telling me. He’ll see us shortly. We have plans to depart for England when our guests do.”

His grandmother gave her “all was right with her world” smile. “You do know, he only wants for you to be happy.”

Lord Titus glowered, but Lady Theo grinned. “It has taken many years, but I understand that now.”

Kit vowed his children would never doubt that he loved them and wanted what was best for them.

He and Mary escorted their grandmothers to the front door. “We’ll see you soon.”

His grandmother kissed him again. “We are looking forward to it.”

The dowager duchess embraced Mary. “I am so very happy for you, my dear.”

Once the door was closed, she turned to him. “I cannot believe how easily I forgave her.”

“I know. I feel the same about mine.” He grimaced.

Mary’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, but your grandmother is a darling.”

He raised a brow. “My grandmother is the most manipulative female I have ever had the pleasure to meet, and she does it all charmingly. There is no standing against her. Even my mother cannot remain angry at her. She is completely lovable.”

Shaking her head, Mary chuckled. “She is that. They are so opposite. I wonder how they became such good friends?”

“Perhaps we should ask them.” They entered their chamber, and he glanced at the clock. “Please tell me that is not the correct time.”

She looked at her watch brooch. “I’m sorry to tell you it is slow. We have just enough time to change and leave. They must have planned dinner before they asked us.”

Damn!
At this rate, he’d never have time alone with his wife. “When we get to Rose Hill, I’m barring the doors.”

“I’ll help you.”

She rang the bell-pull and soon her dresser and his valet were attending them. Now that everything with her uncle had been settled, Mary seemed to dismiss the cousin. Yet if their grandmothers thought Tolliver was in Edinburgh, Kit would have to be on his guard. After all, few people knew he and Mary had wed. He wouldn’t put it past the blackguard to try to abduct her.

M
ary would rather have walked, if only to spend more time with Kit, but her thin silk-and-kidskin slippers would have failed, at least twice, and one could not attend a dinner wearing half-boots.

He handed her into one of Lady Theo’s small town coaches. Once he’d taken his seat, he put his arm around her shoulders, and they sat in companionable silence during the short ride to the hotel.

Suddenly Mary had a thought. “I wonder what they would have done had they found us at the King’s Arms?”

Kit barked a laugh. “Ordered champagne and danced a jig, is my guess.”

She grinned. “You’re probably right. I know we’ve decided to forgive them, but I would still like to know what prompted it all.”

His head moved, as if he was gazing at her. Unfortunately, her bonnet blocked her view of him. “I’m not sure I wish to know what goes on in their brainboxes. It might frighten me.” Kit tightened his hold on her. “But by all means, ask. It might be interesting to know how ladies who should be in Bedlam think.”

Mary was still chuckling a few minutes later when the coach came to a stop at the hotel. Kit waved aside the footman waiting to assist her, and handed her out himself. A surge of love speared through her as she remembered all the small, caring gestures he’d made toward her that she’d mistaken as mere courtesy and not signs of his regard. For the first time she wondered if Kit had attempted to court her in Town, whether she’d have been aware enough to notice. He definitely wouldn’t have punched a gentleman there.
Hmm.

They were escorted to their grandmothers’ apartments. The rooms made the ones they’d had look small in comparison. The parlor was larger, and flanked at each end by bedchambers. They even had a balcony with a view to the garden in back of the hotel.

Her grandmother bussed her cheek, then held out her hand to Kit, who bowed over it. His grandmother hugged and kissed Mary and Kit.

“Kit,” her grandmother said, “you may pour the drinks.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Under the watchful eye of her grandmother’s butler, the hotel’s servants bustled in and out preparing the table. Their conversation centered on their travel to Edinburgh until the butler announced dinner. Once seated, with only Grandmamma’s servants in attendance, the conversation grew more interesting.

“I suppose you are aware of Meg’s love interest,” Grandmother Featherton said.

Kit’s lips pressed together. “I am. The best I can say for him is that he seems to care for her and has no ulterior motives. A bit of a bore, in my opinion.”

Mary wanted to pinch him under the table, but he’d been seated across from her. She couldn’t even reach to kick him. How could he not know he’d just given their grandmothers permission to interfere?

“I agree, Kit,” Grandmother Featherton commented. “He’s not up to her weight.”

He shrugged. “There is nothing for it. It’s her choice.”

As he applied himself to the soup, their grandmothers exchanged an almost surreptitious glance.

“Speaking of potential mates,” Mary said, giving them a wide-eyed, innocent look. “Exactly when did the two of you decide Kit and I would make a good couple?”

“Not
good
, my dear,” Grandmother Featherton said. “Excellent. Constance and I have always striven for brilliant matches.”

“And not what the
ton
normally considers brilliant,” her grandmamma added. “Life can be a very long time. Even lengthier if one is unhappily wed.”

Kit held his serviette to his mouth as he made a small choking noise.

“Are you all right, my dear?” his grandmother said as she slapped him on the back. “For instance, look how happy your parents are.”

He glanced up, his eyes suspiciously red. “You matched them? To hear it from my mother’s point of view, they fell in love.”

“Of course they did,” Grandmamma Featherton responded in an insulted tone. “We simply threw them in each other’s way and ensured they had sufficient opportunity to get to know one another.”

Frowning, he was quiet for a moment. “What about my father’s first marriage?”

His grandmother slowly shook her head. “He met her at a house party not far from Gretna Green. Before we knew he was wed, it was over and done.”

Mary’s grandmamma’s lips formed a thin line. “Bad blood. Madness ran in her family.”

He rubbed his forehead. “I thought she died in child-birth.”

“She died,” Grandmamma said, “jumping off the parapet of her family’s home with the child in her arms.”

“Your father was devastated,” Grandmother Featherton added. “That was when Constance and I decided to make sure none of our children suffered a bad marriage again. Most of the matches were fairly easy. You and Mary, however, provided an unusual challenge. You were both so reserved, and then Gawain began his harassment. We were almost at our wits’ end.”

“I don’t understand.” Mary stared at Lady Featherton. “How did you know to put us together, and how did you think of your idea?”

Her grandmother gave her the same look she’d give a slow-witted child. “Sometimes a person needs the opposite to complete them. At other times, such as with your Aunt Eunice, they need the same type of person. You and Kit appeared to require mates who would think alike. What made it more difficult, Mary, is that you are also a romantic who has had little experience with men.”

That was true enough. Would she have fallen for a complete rogue, thinking his advances were love?

“On the other hand”—her grandmother smiled—“for all his experience with the
ton
, Kit had never wooed a female. He’d spent his time not giving the young ladies any reason to think he was interested in them.”

“The year you came out—” Grandmother Featherton smiled beatifically. She really was good at this. “We watched the two of you watch each other. Then nothing. Finally, during a conversation with Bridgewater’s steward, Constance discovered the steward’s cousin was at Kit’s estate.”

If he’d been another man, Mary was sure Kit’s jaw would have dropped. “How—how long did your preparations take?”

“After that,” his grandmother said in a cheery voice, “not long at all. We needed the year for Mary to feel safe, so she could be receptive to your courtship, and we wished to ensure that your heart was not otherwise engaged.”

A cold chill ran down Mary’s spine. “And if Kit’s heart had been?”

Her grandmother smiled kindly. “You would have left Rose Hill none the wiser. Miss Brownly would have had to come here for her Season.”

“Remarkable,” Kit commented faintly. “I was firmly convinced you’d both lost your minds, but, and I say this with strong reservations, it appears as if you know what you’re doing. I believe Mary will agree with me when I tell you we are remarkably happy together.”

She nodded her head. “I agree wholeheartedly, yet what of Diana Brownly?”

Lady Featherton grinned. “The last we heard, a very nice gentleman from Cornwall has her interest. He is a country-bred baronet and only in Town to find a wife. He is quite smitten with her as well. She has also been told that your marriage has been undisclosed from the
ton
for various reasons which cannot be revealed. Kit, your mother has assured Miss Brownly that all is proper and sworn her to secrecy.”

That was sure to appeal to Diana’s sense of romance.

They had moved from the dining table to a cozy group of chairs and sofas. Grandmamma glanced at Kit. “Get me a brandy and your grandmother a sherry. We will not have tea served. I expect to retire soon.”

He did as he was told, and shortly thereafter they bid their grandmothers a good evening. Once in the carriage, he said, “That was an illuminating conversation.”

Mary removed her bonnet. “Especially for you. How do you feel about their revelations concerning your father’s first wife?”

“It explains a great deal. My older half-brother was never allowed around the younger children as babies. Not that I think he cared. Even when he was with me, there was a groom or nurse present at all times. The older he got, the wilder he became.”

She snuggled into him. “It’s sad.”

“Yes.” Kit put his arm around her shoulders. “I must say, I don’t think them nearly so mad.”

“Nor do I.” Mary wondered who their grandmothers would try to match next and was very much afraid it would be Kit’s sister.

 

It was their last day in Edinburgh. The city had managed to endear itself to Kit. Mayhap he and Mary would visit again. They were strolling with the Eveshams, Rutherfords, and Huntleys through the squares making up part of the city’s New Town. The ladies walked ahead, chatting, as the gentlemen entertained Arthur and Ben. Kit had never been so happy and at ease, knowing all was right with him and Mary. He hoped they would soon join the others in parenthood. Even now, she could be carrying his child.

Next to him Marcus tensed, and Kit looked at their ladies. A man, dressed as a gentleman, stood directly in front of them.

Kit and his friends approached as casually as they could under the circumstances. Phoebe’s hand stole into a pocket in her skirts, and Anna took a few steps to the side. Caro remained next to Mary.

“Gawain, what are you doing here?” Mary asked.

“I’ve come for you. What did you think, that I’d let all that money go? I never took you for a fool.”

Phoebe and Anna might be capable of defending his wife, but she was Kit’s to protect. He made his way to Mary, standing behind her. Raising his quizzing glass, he asked in a bored drawl, “Who might you be?”

Tolliver glanced briefly at Kit, then said to Mary, “You may as well come with me now. You wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt.”

She leaned into Kit the slightest bit. “Really?” Her tone was haughty and dismissive. “Who do you think is going to hurt all of them?”

“I have men,” he said, looking at the group. “They know how to fight.”

Kit wanted to laugh. There was no one in the square but a few children and their maids. Instead he said, “You and me. Now. Unless, that is, you’re afraid to fight a man.”

Tolliver stared at Kit as if noticing him for the first time. “I don’t know who you are or why the hell you’re concerned. This is between my cousin and me.”

“I’m her husband.” He raised a brow. “And I don’t particularly care for scoundrels who swear in the presence of my wife.”

Tolliver stepped back as if struck. “You’re married?”

Kit inclined his head.

The idiot began to laugh. “Your birthday isn’t until next year. It’s all mine. I’ve won!”

Kit supposed they should have left it at that, but he couldn’t. “You’ve won nothing. Your father is here.”

The man’s face paled and he lunged at Mary.

Kit reached out to push her behind him, but before he could succeed, Mary drove her fist into the man’s nose. Blood sprayed out, and Tolliver went down with a thud.

“Ow!” Mary cradled her hand. “Why did no one tell me that would hurt?”

Kit couldn’t help but grin. “For your first time, you did a wonderful job. Would it be too much to ask that next time you allow me to strike the blackguard?”

“If I’d had any idea I’d injure myself, I would have let you do it this time.”

Kit wrapped her hand in his handkerchief. “You need to ice it immediately.”

He turned to Marcus and Rutherford, who had picked Tolliver up. “I suppose the best thing to do with him is take him to the watch until his father can fetch him.”

“Probably something that should have been done a long time ago,” Marcus agreed. “Huntley’s already gone to find a constable.”

 

Later that afternoon, after her hand had been iced and the swelling reduced, Kit snuggled next to Mary in bed. She wore a silk confection the likes of which he’d never seen before. “Where did you get that?”

“Caro. She brought it from Italy.”

Although he dearly wanted his wife, some things had to be discussed first. “I had looked forward to smashing your cousin to pieces.”

“I’m sorry, but despite the pain, it felt amazingly good to hit him.”

“What do you think Tolliver will do when he discovers his mother is delusional?”

“Find his own way. I never really liked him, but it is a shame his mother filled him with all that nonsense.”

“And his father was not around to counter it.”

Mary glanced at him with sadness in her eyes. “That’s true. I wonder who they would have married if our grandmothers had been involved.”

Kit groaned and pulled Mary on top of him. “I don’t think I want to know.”

“They have been extremely successful.”

“Don’t tell me you now support what they’ve done!”

Mary nuzzled his chin, then moved her lips to his and nibbled. “They did put us together.”

Kit wondered what his wife would do if he tore the silk from her body. Then he decided he was over-thinking this. He grabbed the neck, gave her a wicked smile, and tore it apart.

Not giving her time to protest, he blanketed her mouth, wanting her to struggle catching up with him. She met him, parrying her tongue with his. “Ah, my love.”

Kit fluttered kisses down her body until he reached her hot, wet core. “Mine.”

She arched against him. “Yes, yours.”

Mary screamed with pleasure as he entered her. Bright lights impaired his vision as she convulsed around him.

He saw heaven and knew it was Mary.

 

Dawn came all too early. Before he could even think of making love to his wife again, there was a knock on the door.

“Sir, you need to awaken.”

Kit groaned. “Give me a few minutes.”

Mary turned in his arms. “How much time do we have?”

“Not enough for me to love you properly.”

She smiled, flicking her tongue against his nipple. “What about improperly?”