A Pair of Rogues (17 page)

She only hoped that Robert would come to forgive her in time.

Chapter Nine

Ned stayed abed until mid-afternoon, sleeping off a headache from too much champagne. He could not so easily rid himself of the more nagging pain in his chest.

He was sitting in his breakfast parlor, staring at a plate filled with ham and bacon, eggs, and pickled fish, with little appetite, when his Grace of Broughton was announced.

Robert abruptly entered the smallish room. The black severity of his morning costume lent an air of strain to his already pallid skin. The stiffness in his shoulders made Ned want to sigh.

Instead of rising to greet his guest in an obsequious manner, Ned pushed back in his chair and crossed his arms.

“Well, Broughton,” he asked, “have you come to apologize or to call me out. If it’s the latter, I should warn you my seconds have grown quite weary of transacting my affairs of late.”

Robert took this as a poor attempt at humor, when as Ned could have informed him, it was the truth.

“I have not come to call you out,” Robert said irritably, “but neither am I certain you deserve any sort of apology.”

“No doubt you are right.” Ned unfolded his arms, and despite his lack of appetite, took up his knife and fork. “You will not mind, I hope, if I eat before the fat on this bacon congeals?”

“Hang it, Ned! How can you eat at a time like this?”

Ned raised his brows. “Have you not breakfasted yet?”

“You know I have. I would not otherwise be out.”

“Then, you will understand my pressing need for sustenance.” With his fork, he pointed to a chair across the table. “You may sit, if you like. That should prevent you from pacing a hole in my Turkey carpet.”

Ignoring Robert’s offended glance and attacking his plate with a feigned relish, Ned spoke between bites. “You might have the goodness to tell me why I am to be spared a drawing and quartering.”

Seating himself with a show of reluctance, Robert gnawed on the inside of his cheek. He appeared both angry and uncertain. “Christina said you followed her to her room to break up—as you mistakenly thought—an assignation with Levington.”

Ned looked up sharply. “Was I mistaken then?”

“If her story is true, you were. She said she had merely gone to her room to rest before dancing again.”

“And where was Levington?”

“Louisa said he had left. But this is not about Levington, Ned. It is about you and what you were doing when I walked in.”

“I assume Christina told you all about that, too.  But you don’t believe her, I see.”

“How can I, when you looked as if you were about to ravish her? There, in her own room!”

“It did look black, I suppose. What does Christina have to say about it?”

Robert glanced at him guiltily. “That you got angry with her for planning an indiscretion, and so you shook her.”

“Is that all she said?”

Robert sat up straighter. “What the devil do you mean?”

“I am saying”—Ned lent a harder edge to his voice—”that no matter what Christina says, you still have your doubts of me. You were right, and you always have been right, not to trust me, Robert. You should never have let your sister near me. Fortunately, no one but us is aware of what transpired last night, and as it was, it was nothing.

“But if I were you, I should prevent her from seeing anyone remotely as bad as me for the rest of her life.”

His frankness took Robert’s breath away. He recoiled, and his eyes searched Ned’s face.

“I still don’t understand you,” he said warily.

“It is very simple,” Ned said, resuming his breakfast, though his throat was dry. “I have every respect for your sister. However, as you must have told yourself a hundred times, she can only be harmed by any intimacy with me. You, yourself, jumped to the wrong conclusion last night. If we had been discovered by anyone else, that person or persons would have been much less forgiving.”

Robert was staring at him, still bemused.

Ned wiped his mouth with a serviette and put it down, before leaning back in his chair. “What have I said to confuse you?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Robert responded with a frown. “But you have to admit it’s deuced odd.”

“What is?” In spite of the leaden weight that had pressed on his chest since yesterday evening, Ned’s affection for Robert made him smile.

“The way you sounded so serious. Why would you warn me against yourself? There must be a trick in it somewhere.”

Ned felt his smile fade. A bitter grimace took its place. “Undoubtedly, there must. However, since I have only given you a confirmation of what you already know, I should not waste too much time stewing over it, if I were you.

“Look,” he added, feeling the need to remove himself from a scene in which he could only play the villain, “if it would make you feel any more secure with respect to Christina, I shall take myself off. I could stand a few weeks in the country. And I could even take Levington with me for a spell. He could use the break from his creditors’ calls, and you would be getting rid of both of us at once.”

Robert must have noticed the bitterness Ned had tried so hard to suppress. “I doubt that will be necessary,” he said, looking ashamed.

To Ned, however, it seemed that his protest was less than sincere. “It will be no trouble at all. I do have one request, however, if you are willing.”

“What is that?” Robert seemed to brace himself for the trick he suspected.

Ned grinned without any mirth. “I should like to pay a visit to Robert Edward and Louisa before I go. I promise not to see Christina.”

A slight hesitation on Robert’s part was enough to cause a tightening sensation in Ned’s throat. But, he reflected, he should not have been surprised. Robert’s lack of faith was no more than he deserved.

He had subverted Robert’s servants to gain entry to his house. He had concealed Christina’s most wanton behavior from her brother and guardian. He had betrayed his trust by giving in —once and nearly a second time last night—to his lustful feelings for his friend’s younger sister. He deserved to be mistrusted for all the things he’d done, even though he had never meant Robert any harm.

But that had always been his way. He had always been heedless and careless, and he’d discovered his errors when it was too late to repair them. That was why he was considered such a rogue.

“But, perhaps”—Ned filled the silence himself—”you prefer not to trust me in the house with your wife.”

Robert’s frown held shock and more than a hint of chagrin. “Don’t be such a complete ass, Ned. I wasn’t thinking about that. I was merely trying to come up with the proper time for your visit. Would Tuesday afternoon suit?”

“Certainly.” Ned hid an immense relief. He was not to be cut off from Robert’s family entirely. “If he agrees to go with me, Levington and I could take off the next day for Yorkshire.”

“You don’t have to do that, you know. I did not ask it of you.”

In response, Ned stood, giving him a stiff nod. But he said nothing beyond sending his compliments to Louisa with a request to see her on Tuesday next.

 Once Robert had left, Ned sat down again, but he could not eat.

There, he thought. He had done what was best for Christina. He had nearly fooled himself into thinking he could resist her and still watch over her, but last night had proven him wrong.

How he had been so impulsive as to follow her to her room in defiance of every prudent thought, he did not know, but the sight of her rising only moments after Levington had alarmed his suspicions. He had thought her over Levington, but when he had seen them whispering so intimately, he had let jealously get the better of his sense.

And in his anger over her foolishness, he had made the mistake of touching her again, and for a moment, he had looked into her eyes. The invitation he had seen there had made him want to give in to a host of yearnings he had not known he possessed.

A desire for a home. A painful need to be tender. And a wish for someone to love other than himself.

It was good, he convinced himself now, that Robert had interfered in time to remind him of how unfit he was even to dream of quenching those desires in Christina’s arms.

From this moment, his only task would be to leave her alone, to hide this still burning wish to hold her, so the world at large would never know how close Christina had come to being ravished by a rake. He would have to trust Robert to keep her henceforth out of trouble. But, just in case, Ned would make good on his promise to get Levington out of the way.

*    *    *

Louisa had failed to persuade Robert to change his mind. She could not use her usual tactics when her husband was so distressed. In spite of Christina’s revelations, he had seen enough to convince him that Ned’s feelings for his sister could no longer be considered in an avuncular light, and no others from such a quarter would be acceptable.

And, now, Ned had added his own bit of foolishness to the equation by deciding to be noble. Though sympathetic, Louisa had a strong desire to wring his neck.

She was equally exasperated with her husband for failing to see how ideally suited the two were. And with Christina for being too afraid of having her love spurned to declare it.

For so she was.

So deep in misery, she had no idea how much it showed, Christina had taken the tack that Robert’s high-handed pronouncement was nothing more than a bit of silliness, which he would soon forget, but which in the interim scarcely affected her at all. The only regret she’d confessed was that Robert and Ned should have had a falling out over such an insignificant incident.

On the contrary, Louisa opined, Robert and Ned were all too much in accord. Robert had declared his friend a scoundrel, and Ned had seconded the motion.

* * * *

Ned appeared on Tuesday, as agreed. He saluted Louisa with a kiss on one cheek before demanding to hold her son.

Dimpling at his impudence, she relinquished Robert Edward to his arms, then took a chair across from Ned and examined his face.

He seemed to have sobered in the past few weeks. Where before there had always been a restless sense of energy, she now saw the result of a lack of sleep. Even his impudence had been forced. He looked more anchored, though, as if this period of relative abstinence had removed some of the agitation from his veins.

He had the look of a man ready to settle down, if it had not been for the fact that the woman he loved had been denied him.

Louisa did not allow his attempts at joviality to fool her into thinking he had not been affected by Robert’s charges. Ned might be adept at concealing his most painful emotions; but when he held Robert Edward on his knees and peered into his eyes, his mask fell away, betraying a rawness she could hardly bear to see.

With this evidence of his misery, Louisa could no longer be vexed at his foolishness. She put on a smile to cover an urge to cry.

Ned was unaware that Robert had informed her of their interview. Neither would he relish the knowledge that she was privy to his disgrace. Louisa had always displayed her faith in Ned, and she had taken pains to let him know that she regarded the worst of his escapades as nothing more than boyish pranks. As a result, Ned had confided in her more than he had in anyone else. With her, he was not so often inclined to exaggerate his wickedness.

She wished he would confide in her now, so that she might find a way to bring him back to Christina. She tried to draw him out.

“Robert tells me you have decided to leave us for a while?”

“Yes.” Ned bounced Robert Edward into the air and earned a gurgling laugh that softened his expression before the mask descended again. “I thought a jaunt into the country might be amusing. A bit of fishing and shooting, perhaps. I’ve got a new tiger. I need to take him up into Yorkshire to introduce him to my stable there. Train him a bit. That sort of thing.”

“Isn’t this rather sudden?”

“No, I’ve been needing a new groom ever since my last one took that fall.”

“Oh.” Louisa felt frustrated by this clear signal that he refused to confide in her this time. She worked for a different opening. “Tell me about this boy,” she said. “Where did you find him?”

“At Tattersall’s. He had sneaked inside and was sleeping in a stall. They didn’t have a spot for him, so I took him on.”

“That was good of you, Ned.”

“Nonsense. Anybody knows that the best grooms are made of boys who love to be with horses. A pure piece of selfishness on my part.

“He is still a little young, but I have some hopes for him. He shows talent. His only fault seems to be a tendency to be distracted by every passing wench. But who am I to fault him for that?” Ned grinned and arched his brows, but his attempt to amuse her at his own expense lacked any genuine sense of fun.

Louisa gave an obligatory smile, before something so outrageous it shocked and delighted her at once leapt into her mind.

“I vow, you have made this boy sound so amusing, I should dearly love to see him,” she said.

“A new cause, Louisa?”

“Not at all, when he is in such good hands. I merely wondered whether he posed a danger to my maids. But I suppose you did not bring him today.”

“Indeed I did. He is supposed to be out in the square, holding my horses’ heads. If you look out the window, you can judge him for yourself.”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary.” She laughed, but silently she vowed she would get a good look at the boy without Ned’s being aware. “I daresay I’ll glimpse him up behind you one day.

“How will you be going into Yorkshire?”

“In my curricle. I’ll take the boy to accustom him to my ways.”

Louisa clasped her hands together. “Your whole trip sounds absolutely delightful. I think you are smart to get away.”

Her unwarranted enthusiasm made Ned regard her with a skeptical air, but a big hiccup from Robert Edward distracted him before he could question her.

Louisa rejoiced at the opportunity. She jumped to her feet, saying, “Poor dearest! He is so dreadfully prone to the hiccups. I shall just run and fetch him a bit of damson jam, for he cannot take the whole ones in his mouth.”