A Lord for Olivia (20 page)

Livvy had by this time gotten herself well in hand. “I think that if you go to work for Marcoombe he will have the best of the arrangement. You will be a valuable asset to any great landowner.”

His eyes grew warm. “Ah, Livvy. It is a balm to my soul to hear you say that.”
Though I could wish you were not so willing to let me go,
he thought, then thrust the notion aside. He had learned to face hard realities in the peninsula; he could do so now. “So, tell me why you are up at such an ungodly hour, waiting for me.”

“Actually, I have already begun.” He quirked an eyebrow in question. “I once apologized for insulting you the first time we met, but it wasn't the only time. I have said things I shouldn't, several times. In particular, I have made disparaging remarks about your relationship with Mary Benson.”

He jumped up, fist clenched. “There is no relationship with Mary Benson. You still think me a fortune hunter!”

Livvy leaped to her feet, too. “No, no, Edmund. That was not my meaning. I wished to say that I know you are
not
a fortune hunter. That you in fact have passed up the chance to marry one of England's richest heiresses. And to say I am heartily ashamed that I ever thought it of you.”

Edmund still stood stiffly, regarding her with suspicion. “What has caused this change of opinion?”

“Well, nothing
you
did,” she snapped. “You positively encouraged me to think so!”

“Then what?” He relaxed a trifle.

“Mr. Benson told me himself.”

“Ah.” This did not seem to please Edmund, who frowned down at her. “What else did he tell you?”

“N-nothing.” She couldn't interpret his look, but it didn't have the aspect of a man eager to declare himself. “But I realized how wrong-headed I had been, and I wanted to apologize.”

He nodded, studying her face carefully, waiting to see if there was more.

“And to ask if we could begin again.”

“Begin again?”

“Yes. I wish to know you as you are, without this veil of prejudice between us. And I hope you will no longer feel the justifiable anger that has kept you so distant from me. In short, I hope we can be friends.”

Low, almost throbbingly tender, came the question: “That is all, Livvy?”

She met his eyes, his soft brown eyes, which just now seemed darker than dark, his pupils were so dilated. She felt she could drown in them. She swayed toward him, in fact, before recollecting the place, the time, and her own as-yet-unresolved feelings. “That is all, Edmund. For now.”

His smile grew slowly into a joyous and sensuous sideways grin. “Ah, Livvy.”

Mindful of her aunt's warning not to hurt Edmund, she answered firmly, “That is all. For now.”

“I understand. For now.”

“Well, then. Good night.” She started to turn, but he put his hand out, lightly touching her arm.

“Shall we begin this friendship by doing something I have yearned to do ever since I returned to England?”

Remembering what had followed on another occasion when he had said something similar, Olivia's heart began to race. She felt warm all over, and knew it was desire. She knew she should run, would run, if he tried to kiss her. And knew she hoped he would stop her.

“What, Edmund?” It came out a hoarse whisper.

“Go to Week's Mechanical Museum. I have long wished to see the mechanical jumping spider.”

She lifted her chin. The look in his eyes was a bit too knowing for her comfort. “That would be a perfect place to begin.”

 

T
he next two weeks were the most enjoyable of Olivia's life. She and Edmund went to the Tower of London, Westminster Cathedral, and various other sites around London like the veriest tourists. They were usually accompanied by Aunt Lavinia and Mr. Barteau. Olivia had given up trying to prevent Corbright's uncle from escorting her aunt, though she still mistrusted him.

The restraint that had lain between Olivia and Edmund from the first melted with their new understanding. Though she often yearned for time alone with him, Livvy avoided it, and Edmund did not appear to seek it either. Instead, as if by explicit agreement, they concentrated upon knowing one another as friends before any more kisses could turn them into lovers. They found they shared not only agricultural interests but a similar view of society in general. They laughed at the same things often, and brangled without rancor about those areas where they disagreed. These, however, were surprisingly few. Edmund joined her in deploring the state of the poor in the country, and feeling that the rich and powerful spent far too much of their time and treasure on frivolities. While they both could and did laugh often, they found they shared a fundamentally serious turn of mind.

By the time Olivia received a letter from Jason that his ankle was well enough to join them, she hardly wished for it, and wrote him back to take his time. His previous letters to her had been full of his activities on behalf of the estate, and a simple pride in his ability to manage glowed through
in them, which satisfied Edmund as much as it did her, when she shared them with him.

They occasionally came across Lord Heslington, and he appeared to take little pleasure in these meetings, barely acknowledging them and then frowning sourly upon them from afar. Thus, when Heslington was announced just as the two couples prepared to leave for a visit to Kew Gardens, all four of them looked apprehensively at one another.

“Show him in, Kittrick,” Olivia told the butler they had hired for their stay in London. The earl entered the room stiffly, greeted Mr. Barteau and her aunt perfunctorily, then asked if he might speak with Edmund and Olivia privately.

“We will promenade on the square while you talk,” Lavinia said, and left on Peter Barteau's arm, glancing back worriedly at Olivia as she did so.

“They are smelling of April and May,” Heslington observed disdainfully.

“They have grown to be fast friends,” Olivia responded.

“As have you and my brother, Miss Ormhill. I should warn you that some people have drawn the same conclusion about the two of you.”

“Did you come here to retail gossip, Carl?” Edmund's voice vibrated with anger.

“No, I came here to warn both of you. Miss Ormhill, you should know that your relationship with Lord Corbright is in serious jeopardy because of your presence here in London when he expected you to join him in Scotland.”

“That is none of your affair, Lord Heslington.”

“Perhaps not. But Corbright is my friend, and I know the affection he holds for you. I do not like to see him betrayed.”

“I cannot betray him, for I owe him nothing. We have no understanding, sir.” Olivia's voice rose with anger.

“Do you mean to marry my brother, then?”

“You go too far, Carl,” Edmund growled. “I think you should leave.”

“Leave you to lure this innocent creature away from a man who adores her and can give her everything, into the hands of a man who can give her nothing?”

“Nothing but himself,” Olivia corrected, looking at
Edmund tenderly. “Which, if a woman should be fortunate enough to attach him, would be a great deal.”

“What of your father's will? He required you to marry a titled man.”

“Really, Lord Heslington, this is outside of enough.”

Edmund stood, fists clenched. “Come, Carl. I will show you out.”

“Not quite yet. Miss Ormhill needs to know the risk she runs. If you continue to pursue her, I will do what I should have done the day my father died: seek to have his marriage to your mother set aside. In case you don't know the law—”

“Oh, I know it. You taunted me with it enough when I was younger. Such a marriage is not void but voidable.”

“Quite. In such a case, Miss Ormhill, my brother's title would not be Lord Edmund, but Bastard Debham.”

Edmund sprang across the room and hauled his brother out of his chair. “You made my mother's life a misery with that threat. I don't fear it! Go on. Make an ass of yourself in front of the
ton
by declaring your brother a bastard ten years after his father's death.”

Heslington struggled and finally broke Edmund's grip upon his coat with a violent upthrust of his arms. “If I must, to save Miss Ormhill and you from a great mistake.”

“Then do it! If there were an inheritance to consider, I doubt not many would support you, property being near to a god among the
ton
. But dredge up an old scandal merely to spite your brother? I think you will find yourself no small target for ridicule.”

Heslington frowned. “I doubt you would credit it, Edmund, but I am thinking of your welfare.”

“And why do you concern yourself with my welfare, Carl?”

“We are family, after all.”

“No, we are not. Never were, even before you expelled me from the fold this summer. I now know what a family is, you see, having known the Ormhills. They quarrel occasionally, but they stand by one another and care about one another. Your only interest in me is to thwart me.”

“I am not surprised you don't credit me, but I am truly
concerned for both of you. In the end she won't have you, Eddie. Or if she does, she'll be miserable and make you so. She loves Franklin, you know. That so intelligent and capable a young woman would look to a man so beneath her in intellect and fortune only shows her motives to be revenge. Ultimately she will discover that to be a cheap and unhappy substitute for making it up with her true love. You would be much happier with sweet, uncomplicated Mary Benson than with this woman. As for you, Miss Ormhill, you had best send Edmund back to his haystacks before you lose your inheritance and Corbright forever.”

“My feelings for Edmund, whatever they might be, would not be altered by your actions, my lord.”

“But your property would be, Miss Ormhill. Correct me if I am wrong, but if your father's will is abrogated in any way, all of it goes to your brother, does it not?”

Edmund drew in his breath sharply. “Olivia, is that true?” He knew her father had tied up her property for her benefit, but this was news to him.

“It is.” Olivia regarded Heslington calmly.

“You see how shocked he is, Miss Ormhill? He seeks your estate, not you. What's the matter, Edmund? Benson turn you down?”

From his tone, Heslington clearly felt he had delivered the coup de grâce to Edmund's hopes, but to his astonishment Olivia only laughed. “You have not the knowledge I have, sir. Mr. Benson would have been delighted to have Edmund offer for his daughter. Frankly, Lord Heslington, I pity you. You have a brother who is a fine, upstanding man, a delight to know, and a good one to have on your side, but you have alienated him and made yourself dyspeptic, too, all for nothing.”

Heslington looked from one to the other, clearly perplexed. At last he shrugged. “I have done my best to do my duty by you, Edmund. Now I wash my hands of you.” He turned and walked from the room, leaving both Edmund and Olivia stunned and embarrassed. Edmund spoke first.

“Thank you, Livvy, for defending me.”

She continued to stare at the door through which
Heslington had just disappeared, hardly able to believe such enmity between brothers.

“My brother is a great fool. He has embarrassed himself and us for nothing.”

She turned slowly then, looking up at him uncomprehendingly.

“He thinks we have an understanding, but we are not bound together by anything but friendship.”

“Oh, Edmund.” Her face crumpled. “Don't!”

“Livvy, don't cry. Please don't look at me so.” He sat next to her on the sofa and put his arm around her. “I will do nothing to take your inheritance from you.”

“Never think I prefer it to you, nor believe you will not have me without it.” Tears coursed down her cheeks. “I love you, Edmund Debham, with all my heart.”

Joy replaced Edmund's consternation. He gathered her closer, the quality of his embrace changing entirely. “Livvy!” He traced the tears on her cheeks with his lips, outlined her mouth with their moisture, then covered her lips with his own in a kiss of such tenderness it made Olivia quiver all over. She melted further into his arms, her hands circling his neck to draw him closer.

When finally they drew apart, she asked shyly, “Does this mean you love me, too? I think you do, but you haven't said, you know.”

“More than life itself! I have done since—oh, I don't know when exactly, but for ages now.”

She laughed, a deep, wet chuckle. “We haven't known each other for ages.” Her hand caressed his cheeks, where lurked a suspicious moisture. “Are you crying, too, love?”

He took her hand, lowered his head, and pressed a deep kiss in it. “With joy. Oh, Livvy. You will marry me, won't you?” Then he pulled away. “But how can I do that to you?”

She tugged him back to her. “Heslington's spite cannot part us. Jason will do the right thing by me, I know. And if for some reason he does not, why, you will be well able to afford a wife on what Lord Marcoombe will pay you, won't you?”

If possible he looked even more adoringly at her. “He
told me a snug little manor house goes with the offer. We'll be partners there, love. He'll get two estate managers for the price of one.”

Once again she ducked her head shyly. “Now, Edmund, I should be glad to be of assistance to you, but . . . that is, would there be a nursery in this manor, do you suppose?”

Wordlessly he drew her to him and kissed her deeply. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him back with all her heart. When he drew away he tucked her under his left arm. “Do you know what I have been wanting to do ever since I laid eyes on you?”

“I do hope it is not to take me to see any more jumping spiders.”

He chuckled. “No. This.” He put his right hand on her chin and began exploring it gently. “I have wanted to touch that entrancing cleft in your chin.”

“Entrancing! It is a flaw. . . .”

“No, indeed. You are perfect.”

“I am not! Oh, Edmund, when I think how often I have hurt you! I have a hasty temper, you know. I shudder to acknowledge it, but I may yet scold you again. How can you stand to live with such a flawed wife?”

“I can't stand to live without you. And I do not think of your prickly nature as a flaw, just as part of what makes you . . . you. Doubtless you will discover my flaws soon enough, if you haven't already.”

“No, I have seen no sign of any. That is why I almost fear to inflict myself on you.”

“I have too much pride, Olivia. Odd, in one who felt so worthless, but I suppose because of that, I was too sensitive to your criticisms. I should have courted you flat out from the beginning and never let Corbright near you once! My foolish pride kept me from letting you see how much I cared.”

“I did wonder why you seemed so detached at times. You must never again believe anything I or anyone else says against you!” She cupped his head in her hands and pressed on his lips a tender kiss that soon turned passionate and brought his arms around her, drawing her onto his lap.

It was thus that Aunt Lavinia and Peter Barteau found them.

For only an instant did her aunt look indignant. Then she clapped her hands together. “Does this mean what I think it does?”

“Indeed, ma'am!” Edmund looked up, not releasing his treasure. Then his eyes slid to Mr. Barteau. “At least . . .” He straightened and set Olivia away from him. “It means my brother upset Olivia.”

“That vicious young whelp. I'll bet I can guess why.” Peter heaved his bulk into a nearby chair. “He's trying to scare you off, isn't he? He told me the other day he wouldn't stand for your poaching on Corbright's territory.”

“N-no,” Olivia said, putting even a little more distance between herself and Edmund. “That wasn't it at all. It just upset me so to see how cruelly and hatefully he speaks of Edmund.” She dried her cheeks ostentatiously, accepting the handkerchief Edmund offered her. “C-come. We shan't let him ruin our outing. It is a sunny day, and there won't be many such left.” She bounced off the sofa. “To Kew Gardens, shall we?”

Aunt Lavinia looked at Peter, then at the couple facing them, forced gaiety on their faces. “You can trust him, you know. He has told me a great deal about his nephew, none of it good.”

Barteau leaned forward, fists clenched. “He is an insolent, arrogant, false creature. Hate to say it of my own nephew, but it is true. He hadn't a word to say to me, indeed seemed somewhat ashamed of me until my son died two years ago. Since then he has cultivated me assiduously. Wants to be my heir, you know. A clothing manufacturer is not someone that mushroom wished to know until there was a chance of inheriting a fortune. Now, I won't pry, but don't you dare see me as an enemy in your camp!”