The Captain's Christmas Bride (4 page)

* * *

Thank goodness she’d stopped trying to resist. There was no time to waste. Alec didn’t trust any of those three to keep their mouths shut. Not for very long, anyway. And he needed to get this mess straightened out before they had a chance to do any damage. The very last thing he needed right now was a rumour going round that would blacken his reputation. He’d had to work twice as hard to gain his present rank, as men with family sponsors greased their way into promotions and fat prizes. He wasn’t going to let this silly girl bring it all crashing down round his ears.

‘Weeping and wailing isn’t going to make this go away,’ he said harshly, when he heard what sounded suspiciously like a stifled sob. Alec clasped his fingers round her wrist a little tighter as a fresh wave of indignation had him lengthening his stride. If it had been Sir Isaac Newton dragging her through this shrubbery to confront her father, she would be cock-a-hoop. No man liked to have a woman think of him as second best. Second best? Not even that. She’d been looking at him as though he was some kind of ogre ever since he’d removed his mask and she’d seen exactly who he was.

‘What...’ she panted ‘...what do you plan to tell my father?’

That brought him to a dead halt. She caught up with him, and stepped in front, barring his path. Though she need not have done. He did need a moment to come up with a story that would satisfy an outraged father, and also prevent their union becoming fodder for scurrilous gossip.

He glared up at the bulk of the immense house Lady Julia’s father owned. Light and laughter spilled from its windows. The laughter of the rich, privileged guests the earl had invited into his home. The kind of people who thrived on gossip and scandal. The kind of gossip that would ring a death knell to his career, as well as Lizzie’s hopes.

‘Listen,’ she said. ‘I don’t care what you say about me. About my part in...in enticing you away from the party and...and all that.’

He lowered his head to look at her.

She lifted her chin and met his eyes squarely, for the very first time.

‘Naturally you are very angry with me. I’m angry with myself,’ she admitted with a shake of her head. ‘But please, please, don’t let that anger spill over to my friends and drag them into our mess. That is, I know you will have to relate how they found us, but you don’t need to make it sound as though they knew anything about it. Or...or helped me, do you?’

It hadn’t occurred to him before. But now he saw that to carry out a deception of this magnitude, she would indeed have had to have accomplices.

‘Nellie—I mean, the Neapolitan Nightingale did lend me her dress and agree to pretend to be me, to throw others off the scent, but she didn’t know the whole of it. She just thought it was a jest, to see if we could fool people into mistaking us for each other. She thought we were going to stand next to each other at the end of the evening, and take off our masks, and everyone would be astonished. I couldn’t bear it if she got into trouble for a...a prank I played on her as much as anyone else. And I’m afraid that if Papa thinks she was in any way responsible, he will throw her out. Probably do things to destroy her career. And it’s all she has.’

Now it was his turn to reel. Up till now, he’d thought she was just another spoiled, petulant society miss. Just like the other empty-headed chits his sister claimed as friends. But that impassioned speech proved she was capable of thinking of others.

It was more than he would have expected of a girl like her. Not that it would do the opera singer any good. Lady Julia’s father wasn’t a fool. He would have seen her aping his daughter’s mannerisms all evening, as well as Julia sashaying around in the opera singer’s revealing gown. It was typical of her sort to act irresponsibly and then be surprised when the underlings they’d dragged into their mess bore the brunt of the repercussions.

‘I agree,’ he said curtly. ‘You
should
take all the blame.’

She made a little moue of protest. But then, instead of launching into yet another barrage of protests, she lifted her chin.

‘Thank you,’ she said, stunning him. ‘And...and as for Marianne...’ Her whole face creased in concern. ‘She didn’t want any part of it. She told me it was wrong, but I...I took no notice.’

‘Your father won’t hold that against her,’ he grunted. ‘I only met any of you two days ago, but it’s clear even to me that she has no influence over you whatsoever. You do as you please and expect her to trot along at your heels like a spaniel.’

‘I do no such thing! Marianne is my friend!’

‘Oh? I thought she was some sort of poor relation.’

‘She—well, yes, she did come to live with us when her parents died. Because she had nowhere else to go, but I absolutely do
not
treat her like a spaniel. And she doesn’t behave like one, either.’

He shrugged. ‘It’s of no concern to me. You want to shield both her and the opera singer from blame. That’s commendable, I suppose, if a touch impractical.’

‘Impractical? How?’

‘Never mind how,’ he said, irritated that somehow she’d made him share even a tithe of his thoughts. A good officer never let his subordinates into the workings of his mind. It could lead them to believe he wasn’t totally infallible. ‘Let us just leave it at the point where I agree to leave all the others out of it. Except for the part where they found us
in flagrante delicto
.’

She lowered her head for an instant, as though discomfited by his brutal reminder of her spectacular fall from grace.

‘Then, what,’ she finally said in a small, almost penitent voice, ‘do you plan to say?’

‘You leave that to me,’ he growled. ‘And just remember, your father isn’t going to be the first hurdle we have to leap tonight. We’re going to have to walk back into that house and start searching for him. With everyone staring at us, and wondering what on earth we’re doing together when so far this week we haven’t been able to say two civil words to each other.’

‘Oh. Well, I’m sure we can go in a side entrance...’

‘If you think we’re going to be able to carry this off with either one of our reputations intact, by skulking about as though we’ve done something to be ashamed of, then you’re even sillier than you look.’

‘Oh! What a nasty thing to say.’

‘But true.’

She opened her mouth to argue. Looked as though she’d been struck by the truth of what he’d said. Shut it with a snap.

‘Very well,’ she conceded. ‘We’ll walk in together, stroll around until we find my father, and then—’

‘And then I will insist on speaking with him in private,’ he broke in, before she could come up with yet another hare-brained scheme.

She glared at him.

‘Fine,’ she snapped, after a brief struggle with herself. ‘Have it your way.’

‘Oh, I will,’ he said smoothly, as she laid her arm on his sleeve and squared her shoulders. ‘From now on, you’re going to find that there are some people you cannot twist round your little finger. No matter how you simper, and smile, and cajole.’

‘And you will find out,’ she snapped back, as they mounted the steps, ‘that there are some women who would rather die than simper and smile and cajole a man. Particularly not a man like you!’

‘Then it appears our married life is going to be a stormy one,’ he replied grimly. ‘We will both be as glad as each other when my business ashore is done, and I can go back to sea.’

She smiled up at him sweetly. Because they’d reached the terrace, where anyone might see them if they happened to glance out of the windows.

‘Oh, I think,’ she said in a caressing tone, ‘that I shall be far more pleased to see the back of you, than you will of me.’

They strolled across the terrace and in through the same door they’d used such a short time before in silence. It was a good job he wasn’t the kind of man who minded having the last word. But then he just couldn’t see the point of engaging in pointless debate with her. Not when they were, basically, in agreement. Neither of them, given the choice, would have chosen the other for a life partner. Hell, he hadn’t planned to marry for years, if at all. His estates were mortgaged. His ancestral home let out to tenants. His sister living with friends she’d met at the exclusive boarding school that had swallowed up practically every penny he’d ever earned. He had nothing to offer a wife. No home, no money that wasn’t spoken for, and few prospects now that Wellington had finally defeated Bonaparte on land, which meant that the war against the French was over.

* * *

‘You could try smiling, too,’ she hissed up at him through a smile so forced it was hurting her teeth. ‘To look at your face, anyone would think some great disaster had just befallen you.’

‘It’s my natural expression,’ he replied. ‘Better get used to it.’

‘I thought we were trying to persuade everyone we hadn’t done something to be ashamed of.’

‘Aye. But that doesn’t mean I need to go about with a fatuous grin on my face.’

‘There’s a world of difference between a fatuous grin and the murderous look you’ve got on your face.’ Though her own smile faltered as she said it. Because she’d seen Papa. ‘And my father has seen us,’ she said, pointing towards the fireplace. ‘Over there.’

He was standing beside one of the ornate marble fireplaces that were a feature of Ness Hall, eyeing them with one of his bushy grey eyebrows raised in reproof. Hardly surprising. Julia’s scandalously low-cut gown was crumpled and stained now, her exposed bosom streaked black with what remained of her attempt to make it look as though she had a mole, her mask gone, her hair straggling round her face. In short, she looked as though she’d just been thoroughly ravished.

Once Papa learned she
had
just been thoroughly ravished, all hell was going to break loose. If he’d been so adamant he wouldn’t have her throwing herself away on a perfectly respectable man she’d known all her life, he was going to be furious to learn she’d flung herself at a total stranger.

Nevertheless, they made straight for him. Because she had to face him sooner or later. Better to get it over with.

‘I should like to speak to you in private, if I may, sir,’ said Captain Dunbar.

‘I should think,’ said Papa, raking her from head to toe, ‘you do.’ He drained the glass of wine he’d been holding and set it down on the mantelpiece with a snap. ‘My study. Now.’

* * *

Lord Mountnessing turned and made his way out of the reception room. They followed close behind, leaving a trail of avid eyes and speculative whispering in their wake.

Alec scanned the inquisitive faces as people made way for them, searching for one of her particular friends. It would be better if he could palm her off on one of them. This was not an interview Lady Julia needed to attend. Both men were going to have to speak bluntly, and it wasn’t going to be pleasant. No gently born lady should have to go through that kind of scene.

No matter what she’d done.

‘You should make yourself scarce now,’ he murmured into Lady Julia’s ear, when he failed to spot anyone to take care of her. ‘This isn’t going to be pleasant.’

‘You think I’m going to run away and hide while you and my father decide my whole future,’ she hissed back at him. ‘I think not!’

‘But you agreed to let me handle this.” He couldn’t believe she’d changed her mind so quickly.” I’m only trying to spare you unpleasantness. Your father is going to lose his temper when he finds out what we’ve done. He may say things he later regrets. Better for you to face him once he’s had time to cool down, and can speak to you rationally.’

She shot him a suspicious look through narrowed eyes.

‘I can handle my own father. But if you think I’m going to trust you, or meekly do as you say, at a time like this, then you have another think coming!’

‘I might have known,’ he muttered, as the earl opened a door to their left, and went into a book-lined room. ‘He is the one who has spoiled you, isn’t he? The one who has made you think you can have whatever, or whomever, you want for the crooking of your finger?’

‘He has done no such thing,’ she just had time to spit back at him, before the earl reached yet another fabulously intricate fireplace, turned, and took up the very same position he’d adopted in the ballroom. Legs apart, with his back to the writhing Greek demi-gods.

‘Well?’

‘I have to beg your pardon, sir,’ replied Alec stiffly, ‘but also to inform you that your daughter and I will be getting married.’

‘Indeed? And what makes you think that I will grant my permission?’

‘We have been indiscreet. And the indiscretion was witnessed.’

The earl’s shrewd eyes flicked over the state of Lady Julia. His lips compressed into a hard line for a second. Then he looked at Alec again.

‘By whom was this indiscretion witnessed?’

Alec couldn’t believe the old man was taking this all so calmly. He’d expected an explosion of wrath. But it seemed that the earl was the type to weigh everything up, and take his vengeance cold. He stood a little straighter.

‘Lady Julia’s companion. I forget her name.’

‘Marianne,’ put in Lady Julia in a woeful, almost penitent voice.

‘And the leading lady,’ he continued, not sure whether to be annoyed by her interruption, or glad she was doing what she could to soften the old man’s heart.

‘I believe she goes under the name of the Nightingale,’ he said, squeezing Lady Julia’s hand hard in the hopes she’d understand he’d rather she didn’t interrupt again.

‘And a young man, by name David.’

Something flared in the old man’s eyes at that.

‘David Kettley?’

Lady Julia nodded her head. Then hung it. She looked the very picture of repentance. If he was her father, he might almost have been taken in by it.

But the old man didn’t look the least bit compassionate.

‘And you, sir, what have you to say for yourself? What do you mean by it, eh?’

‘Oh, please, don’t be cross with him, Papa,’ blurted Lady Julia, before he’d managed to utter a single word of the excuse he’d planned to make. ‘It was all my fault.’

What? She was admitting it? For some reason, though he’d said the very same thing not five minutes ago, hearing her try to take the blame didn’t sit right with him.