The Bridegroom (6 page)

She watched as the earl sought out the rail-thin boy with lank blond hair and large brown eyes who had identified himself as Freddy Jenkins.

“Freddy is twelve today,” Reggie continued. “So this is his last day here at Miss Henwick’s Home for Unfortunate Children.”

Clay turned to meet her gaze. “Where is he going?”

“Out into the world.” Reggie paused and took a calming breath. “You see, the lady who left this house to be used as an orphanage stated it was to be employed for the aid of children only until their twelfth year.”

The earl frowned ominously. “And what are Freddy’s plans, if I may ask?”

“I … he … If I had my own establishment, I would hire him myself,” Reggie said. “But Penrith says he has all the servants he can use, and I—”

“Freddy,” the earl said, addressing the child. “How would you like to work for me?”

“What?”

“I need a groom. Would that suit you?”

The boy leapt to his feet. “Workin’ with prime bits o’ horseflesh?”

“The very best,” the earl assured him.

“How much does it pay?” the boy asked.

Reggie groaned. “Freddy, really, you should be grateful—”

“A bed, all you can eat, and a bit to spend on Sunday to start. We can negotiate again when you’re sure you like the work,” the earl said.

“Blimey!” Freddy exclaimed. “When do I start?”

“You can start by checking to see if my curricle is still out front where I left it.” Carlisle flipped the boy a coin and said, “Pay the lad who’s waiting there. I’ll join you shortly.”

Freddy caught the coin in the air and with a shout of pure joy, raced from the room.

Reggie could barely swallow past the sudden lump in her throat. She turned away from the earl, but he reached out and caught her chin and angled it toward him. She could feel the tears welling in her eyes and knew she must not blink or one would fall. “That was a lovely gift,” she said softly.

“The world is a frightening place when you have nothing. I can spare him that discovery for a little while, at least.”

“How can I ever thank you?”

“Come to the theater with me on Thursday. I have a box at Covent Garden.”

“Pardon me?” Reggie said, startled by the shift in their conversation.

“I would like to see you again,” he said, his voice low and coaxing. “Please come with me.”

“I see no purpose to be served by continuing our acquaintance.”

“I hope to persuade you I am different from the men who have left you so disappointed in the past. Will you give me a chance to do so?”

Reggie could not conceive of any man of her acquaintance who would have made such an unselfish offer to a child he barely knew as the one Carlisle had made to Freddy. Surely for that reason alone, the earl deserved a second opportunity to make a good impression. “Very well. I will attend the theater with you on Thursday.”

His eyes narrowed distrustfully at her easy capitulation. “You won’t abandon me to your sister?”

“I promise I will be there when you call for me.” Reggie fully intended to keep that promise. In fact, she and Becky would both be waiting when the earl arrived.

“L
ord Carlisle has invited me to attend the theater with him on Thursday,” Reggie announced at supper that evening. “I was wondering, dear brother, if you could spare my sister to play chaperone.”

The startled look on Penrith’s face told Reggie she might have raised her brother-in-law’s suspicions by speaking to him in such a friendly manner. But it had
occurred to her, as she was dressing hurriedly for supper after having stayed until long after dark at the orphanage, that she had the perfect opportunity to separate her sister from Penrith’s company.

She would simply spend all her time with Carlisle, and insist on Becky as her chaperone, until Mick arrived from Scotland to help rescue her sister.

“Well, well,” Penrith said, a lurid glint in his eye. “Now there is a match made in heaven. The man is rich as Croesus, a member of the Four-in-Hand Club, and handy with his fives at Gentleman Jackson’s Saloon. When all is said and done, he would make a handsome brother-in-law.” Penrith’s eyes narrowed assessingly. “Tell me, Regina, where did you meet the fellow?”

Reggie suddenly realized how truly castaway Penrith had been the previous evening. He seemed to have no recollection of their discussion in the carriage. “Why, I met him at Viscount Raleigh’s ball last night,” she said. “Do you not recall introducing us?”

Reggie ignored her sister’s anxious hand signals and her disapproving faces as she baited Penrith. “You were effusive in your praise of the gentleman. I felt certain you would approve of our further association, which is why I agreed to attend the entertainment with him.

“Now that I think of it, you may even have put the idea in my head that my sister should chaperone. I believe you said Carlisle was a man you could trust, indeed, that you had trusted him to advise you on financial matters.”

“Yes, well …” Penrith blustered. “I do have some other business requiring my attention these days. And
Lord Carlisle is a figure of some note. I suppose under the circumstances I can spare my wife to chaperone her sister.”

“Thank you,” Reggie said, surreptitiously shooting Becky a grin of triumph.

After supper, Reggie and Becky left Penrith alone with his port and headed upstairs. It was dark in the upper hallway because, although Penrith insisted on expensive beeswax candles, he could not bear to burn them, so only a few of the wall sconces were lit.

“You are impossible. Incorrigible. Hopeless,” Becky muttered as she marched down the hall toward the nursery.

“Why?” Reggie demanded. “Because I have contrived to have my sister come with me to the theater. You know you will enjoy it. You have not often had the opportunity to attend, since Penrith does not care for it. You should be thanking me.”

To Reggie’s surprise, Becky rounded on her. “This is not a game, Reggie. This is my life. I know you cannot like Penrith, but he is my husband. Please do not humiliate me again as you did at table tonight.”

“What harm was there in confirming Penrith’s overindulgence in spirits last night?” Reggie retorted. “You already know the worst. Indeed, you have suffered disgracefully for it. When Mick arrives we will contrive a way to free you from this marriage.”

“Are you mad? Penrith will never let me go!”

“Why not?”

“He wants an heir,” Becky said bitterly. “And I have not yet given him one.”

“I should have considered that, of course,” Reggie said, her lips pursed thoughtfully. “I had hoped a separation would be sufficient, but I see it will have to be something more permanent. An annulment, perhaps, so Penrith can remarry and have his heir.”

Reggie glanced at Becky and saw that her sister’s eyes were huge with disbelief. “What is wrong? Don’t you want to be freed from this marriage?”

“I would like it above all things,” Becky hissed, the words obviously wrenched from deep inside her. “But it is impossible!”

“If you desire it, I will manage it somehow,” Reggie assured her. “Mick is certain to have some idea of how it can be done.”

Becky groaned. “You know how your plans have a way of going awry, and that is putting things in their best light. Please don’t do anything. And
please
don’t involve Mick.”

“But I know we could contrive—”

“You are forgetting one very important thing,” Becky interrupted, her eyes bleak. “You may force Penrith to relinquish his right to his wife, but you will never convince him to give up Lily.”

“Why would he care about Lily?” Reggie asked, confused. “She is a mere girl—not the heir he desires.”

“You do not understand,” Becky said, her voice filled with despair.

“Explain it to me,” Reggie urged.

“You have seen how he does not ask to hold her, that he rarely even acknowledges her existence. But Lily is
his
. She belongs to him, as I belong to him, as the chairs
and sofas and silverware belong to him—something he can show off if an occasion arises, but which otherwise should stay in its proper place.” Becky shook her head. “It is hopeless.”

Reggie slipped her arm around Becky’s waist in comfort and continued walking with her toward the nursery. “Nothing is ever hopeless.”

“I don’t wish to discuss the matter further.”

“Will you still come with me to the theater?” Reggie asked.

Becky stopped outside the nursery door. “I don’t understand your attraction to Lord Carlisle,” she said with a sigh. “He is a totally inappropriate escort.”

“But I told you how he gave Freddy a job. I think there is more to the man than meets the eye,” Reggie said. “And what harm could befall me with you there to watch over me?”

Becky made a sound in her throat that suggested a great many things might go amiss in such an outing, but conceded, “I am no good judge of men, as this discussion has proved. Only promise me you will guard your heart.”

In her sister’s pained voice, Reggie heard more unhappiness than she could bear. She pressed a kiss to Becky’s cheek and whispered, “I am in no danger there. With you as my chaperone, Carlisle will never get a chance to do more than speak flowery words, and you know I am immune to vows of eternal love spoken by callow young men.”

“Carlisle is no callow young man,” Becky warned.

“No, indeed,” Reggie agreed. “I think he must be at least … three and thirty.”

Becky laughed. “You are incorrigible.”

“I know,” Reggie said with an unrepentant grin. “And impossible and hopeless. Come, let us kiss our darling Lily good night and go to bed ourselves. You will need to be in fine fettle from now on to protect me from the earl.”

Becky laughed. “I have never imagined myself as a knight in shining armor, but I stand ready to defend you. Forward into the fray!” she said as they stepped into Lily’s bedroom.

Reggie was glad Becky did not realize that she was not entirely joking. She found Carlisle every bit as threatening as Becky had suggested. He had already destroyed her peace of mind.

Carlisle’s past made him intriguing. The tragedy he had suffered made him a figure for whom she could feel compassion, especially considering her father’s part in the catastrophe that had caused him to lose everything. The earl was attractive to her in a way she could not understand or define … or resist.

Oh, yes, he was dangerous.

But Reggie had no intention of making the same mistake as her sister. She would know her man before she married him. She would doubt him, dispute him, defy him. She would put Carlisle in every situation she could conjure that might reveal his true nature. When he had proved himself worthy of her love, then, and only then, would she consider giving him her hand … or her heart.

Heads turned. Brows lifted. Fans snapped closed as the Ice Princess arrived at Covent Garden in company with the pirate. Although Reggie was certain Carlisle could not know it, he was already being measured against her list of Seven Deadly Sins in a Suitor. It had taken her an entire evening to compose it, and she had actually wound up with more than a dozen sins by the time she was through.

Will he ignore present company in favor of some prettier face or larger bosom?
she wondered.

His eyes never left her, and they were filled with admiration. “That is a charming gown, Reggie,” he whispered in her ear as he seated her in his box.

Reggie supposed she must allow the earl a passing mark on one point, at least: he did not appear to have a roving eye.
But will he show my sister equal courtesy?

“May I take your wrap, Lady Penrith,” the earl said solicitously.

“Thank you, my lord,” Becky said.

Carlisle settled the Norwich shawl across the back of Becky’s chair, which was in the row behind Reggie. “Is there anything else I can arrange for your comfort, Lady Penrith?” the earl asked.

Reggie conceded Carlisle’s manners were impeccable. He was both considerate and kind. But she had known that already, from his behavior toward Freddy and the children.

She caught her lower lip between her teeth. The problem was how to test all those other sins. It might be possible to determine whether he was willing to spread vicious gossip, or whether he would bore her to death with his conversation, simply by attending the
ton
events to which she was regularly invited.

But how could she measure whether Carlisle drank to excess or gambled beyond his means? She had never been to a tavern, and Becky was not likely to agree to attend a gaming hell with her. That meant finding ways to spend time in Carlisle’s company without Becky along to chaperone.

While the thought of being alone with Carlisle did not precisely frighten her, it did cause her a certain amount of trepidation. Nevertheless, she was determined to discover even those flaws it might be dangerous to encounter.
Was Carlisle the sort of man who might strike a woman?
Reggie was certain it would take some great provocation to know for certain, but that meant she must devise some means of protecting herself if the earl became violent.

There were also matters of a more personal nature to
be determined, matters about which ladies and gentlemen did not ordinarily discourse.
Did the earl believe it was his right to keep a mistress after he was married?
Reggie had made up her mind long ago that she could not bear to share her husband with another woman, even one he craved only for her body, which was the excuse Penrith had given Becky for why he kept a mistress.