Of Dukes and Deceptions (20 page)

“My dear, Janet tells me you’re indisposed. I’m distraught at the news. You really must take more care to…” A despairing gasp, more in the nature of a feral moan, echoed round the otherwise silent room when he espied Nick standing directly behind Alicia’s chair. “You know.”

It wasn’t a question and Nick merely nodded.

“How?”

“Did you really take me for such a clunch, Woodley?”

He spread his hands, a defeated man. “I was desperate.”

“Why didn’t you confide in me, Uncle?”

“You have far too much integrity to countenance what I was doing.” He shook his head and took to pacing the room. “I thought it would all work out, and had it not been for that virus it most likely would have done. But still I didn’t give up hope. My beautiful Maria was sure to find a wealthy husband, you see, and he would save us from ruin. When she didn’t take, I thought to invite a gentleman not from around these parts to view the stud. Naturally, when he saw Maria, heard her playing the pianoforte with such passion, he couldn’t fail to fall under her thrall and all would be well.”

“But I didn’t oblige you in that respect.”

“Yes, it was immediately obvious to me that I’d miscalculated. I shouldn’t have aimed so high but, you see, I wanted only the best for my beloved girl. And she was so confident she’d succeed that I let her persuade me to invite you.” He paused. “I never imagined you’d accept. When you did, Maria was ecstatic and I dared to hope it would all work out.”

“And when it didn’t, you hatched the plan to have your son propose to Alicia.”

“Yes, I should have thought of that sooner. It was the obvious answer, and the whole family would benefit from the alliance. Alicia would be able to stay in the house she loves, and once they were married she could hardly object to the use of Fabian since he would become my son’s property.”

“Why did Frederick agree to be a party to the scheme?”

Woodley scowled. “He had little choice in the matter. He’s run up horrendous gambling debts, in spite of the fact that I’ve already bailed him out on several previous occasions and forbidden him to play high. I told him if he wanted me to meet his obligations this time, then he’d have to marry his cousin and secure the future of the stud by that means. Not that he objected, mind,” Woodley said, only now appearing to recall that Alicia was in the room. “He is devilish fond of you, Alicia.”

“Oh, well,” she said acerbically. “That makes it all right then.”

“It must have come as quite a shock when she turned him down,” Nick said.

“Indeed, but I didn’t believe she’d be foolish enough to persevere with her rejection. Frederick had taken her by surprise but I was convinced that when she’d had the opportunity to reflect, she’d soon come to her senses.” Woodley dropped his head into his cupped hands and shook it. “You have no idea how upset I was when she steadfastly refused to see reason. I was at my wit’s end. But then Frederick showed a little gumption for once. He renewed his suit and Alicia agreed to reconsider.”

“No, that’s not right!”

Woodley looked genuinely bewildered. “But Frederick told us all that you were undergoing a change of heart.”

“That being the case,” Nick said in an icy drawl, “why did you think it necessary to try and kill your niece?”

Woodley’s head shot up. “No! It was never the intention to seriously injure her. Had she left at her usual hour she wouldn’t have been out in the open and her horse wouldn’t have been able to bolt on that narrow lane.” He lifted his shoulders. “I merely wanted to promote Frederick’s cause by demonstrating how dangerous it would be for her to live unaccompanied in the village.”

“You have a warped manner of conducting your business.”

“Have you never been desperate, Your Grace?” Woodley sighed. “Frederick was supposed to ride to her rescue but he couldn’t even get that right. He overslept, you see. And the villain I hired was not supposed to actually hit Alicia with his shot. The fool should have used his head and aborted the plan until the following day.”

“This is all too much for me to comprehend.” Alicia frowned. “First you, uncle, and then Maria, have both tried to kill me.”

“Maria?” Woodley looked perplexed. “What has she done?”

Alicia explained about the poisoned tea. “What iniquitous behaviour on my part has caused you both to take me in such dislike, uncle?”

Woodley looked totally bewildered. “I can’t believe Maria would stoop to such wickedness.”

“Yet you had no difficulty in believing I attacked her last night, Woodley.”

“Actually, I began to suspect almost immediately that something wasn’t quite right about that,” Nick’s host admitted. “I confronted Frederick and Maria as soon as you left us. At first they denied any wrongdoing, but Frederick has never been able to cut a wheedle over me and eventually they confessed to their ploy. They’d planned the whole thing in the hope, at the very least, of extorting money from you. They appeared to think I would endorse such wickedness.” Woodley bowed his head. “I’m deeply ashamed of them both and thought they were genuinely contrite. But now you tell me Maria deliberately tried to poison Alicia. I can’t believe it of her.”

“Then I suggest you send for her and let her deny it with her own lips,” Nick said.

Maria responded to her father’s summons almost immediately, as though she’d been anticipating it. She clearly hadn’t expected to discover her cousin alive and well and glowered in her direction as though she held Alicia to blame for her own ineptitude. She demonstrated no reaction to Nick’s presence and was sullen.

Her father relayed their suspicions, almost apologetically, clearly still not believing that she was actually the guilty party. When she made no attempt to deny her culpability, Woodley groaned aloud. He clutched his head in his hands and visibly appeared to shrivel beneath Nick’s quelling gaze.

“Alicia had all but agreed to marry Frederick,” Maria wailed, pointing an accusing finger at her cousin.

“I think not,” Nick said with disdain.

“She had! You know nothing about it. She should have remembered the duty she owed my father, who kindly permitted her to continue living here when he need not have done. And she shouldn’t have kept Frederick waiting for an answer. If that were not bad enough, she most certainly shouldn’t have encouraged your advances, Your Grace, and deflected your attention away from me. She deserved to be punished for her ingratitude.”

“Get out!” her father roared. “I’ll deal with you later.”

“But I did nothing you hadn’t already done, Papa.” Maria looked puzzled. “Frederick told me you were responsible for the attack upon Alicia. Since that failed, I thought I might have better fortune.”

“You foolish girl! My intention was never to kill your cousin, merely to bring her to her senses.”

Alicia focused her gaze on the fire, looking pale and dazed by the nature of the conversation buzzing around her. It was clear to Nick that she was in a deep state of shock. These revelations must be upsetting her badly. She shouldn’t be exposed to any more of her cousin’s vitriolic spite and warped attempts to justify her actions. He motioned everyone out of the room with an imperious wave of his hand. Gibson closed the door behind them but, at a nod from Nick, opened it again so that he and Janet could also leave.

Nick crouched in front of Alicia and took both her hands in his. “I’m sorry you had to hear that,” he said softly.

She slowly shook her head. “At least now I know the truth about my family.”

“You look all done in. Perhaps I should call Janet to—”

“No.” She turned toward him. “Your Grace, I…that’s to say, I wish to thank you—”

“Shush.” He placed a finger against her lips and stilled her words. “No thanks are necessary. The pleasure was entirely mine.”

“Whatever must you think of us all?”

What indeed? For her family he spared barely a thought. All he cared about was the compelling creature huddled before him, studiously avoiding his eye. He’d never seen her look so defeated before and hated seeing her feisty spirit so comprehensively quashed.

In a blinding moment of clarity, everything became clear to him. The feeling of deep, unmitigated oneness he felt for this wild, unconventional hoyden wouldn’t be quelled. He loved her with a passion he no longer sought to deny. Suddenly, being in love—a situation he’d fought to avoid for fear of complicating his life—seemed like the most natural thing on earth. It had taken two attempts on her life to make him understand that he was no longer afraid of a commitment that required emotional investment on his part.

Alicia Woodley was destined to become his wife. Perhaps he’d subconsciously understood that from the first, which was why he’d behaved with her in the manner he had. All he had to do now was to convince her. Something told him that wouldn’t be as easily achieved as with any of the women who’d been relentlessly pursuing him. But Nick had learned an important lesson over the past few days. Something worth having was worth fighting for.

And he was fiercely determined that no other man on this planet would ever have Alicia. She was, and always would be, exclusively his.

“I think your family are rather ridiculous. Your uncle is completely out of his depth with the stud.”

She sighed. “Yes, that’s certainly true. I think I’ve always known it.”

“But worse, due to his inability to control the females under his care, he’s allowed them to develop ideas above their station.”

“Which has resulted in this farrago.”

“Yes, but you should know that I don’t include you when I brand them as ridiculous. You’re quite remarkably lovely and principled and brave, and I—”

“I beg you not to make sport of me, Your Grace.” She looked away from him. “If you leave now, you’ll be able to make good progress before the light fades.”

“Look at me, Alicia.” When she wouldn’t do so, he shifted his position until she couldn’t avoid meeting his eye. “You can’t stay here now.”

“No, I realise that. I’ll go to the village a little earlier than planned, that’s all. I dare say it can all be arranged with—”

“I think not.”

She looked at him, her expression reflecting surprise. “But you’ve already said that I can’t stay here.”

“Indeed you can’t. I have something else in mind for you altogether.”

“You do?”

“Absolutely.”

“But why? What am I to you?”

“You, my darling,” he said, pulling her to her feet and into his arms, “are my responsibility. And, since you’re obviously not capable of taking proper care of yourself, I shall don that mantle in your stead.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

He tweaked her nose. “Do you realise that you’re the lady I’d almost given up hope of ever finding?”

“What!” She stared at him in stupefaction. “I don’t have the pleasure of understanding you when you insist upon speaking in riddles.”

“Then let me make myself plain. Alicia, will you do me the inestimable honour of becoming my wife?”

Alicia’s mouth dropped open and she reeled in his arms. Nick tightened his hold on her waist, sensing that her legs were about to buckle beneath her.

“I don’t…I mean, you can’t be in earnest. I’m no duchess.”

He chuckled. “No, you’re not. But as soon as I can obtain a special licence, you most assuredly will be, if only you’ll say yes.”

“I feel that I ought to say yes,” she mused, tilting her head and plucking abstractedly at her lower lip, “because I owe you so much. And yet it would be unwise to accept you out of a sense of duty.”

“Who said anything about duty?”

“Stop kissing me, Nicholas, and allow me a moment to formulate my thoughts. I can’t seem to think rationally when you keep distracting me with your wretched lips.”

“Take all the time you need, darling. There’s at least a half-hour to spare before we need to leave here.”

“What about the lady Mr. Gibson thought you’d found?”

Nick laughed. “He was referring to you.”

“Me!”

“Yes, he understood it before I did myself.”

“But I can’t marry you.” She pulled herself out of his arms. “You’re high-handed, dictatorial and quite lacking in human decency. You ride roughshod over everyone you meet and expect them to do exactly as you tell them, just because you’re a duke. With authority comes responsibility, you know.” She wagged a finger at him. “I don’t approve of your attitude and couldn’t live beneath a dictatorship.”

“Yes, I admit to being all of those things.” He offered her the benefit of his most winsome smile. “But don’t you love me just a little for all that?”

“Possibly,” she conceded with a rebellious toss of her head. “You do have a rather coercive sort of charm, I suppose, when you choose to deploy it. And one or two other redeeming features. I’m sure their precise nature will eventually occur to me if I dwell upon the matter for a sufficient amount of time.”

“Ah, so I’m not altogether a lost cause then?”

“That’s not for me to say.” A tiny smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “I dare say the right lady might be able to nurture your redeeming qualities. However, what’s that to me?”

“Ah, my love.” He pulled her back into his arms. “You ought to know that, thanks to you, I’m no longer quite so dictatorial, or high-handed, or any of the other damned things you’re so fond of calling me.” His hands moved to her posterior and closed gently over it. “I behave in the manner I do because I never realised until now that there was anything wrong with it.”

“Well, that just proves my point.”

“I thought that was how dukes are
supposed
to behave, you see. No one has ever told me any different or dared to question my attitude.”

“Because they’re afraid of offending you and losing your patronage, perhaps.”

“You have tamed me, Alicia, with your total lack of interest in my material wealth and social position.” He shook his head. “No one, with the possible exception of Gibson, has ever been so dismissive of those advantages before. And I can assure you I have no intention of marrying Gibson.”

Alicia stifled a giggle. “I dare say Mr. Gibson will be very relieved to hear it.”

“You’ve made me ashamed of what I once was, darling. But if you don’t marry me, there’s every danger that I’ll slip back into my old ways. In all likelihood I’ll become more irascible than ever as I endeavour to overcome my disappointment. Think how your friend Gibson will suffer then. Would you have that on your conscience?”

“Now you’re just being melodramatic.”

“That’s because I’m desperate. I need you beside me, Alicia, to remind me who I ought to be.” He dropped his head and looked at her from beneath the curtain of hair which fell across his face. “I’ve never begged anyone for anything in my life before, but I’m willing to beg you now.”

“And so you should. Displaying a little humility would do you the world of good.”

“Fabian and Matilda would do famously at Dorchester Park.”

She glowered at him. “That’s blackmail!”

He smiled complacently and said nothing.

“Well, I’m sorry, but even if I was tempted to accept your proposal, I couldn’t do it. I’m not duchess material.”

“Why ever not?”

“Well, I have no interest in the accomplishments that such creatures set so much stock by.”

“Such as?”

“Well, I can’t play any musical instruments, nor can I sing to save my life.”

“Thank the Lord for small mercies!”

“You don’t care about that?” Alicia looked rather discouraged.

“Not in the least.” He offered her a predatory grin. “I can think of much better ways to occupy our time.”

“Nor can I embroider.”

“Dorchester Park is full of servants who can perform that duty.”

“And,” she added, her expression triumphant as she prepared to deliver what she clearly considered a killer blow, “I can’t sketch or paint, or—”

“Highly overrated pastimes.”

She impatiently shook her head. “But society doesn’t share that opinion. You’d be shunned by everyone who matters if you marry me.”

“I don’t give two figs for society’s view. You’re all I care about.”

“But my family have behaved atrociously. How could you bear to be related to them through marriage?”

“It’s you I want to marry, not your wretched family.”

“So we allow them to get away with attempted murder?”

“They didn’t succeed, which is all that concerns me. But you love Ravenswing Manor and fear for its future, I fancy. Is that what bothers you so?”

“I haven’t been at leisure to consider the future of the stud.” She sighed. “But since you mention it, it would be a pity for my father’s work not to continue. Still, I suppose my uncle will have no choice but to sell the estate and get what he can for it.”

“I’ll give him a fair price. Enough for him to be able to buy a small house in the country and live modestly, well away from society. I’ll also find employment for Frederick. I have enough connections to ensure his nose is kept well and truly to the grindstone. That will be punishment enough for him, having to get up every morning and put in a full day’s work.”

“But—”

“And your cousin Maria will have to forget her ambition to marry well. Being buried in the country will be slow torture for her. But better yet, knowing that you and I are married and that she will never be invited to spend a single night under our roof will be a constant source of resentment and bitterness. What better punishment could we devise for her?”

Alicia’s mouth dropped open. When she closed it again, a glittering smile graced her lips. “You’d do that after the infamous manner in which my uncle attempted to manipulate you?”

“I’d do it for you with gladness in my heart because I know how much the place means to you. We’ll keep the stud running and you can manage it yourself if you wish.”

“Nicholas, I don’t know what to say to you. Your generosity of spirit, your kindness.” She lifted her shoulders. “I’m overwhelmed.”

He smiled at her, sensing that she was weakening but probably for all the wrong reasons. “But I’d not have you marry me out of a sense of duty, Alicia. Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned my plans for the Manor until after you agree to marry me. But you have my assurance that the offer of the stud management remains, regardless of whether or not you accept my proposal.”

“I take back what I said about you earlier, my lord duke. Your beneficence implies a true goodness of character.”

“Well, that’s encouraging to hear. Perhaps there’s hope for me after all?”

She tilted her head and smiled contemplatively. “Perhaps.”

“But now, as to the reasons why you ought to marry me. Don’t overlook the fact that if you agree, there’s no reason why your lessons shouldn’t resume immediately. I’ll be able to introduce you to some of the punishments that so intrigue you.”

“Well, I own, that does sound rather tempting.”

Nick choked on a laugh. All the advantages of being a duchess couldn’t sway her, but the prospect of sharing his bed on a permanent basis appeared to be giving her pause.

“The journey back to Dorchester Park ought to provide ample opportunities for you to displease me.” He pulled her a little closer, his voice a persuasive purr in her ear. “Only think of the punishments I’ll be able to devise in an endeavour to make you more obedient.”

“Hmm.” Alicia chewed thoughtfully on her lower lip.

“In fact, a well-sprung carriage is a very good place in which to have one’s behaviour corrected. The rocking motion of the coach, you understand—”

It was evident from her sparkling eyes that she understood very well indeed.

“And Mrs. Vickers?”

“Her services will be surplus to requirements.”

Alicia smiled and stood on her toes to receive his kiss, only to break it as soon as his lips touched hers.

“Before I agree to become your wife, there’s just one trifling matter that needs to be addressed.”

“Ah, of course. Forgive me, I should have anticipated.” He turned toward the door. “Gibson.”

Nick rolled his eyes as Gibson, with Janet at his shoulder, entered the room immediately, both sporting identical grins. They’d been told to wait in the passageway but had doubtless been eavesdropping shamelessly. In which case there seemed little point in his releasing Alicia from his arms.

“Arrange for the transportation of Miss Woodley’s menagerie to Dorchester Park with all expediency.”