Regency 09 - Redemption (17 page)

“I can’t just pretend like
nothing happened. I can’t just pretend I never…knew her.” He hated
the tone of defeat in his voice but was powerless to eliminate it.
“Break the betrothal, Miles.”

Miles shook his head almost
regretfully. “I cannot, Dare. It’s just not done. Do not try to
convince me otherwise.”

Dare studied his twin
closely. He was confused and irritated by all he’d just been told.
Then there was the fact that Jenny was having his child and instead
of being the father, he would only be an uncle. The mere thought
was galling.

Dare escaped to his room
for a precious few minutes of blessed peace. He wondered where
Bri’s sharp tongue was and thanked God for its absence. She was
either so livid she couldn’t control her murderous impulses or she
was actually gone from home.

Throwing clothes in every
conceivable direction as he went, Dare walked into the water closet
off his room and turned the water on to fill the tub. He thanked
God for such a convenience and Adam for being freethinking enough
to have it installed despite Society’s odd feelings on bathing.
Sinking down into the steaming water, he laid his head back and
closed his eyes. He felt grimy and…old.

A bone-weary sigh pushed up
his windpipe to escape in what a less compassionate person might
call a sob. He managed to stifle the next one despite the
overwhelming urge he had to break down and snivel like an
infant.

It was several minutes
later that Dare again opened his eyes. He realized a trifle
ruefully that he must have fallen asleep. He wasn’t surprised. He’d
rode like the hounds of hell had dogged his heels. It was a wonder
he’d made it without suffering a severe case of madness.

He laughed painfully.
Perhaps that was what ailed him now. No, he was honest enough to
admit the fair Jenny was what ailed him now. He wanted her as he’d
never wanted another woman. The one time he’d been with her had
haunted him ever since. And now…

Now, she was having his
baby. He felt a slow smile stretch across his lips. In spite of
everything, he was pleased. Being with her always and being allowed
to acknowledge the child as his would make his life finally worth
living.

Hell, if he had all that,
his life would be bloody well perfect.

Adam returned to London
that very evening. He found his house in a bit of an uproar, his
wife upbraiding Dare while Miles stood by, watching grimly. Three
servants stood a little way off, their eyes round as
saucers.

Adam gave them one
meaningful look, and they swiftly departed. With the departure of
the menials came an embarrassed but defiant silence on Bri’s part,
a brooding one on Dare’s, and a look of absolute relief on
Miles’s.

“Anyone
care to explain?” he asked mildly, a sure sign he was well on his
way to being
upset
.

Bri threw her hands up. “I
give up. You deal with him.” And she stormed out, slamming the door
behind her.

“I apologize, Adam,” Dare
said quietly. “I never meant to upset her. Especially in her
condition.”

Miles glared at his twin.
“You should have thought of that before,” he said evenly, back in
firm control of his emotions. He, too, took his leave, managing to
close the door behind him with a snap rather than an all-out
slam.

Adam gave
Dare a long look. “Care to explain that cryptic statement?” he
asked, his voice having gained the silkiness that suggested he was
most
displeased
.

Dare just stared at him for
a long moment. His face held not a hint of the emotions churning
within him. He was the lowest despicable cad—and he knew it. He
didn’t need his cousin telling him what he already knew.

Even knowing the reaction
his confession would cause, Dare nevertheless stated, calmly and
clearly, “Miles is engaged to marry Lady Genevieve
Northwicke…because she is pregnant…with my child…and I could not be
found to do right by her.”

Adam’s eyes narrowed to
dangerous little slits. “You…did…WHAT!?” Each word was separated,
drawn out, the last one ending on an explosion of sound that
threatened to rock the house on its foundation.

Dare neither said nor did a
thing. He just waited. He knew what was coming, physically and
mentally bracing himself.

Two seconds later, Adam’s
fist connected with his jaw. Dare barely moved. He favored his
cousin with a blank stare, calmly pulling his handkerchief from his
pocket. He pressed it to his bleeding lip.

“Have you nothing to say?”
the baronet finally snapped.

“I have no defense, Adam,”
was Dare’s softly spoken reply.

He wanted to hit him again.
Dare could see the desire on Adam’s face and was mildly surprised
when his cousin restrained himself.

“What did Con say?” The
older man’s tone was back to calm, and infinitely
dangerous.

“He threatened to hunt me
down, of course, but refrained since Miles so gallantly offered for
her.”

His tone was utterly devoid
of emotion. He was shocked he could keep the pain from his words.
His brother was going to marry Lady Genevieve Northwicke. The only
woman who’d ever made him feel even remotely worthy of life. The
only woman, who, after hearing his pathetic story, offered
friendship and redemption for his battered heart.

The only woman he’d ever
love.

And he, damned idiot that
he was, ran away, scared out of his mind by the emotions she made
him feel.

“She must surely hate me,”
he said softly, hardly aware he’d spoken aloud.

Adam’s head snapped up. The
defeated tone in his young cousin’s voice gave him pause. Was it
possible… Did the clunch actually love the girl?

Taking care to modulate his
tone, he asked, “Why did you run?”

Dare released a short,
infinitely bitter laugh, shoving his hand through his hair. “How
could I stay? She would have expected marriage and I have nothing
to give her.”

“You have amassed enough
wealth to get by,” Adam pointed out dryly.

“Yes, wealth,” Dare
murmured. “I also bring with me a past so black, no father would
dare give his daughter into my keeping. And she is the daughter of
a duke.”

“Perhaps. But you never
know until you ask,” he told him philosophically. “Nothing
ventured, nothing gained…and all that rot.”

“‘
Faint heart never won
fair lady.’” Dare treated his cousin to a look of incredulous
amazement. “Do you know what he said when Miles offered? He told
him he wasn’t what he wanted for his daughter. Miles, the perfect,
never-done-wrong son and brother, every woman’s dream husband,
every father-in-law’s dream son. What do you think Denbigh would
say should I approach him and say, ‘Please, sir, may I have your
daughter to wife?’ He wouldn’t even deign to reply to such an
outrageous request. He’d take one look at me and release the
hounds.”

“That’s not necessarily
true,” Adam remarked casually. He moved to a chair and sat, leaning
on the arm with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Denbigh would
have been willing to accept you as Jenny’s husband. Con may have
had a few objections but Denbigh is wiser than most fathers of the
elite class.”

Dare stared blankly at
Adam. “Meaning?”

“Meaning, you bloody
nodcock, Denbigh would have realized you’re in love with the girl
and given you his blessing.” One corner of his lips tipped up in a
mocking smile. “After threatening to draw and quarter you for any
future pain you may cause her.”

The younger man suddenly
sat, unheeding of where he stood in the room. Thankfully, there was
a sofa right behind him. He couldn’t say anything around the lump
in his throat and had nothing to say to Adam’s half-hearted jest
since he barely heard it anyway.

Adam sighed softly. “But
it’s too late now, isn’t it?”

Dare nodded once, a jerky
movement that threatened to jilt his head from his shoulders. A
headache blossomed behind his eyes and at the base of his
neck.

Forcing his voice to work,
he admitted, “I tried to convince Miles to break the betrothal. He
refused.”

Raising one eyebrow, Adam
asked, “Does he care so much for her then?”

“Not so much as the fact
that he is Miles and will do no wrong if he can avoid
it.”

Adam snorted out a laugh.
“Right, of course. Miles can’t jilt a girl he’s engaged to marry.
It would go against everything he’s ever believed in or held dear.
Bloody boring if you ask me.”

“Yes, well, I won’t give
up. If he marries Jenny, what about Gwen? I won’t marry her,
settling for the mirror image of the woman I really want. And she
wants Miles. She has since she first met him.”

Adam regarded his young
cousin thoughtfully. “It is a problem, is it not?”

His trial by fire was far
from over. Bri got her claws into him moments after he’d closed the
door to his chamber. She forced her way in, her hands on her hips
and green eyes blazing. The door was slammed firmly in her
wake.

Smiling faintly, he
observed, “It’s hardly proper for you to be in my bedchamber alone
with me, Bri. What will the servants think?”

“Fine time to be worrying
about that,” she snapped, clearly beside herself with rage. She
closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to control her
anger. After a concentrated effort, during which Dare remained
wisely silent, she opened her eyes, pinioning him with a
look.

“Tell me, Dare, was it
worth it?”

Startled by her question,
he asked, “What?”

What she uttered was a
series of vulgar words that even Dare hesitated to use. His face
flushed against his will even as he grinned at her.

“Do you kiss Adam with that
mouth?”

He was quite sure his ears
blistered after she favored him with a reply. He raised his hands
in surrender. “You win, Bri. Dear God, you must have been a sailor
in your checkered past.”

His comment made her smile.
“I could have been, make no mistake.”

She paced over to the one
chair in the chamber, seating herself with regal dignity. She took
a moment to smooth the pale yellow-green muslin of her gown.
Chartreuse, Dare thought in an odd non sequitur. He shook his
bizarre thoughts about colors from his head, fearing he was losing
his mind.