Captured Love (2 page)

“Rowena said you might...” she began again. His gaze
dropped to her lips as she spoke,
then
returned to her
eyes when she stopped.

“Might what, Miss Divine?”

“Take us driving in Hyde Park tomorrow,” she said
hurriedly.

Ah
, so she could show herself off to a world who would
not wish to know her at all, if she was not with his sister. Even her middling
dowry did not recommend her. The fortune hunters, who trailed after Rowena,
overlooked Miss Divine. The girl was bartering with her looks, yet her looks
were also middling in comparison to some, no matter her vivid hair and striking
eyes.
Which was, no doubt, her reason for hovering so close
to Rowena, and using his sister as a foil.

“I cannot take you both, I’m afraid. My phaeton will
only seat myself and my sister.”

“But Rowena implied we might use the barouche.”

Did she? Or had Miss Divine asked if they might go out
in his barouche?

Tomorrow, after his sparring match with Edward, Rupert
would raise the subject of Ellen chaperoning Rowena, no matter Ellen’s past. He
was intensely tired of this charade, regardless of how much he cared for his
sister. He’d had enough of Miss Divine’s maneuvering, and trying to judge what
was best for Rowena, who to help her meet and who to avoid...

“May we, Lord Morton?” Miss Divine asked, following
her words with a very bright smile, which he supposed, was also passably
pretty.

“Yes.” He looked past her, rather than at her as he
answered, to discourage further conversation, feeling thoroughly manipulated.

~

“My Lord, you have a caller.”

Rupert turned to face his butler.
“Who,
Owens?”

Rupert was not yet dressed. His valet was in the
process of knotting his cravat.

“The Earl of Kendrick, sir.”

Owens held out a card. Rupert did not take it.

A frown formed while he tried to keep his chin up.
Kendrick?
“Did he say what his call is
about?”

“No, sir.”

They were not introduced. Kendrick should not be here.
He’d been introduced to Rowena, not Rupert, and people should not speak unless
they’d had an introduction.

Rupert sighed; he hadn’t even eaten yet. What on earth
was the man calling at this hour for?

“I have asked him to wait in the library, sir.”

“I would rather you’d told him I was not to be
disturbed.”

“He said he would not be put off, my Lord. If you were
busy, he would wait.”

Bloody hell
.
What on earth did Kendrick want? Perhaps he had merely been sidling up to
Rowena last night to win Rupert’s vote for some bill in Parliament? Well, if
that was Kendrick’s game, Rupert would swiftly put him right.

“Then tell him I will be down in a while.”

Half an hour later, Rupert turned the handle of the
library door,
then
entered. He’d eaten breakfast, holding
Kendrick to his word, and making him wait.

Kendrick was sitting in a comfortable chair near the
hearth at the far end of the room, scanning a book he must have taken from the
shelves, looking thoroughly at ease.

Annoyance itched beneath Rupert’s skin. He’d hoped to
make Kendrick feel unwelcome by delaying their meeting.

The man glanced up, set the book on a small satinwood
table beside him, and stood.

The impression Rupert had acquired last night was not
improved. This man was aging, and he might be confident in his own skin, and
bear a title, but as Rupert had never heard of Kendrick until last night, he could
not be anyone of any importance.

“You wished to speak to me...” Rupert opened, bowing
slightly and stiffly.

Kendrick also gave the merest bow. “I realize it is
unusually early,” he began, “however, I wished to ensure you, and Lady Rowena,
would be at home.”

And Lady Rowena?

“Lord Morton, I wish to make an offer for your
sister.”

Kendrick could have punched Rupert in the stomach. He
would have felt equally winded. “No.” The answer left his lips with an adamant
force, without any thought; of course the answer was no.

“Hear me out, Lord Morton. Lady Rowena would be a
countess, and I have a considerable fortune.”

“No.” Robert wished for more for her than this old
man. He wanted her to be happy, more than happy, loved. Rupert had endured his
parents’ cold, bitter home. He would not allow his adored sister to suffer
that.

“Do not be so hasty, Morton. You cannot be making the
decision with any sense. At least think about this before you answer me.”

“I have no need to think. You were only introduced to
her last night. You can have no affection for her, and I do not even know you. I
have no intention, therefore, of trusting you to care for my sister, no matter how
big your fortune, Kendrick. There is no decision to be made, the answer is no.”

“I saw your sister last night, Morton, and I simply
knew she was the right one –”

“The right one?
And what was your deceased wife, who I’m advised you
have mourned very thoroughly?”

Kendrick stiffened, growing an inch in height as his
hands fisted at his sides. “I loved my first wife. It does not mean I cannot
love a second time. I have children who need a mother. Some of them are still
very young. When I saw your sister across the room last night, I felt what I
felt on the occasion I met my first wife. I —”

“I do not care.”

“My Lord Morton, be reasonable. At least give me a
chance.”

“There is no chance my sister will have you, and the
final say will always be hers. Why waste your time? You may go now.”

“Then let me speak with her, Lord Morton. Let us ask
Lady Rowena, and let her have her say...”

Rupert stared at Kendrick. Rupert did not wish Rowena
dragged into this, but he was unsure what to do. He could throw the man out,
but Kendrick would probably still believe he had a chance, or Rupert could call
Rowena down and perhaps her refusal might finally convince Kendrick to forget
this ridiculous notion?

“Very well, I will fetch her and she may tell you
herself. She has no interest in you.”

“May I speak with her alone?”

“No. You may do so in my company.”

Kendrick stared.

Rupert turned away. He was definitely making a hash of
this chaperoning lark. He could not wait to call at Edward’s today. He had not
only set aside his uncertainty about Ellen taking on the task, he would plead
with his cousin’s wife to do it.

After tapping lightly on the door of Rowena’s
bedchamber, he entered at her call.

“Hello, Rupert.” She was sitting at her writing desk;
she’d obviously been writing until he entered. She stood now, smiling at him,
that blessedly open, happy smile of hers. Her smile had been his joy for as
long as he could remember.
The sunlight in an otherwise
cloudy world.

She was several years younger than him and he’d adored
her from the minute she was born.

“You have a caller,” he said gently.

“Who?”

“A suitor, but one I do not think you’ll welcome.
Kendrick, who danced with you last night.
He’s called to
make you an offer.”

Her mouth had fallen open. It closed. Then she said
quietly, “Oh.”

“He wishes to speak to you.”

Her eyes opened wider and her skin slightly paled. She
looked just as shocked as he’d felt.

“I only met him last evening.”

“I know.”

“He is fifty-eight. He told me.”

Rupert smiled, with closed lips, a gesture intended to
comfort her. “Come along, we’ll go down and put him right, and then today I
will ask Ellen to become your chaperone. She will make a far better job of it,
I’m sure. She and her sisters can find you more suitable suitors, Rowena. I’m
sorry. I have not helped you at all.”

She moved forward swiftly, and then hugged him fiercely,
her arms about his neck, a gesture which caused a sharp pain in his chest.
Rowena was the most precious thing he had in his life.

He held her too.

“You have been wonderful, Rupert. You are the best
brother.” She did not say he was a good chaperone though.

“Come along,” he reiterated when she drew away.

A few moments later, he was back in the library, with
Rowena standing beside him, looking as uncomfortable as she had done the night
before. Her hands were clasped together, as though she feared to separate them,
in case Kendrick might simply take one, and when Kendrick lifted a hand asking to
do so, she did not offer hers but bobbed a stiff, yet deep curtsy, her hands
still clasped at her waist.
“My Lord.”

Kendrick bowed elegantly, in a style of thirty years
ago, with a flourish of his hand, and when he rose he looked Rowena in the
eyes. “Lady Rowena, I am sure your brother has told you why I have come. I hope
you do not think it presumptuous of me to make an offer so soon. I cannot say I
am offering you love; it is far too early for that. Yet I may say I was very
impressed with you last night. You have a pleasant, happy nature, Lady Rowena. I
think we shall suit.”

Suit?
Rupert wished far more than a man who would
suit
for his sister. Kendrick would not
suit her. Rupert bit his tongue. He would be more than happy with something so
easy and fitting for himself, just as Kendrick would, but Rowena was young. She
saw the world through untainted eyes. She should have a romantic relationship,
one deserving of a happy ending in a fairytale.

“I have six children who are the offspring from my
first marriage, and a large estate. We could live quite comfortably there...”

Comfortable?
There was another dispassionate word Rupert used for
the relationship he’d seek when the time was right, but it was not a word which
expressed what he hoped for his sister.

“I will treat you well, Rowena, if you will have me.”

Rowena looked as though she felt sick, while Kendrick
looked expectant and hopeful.

It was a forlorn hope.

“It is kind of you to make the offer, my Lord...”
Rowena began.

But, no.
Rupert,
heard her denial rip
through his thoughts.

“However I’m afraid I am not inclined to accept, sir.
I hardly know you...”

Kendrick’s lips lifted slightly at her words. Why had
Rowena not just said a direct no? Now the man still thought there was a chance.

“Did we not converse quite merely last night –
”

“For one dance,” Rupert interjected. “You
are
being presumptuous, Kendrick.”

Rowena gripped Rupert’s arm. It was a gentle warning
for him to stay silent. “It is kind of you to have thought of me, Lord
Kendrick,
however, I cannot make such a commitment to you,
sir. I’m sorry.”

Kendrick’s eyes seemed to gleam suddenly with the
intensity of his thoughts. “You wish to be courted. Of course, you do. How
foolish of me not to remember what it is to be young. May I court you, Lady
Rowena?”

“She has said no, Kendrick––”

Rowena’s grip firmed on Rupert’s arm, in another
warning. “I’m sorry, my Lord.”

Rupert was not sorry at all.

The man bowed. “Then I shall say good morning.”

Rupert’s heart thumped. Kendrick did not look as
though he was giving up. His posture had stiffened again, and there was that
impression of intense thought in his eyes once more.

“Lady Rowena.” Kendrick caught up her hand before
Rowena had chance to pull it back, and the fingers of her other, slipped from
Rupert’s arm.

Kendrick pressed a kiss on the back of Rowena’s hand,
as he had done last night, but Rowena was not wearing gloves now, and to
Rupert’s eyes, it seemed to linger longer than it should. He wanted to thump
Kendrick. It was a blessing Rupert was on his way to Jackson’s. The pugilist
master’s sparring club would give him the freedom to vent his spleen.
  

~

Meredith Divine laughed loudly and uncomfortably as
she clung to Rowena’s arm. She felt awkward arriving with Rowena’s cousin and
his wife. Her heart raced.

She ought to be used to the censure of the
ton
by now. She had been out for a year.
She was not. She
was
very thankful
for Rowena. Rowena had accepted Meredith from the moment she’d come out,
without judgment. Rowena was Meredith’s shield.

They reached the receiving line. Lord and Lady Marlow
were introduced first, then Lady Rowena, and finally Miss, insignificant,
Divine
.