Rules of Passion (24 page)

In Cornwall they could be happy, he was certain of it. Children would come, and Marietta would love them, as he would. A quiet life but a happy one—it had its appeal. And the nights, oh yes, the nights…

Marietta had begged him to teach her about desire; well, he was going to teach her! He was going to teach her so well that she would never want to be without him.

M
arietta was pale but determined as she prepared to leave the next morning to return to Berkley Square. Max could believe she would throw all her hopes and dreams away, if he liked, and run off with him to Cornwall, but he was deceiving himself and so he would discover soon enough. She would continue with their temporary affair, but it was just that—temporary.

Aphrodite was standing with her in the vestibule, awaiting the carriage. Marietta glanced at her mother. And that was another thing, Aphrodite was acting peculiarly. Several times she had smiled, a little secretive smile, but when Marietta asked her what she was thinking, her mother shrugged and said it was nothing.

Did Aphrodite know something she didn’t, and, if so, what could it be?

“I have something to tell you,
mon petit puce
!” Aphrodite had reclaimed her attention. “I have vis
ited your father and asked him if he wants to meet you, and he says that he does.”

Marietta had an odd sense of fracture, as though this moment was not real at all, but a dream. Tears were stinging her eyes. She was going to meet her father. It should not matter to her so much—she had never believed it would—but now that it was happening, it did.

“He has been in seclusion in the country,” Aphrodite went on gently, patting her shoulder. “He prefers to live there, away from London. Perhaps you should prepare yourself for a rather melancholy meeting.”

“But…why has he been in seclusion? Is there something wrong with him?”

“It is a sad story, Marietta. Adam—that is your father’s name—had an accident. His legs were damaged when a carriage overturned. Once he was a lively man who enjoyed his life to the full, but now he cannot get about as he did. He is often in pain and he prefers to live a simple life, so that is what he does.”

Marietta didn’t know what to say. Her father was an invalid. “I-I am very sorry for him then, Madame. Is he…has he a wife?”

“Yes, he is married. She is dull.” Aphrodite pulled a face. “It means he does not have to exert himself to keep her. Perhaps I am unfair, though, for she seems to be fond of him and he of her. On the few occasions he comes to London she does not accompany him. He is my friend, and she knows that, although she likes to pretend I don’t exist.”

“But you and he are no longer lovers?”

Aphrodite blinked. “No,” she said, and glanced
sideways, to where Dobson was standing by the door. “No, we have not been lovers for many years. But we are fond of each other, and he has been a great help to me in business matters.”

Marietta nodded as if it was all clear to her, but she was feeling rather vulnerable. Adam sounded very unlike her and she could not imagine them ever being close after all this time. They may as well be strangers.

“What is his full name?” she said.

“Sir Adam Langley. He is a baronet, and although he is wealthy, he is no Fraser.”

Fraser, Vivianna’s father, had been very wealthy indeed.

“I wasn’t counting on a wealthy father,” Marietta said automatically. “Sir Adam Langley,” she repeated, and smiled. “I like his name, Mama. I hope I shall like him.”

“I hope so, too, Marietta. But there is something more you should know,
mon petit puce
. Your father has other children. Five of them.” She said it with a lift of her elegant eyebrows. “So you will never inherit, although…” But she shook her head. “Well, I will let him tell you about that.”

“Five children?” she whispered uncertainly. “Brothers
and
sisters?”

“Oui.”

Marietta felt a stirring of excitement. She would like to meet her half brothers and sisters one day, although it did not sound as if her father’s wife would be very likely to welcome her into their family. And truthfully, Marietta could not blame her.

The carriage arrived soon after, and Marietta settled herself for the journey back to her sister’s house.

She didn’t expect too many awkward questions—fortunately Vivianna’s time and attention were taken up with her baby son—although she knew she did not look her best. Max was right, learning about desire was very fatiguing.

A smile tugged at her mouth, and she bit her lip to subdue it. She wanted to hug herself and close her eyes and let the memories fill her head. Her body was still a bit sore this morning but it was a pleasant sort of ache. Now and again she would feel a slight tingle, as if her most sensitive places were remembering Max, too.

Tonight they would meet at the Lustful Lady, and Marietta knew she could hardly wait.

The house in Berkley Square was a shambles. Boxes and trunks were piled up in the hall, and there were servants scurrying about like scolded cats. Her heart beginning to thump with excitement, Marietta made her way into Vivianna’s sitting room.

A woman looked up from a comfortable chair by the fireplace, her heavily bandaged foot resting upon a plump cushion on a stool. Fashionably dressed in a velvet traveling gown with fur trimmings, she was middle-aged and attractive, with fair hair and light eyes. At the moment those eyes looked tired and there was a crease of pain between her brows, but both were chased away by joy when she recognized Marietta.

“Mama!” Marietta cried, and in an instant was on her knees at her mother’s side, her arms clinging.

Amy Greentree gave a choked laugh, and then she lifted Marietta’s face, blinking back tears as she gazed down into it. “Do you know, my dear,” she be
gan huskily, “when you were little, if you had done something of which you knew I would disapprove, you always hugged me the tighter when you saw me. So what, Marietta, am I to think now?”

Marietta wondered at herself for being so transparent, but then Lady Greentree always had the knack for seeing straight into her daughters’ hearts.

“I am just glad to see you, Mama,” she said tearfully, rising to her feet again. “How is your poor ankle? Are you sure you should be traveling so far so soon? I did not think to see you in London for weeks.”

Lady Greentree allowed her to change the subject, although the expression in her eyes told Marietta that she
did
know something was amiss and was choosing not to mention it. “My ankle is still a little tender, but I can get about and the traveling was no bother. I simply sat and let others do things for me. Very lazy of me, really.”

“Does Mr. Jardine know you are here?”

Amy Greentree’s smile was open and without any coyness. “No, he is out, but he is expected back very soon. It will be nice to see him again—do you know, I have missed his sensible conversation.”

Marietta experienced her usual frustration. Just a downward sweep of the eyelashes or a flutter of the fingers and she might have been able to hope that her mother felt something more for Mr. Jardine than staid friendship. Yet again it seemed a hopeless case.

“But you have seen Vivianna and your grandson?”

Amy sighed, her eyes growing misty. “Oh, I have indeed. I have been sitting here thinking that I am a very fortunate woman, Marietta. If I had not come
upon three lovely little girls on my estate all those years ago I might now have been a lonely and embittered old widow.”

“Fortunate? Hmm, I would say you deserve your good fortune, Mama, if that is what it is to put up with three stubborn and difficult females. In fact no one deserves it more.”

“I would have to agree with that.”

The voice came from behind her, and Marietta turned with a cry of glad surprise. There stood Francesca, tall and slim, her cloud of dark hair barely restrained, her equally dark eyes full of pleasure. Marietta hesitated, thinking: Francesca, here in London?

Francesca laughed. “Yes, it really is me and not a wraith! I could not allow Mama to travel on her own, could I? Besides, I was desperate to see Vivianna’s son.”

The sisters embraced warmly, they had always had a special closeness, being the two nearest in age. Marietta wished she could tell Francesca everything that had happened to her, but she was wary. Her sister would probably not approve. Of all three girls it was Francesca who most resembled Aphrodite, and yet it was Francesca who most resented being a daughter of the famous courtesan. Was this the chance for mother and youngest daughter to get to know each other a little better?

“I cannot stay long.” Francesca immediately dashed her hopes. “I need to return to Greentree Manor as soon as Mama is settled and comfortable.”

Amy Greentree gave her youngest daughter a sympathetic look. “Do you already find London too
much to bear? I admit, it is very noisy and some of it is very grubby, but Vivianna assures me one becomes accustomed.”

“I cannot imagine it,” Francesca said bleakly.

She did look paler than usual, Marietta admitted, and there was a wild look in her eyes, a little like a trapped animal. Of them all, Francesca was the one who loved her home in Yorkshire the most. She strode the moors as if she was a part of them, and her vivid, rather melancholy paintings reflected that.

“Well, I for one am very glad to see you, Francesca, and will be very sorry to see you go,” Marietta assured her. “In fact I would be extremely hurt if you were to leave before you had stayed at least a fortnight. Or more. There is much to do and see in London, and I want to show it all to you. Wait until you’ve been up in a balloon—”

She stopped, but too late. Amy was staring at her with narrowed and suspicious eyes. “A balloon, Marietta? I hope you have not partaken of this treat yourself, have you?”

“They are very safe, Mama,” she replied sweetly, making her eyes big and innocent, but not actually answering the question.

Francesca choked on laughter, but Amy wasn’t impressed.

“Very well, a fortnight,” Francesca said, before there was an argument. “But I am only agreeing to it because you have begged me, and you obviously can’t manage without me.”

“
Psht!
” Marietta replied to that, but she secretly wondered what her sister would think if she were to discover what she was up to with Max. Learning
about desire with a disinherited duke. Francesca would be appalled. Or would she? In some ways Francesca was even more unconventional than Vivianna and Marietta.

“What is the matter with Lil?” her sister asked her a little later, as they made their way upstairs. “She was quite strange, not at all her usual dour self. I think she even made a little joke. Of course we were all too surprised to laugh. Has she been ill?”

Marietta cast her a sideways glance. “Sick with love. She has met an aeronaught and spends all her free time flying with him in his balloon.”

Francesca was suitably astonished by this. “What of Jacob?” she asked. “I thought it was all arranged that they marry?”

Marietta had always known Lil had no intention of marrying their coachman. She considered herself far too superior, and her sights had been set higher.

“Mr. Keith is a very nice man, not at all the conventional sort, and he worships Lil. You will see.” She hesitated, and then launched into a subject she dearly wanted to broach with her sister. “Aphrodite has told me the name of my father, Francesca, and I am to meet him. Now that you are here, perhaps—”

Immediately Francesca stiffened, and her dark eyes grew even darker. “I’d rather remain in ignorance, thank you. I am not interested in my father. Or my mother.”

“Please, Francesca…”

“No, Marietta.”

There was no moving her younger sister when she was like this, and Marietta knew it well. With a sigh, she said no more, but she was sorry. Her own need to
meet her father was growing stronger. In fact she could hardly wait…if only she were not so nervous that he would not like her, or that he had heard about her disgrace and would be disappointed in her.

It was just a pity that Francesca would not share this journey of exploration with her.

Uncle William, Aunt Helen, and Toby had been invited for dinner, and the dining table at Berkley Square was almost festive as the family exchanged memories and stories. Vivianna did her best to smile and enjoy herself, but it was clear Oliver’s continued absence was making her unhappy. Marietta herself, though very pleased to see Lady Greentree and Francesca, yet found her thoughts slipping away to Max.

There had been a note sent around to the house this afternoon. Lil had carried it up to Marietta, her head in the clouds as usual. When Marietta took the note and told her so, Lil giggled.
Giggled!
It was unnatural. “Ian…I mean, Mr. Keith, is makin’ a night flight at Vauxhall Gardens. There’s a masque ball, and there’ll be fireworks, miss. Mr. Keith’s goin’ to fly up high with them underneath the basket, and then set them off so as they’ll light up the sky over London. It’ll be a real spectacle.”

Marietta imagined it would be. “You don’t think it’s a little dangerous to do that, I mean lighting fireworks while you’re in a balloon, Lil?”

Lil pursed her lips. “Maybe, but Ian…Mr. Keith’s a very experienced aeronaught.” She had said it so sincerely that Marietta didn’t have the heart to smile. “And I’ll be with him to help.”

“Lil!”

“He’s asked me,” Lil said sharply, “and I’ve agreed, so there. No need to get yourself worried on my behalf, Miss Marietta. I like a bit of adventure, I do.”

Marietta sank down on the bed when she had gone, still shaken by this example of the new Lil.

The note had crumpled in her hand, and she looked down and began to read. Suddenly all other thoughts went out of her head.

Her first reaction had been to smile with relief—she had been pondering how she would slip away to the Lustful Lady without getting caught, or needing to request a vehicle to take her.

But thinking of it now, at the dining table among her chattering family, her body tingled.

She would be seeing Max again in only a few hours. What would he say to her, what would he
do
to her?

This time she moaned softly.

“Marietta, are you quite well?” Her mother was staring at her, and Marietta realized with a start that she wasn’t the only one.