Lord Langley Is Back in Town (37 page)

“What have you heard?” Minerva asked.

“The situation isn’t good,” Lucy said, lowering her voice. “The man who shot at Lord Langley escaped.”

“No!” Minerva gasped. “But Lord Andrew and Lord Chudley seemed so confident—”

“Aye, they were. But this fellow is far more deadly than they had assumed. He killed the agent who tried to capture him.”

Minerva sank back, her teacup rattling in its saucer. Oh, this was terrible news. “How do you know this?”

Lucy shrugged. “Lord Andrew came to call not an hour ago, and I might have been—”

“Eavesdropping?” Elinor made a
tsk tsk
sound. “Lucy Sterling, you are a countess now. Proper countesses do not snoop about.” Then she grinned and all three of them laughed, for they all knew Lucy would never be an ordinary or proper countess.

But the mood returned to its somber air all too quickly, for Minerva let out a long sigh. “However will Langley get this Brownie character to confess now?”

“Brownie?” Elinor asked. “Do you mean Sir Basil Brownett?”

“Yes,” Minerva said.

“Why he’s on the guest list for Parkerton’s soiree tonight.” She glanced at both of them with upraised brows. “The soiree he is throwing to celebrate our marriage? The one you’ve both been invited to attend?”

“Oh, dear, Elinor, I forgot!” Minerva confessed. With everything that had happened in the last few days, her social calendar had been the least of her worries.

“Sir Basil is going to be there tonight?” Lucy asked, her dark expression giving both her friends pause.

“Yes,” Elinor replied. “Everyone is going to be there. Parkerton rarely throws a party, so no one will miss it—especially the likes of Sir Basil—mushroom that he is, for the Prime Minister will be there as well.”

Lucy grinned. “Then I know exactly what we can do.”

“We?” Minerva shook her head vehemently. “No, I cannot allow either of you to get mired in this mess.”

Elinor shrugged. “Just try and stop us.”

“Minerva Sterling, you have no choice in this,” Lucy told her, winking at Elinor. “For if you don’t let us help, I shall tell Felicity that you’ve had her diamonds all this time.”

D
own in the kitchen, Langley sat back on his stool. “He got away?”

Lucy’s news had run quickly down the dumbwaiter.

“Demmit, I had hoped to tell you before my wife did,” Clifton said. “But yes. Lord Andrew came by just an hour ago. He thought it would be of little notice to have Lucy come calling on Minerva.”

“He killed an agent?” The baron’s blood ran cold.

Clifton nodded.

“I can’t believe this is Nottage,” Langley said, pushing his stool back.

“He came back from Paris after you were reported dead a changed man.” Clifton glanced up the dumbwaiter. “I think he learned more from you than writing reports.”

“I never murdered anyone,” Langley shot back.

“No, but you were always considered one of the most devious agents out there.”

Langley accepted this as praise, but right now he wished he were also as ruthless as Nottage so he could guess the man’s next move.

Before anyone else lost their life.

“I appreciate you coming, Clifton, don’t mistake the matter, but I wish Lord Andrew hadn’t dragged you into this as well.”

Clifton sat up. “Ellyson was Lucy’s father. I’ll not have his name sullied. Or yours either.”

Langley nodded his thanks before he retook his stool. He went to say something, but Clifton put his fingers to his lips, his head bent toward the opening.

“What the devil are they up to?” Langley whispered.

“Concocting some harebrained scheme, if I know my wife.”

“Demmed if I will let Minerva get caught up in this any further,” Langley said.

But as they listened to Lucy lay out her plan, as meticulous and cunning as anything her father could have devised, Clifton turned to his old friend and grinned. “It just might work.”

Langley shook his head. “The hell if I am going to let Minerva walk into some trap. A man died today because of this folly. I won’t let her—” He couldn’t even say it.

“That is the beauty of it,” Clifton replied, sitting back and taking a drink—coughing a bit, for they’d poured healthy measures from Mrs. Hutchinson’s private stock, a brew she bought from a Seven Dials distiller.

The sort that could have been used to clean out the Paris sewers.

“We won’t let them carry it out,” Clifton said. “Minerva can be the lure, but she’ll never make it anywhere near Brownie. We’ll all be close at hand to make sure their meddling ends there. Then we’ll spring our own trap.”

But from the corner of the kitchen came an argument that stopped them both.

“Don’t you two gentlemen go and underestimate me gels there,” Mrs. Hutchinson said, waving a boozy hand at him. “Let them get the job done. Got bottom, they does. Get it done right without your infernal meddling.”

But Langley had no intention of letting Minerva meddle in his affairs. Not if it put her life at risk.

L
ong after Lucy and Clifton and Elinor had left, Minerva brought up the supper tray, her hands trembling. She didn’t know if she would be able to pull this scheme off, but Langley’s future—and perhaps even hers—depended on it.

Their future.

Of course he’d never said a word about them being together once his name was cleared, and even this afternoon, for all their fanciful talk of travels and far off adventures, he’d never once given any indication that it was naught but a way to pass the time.

But she knew what she had to do. Get him to drink the wine and then slip away. Elinor had already sent around a gown—her scandalous scarlet dress she’d bought in Petticoat Lane—and Agnes was getting it ready downstairs in the morning room.

“Here is supper,” she said, pushing open the door to her room.

To her surprise, Langley wasn’t at the small table by the fireplace, but in the bed.

“Excellent, I’m famished,” he said, his brows waggling suggestively.

“For a man who is supposed to be dying, you are showing a cheeky amount of verve.”

“How can I not?” he teased. “You bring me to life every time you walk in the room.” To prove his point, he plucked the sheet back to reveal he was completely naked, and as he’d said, happy to see her.

“Langley, now is hardly the time,” she said, wishing her body wouldn’t warm so when she looked at him. Gracious heavens, the man was sinfully handsome.

“Come to bed, Minerva,” he beckoned.

“We should eat first, while it is hot,” she argued, though even to her own ears it was hardly forcibly put, for now her insides were growing wet and tight.

Distract him and get him to drink the wine
, Lucy had advised.

Well, making love was thirsty work, she mused. And there was a good hour and a half before Elinor’s carriage would come around to pick her up.

“Langley—” she protested faintly, even as she crossed the room to the bed, “you are incorrigible.”

He caught hold of her and pulled her into bed atop him. “I prefer insatiable, desirable, irresistible.”

She laughed and let him pull her gown up, baring her legs, letting his hands roam and explore her, while his lips captured hers and kissed away any further arguments.

Moving past her undergarments, he touched her, stroking her, bringing her right up to where she was panting with a passionate lust. He’d eased her gown over her head and she wore naught but her chemise, though barely, for he’d freed her breasts to lavish them with his tongue, suckling deep until both nipples were taut.

“However do you do this to me?” she gasped, reveling in the heady desires running through her limbs.

“You drive me to it,” he told her. “I want you like I’ve never wanted a woman. You make me rock hard just by walking in the room.”

“I’m usually arguing with you,” she teased back, reaching down and touching him, stroking him in return.

Langley groaned, and he raised her by her hips and settled her down atop his erect member. “Love me, Minerva. Love me.”

She slid down over him, relishing every bit of him as he filled her.

Having forgotten everything she needed to do this dark night, she let herself give over to the bliss of making love with him.

She rode him slowly at first, as much teasing him as herself, but then slowly their pace grew quicker, more anxious, as they both gave in to their desires.

Minerva felt wanton, brazen as she rode atop him, her body driving back and forth along his hardness, teasing her, leading her toward the bright dawn.

Beneath her, Langley groaned, deeply and with longing, like a wolf calling to its mate. His body thrust upward and she could feel him come alive inside her, savage, deep thrusts that pushed her over the edge with its wild cadence.

“Minerva!” he cried out. “Oh God, Minerva!”

She moaned and continued to ride him, letting the same waves wash over her. Over and over, leaving her spent and content.

She collapsed into his arms, his heart hammering wildly beneath her ear.

He stroked her hair and whispered endearments and promises for later, his arms warm around her, a safe harbor from all that lurked in the night beyond.

Everything that threatened to destroy him.

And for a time she lay there, letting him coax her into believing every night would be like this until he grew quiet and still, having fallen asleep. He hadn’t drank the wine, but perhaps this was better for he was sound asleep and she wouldn’t have the guilt weighing on her that she’d tricked him.

Then she heard a carriage pull to a stop outside. “And it will be like this always,” she whispered as she slipped from the bed, then gently lay the coverlet back over him. Tossing her gown over her head and catching up her boots, she went to the door.

Having taken the precaution earlier of oiling the hinges herself, she closed the door silently, and then sighed as she locked the door and took the key with her, slipping down the stairs out into the night, where Agnes was already waiting in the carriage to help her change.

L
angley waited until he heard the carriage begin to drive away and then sprang into action. But when he got to the door, he was more than a little piqued to find she’d locked him in.

Not that he couldn’t get such a simple lock open, he mused as he grabbed up his boot and dug into the sleeve concealed inside.

But this was delaying him more than he wanted.

For he needed to catch up with Minerva before she entered the trap with Brownie and Nottage, especially if his former secretary was willing to kill to keep his freedom and his ill-gotten bounty.

Clifton planned to do the same with Lucy and had promised to give the same instructions to Elinor’s husband, the Duke of Parkerton.

The last thing Langley wanted was one of the three former Standon widows blundering into a confrontation—no matter how much bottom they had.

With a few twists of his pick, the lock opened. He grinned as he got to his feet.

Only to find a pistol shoved into his nose.

He looked up at the lady holding it. “Good God, woman! I haven’t time for this.”

“Aye, darling, but you do. And whyever do you look surprised to see me? You had to know I rarely give up what is mine.”

M
inerva arrived at Parkerton House not long after. Agnes, having grumbled about the unconventional dressing room, had managed to get her mistress in order, including the Sterling diamonds.

As she climbed out of the carriage, Minerva turned every head, as Elinor and Lucy claimed she would.

“ ’Tis naught but the dress and the diamonds,” she muttered under her breath as she walked up the steps, head held high despite the gasps and whispers that parted the way before her.

“I wouldn’t think she would be out—”

“No, not tonight!”

“Shameless!”

“Whoever would have thought she would—”

Yes, truly, Minerva would have agreed, who would have ever thought she, of all the Standon widows, would fall in love with a notorious baron and risk everything to save his reputation.

Truly, she found all of his noble “for King and country” notions a bit over the top and cared only for seeing his name restored.

Because she loved him. Minerva tipped her nose a little bit higher. She loved Langley. It was a dizzying notion. Rather like having the man make love to her.

He’s going to be furious with you
.

Yes
, she argued with herself.
He will be. But he cannot do this alone.

Nor can you.

Minerva shivered, her fingers going to the Sterling diamonds around her throat.

But she didn’t have to do this alone, for not long after she entered the house, first Lucy and then Elinor flanked her, the three of them laying out their final plans.