Caprice: The Masqueraders Series - Book One (39 page)

He tried to look back over his shoulder but he could not twist his neck around far enough. “What have you written, you madwoman?”

“Ask your valet. It is the date we shall be wed.”

He grinned at her. “Perhaps you should be my valet. I’d much prefer you to scrub my back.”

“Beginning on this date”—she poked the place on his shoulder—“I shall take great pleasure in bathing you, my lord, as often as you desire.”

“I shall hold you to it, on one condition, that you allow me to be your maid in exchange.” He bent his head and kissed her hard.

“Bahia,
I am glad I found you!” he murmured when he had caught his breath. “I should have guessed you were a ‘wild’ Holton. I hope we won’t ever be quite respectable.”

Clarissa smiled and closed her eyes, feeling very smug and very satisfied with her wild Holton nature. “I should expect no less, my love.”

London, 1 August 1814

The gazettes were full of the news. The Regent’s official victory celebrations were taking place throughout the city in Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James’s Park. But in Hanover Square the cause of celebration was the marriage of Hadrian Temple Blackburne, the Right Honorable Earl of Ramsbury to Clarissa, widow of Lieutenant Evelyn Willoughby.

The bride wore a fawn-colored figured-silk dress with matching bonnet trimmed in silk blond lace. The groom was resplendent in white satin waistcoat of woven-stem design, a morning coat of dark blue, and striped pantaloons, an elaborately pleated white cravat, pumps, and dress gloves. Everyone remarked how well the scarlet coat of the Light Bobs complimented the best man, the Honorable Emory Blackburne. The maid of honor looked nearly like a bride herself, and several mamas with marriageable sons remarked upon it with approval as Lady Jane made her way down the aisle. The bride blushed prettily and the groom was full of smug self-congratulation that turned into undisguised love the moment he saw the bride’s face.

The celebratory
déjeuner
took place at the earl’s residence. The entire staff of Ramsbury House joined in the celebration, having received from the earl wedding favors of white ribbons, gloves, and lace handkerchiefs. There was an elaborate four-course meal and champagne, three kinds of punch, bride’s cakes, and assorted pastries.

Though the number of guests was held to less than fifty, the Ramsbury second salon was filled to overflowing with gifts. Among them was a spectacular silver punch bowl and forty gold-lined cups, all bearing the hammered likeness of the Emperor of Russia, Tsar Alexander I.

The dancing had just begun when there was a disturbance at the door. To a household that had paid host six short weeks ago to a dozen giant Cossacks, little would seem to disturb it. Yet the man who sauntered into the ballroom on this particular afternoon might have impressed the Emperor of Russia. As the orchestra faltered, Hadrian paused in his dancing. With his arm still about his new bride, he turned with a frown toward the entrance.

The tall, black-bearded stranger wore a long, gold-embroidered, fur-lined velvet coat and a turban of tube-like scarves about his head. Beneath the coat he wore a scarlet tunic and baggy trousers of dark brown. Blue slippers with pointed, turned-up toes covered his feet. A wide sash was looped once about his middle. Attached to the sash was a sword with a gold hilt sheathed in a worked-leather scabbard.

“Well, I might have guessed!”

The lady’s shrill voice from across the room instantly parted the throng of wedding guests to reveal Lady Arbuthnott. She came forward quickly, her sage-green skirts rustling as she moved toward the exotic stranger standing arms akimbo.

“If you think for one moment that you shall receive a welcome from me, you are very much mistaken!” Without even pausing, she stepped up and struck the bearded man full across the face with her open palm. “Well! Well!” she said, her bosom heaving with emotion. “I hope that is sufficient greeting for you, for it is all you shall get from me!”

As the astonished wedding party looked on, the man suddenly moved, swooping down on the small titan-haired lady and scooping her up in his arms. Her scream of surprise prompted several gentlemen to step hesitantly forward, but a gesture by their host prevented them from taking action.

Instead, Hadrian went up to the man who stood several inches above his considerable height. “I have the honor, do I not, of addressing the Viscount of Arbuthnott?”

A huge smile appeared in the nest of beard. “You do.”

Heloise, who was struggling in a most undignified manner in his arms cried, “Do not speak to him! I forbid it! He is not fit company for civilized people. Abuser of women! Libertine! Deserter!” As she spoke, she struck her husband several times about the head and shoulders, but he paid no more attention to the blows than if they were buffets of the wind.

“Uncle Quentin?” Clarissa came up beside her husband and stared at her uncle with wonder-wide eyes.

“Little Clarie? Well, look how you’ve grown,” he answered, the faintest Scots burr coloring his baritone.

“Put me down this instant!” Heloise cried and began pulling his beard.

“Very well,” Lord Arbuthnott answered, “but if you move so much as an inch from my side, I’ll not be responsible for what your niece’s wedding guests may witness.”

Amazingly enough, Heloise did not even reply. In fact, when he put her down, she clung to his arm as if he would disappear.

“Now then, little handmaiden,” Quentin said in satisfaction as he grinned at Clarissa. “I see you managed to carry out my instructions to the letter, though I understand you made at least one detour in the process.”

Clarissa regarded him in wonder. “What are you talking about, Uncle?”

Quentin glanced at his wife, who now looked very much like she was about to burst into tears. “Heloise, you did tell her?”

Heloise bristled. “I seem to remember your promise that you would return in time to be of use. You are late!”

“I was unavoidably detained by a certain pasha who wished to learn the Indian art of levitation. As he was a rather broad figure with little imagination, it required many months of prayerful fasting. He never did levitate but his improved appearance won me the dying gratitude of the pasha’s harem. However, you were about to confess …” he suggested.

Heloise turned a pouty look on her niece. “Quentin chose Lord Ramsbury for your husband a full ten years ago. It was after a trip to Wolfscote where they went fly-fishing together.”

To Hadrian she offered a secret smile. “We were only waiting for you grow up, dear, before introducing you. But then Clarissa would insist upon going to her father, and you went into the army and died, or so we thought. Then she married … oh, but then it has all worked out so nicely.”

“Welcome to the family, Lord Ramsbury.” Quentin offered Hadrian his hand. “I’ve only one bit of advice for you. A high-spirited woman should not be left alone for too long.” He placed a loving arm about his wife’s shoulders “You see how it sours the temper. Clarissa’s a Holton; she’ll need to have her head. But keep her with you, and always in your bed. This aristocratic habit of separate rooms destroys the very urges that make life worth living.

“Now, then.” He turned with a great grin for his wife. “I am home for good, I think. Or at least until I have persuaded you of the virtues of mountain air. I’ve heard of a peak in Nepal—well, we shall see. At present, I’ve a prodigious thirst and a prodigious hunger and a prodigious appetite for your company. Come, wife, and make your husband welcome in his home.” He picked Heloise up and slung over her his shoulder with careless ease.

“Good-bye, my dears!” Heloise called gaily and waved as her husband strolled with her out of the room. “God bless!”

Hadrian turned to his wife and cupped her face in his hands. “This must be the strangest courtship any two people have known.”

She watched him with love-bright eyes. “Are you sorry?”

“I fear I’ve married into a wild Scots clan,” he said ruefully.

“You should have known we were all a little mad the first time you met me,
burra sahib.”

The most intimate smile of all touched his mouth. “I remember a certain promise made me by a beautiful young handmaiden and, like your uncle, I’ve a prodigious hunger,
Bahia.”

Clarissa saw his eyes darken with desire and decided that a little madness was a wonderful thing.

Mischief (The Masqueraders Series - Book Two)

One night of passion can build a world. One memory can tear it down.

As Napoleon invades Persia, clever but shy Japonica Fortmon is chosen by the ailing English Viscount Shrewsbury to arrange his escape from Baghdad. To get him out, Japonica must enlist the aid of the infamous Hind Div, a man as mysterious as he is ruthless. Whispered to be a spy, an assassin, and even a sorcerer, Hind Div agrees to help Fortmon, and all it will cost her is a night of passion.

A year later and the war is over. Freshly widowed Japonica arrives in England, wishing only to settle her unruly step-daughters with Devlyn Sinclair, the new Viscount, and to return to France, and the son conceived on that one night of surrender. She is stunned to recognize the new Viscount, for he is none other than Hind Div, only scarred by war and missing any memory of the merciless man he once was. If his memory returns, he could claim back his son and destroy Japonica. She must live with this man who once ignited her passions, and has started to once more, and to restore to him a sense of pride, of honor, of identity, even if it costs her everything.

Beguiled (The Masqueraders Series - Book Three)

Everything has a price — except for love, and revenge…

In the darkest hours of her life, disgraced heiress Philadelphia Hunt is approached by a handsome stranger, a Brazilian jewel-miner named Eduardo Tavares. He makes an outrageous proposition—disguise herself and join him in a devious con to swindle America’s upper crust out of their riches. Philadelphia is desperate, and intrigued, by both this enchanting stranger and his promises of her return to high society.

But a deeper masquerade is afoot. Little does Philadelphia know that the man responsible for her father’s disgrace and suicide is Eduardo himself, the very man in whose arms she is discovering the scorching heat of desire. And little does Eduardo know that Philadelphia’s thirst for vengeance cannot be quenched. Nor can their passion, as secrets and betrayals set this pair of lovers on a path that will lead to a new life—or to their destruction…

Emerald and Sapphire (The Masqueraders Series - Book Four)

He’s known as Merlyn Ross, an actor and petty thief. He’s a handsome commoner who wears a leather eyepatch, his other eye a piercing emerald green. He’s also known as the Comte de Valure, a dashing French nobleman who wears a grey wig and a silk eye patch, his other eye an chanting sapphire blue. Admired by men, adored by women, no one suspects that Merlyn and the Comte are one and the same, or that both men steal more than kisses when setting out to seduce London’s wealthiest women.

But one night changes everything.

Cassandra, a highborn lady, is the target of a robbery, and the victim of amnesia. Locked away as a vagrant, she is sold for one night’s pleasures to a prisoner who has been condemned to death, a man with an emerald eye. One year later, as Cassandra’s memory has been partially restored, her child, conceived on that fateful night, is being held hostage by her father-in-law. It is only here that she meets the Comte and realizes who he really is. Determined to keep the woman he fell in love with on their night together in that dark prison, Merlyn must pull off the heist of his lifetime against a formidable foe, and he must become the one singular man worthy of his one true love.

The Gamble (The Masqueraders Series - Book Five)

She’s ready to risk everything for a man with nothing left to lose — except his heart.

Jack Laughton was a viscount who one night traded his life of leisure in order to masquerade as a notorious highwayman: “Black Jack” Law. Nothing could touch this conniving rogue’s soul…until his eye fell upon the beauty whose stagecoach he attempted to rob. Now he is willing to do anything to make this alluring woman his — even abandon his wicked ways.

Sabrina Lindsay has a knack for defying social conventions. Her endless escapades in London society have enraged her guardian who wants nothing more than to marry her off to a prominent nobleman. But it will take much more than threats to bend Sabrina’s stubborn will. Sabrina vows to do whatever it takes to save her brother Kit, imprisoned by their guardian to insure her obedience…even if that means making a pact with the devil himself, “Black Jack” Law.

It’s a gamble when the dazzling and daring Sabrina and the handsome rogue Jack join together, but the true risk comes when it’s her heart he’s trying to steal.