Regency 03 - Deception (11 page)

The sigh that the earl emitted was a heartfelt
shudder. He’d known it would happen eventually. His need for a
wealthy bride had increased tenfold in the time he’d been separated
from his mother and he hadn’t even been aware of it.

“
What are you going to do about
it?” the countess demanded, every line of her large form rigid with
haughtiness.

Levi stood and paced the room. “There is no money,
Mama,” he said finally. “It is gone. I have tried nearly everything
I can think of to fix the matter but nothing has worked.”

“
There is no money?” she breathed
in patent disbelief.

Lord, she’s quick.
“No, Mama, none. Zero. I
cannot afford to frank your extravagant purchases anymore.”

“
You are blaming me? Just because
I buy a few pretty things to make my last days more bearable
because I am cursed with a son who ignores me and does not even
have the goodness to marry and provide me with companionship in my
declining years?”

“
A few pretty things? Good Lord,
Mother, the money you have spent on clothing and folderols in the
past month could thatch nearly every roof at Greville Castle.”
And not a damned thing can be considered pretty.
“Furthermore, I don’t ignore you. I am trying to find a way to
continue to fund your shopping habit. Devil take it, I am only five
and twenty! I should not need to take a wife yet.”
And damned if
I’d curse the future Lady Greville with you as
companion.

He paused, his narrow-eyed gaze raking critically
over her ample form. “What do you mean, your declining years? You
are as healthy as a horse.”

“
Oh, you are so unfeeling, you
unnatural child! You are just like your father.” The countess
pulled a handkerchief the size of a bedsheet from her equally
gigantic reticule and snuffled into it. In her distress, she forgot
her face paint and large stripes appeared on her face.

There were worse things than being compared to the
late earl, Levi thought as he watched his mother’s performance. Her
acting skills were much improved. She actually cried this time. He
could not smell the onion scent that usually accompanied her
hysterical outbursts. He silently applauded her.

The woman could give Raven a run for her money.

“
I will come about, Mama,” he said
soothingly. She only whimpered louder. “And I will reinstate your
allowance,” he added, defeated.

She peeked over the edge of her handkerchief.
“Promise?”

“
I promise, Mama. Then you can buy
every ug—, er, lovely thing your heart desires.”

He started pacing again, adding, “I actually have a
plan.” Bri would have killed him had she seen. She always
complained that he would wear a hole in her carpet with his
constant pacing.

“
What plan is that, my
son?”

She was all business now. The only proof that she
had been weeping was the streaks in her face paint.

And he was suddenly her son again.

“
I will marry money,” he stated
simply. The idea gave him a sick feeling that he had not
experienced before. He realized that he didn’t want to marry anyone
just for her money and he definitely did not want anyone to marry
him for his title and vast holdings. He wanted love.

How pathetic.

He wanted Aurora Glendenning with her pert smile and
turquoise eyes. He wanted to wake up every morning next to her and
make love to her every night. He wanted it to be her pixie-like
countenance across from him at the dining table. He wanted to love
her and be loved by her.

He wanted the impossible, he told himself savagely.
Even if she had the money he so desperately needed, there was no
guarantee that she would ever love him. Devil it, he had no
business wishing for something so unlikely.

“
I will marry money,” he repeated
determinedly.

He missed the look of cunning that crossed his
mother’s doughy features. Had he seen it, he may have been truly
frightened of her for the first time in his life.

~~~~~~

“
I know all about your association
with Lord Greville,” Aurora told her companion that morning. Ellie
had taken Rhiannon and stepped away to give them some privacy. The
maid hovered halfway between the two groups in case she was needed
by either.

Raven stared straight ahead. “What do you know and
who told you?” she asked quietly.

“
Sir Adam told me of your
relationship. He implied that you may be trying to start mischief
by seeking me out,” Aurora suggested straightforwardly. After a lot
of thought, she had decided that bluntness was the best approach to
this possible problem.

“
Adam said that, did he? And I
thought he was my friend.”

“
Oh, he is, I assure you. He
worries for you and he said his wife does as well. Lord Connor
expressed his concern and even said that Lord Greville wondered
what was wrong when you resigned from the theater. They all seem to
think you have taken Lord Greville’s dismissal too close to
heart.”

Raven shrugged. “Perhaps. I did hear your name
linked with his,” she pointed out.

“
Have you? So has most of the
polite world,” Aurora retorted dryly. “That does not mean there is
a shred of truth to it, you know. I was unfortunate enough to be
there when his lordship got himself into a bit of a pickle. I
helped him out of it with Lord Derringer’s assistance. But then I
made the mistake of crossing the duke and he said something that
damaged my reputation and effectively linked my name with that of
Lord Greville.”

Twisting her fingers together, Aurora continued, her
voice low and sincere. “I apologize for any hurt I may have
inadvertently caused you. I did not know you loved him. It must be
very difficult to have to strive to make ends meet and have to do
certain things many would condemn you for.”

Raven sighed. Aurora watched emotions flit across
the other woman’s face, curious at the changing expressions, deeply
aware that Raven was laboring under some very strong feelings of
rejection. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for her and a little
guilty for being the apparent cause of the other woman’s pain.

Despite this awareness, she was unprepared for her
companion’s reaction.

Miss Raven Emerson burst into tears.

She was even lovely when she cried, Aurora thought
with a pang of jealousy. She wondered if the earl was in love with
the actress as well. It would not be at all surprising despite the
woman’s obviously distressful shortcomings.

“
Tell me about it,” Aurora gently
urged. She patted the other woman’s arm consolingly and pressed a
tiny scrap of muslin into her hand.

And Raven did. She told Aurora all about her family
of nine sisters—five of whom died before she ever knew them, her
ailing father, and her fairly strict religious upbringing. She
confessed to her feelings of guilt and worthlessness whenever she
pondered the steps she had taken in her life. She told of her
desperation when she had first met Adam and her own fleshly desires
when she had met Levi.

This last Aurora understood wholeheartedly. She had
found herself imagining more than once what it would be like to
make love with Levi Greville. The thought never failed to alarm her
considering she had experienced the act once before and she had
decided at that time that once was quite enough. But Lord Greville
had a way of making one willing to toss all one’s beliefs and
principles right out the window for just a glimpse of his boyish
smile.

“
You are not a bad person,” Aurora
reassured her now silently weeping companion. “You have made some
mistakes. We all have. The important thing now is to adhere to your
resolutions. Do not allow yourself to give in to temptation again.”
Follow your own advice, Aurora Glendenning.

Raven sniffed and blew her nose. She offered a
watery smile and Aurora marveled that the woman could look
positively alluring right after indulging in a hefty bout of the
vapors.

“
I am sure you have committed some
disastrous sin, Miss Glendenning,” Raven said with heavy
sarcasm.

“
Actually”—Aurora grimaced—“I
have. When I was seventeen, I decided I had to know all about,” she
glanced at her new friend, “you know, making love. So I set out to
discover what I could.”

“
That is hardly a sin,” Raven
pointed out reasonably. “A lot of young women seek to end their
ignorance of sexual matters by reading certain naughty texts and
asking questions wherever they can.”

“
Yes, but few actually decide to
add to their knowledge by indulging in the act themselves,” Aurora
commented dryly. At Raven’s shocked expression, Aurora nodded. “I
did. I asked a certain friend of mine to make love to me so I could
know exactly what all the fuss was about. He was only too willing
to oblige me.”

“
What did you think?” Raven
couldn’t help asking.

“
It was rather unpleasant, really.
I think Desmond lied to me when he boasted of his popularity with
the ladies. I swore then and there that I would never give in to
temptation again and I aim to stick to that vow even if it kills
me,” she declared firmly.

Raven’s face twitched suspiciously. Aurora rolled
her eyes. “Go ahead and laugh. It is ridiculous, isn’t it?”

The actress did laugh but there was a certain bitter
quality to it. Glancing away, she said quietly, “It will not always
be that way. One day, the man will come along who will wake you,
teach you to live.”

Aurora stared at her companion. “Logic would agree
with you, I know. Why else would so many women willingly become
mistresses? Granted, there are some who are desperate, who would do
almost anything to avoid starvation, but I refuse to believe that
all women who enter the ranks of the fashionable impure do it only
for the money.”

“
Society does not operate on
logic, Miss Glendenning. Have you considered those women are just
evil?”

Eyes narrowing shrewdly, Aurora replied,
“You are not evil, Miss Emerson, no matter how much you believe you
are.”*****

*

As Raven left, the Duke of Derringer arrived.

The actress nodded pleasantly to the tall peer, not
even hesitating in her trek to the park gates. Derringer didn’t
spare her more than a cursory glance from atop his horse as they
passed each other.

He was well aware of her identity. Indeed, what kind
of underhanded rogue would he be if he was unaware of the best
actress since Sarah Siddons? Everyone knew of her.

Apparently, Aurora was cultivating an association
with the woman with little regard for her own reputation. Smirking,
Derringer acknowledged that he’d already gone a long way in ruining
that anyway.

The duke was cynical enough to realize Raven’s
interest in Aurora Glendenning could not be entirely innocent. If
his spies were to be believed—and Derringer trusted them as much as
he trusted any low-class street ruffian paid to spy on his
betters—Miss Raven Emerson was not as sane as she portrayed
herself. Rumor said she’d taken her dismissal very ill indeed.

He’d keep an eye on the hauntingly lovely Raven
Emerson. One never knew what a woman scorned was capable of.

Reining in next to Aurora’s perch on a park bench,
he offered a mocking smile. Instead of scowling or simply walking
away, Aurora smiled back. Derringer found himself a trifle
startled.

The Duke of Derringer was never startled.

“
Your grace,” she murmured, her
very expression revealing how uncomfortable she
knew
she’d
made him. “How are you enjoying this lovely weather?”

He slid from Satan’s back. Dropping the reins, he
told the horse to go away.

“
Did you just tell your mount to
go away?”

Derringer shrugged and lowered his lanky form onto
the bench beside her. “He is not being very cooperative today. He
needs some time to himself.”

“
Oh, of course,” she said, her
tone so disbelieving that Derringer felt actual mirth.

“
How are you faring since
Almack’s?”

“
I am faring quite well, my lord.
I am surprised you care to inquire, considering any discomforts I
experience were caused by you.”

He shrugged. “You broke the rules, Rory.”

“
What rules?”

He turned to meet her gaze, marveling at the color
of her eyes, wondering how he was going to broach the subject he
needed to without finding himself on the other end of Levi’s
dueling pistol.

Unknowingly adopting the same attitude Aurora had
just minutes before with Raven, he opted for blunt truth.

“
You realize I know far more than
just his name, do you not?”

She released a breath of annoyance, her back
stiffening until Derringer was sure she’d just bend right over
backward.

“
I fail to see why you concern
yourself in my affairs. You are the veriest busybody.”

He leaned in, meaning to intimidate, oddly impressed
when she refused to be intimidated. “You are my concern because
Levi Greville is my concern. You will destroy him with your lies
and that is something I cannot allow.”

She ducked her head, but not before her bonnet hid
the flush creeping up her cheeks. That was enough of an admission
for Derringer.

“
Why are you here?”

Her head shot up. “I am always in the park at this
time. My sister…” She gazed around, saw Miss Ellison with
Rhiannon and waved them back.