Twice the Temptation (45 page)

Miss Susanna Glenross.
 

Patrick’s first love. 

Miss Glenross had changed much in the past six years. More than she ought for a woman of only twenty-eight, which was not an advanced age. There was now a hardness to her once youthful, features and pretty face. Her hair was a darker blonde and her figure fuller. Nothing close to plump but she’d been a slight thing when she’d caught his brother’s eye. 

And with Miss Glenross’s presence, it was clear what his mother was about. Some may admire Mrs. Fairchild’s
Machiavellian
approach to life in general, however Lucas despised it. Such cunning, such deviousness should never be employed with so great a frequency and so little subtlety. But today she would not find him in mind to barter or open to coercion or blackmail. 

“My darling son, do not fear that you’ve kept us waiting. Why we have all day, do we not, Susanna?” Her voice was all sugared sweetness as she patted Miss Glenross’s hands. 

His mother was most fashionably attired in a pale-blue dress, embellishments abounding in the flowing skirts. She had the look of a woman who only tolerated the finest things in life and whose upkeep could set a man back a pretty penny. Contrarily, Miss Glenross was simply dressed—and one may say that was being generous. Her dress was threadbare in spots and the hem appeared as if it had been sewn back on more than two or three times. She held a pair of slightly discolored gloves in her hand and what he glimpsed of her footwear, they had seen better days years ago. But for all their outward differences, the two were very much alike in all the ways that mattered. 

“Mother. Miss Glenross, it has been years,” he said, inclining his head in barely a nod. “I hope you won’t mind if I don’t sit.” He moved to the side table, where he picked up a glass and poured himself a spot of whiskey. Drinking hours had officially commenced. 

“Truly, Lucas, so early?” his mother tittered, undoubtedly happy in the thought she had the power to drive him to drink at only three in the afternoon. 

Lucas turned back to them, glass firmly in hand and said, “I am quite certain you haven’t gone to all the trouble of bringing Miss Glenross in the pretense of a social call. I’d rather you hurry and state your business so we can all get on with our lives.” Such that his was at the moment. Three days without Catherine had been excruciating. It would have been infinitely more bearable had he severed a limb. 

“For the life of me, I cannot believe that you are my child,” his mother snapped, her mask slipping. It never took long for her true colors to come out. 

Lucas held out his glass to her in a toast. “I shall take that as a compliment.” 

His mother’s gaze narrowed as ire brought twin flags of red to her cheeks. Miss Glenross watched their interaction, her eyes expressing surprise and keen interest. No doubt his mother hadn’t told her how poor their relations were. 

“Miss Glenross and I are prepared to keep your secret from your brother for the sum of seven thousand pounds. Five for me and two for her. A fair amount, I daresay, to keep our silence.” 

Lucas took a drink of the whiskey and welcomed the burn down his throat and the heat that suffused his belly thereafter. “Miss Glenross, am I to assume you’ve exhausted the two thousand pounds?” 

“I should’ve demanded a helluva lot more than that,” she said cynically. “But I was young and didn’t realize I could’ve gotten more outta you.” 

Lucas smiled thinly. “Yes, indeed. You may well have beggared me back then. How very fortunate for me.” 

For a moment, her expression of bravado slipped. By now, she’d probably assumed he’d be quivering in his boots, prepared to go to his bank in London to arrange a bank draft in the amount requested. More fool she. 

“I think it’s only fair. Had I married your brother, I’d be well cared for. Money wouldn’t be a worry,” she said, jutting her chin out. 

“Currently, my brother draws an allowance from me. Did my mother not fail to tell you she has already exhausted the money his father left? If you had married my brother, you would be wholly dependent upon me.” 

Mrs. Fairchild’s mouth tightened, her lips pinched and thin. Miss Glenross cast an alarmed look at her, which his mother blithely ignored or failed to register, her anger toward him palpable. 

“None of that matters now,” his mother intervened testily. “The point is your brother doesn’t know just how much you had to do with Susanna’s departure. He thinks your disapproval drove her away and for that, he did not speak to you for a year. I can only imagine how he’ll react should he discover the truth.” 

His mother’s threat seemed to put everything in proper order in Miss Glenross’s mind for the recent apprehension left her face. She smiled, confident the upper hand she’d thought they had, had been properly restored. 

Lucas heaved a sigh, placed the now empty glass back on the side table, and folded his arms across his chest. “Here is what I’m offering. Mother, as much as it grieves me to be forced to claim that relation with you, I shall continue to give you your monthly allowance of two hundred pounds. If you choose to marry, that is up to you, but if you do, my sisters will reside with me. Miss Glenross, you will receive exactly what you came here with, nothing.” 

His mother stood abruptly, her back rigid, her entire person fairly vibrating in indignation. Miss Glenross’s face flushed red as she squeezed her gloves tighter in her hand. Lucas found their reactions gratifying. 

“I shall tell your brother,” Miss Glenross threatened. “Your mother has informed me he is still unmarried. I’m sure he’d be happy to renew our acquaintance.” She smiled as if she possessed the winning card in a high-stakes card game. 

That threat might have worked two months ago but he was done with that. He had long grown tired of acting the role of the gatekeeper, the financier, the brother and son who managed everything. 

After a preemptory knock, the drawing room door opened, interrupting them. 

Lucas looked over to see Patrick standing in the doorway. 

“Luke, we need to talk—” His brother broke off as he surveyed the scene in stunned silence. His gaze eventually settled on Miss Glenross. “What the devil is going on?” Patrick asked, clearly perplexed. “Susanna, what are you doing here?” 

Miss Glenross came gracefully to her feet, all evidence of treachery hidden beneath a smile bright enough to keep Trafalgar Square illuminated for months. “Patrick, ’ow is that you’ve managed to grow more ’andsome than when I last saw you.” 

“Yes, Patrick,” Lucas said wryly, “do tell us how you manage it.” 

Miss Glenross shot him a seething look she tried to cloak in amused exasperation, as if tolerating a precocious child. 

His brother stepped into the room and closed the door behind him but ventured no further inside. Not toward his ex-lover and first love. “Mother?” he asked, shifting his attention to her. “Do you mind telling me what’s going on?” 

In turn Mrs. Fairchild turned her attention to Lucas, her smile holding the smugness of a Cheshire after consuming a large bowl of cream or having skinned a live fish. “I believe that depends on your brother,” she said with a questioning lift of her brow. 

Lucas remained silent and widened his stance. 

Confronted with his cool mien, his mother tested his resolve by announcing, “I am to marry, and Lucas summoned me to give me a most generous wedding gift. On my way over, I bumped into Miss Glenross at the milliner’s shop on Bond Street. Truly such a small world. When she asked after you, I told her you’d be delighted to see her. It has been such a long time, isn’t that right? Six years if my memory serves me correctly.” 

Lucas regarded his brother. Did Patrick actually believe her? It was hard to tell for his brother had donned his poker face. 

When he spoke, Patrick’s voice was deadly quiet as his gaze darted between the two women. “So your presence here has nothing to do with attempting to blackmail Lucas over the money he gave Susanna to leave?” 

Three pair of eyes widened at that. Lucas was flummoxed. 

Shaking his head in mock reproach, Patrick laughed darkly. “I may have been young and hopelessly infatuated, but I was never
that
naïve. I knew exactly the type of woman you were and fool that I was, I wanted you despite that. I knew you had no interest in tying yourself down to a penniless man, but I couldn’t believe you could be bought off so easily. Whatever the amount my brother gave wouldn’t have been enough if you cared for me at all.” 

Unable to countenance being revealed in an unfavorable light by the man who once worshipped her, Miss Glenross was indignant in the besmirching of her character. “That’s fine for you to say. You’ve not been ’ungry in all your life. You’ve never wondered where yer next meal was coming from or if it would come at all. I took what yer brother gave me because that was guaranteed, something I could ’old in my ’ands. What did you have to offer me back then? You ’ad no money of yer own. I didna want a life with your brother,” she threw Lucas a hateful glare, “doling out the money where, when and ’ow he saw fit.” 

“No, you’d rather he give it to you in one big lump sum to spend as
you
saw fit,” Patrick shot back coldly. 

A glance at his mother’s face revealed she wasn’t simply annoyed, she looked fit to be tied. 

Lucas was still trying to digest the fact that his brother had known the entire time. 

“I did what I thought was best for us both. You were so young. But I soon came to regret ma decision,” she said softly, her head demurely downcast as she peered up at him from beneath lash-veiled eyes. 

Lucas rolled his. 

Patrick snorted. “So regretful that you are trying your hand at it once more? Please save yourself the effort. It’s not going to work this time.” He then addressed their mother. “Mother, I’d like to say I’m surprised by your conduct but that would be a lie.” 

Mrs. Fairchild’s mouth thinned and sparks of hot anger flashed in her blue eyes. Had his brother gone on a lengthy tirade, it could not have been more cutting than that remark. But for all her airs and haughtiness, did she storm out of the room, head held high? No, she turned to Lucas and said, “I should like to continue to receive my monthly allowance.” 

Lucas could only shake his head and laugh softly under his breath. The woman was beyond hope. 

“I shall have the funds transferred to your account.” 

She gave an almost imperceptible nod and smoothed her skirt. “I must be off,” she announced to no one in particular. When Miss Glenross sent her a look of astonishment, she said, “Come, let us go, my dear. No use trying to get blood from a stone. It’s obvious my son is long over his infatuation and I see no hope of you rekindling it. I’ll have my driver take you to wherever you need to go.” 

“You’re lucky Luke has the money and controls the purse strings because had it been me, you wouldn’t have received another dollar,” his brother stated coldly. 

Mrs. Fairchild’s gaze flickered from Patrick and then over to him. “You are undoubtedly right about that.” She didn’t say another word—not a thank you or a by your leave—before she left with Miss Glenross close on her heels. 

After they’d left the study, Patrick pushed the door shut and then turned to regard Lucas silently. 

“When did you know?” Lucas asked, feeling the sudden urge to clear his throat. A renewed sense of guilt had taken over his voice box. 

“Know. I didn’t know for certain until today. Suspected? I suspected weeks after she left. As I said, I knew she would not have abandoned her post and disappeared for any other reason than money. And the culprit could only be you. Not only had you not made your disapproval of our relationship a secret, you were the only one who had the money to pay her off.” 

“At the time, I thought you were too young. If you truly loved one another, I didn’t see what the harm in waiting two years would have made. But you were determined to marry her…” Lucas dropped his hands to his side and shrugged. “I half hoped she would throw the offer back in my face.” 

“Yes, but she didn’t.” 

Lucas nodded. “I apologize. That was very high-handed of me.” 

“Yes it was,” Patrick agreed with grave severity but his compressed lips said he was trying to hold back a smile. “I told Miss Rutherford you were a tyrant.” 

Lucas’s heart leapt at the sound of her name. “When did you see Catherine?” Was there a breathless quality to his voice?  

“Miss Rutherford came to see me yesterday to apologize about what happened with Miss Shipley. I told her an apology wasn’t necessary but she insisted on taking the entire blame upon herself.” He leaned back against the chair behind him. “I don’t understand why you’re upset with her, why you won’t respond to her messages. Were her actions that much different than yours?” 

Lucas ran a weary hand over his face. Why was everything with Catherine so…not easy? 

“I’ll grant you both your methods may be considered morally questionable, but your motives were well meaning.” 

“She helped ruin whatever future you would have had with Miss Shipley,” Lucas protested weakly. And despite everything she’d done, he loved her. Would probably love her to his dying day. He’d spent the last several days in misery coming to terms with the knowledge that she would always have a hold over him. 

Patrick’s gaze hardened. “She did no such thing. As fate would have it, Miss Shipley and I are exactly where we should be, apart from each other. A marriage between us would not have worked. I see that clearly now.” 

“I thought you said you loved her.” 

His brother let out a huff. “I gave up too easy for it to have been love. But I think the reason you want to hold her responsible for what happened is because my marriage to Miss Shipley would have made up for what happened with Miss Glenross. Marrying Miss Shipley would have eased
your
guilt.” 

Lucas opened his mouth to protest but closed it without saying a word. His brother was right. Not only had Miss Shipley possessed the right qualities of a wife befitting his brother but she had been Patrick’s
true
love, not Miss Glenross. Which made what Lucas had done feel not as underhanded or manipulative. Miss Shipley had indeed eased his guilty conscience.