Intentions of the Earl (40 page)

Setting the bag of paper roses aside, he came
back to his knees in front of her. He cupped her face with his
hands again, and tilted her head to look straight into his eyes
that were full of concern, but she also recognized a glint of hope
in them, too. “I know nothing changes what I’ve done. But I’m
asking you to stay. Stay with me. Give me the chance to prove to
you how much I love you, and perhaps earn your love in return.”

Brooke met his eyes and brought her hands up
to where his hands were holding her chin. “You cannot earn my love,
Andrew,” she said, her voice so quiet it was barely more than a
whisper.

“Oh,” he said solemnly, clamping his mouth
into a tight line. He nodded once and his hands loosened their grip
on her face, but they didn’t move. He swallowed visibly, his face
looked shuttered and his eyes looked watery.

Brooke let go of his hands and reached out,
grabbing his face the way he was touching hers. Pulling him closer
to her, she smiled sweetly and said, “The reason you cannot earn my
love, is because you already have it.”

Andrew’s grip on her face tightened again and
a broad grin split his handsome face before he closed the gap
between them. Then, right there on a bench outside of Covent Garden
in front of anyone who happened to be walking by, the Earl and
Countess of Townson engaged in a scandalous kiss.

And now for an excerpt of the next book in
the Scandalous Sisters series,

Liberty for Paul

Coming Spring 2011

Early December, 1812

London

Liberty Banks had two loves in her life. One
of which was something her entire family (and most of the London
society) knew about: propriety. Her other love she went about
hiding a little better. Not perfectly, but well enough that she was
able to keep her second love a secret, and that, was her love for
revenge.

Sure, when they were all young girls Brooke,
her oldest sister, knew that it was Liberty who tied her slippers
together with some white string that was just long enough not to
catch Brooke’s notice that her slippers were tied together before
she started to walk. After only three steps, Brooke fell on her
face because she took too much of a stride and the string tripped
her up. Both Liberty and their other sister, Madison, laughed, but
neither owned up to the prank; nor placed the blame on the other.
But Brooke didn’t need a confession, she knew it was Liberty; and
not two days later when Liberty opened up one of her drawers to
grab a pair of stockings, a toad jumped out at her and she nearly
leapt out of her skin.

When she confronted Brooke, who was the only
Banks sister who would dare touch a toad, Brooke simply told her it
was payback for tying her slippers together. Liberty just shook her
head and didn’t disclose that the reason for tying Brooke’s
slippers together in the first place was because Brooke had stolen
them from her at the milliner’s shop. Well, maybe not stolen
precisely. Liberty had seen them first and just as she was about to
grab them and claim how wonderful they would go with her new green
velvet gown. Just then, Brooke accidentally knocked them from where
they’d been sitting on the shelf because she wasn’t used to how
puffy her new stays made her dress. Then, when Brooke leaned down
to pick them up, she cried with delight about how perfect they’d
match
her
new green silk dress and wouldn’t depart with
them. This had infuriated Liberty and she decided then and there to
get her just revenge. And she’d been rather pleased to see Brooke
fall on her face, even if it were only in front of her family.

The toad was a different matter altogether.
It took her a while to get revenge for the toad, but when she did,
she was able to escape notice and nothing happened to her in
return. It was a good thing she hadn’t been discovered because
she’d done something that had really upset Brooke: she cut all the
heads off her roses. Had Brooke known it was her; she’d probably be
missing her own head. Brooke had put a lot of time into her roses
and they were her pride and joy. However, from listening to Brooke
drone on spring after spring about her roses, Liberty knew that
pruning them, or cutting the tops off, if one was being precise,
actually helps the rosebush. So in a way, she did Brooke a favor,
right?

Liberty didn’t always do these things to be
spiteful, mind you. Of course some of it was pure, unadulterated
spite. But she had a good reason to be a little spiteful. She was
the youngest of three daughters and that came with a lot of flack.
When they were younger, her older sisters would leave her out
saying she wasn’t old enough to join in their games. With her
sisters being only a year apart, and the younger of the two,
Madison, being three years older than Liberty, it was easy for them
to get away with leaving her out.

And,
if
they were made to include her,
she always got the bad part in whatever game they were playing.
Whether she had to be the person in the middle while her sisters
threw a ball back and forth over her head, or Cowboys and Indians,
modified to Cowgirls and Indians, of course, she’d always be the
Indian who was given the inferior weapon. In short, she always had
the bad role.

When she and her sisters got older they were
able to enjoy each other’s company more. Well, maybe not enjoy
exactly, but they were able to do activities together and be civil
to each other. However, by then, the damage was done and Liberty
had decided to pay her sisters back in kind for how they’d treated
her when she was younger.

At first her new found love for vengeance
involved doing harmless, good-natured things to her sisters—either
for their past or present sins; but a few months ago she started
seeking revenge on someone outside of her family, and it wasn’t
exactly harmless, or good-natured.

It had only happened a few times about seven
months ago; but today she’d decided she was once again going to
seek revenge against one Mr. Paul Grimes.

Mr. Grimes was a devilishly handsome vicar
that lived near Bath. He had a flawless face with high,
distinguished cheekbones, a wide mouth that could make a girl swoon
when he grinned, and beautiful emerald eyes that rested behind a
pair of silver spectacles. His hair was a sandy blonde color and
was kept an inch or two past fashion. They’d been introduced seven
months earlier at a house party that was being hosted by her uncle,
Edward Banks, Baron Watson. Mr. Grimes had come to the house party
to seek out Liberty’s father—who also happened to a minister. Upon
meeting, Paul had told her father he had some problems in his
vicarage and asked her father to mentor him. Of course her father
agreed because one, he liked to help people, no matter who they
were or how awful their personality; and two, because while
spending some time in England, the man needed a
hobby—desperately.

John, her father, had grown up in England and
had gone on his Grand Tour at nineteen. When he reached America he
was twenty and met a woman named Carolina. In no time at all he
made Carolina his wife and they moved to New York where he began
work as a minister. It wasn’t long after that the family grew and
less than five years later they had three young daughters: Brooke,
Madison, and Liberty.

This was the first time in twenty five years
John set foot on English soil. He said he loved his wife,
daughters, and America and saw no reason to return to England. But
when Brooke had reached her twenty second year without any
prospects for proposals and Madison fell into a state of melancholy
after ending a semi-serious courtship, John packed them up and
decided to see if any of the girls could make a match with an
English gentleman.

Liberty had been so excited at the prospect,
but knew she lacked the beauty her sisters possessed in abundance,
therefore, she’d taken it upon herself to learn all the rules and
execute them to perfection as her way of finding a husband. So far
it hadn’t worked, but she hadn’t given up hope. Not yet anyway.
Following rules of society always had a way of helping a woman find
a husband—she had numerous books to prove it. A man would not wish
to be embarrassed by his wife, even if he did hold her in high
esteem.

It was Liberty’s love of propriety that led
to her complete and utter dislike—and dare she admit, hatred?—for
Mr. Grimes.

When they were first introduced he’d
immediately told her his wish for her to call him Paul instead of
Mr. Grimes. There was no way she was going to be so informal with a
man she’d just met; so she’d insisted he refer to her as Miss
Liberty and she would call him Mr. Grimes. Just as she finished
explaining her wish to remain formal, dinner was announced, and
because no other unpaired lady or gentleman was nearby, they were
paired up. From there she had to suffer his dreadful personality
all during dinner.

The whole time he sat there looking angry.
His jaw was clamped shut and his face appeared hard and as
impassive as stone. When she spoke to him, he’d nod or give
monosyllabic answers. He asked no questions and offered no type of
conversation. It took her less than two minutes to conclude he was
a bore.

If that had been the end of their
acquaintance she would have merely just disliked him. But no, they
had four other unfortunate encounters.

The first time happened when she was having a
private conversation with Madison; which unbeknownst to her, he was
eavesdropping in on. In the middle of their conversation, he
cleared his throat and proceeded to volunteer his unflattering
opinions of Liberty. He told her she’d never find a husband and
said she was mean and callus. After such remarks, he’d had the
nerve to try and act polite by seeking her out and apologizing;
which she knew he only did to save his new found friendship with
her father.

The second encounter had been only days later
when he purposely let someone roll a lawn bowl over her toe. When
he showed no real remorse, she had elbowed him in his midsection;
which then led to the end of their second encounter, but produced
the need for a third encounter.

After she’d elbowed him, he had made a
yelping noise and hobbled away. Not ten minutes later she was
summonsed to the room where he was waiting with her parents. Her
uncle, the baron and host of the house party, had born witness to
the events on the lawn and told her father what had happened. Papa
had demanded she do whatever Mr. Grimes thought was necessary for
her to make amends. Then Papa and Mama left, leaving her alone with
Mr. Grimes.

Not two minutes after they left, Mr. Grimes
started to remove his clothing! There was no way come hell or high
water she was going to give her virtue to that beast, so she did
the first thing that came to mind: picked up the closest thing to
her and hurled it at his head.

She ran to her sister Brooke for help, then
went to the library to hide from her Papa. He’d always been loving
and gentle before, giving her no cause to be afraid of him, but
after what had just happened, she’d be lying if she didn’t admit
she was scared.

When he found her, he told her to stay away
from the man, and that’s exactly what she had done—until now.

She’d intended to avoid him forever, but then
the most embarrassing accident she could imagine happened; and made
it necessary for a fourth encounter.

In late November, winter hit with a
vengeance. Snow and ice covered the streets of London and much to
everyone’s surprise, by early December the Thames had frozen over.
When a large enough patch of ice had covered the river, a Frost
Fair opened.

Liberty wanted desperately to go, but neither
Madison nor their parents wanted to go with her. She was certain
Brooke would have gone with her, but Brooke was busy at Rockhurst
with her new husband, Andrew Black, Earl of Townson. So when the
highly annoying and always ill Lady Olivia claimed she had a desire
to go skating, Liberty jumped on the chance. She may not enjoy the
company overmuch, but it might be the only way she could ever go,
she reminded herself as she accepted the invitation.

They were out there only a half hour when
Lady Olivia took a brutal fall and brought Liberty down with her.
Though Liberty had skated many times before, Lady Olivia had not,
and she’d been hanging onto Liberty so tightly that when she fell,
Liberty had no way to remain on her skates.

They had fallen on a thin sheet of ice and
the weight from their bodies caused it to crack. When Lady Olivia
started to roll around kicking and screaming like a banshee, the
ice cracked more. Alex, Liberty’s cousin who just happened to be
there, came to the rescue and helped Lady Olivia to her feet
first—probably just to stop the ear piercing screams. He was too
late in turning back to help her and the ice broke completely, and
down she went into the icy Thames.

She remembered splashing and trying to keep
her head above water, but her wet skirts were making that
impossible, and when she wasn’t able to get a grip on Alex’s hand,
she went under. That’s the last thing she remembered.

A week later she woke up to see Madison
sitting by her bedside, telling her that her fever had finally
broken. Now that the fever had passed, she was able to be awake for
longer periods and keep a small conversation. But she still had to
remain in her bed, so Mama or Madison would come and keep her
entertained all day.

Almost fully recovered, Liberty decided it
was time to ask Madison what had happened. She told her that she
remembered going skating and her accident, but had no idea what
happened after.

Madison’s clear blue eyes looked out the
window for a few minutes before she took a deep breath. “Liberty,
you’re not going to like to hear this, but there are two unlikely
heroes in your tale?”