A Scandalous Deception (20 page)

Lissy stroked the animal’s back. “Thank you,”
she said softly before exiting the stables and making her way up to
the manor house.

With a little bit of luck, she could quietly
slip inside and then make her appearance known in the morning. She
hoped Juliet was all right. She didn’t know what she’d do
otherwise. Jules had always been the strongest of them all, the
most formidable, the bravest. She had to be all right. She just had
to be.

Lissy hastened her step toward her childhood
home, heading toward the left side of the manor and the faulty
window of the ducal study. A bit of moonlight lit her path, but she
didn’t need it. She knew this path as well as she knew her own
name. She reached the study, sent up a quick prayer that the window
would open and then pushed against the bottom of the pane.

Just like all those years ago, the window
lifted effortlessly and she smiled to herself. Finally something
was going her way.

“One more step, cockchafer,” growled a voice
from the darkness, “and I’ll rip your head from your shoulders and
toss it into my hearth.”

Heavens! Lissy gasped. What in the world?
“Luke?” she breathed out in surprise.

“Lissy?” Her brother-in-law’s anguished voice
hit her ears. “Is that you?” And then he appeared at the window,
staring down at her in mortification. “What
are
you doing
here?”

She shrugged. “You sent for me.”

Exasperated, he just gaped at her. “Most
people don’t arrive in the middle of the night. And they use the
fron
t door.”

Most people weren’t running from their demons
or the saintly Lord Carraway either. Though she could never outrun
her past, at least she could put some distance between herself and
Fin. “Well, I didn’t want to wake anyone,” she explained
calmly.

“No, much better to take ten years off my
life instead,” he grumbled. “I thought you were a burglar or
brigand of some sort.”

She blinked at him. “Are there brigands in
the area?” Heavens, she’d ridden through the darkness without
encountering anyone dangerous.

“Not that I know of. But who else would try
to sneak inside here in the dead of night?” He pushed the window
all the way up, then offered her his hand. “Come on. Climb
inside.”

With his assistance, not that she needed it,
Lissy stepped through the window into the darkened study. “I didn’t
mean to frighten you. I am sorry.”

Luke closed the window behind her and said,
“I’m—uh—sorry for what I said, Lissy. I’d never say something so
vulgar to you.”

What had he said? Cockchafer? She hadn’t
heard the word before, though the meaning wasn’t hard to sort out.
Of course, she’d heard quite a few shocking terms from Aaron’s
crews while she was in Boston so she had a higher tolerance for
vulgarity than most, not that she’d let anyone know that fact.
“I’ll forget you ever said it.” She smiled and reached a hand out
to him. “How is Juliet? I’ve been worried ever since I received
your letter.”

He patted her hand on his arm, squeezing it
with brotherly affection. “If I’d known it would make you flee into
the night, I’d have crafted it with more care.” Then he began
leading her towards the corridor. “She’s fine. Uncomfortable,
irritable and beyond bored since Doctor Perkins ordered her to stay
abed, but she’s fine.”

Lissy released a relieved breath she hadn’t
known she’d been holding. “Thank heavens. Fin said that was
probably....” Blast it all. Could she not get him off her mind even
now?

“Probably what?” Luke asked.

She heaved a sigh, remembering that day in
her parlor back in London. Fin had been so kind, so caring,
so…Well, so very much like Fin always was with her when he wasn’t
in the midst of a lecture. Even then, even when he lectured her,
there’d always been concern and affection behind his words. Lissy’s
heart squeezed in her chest. If only things could be different. “He
thought I was overreacting.”

“If so, it’s only because you love your
sister.” She could hear the smile in Luke’s voice as they navigated
the corridor.

She did love Juliet. She loved her honesty,
her strength, her confidence. There was no better example of a
strong woman than Jules. “She’s irritable, you say?”

Luke chuckled softly. “She’s been ordered to
stay in bed for the foreseeable future. What do you think?”

Lissy thought that all of Prestwick Chase was
probably walking around on eggshells. Her sister in a temper was
not a sight most wanted to witness. No wonder Luke was hiding in
his darkened study. “I’ll just see her after she’s had her tea in
the morning, then.”

“Coward,” he said softly.

“I believe the word you’re looking for is
‘brilliant’.”

He laughed again. “You’ll help restore her
mood, I’m certain.”

“Papa?” Came a tiny voice from inside a set
of rooms as they entered the family wing.

Luke scrubbed a hand down his face. “Sweet
Lucifer, he’s the lightest sleeper ever born.” He released Lissy’s
arm and quietly pushed open the door, poking his head inside. “Go
back to sleep, Ben.”

“I want milk,” Lissy’s three-year-old nephew
whined from his chambers.

Luke heaved a beleaguered sigh. “If I get you
some warm milk, will you go back to sleep?”

“Uh-huh,” the child promised.

“Stay there, then. I’ll be right back.” Then
he quietly closed the door and turned to face Lissy. “Luckily, your
chambers were already prepared for whenever you did arrive. Can you
find them in the dark?”

“I know the way.” Lissy nodded. After all,
she’d navigated the darkened corridors of Prestwick Chase long
before Luke had lived there. “Kiss Benton for me.”

Luke nodded. “See you in the morning.”

Lissy parted ways with her brother-in-law and
continued down the corridor until she reached the set of chambers
that had been hers all her life. She slid from her slippers and
then padded across the rug to her bed and dropped across the
four-poster without even attempting to toss her dress off.

She was too tired, too sore, too unmotivated
to do anything other than climb under the counterpane and drift off
to sleep. In the morning she’d see her sister, kiss her nephew
herself and try to forget the all-encompassing joy she’d felt in
Fin’s arms.

Just as she fell asleep, or at least it
seemed like she’d just fallen asleep, a ruckus somewhere else in
The Chase roused her slightly. Was that Ben? Was he awake and
roaming the hallways? Was—

“Felicity!” Came Fin’s bellow, some distance
away.

Fin! She sat bolt upright in bed. Heavens!
What was Fin doing here?

“What the devil are
you
doing here?”
Lucas Beckford hissed, standing just inside the threshold of
Prestwick Chase, glaring at Fin as though he was a madman.

Of course, Fin
was
a madman, banging
on the door, shouting Lissy’s name, barely knowing his own. She’d
somehow turned him into a stark-raving idiot. “Tell me she’s here,”
he breathed out, praying to hear those words more than anything
else in the world. He hadn’t come upon her lifeless body anywhere
along the road, but she could have stumbled across a highwayman’s
path. She could have fallen to her death and he hadn’t spotted her
in the dim moonlight. She could have—

“She’s asleep!” Beckford growled. “Just like
the rest of The Chase was until two minutes ago. Do you have any
idea what time it is?”

She was asleep
. For the first time in
hours, Fin took a relieved breath and every tense muscle in his
body relaxed perceptibly at hearing those words. Thank God she was
safe. At least until he got his hands on her. Riding across
Derbyshire in the dead of night like a Bedlamite. She could have
gotten herself killed, for God’s sake.

“Have you lost your mind?” Beckford
continued. “Have you completely forgotten that my wife is
expectant? The last thing she needs in her condition is to be
startled awake in the middle of the night by your bellowing.”

He was right, of course. At one point he’d
been a fairly well-respected noblemen, though he doubted he even
resembled himself anymore. A twinge of regret pricked Fin’s heart.
Poor Juliet. He hadn’t thought about anyone or anything else other
than Lissy. “I am sorry, Luke.” Fin raked a hand through his hair.
“When I realized she’d taken off on her own in the dead of night, I
thought…” Damn it all, he didn’t want to finish that sentence. He
didn’t want to relive the awful thoughts that had plagued him
during his entire mad dash to Prestwick Chase.

Luke Beckford’s eyes narrowed slightly as
though he could tell there was something Fin was keeping from him.
“Between the two of you, I’ll be lucky if I get even five minutes
worth of sleep tonight. I hope you’re happy.”

“Sir?” Keeton, the butler, in his nightdress
and cap appeared in the entryway behind his employer. “Is
everything all right?”

“It will be if this is the last of our
midnight visitors,” Beckford grumbled. Then he glanced over his
shoulder at the servant and added, “I’ll deal with Lord Carraway,
Keeton. Do go back to bed. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be
a rather long day.”

“If you’re certain, sir.”

The gentleman nodded. “See you in the
morning.”

“Sorry for waking you,” Fin called as the
butler made his way back towards the servants’ quarters.

Beckford gestured Fin over the threshold,
then shut the door behind him. “What the devil is going on,
Phineas?”

Nothing Fin could reveal to Lucas Beckford,
not if he didn’t want to sport a blackened eye and to be tossed
unceremoniously on his arse outside the gates of Prestwick Chase
for seducing the man’s sister-in-law. Luke wasn’t Lissy’s guardian,
but he was rather protective of his wife’s younger sister. “I am
sorry about the late hour.”

Even in the darkness, he could see Beckford’s
brow lift in disbelief. “I am surprised to see you at all,
honestly. Lissy didn’t mention you. I thought she must have
traveled alone from London.”

Of course she hadn’t mentioned him. She’d run
all the way across Derbyshire to avoid him. If Fin wasn’t
completely certain it was fear of marriage spurring her forward,
he’d feel a bit rejected by the whole thing. But she
was
afraid. He’d seen that terrified look in her eyes before she’d fled
the inn chambers, and the memory of her expression still twisted
his heart. “We would have made it much earlier tonight if my
carriage wheel hadn’t found a nasty hole in the road. We were going
to depart first thing in the morning, but being this close to
Prestwick Chase, I suppose Lissy didn’t want to wait any longer
than she had to.”

“Mmm.” Beckford shook his head and then said,
“I think I’m going to need some whisky.” He started down the
darkened corridor. “You’re welcome to join me.”

“I’ll take you up on that.” Fin followed in
the gentleman’s wake. After all, he could use a dram himself after
the night he’d endured. Perhaps more than a dram. Perhaps a whole
damned bottle.

A moment later, Fin stood in the middle of
the ducal study as Beckford lit a lamp on the desk, casting a warm
glow throughout the room. The gentleman dropped into an overstuffed
leather chair, tilted his head toward the sideboard and said, “Help
yourself, Carraway. And pour me a glass too.”

Fin lifted the crystal decanter from the
sideboard and quickly poured two glasses. Then he turned back
towards his host, offered the gentleman one of the drinks and
assumed the spot opposite him. “I’m hoping Lissy was unharmed when
she arrived.”

Beckford snorted. “Do you know she tried to
sneak into the house—” he gestured towards the window “—through
there? Said she didn’t want to wake anyone. She’s damned lucky I
didn’t have a pistol in the room.””

Dear God. Fin pushed that awful image from
his mind and scrubbed a hand down his face. “She will be the death
of me, on my word.” Then he downed the contents of his glass in one
gulp.

“She’ll get remarried at some point and then
she’ll be the death of
that
fellow.” Beckford took a healthy
swallow from his own whisky glass.

Which amounted to the same thing. She’d be
the death of Fin one-way or the other because if she was going to
marry anyone, it was going to be him. Though saying as much to
Lucas Beckford probably wasn’t the best idea, especially
considering the man’s mention of a pistol just a moment before.
“Perhaps,” he began conversationally. “But she doesn’t seem to be
in a hurry to replace Pierce.”

“She’ll meet the right fellow, I’m certain.
Then God help the poor man.”

God help the poor man, indeed. Fin pinched
the bridge of his nose, hoping to stave off a headache. Life with
Lissy would never be dull. But it was much better than life would
be without her, of that he had no doubt. If only he could persuade
her of the same thing.