Three Times the Scandal (18 page)

“
It’s paste, Giles. Truly. I’m certain Sir Hector knows it too. The family has never made any attempt to hide that fact.”

He smiled wanly down at her, the soft jade of his eyes infused with care. “Just tell me one thing. When did he start courting you—before or after Pimcock’s bequest?”

Her stomach continuing to stir uneasily, Fortuna pressed her free hand to her lips. “After,” she confessed. Giles continued to hold her a moment, though his gaze appeared to be turned inward rather than focused upon her.

Feeling suddenly tired, she looked at them. She needed to mull over the night’s events and the newspaper announcement too. “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I think I’ll go and rest.” She wasn’t really tired, despite having been kept awake much of the night by Giles and Neddy, but she needed some space after the interrogation she’d just endured, and the ale had rather gone to her head. Take time to sort her desires from her emotions. She couldn’t simply drift along indefinitely; she had to be realistic about her future. Sir Hector would be out looking for her, and eventually he’d find her here. She needed to be prepared for that.

Letting herself out of the room, she took to the stairs, struck by a sudden thought. How ironic that Sir Hector might truly want her only so that he could lay claim to a piece of jewellery, a garish fake that she’d gladly hand him to ensure her freedom.

* * * * *

The first thing Giles did when he went into the study was to pour a stiff drink. He could feel Darleston’s eyes on him as he swallowed the cognac but he didn’t stop until the glass was drained. Discarding the crystal upon the desktop, he moved to the fireplace and set to work banking the coals. It was a damn nuisance having Kitty missing for the week, but it couldn’t be helped. He’d have to figure a way of gagging the girl if this affair dragged on into next week. There was no way he could manage without a maid indefinitely.

Fire lit, he watched the coals slowly whiten as he rubbed some warmth into his fingertips. Then with a deep breath he turned to face his friend. Darleston had made himself comfortable in the less worn of the two leather armchairs. He stopped toying with his ornate buttons and glanced up at Giles.

“
Was it entirely necessary to make her feel so uncomfortable earlier?” Giles asked.

Darleston shrugged. “Am I not allowed to indulge in even a little sport? I feel rather disadvantaged already.”

“
Jealous, you mean.” Giles took the other seat. “She’s not a plaything, Robert. It’s not about taking turns. There was a purpose to stealing her away besides bedding her.”

“
Well at least you admit that was partially your purpose now. As for the other, after this morning’s tedium, I’m well aware of that. Clearly you believe this necklace Pimcock left her is valuable enough to catch Macleane’s attention, though it’ll have to be bloody magnificent to make her still desirable to take to wife once what she’s been up to with you and Ned comes out.”

“
I don’t see why it should come out at all.” Giles gave a sour scowl, which simply resulted in Darleston leaning back in his chair and snorting with laughter.

“
It can’t fail to come out, Giles. What are you proposing? That she just magically reappears again once you tire of her and never mentions where she’s been or your name? You won’t get her to agree to that, and no one would believe it anyway. That’s the thing about women. You can tell the virgins from the whores. Knowledge changes them.”

“
I’m not suggesting that we make merry and then send her on her way.” Just the thought of it sickened him. He would never turn her out. His mind wandered back to waking with her in his arms, her long coltish legs curved over his calf.

“
Then what exactly are you doing, Giles? Don’t fool yourself into thinking she’ll ever stand up beside you as an advocate of free love. The approval of her peers means too much to her. This is merely an amoral interlude before she returns to her decent, respectable existence. Though Lord knows what it’ll cost her. Macleane may end up as her only option.”

“
No, godammit!” Giles slammed his fist into his thigh, making himself wince. He would not allow himself to believe that. He conceded that his plan had not been terribly well thought out. His main objective had been to remove Fortuna from the pressure being exerted by her family, but he hadn’t really thought about what happened next. Certainly, he was content to let her remain here indefinitely, if she liked. Even desired such, although he wasn’t quite sure how that would work with Sir Hector on the rampage trying to herd her up a church aisle.

“
Giles, she’s not going to settle for being your mistress, which let’s face it, is all you’re prepared to offer her.”

“
With good reasons.”

Darleston was out of his chair and leaning over Giles in a flash. Startled, Giles stared up into his friend’s storm-cloud-coloured eyes. There were fires smouldering in their depths. He stiffened.

“
What reasons, Giles? Because we’re no longer discussing idealism here, are we? Free love has always been an excuse to sow our oats where we choose. It’s about pleasure seeking, not emotional attachment, despite what you try to convince yourself.” Darleston stroked his fingers along the edge of Giles’s jaw.

Giles pushed him away and stood. “I had enough of this nonsense from Oxbury and Littleton. Do I have to throw you out too?” He didn’t know why Darleston was being so damned incendiary this morning; the man was well acquainted with his views. True, most saw free love in exactly that fashion, but not he. Not he…

Darleston twirled on his heels, and with a clack, stalked to the window. “Turning me out won’t change the fact, which is that Fortuna is going to emerge from this escapade with her reputation irreparably damaged. The only way in which she’ll be able to enter society again is as someone’s wife, but who will have her? There’s only Macleane. You heard her yourself. There’s nothing else there to attract a husband, no money, no particularly impressive lineage.”

“
She won’t marry Macleane,” muttered Giles, as much to reaffirm the notion in his own mind as to refute Darleston’s prediction.

“
There’s no other option save selling herself.”

Giles shook his head. “I promised to protect her, that’s all. I never suggested there’d be anything else. In fact I made it clear there wouldn’t be.”

“
That was before you and Neddy took her to bed.” Darleston waved away Giles’s growl of protest. He resumed his seat and crossed his long legs. “I’ll tell you what I think, dear friend. That you’re scared.”

Arms folded, Giles snorted in disgust.

“
Oh, you can snort. But marriage terrifies you, doesn’t it? I don’t know why, other than it has something to do with Emily’s marriage to Morton. I wouldn’t bring it up, but it does seem to have a bearing on the current drama.”

Emily
. She was rarely from his thoughts. She haunted his dreams. He’d wronged her, his precious, flighty sister. He remembered her smile, the tinkling sound of her laughter, and the way she’d make merry upon the lawns, honeysuckle wound around her head like a faerie crown.

He missed her. The house had felt empty from the moment she left. He’d come back here after the wedding breakfast and cursed his weakness. He should never have forced her into making the match. She hadn’t wanted it, but she’d acquiesced. She’d done it for him.

“
Giles, is this because he hurt her?” Darleston’s words tore through his memories, and brought him hurtling into the present. “Marriage won’t turn you into a brute.”

“
Hurt her? What do you mean he hurt her?” Just the notion that Morton may have raised his fists to Emily flooded his mouth with bile. Yes, there were unanswered questions about his sister’s death, but he’d never suspected Morton of physically harming her.

“
Oh!” Darleston gave him a rather sickly smile.

“
You’d better damn well explain that remark.”

A reedy breath hissed between Darleston’s teeth. “I learned last night that Morton has a taste for spanking women. I’m merely speculating that he enjoyed such pleasures with his wife.”

Enjoyed! Giles’s guts clenched as if someone had shoved a red-hot poker into them. Tension burned across his shoulders as he found himself standing rigidly, staring at Darleston, who came towards him bearing a drink. He curled Giles’s palm around the glass and lifted it to his lips. “Drink.”

Giles gulped down the contents, but the intoxicating burn did little to soothe him. “I don’t want to dig over this now.” Emily’s death was almost a year gone. What had happened had no bearing on the present. “I’d rather concentrate on just helping Fortuna.”

Darleston’s raised brow said he thought this pertinent, but it wasn’t. Not really. He just knew he’d never make another woman a slave to his whim. Matrimony had killed his sister.

Darleston’s strong fingers curled into the knots in Giles’s shoulders, and began working away some of the tension. “I’m not trying to torment you, Giles. I’d rather save my bile for someone who deserves it. I just want you to look at things clearly.”

Giles slung back another gulp of brandy. It hit his churning stomach like fat on hot coals. Inner stillness didn’t come easily, but after another two fingers of the stuff he was at least able to unclench his fists. “Let’s go and see what we can dig up about Pimcock and this necklace,” he said. Action would help him relax. He was starting to feel penned.

Something shifted in the hard planes of Darleston’s face, so that his concern showed clearly through his mask of studied indifference. He gave a slight nod. “Where did you have in mind?”

“
Gibbons, perhaps.”

Mask shattered, Darleston’s brows shot towards his hairline. “Archie Gibbons! What do you hope to learn from that old buffoon? I’m not sure he’s left his chair at Brooks’ in twenty years.”

Giles gave a wan smile, some measure of good-natured warmth slipping back under his skin. “He’s no fool, Robert. He may not be able to tell you who he’s seen this morning or what he had for dinner last night, but he can tell you every detail of ten years back. If anyone remembers Pimcock, it will be Archie.”

That he remained unconvinced was writ clear on Darleston’s face, but he shrugged his shoulders and followed Giles to the door.

* * * * *

In the window seat on the first floor landing of the Allenthorpes’s townhouse, Alicia sat in brooding silence. Despite the large window, it was a dingy spot. She had drawn the curtains behind her, and now the musky odour of old worsted suffused the small bay.

Alicia rubbed a circle in the cloud, which had formed on the glass as a result of her breath. Sir Hector’s carriage remained in the street. He’d likely be here most of the day again, bullying her father and terrorizing the servants. Best she stayed out of his way and avoided becoming his next victim.

Fortuna’s absence had brought them all a gallon of woe, but she couldn’t blame her sister for fleeing. Nobody deserved that man.

“
Where are you, Tunie?” she whispered against the glass, causing it to cloud again. Something cold seemed to clench around her heart every time she thought of Fortuna. They’d shared a pillow since they were very small. Each morning she woke to find her still missing her fears grew worse. They were all assuming she was fine, but what if she wasn’t?

“
Alicia.” Mae tore back the curtains. Hands on her curvy hips, she pushed her way into the confined space. “Daydreaming about being half so brave as Fortuna again?”

Alicia looked up at her younger sister and shook her head. While neither fair nor tall, Mae had a shapely buxom figure the rest of female clan lacked, and a temperament to match it. “It is both perilous and foolish to run off, Mae. Fortuna should have known better. Her disgrace will blight all our futures. Unless we abandon her, we’ll all be cut. I know I shall be. But I can’t help wondering if she’s all right, out there in the snow.”

Likely enough they’d find themselves abandoned by their peers soon enough anyway, once her father’s debt to Sir Hector emerged. Twenty thousand pounds—she’d overheard Macleane. Alicia solemnly shook her head. It was far more than they could ever afford.

Mae dropped onto the faded tapestry cushion beside her. “I just wish she’d told us that she was planning to run. I’d have flown with her. It shouldn’t bother me to be cut, not if I knew I was having far more fun than all those haughty do-gooders.”

“
Don’t be foolish, Mae.”

“
I’m not being foolish.” She picked at her sprigged muslin gown. “Where’s the fun in being chaste and virtuous? Likely it will only bring us husbands as dire as Sir Hector. Personally, I should like someone handsome and witty to take my hand—a man whose mere presence makes my insides flutter and my heart race.”

“
You are foolish.” Prickles of heat speckled Alicia’s pale skin. She mustered her frostiest glare and ticked her finger at Mae. “I suppose you have a list of candidates drawn up.”

“
Well, mayhap I do. As a matter of fact it details all the factors a woman should find important in men, such as how comely their calves are in stockings and details of their personalities and flaws, as well as comparisons and notes as to their personal tastes.” She opened her eyes wide and stared hard at Alicia. “After all, if I am to catch myself a rakehell, I shall need to appeal to one’s nature. Do you suppose the knave Fortuna is with has inducted her into the secret arts of indecorous bedroom etiquette? I believe I shall need to know such details.”