A Scandalous Deception (4 page)

Though Lissy was determined not to let Mr.
Heaton, or who ever he was, interrupt her plans for the day, she
couldn’t help but scan Rotten Row for the American anyway. Just in
case it truly had been him she’d spotted the night before. If it
had been him, it would be best to see him before he saw her, after
all. But as she’d expected, Mr. Heaton was nowhere in sight. He
probably was a figment of her imagination. A play of the chandelier
lights. Something.

Her friend, Lady Arabella Winslett, however,
did seem as though
she
was bothered by something. The dark
haired beauty continually bit her lip as she, herself, scanned
Rotten Row as though looking for the devil himself. They couldn’t
possibly be looking for the same man, could they? What a foolish
thought.

Lissy shook off her anxiety about Mr. Heaton
and smiled at her friend, bumping Bella’s shoulder with her own.
“You seem a bit on edge. Is everything all right?”

Bella glanced over her shoulder as though to
make certain neither of their maids, walking a few feet behind,
could overhear their conversation. Then she threaded her arm
through Lissy’s and drew her closer as they walked.

“I need a husband!” Bella hissed urgently in
her ear.

A husband! Lissy managed not to snort, but
just barely. The last thing any intelligent girl needed was a
husband. Until now, she’d always considered Bella an intelligent
girl. “Why would you possibly want one of those horrid
creatures?”

“Did you hear Lucinda Potts ran off to Gretna
Green with Lord Brookfield?”

Who hadn’t heard it? Considering Brookfield’s
blackened reputation, Lissy wasn’t certain if the new Lady
Brookfield would have been better off ruined than married to a man
like him. Not that the girl in question had sought out Lissy’s
advice on the matter. “I certainly hope you’re not considering
something equally rash.” For heaven’s sake, who was Bella enamored
with? Who did she want to elope with? For the life of her, Lissy
couldn’t come up with a name or a face. No one her friend had
mentioned recently, in any event.

“I don’t know that an anvil wedding is
necessary,” Bella added quietly. “A perfectly respectable wedding
at St. George’s will suffice. But I
need
a husband, or in
the very least, a fiancé. And I need him quickly.”

A memory of her own naïve exuberance at
marrying a dashing American captain flashed in Lissy’s mind, and
her stomach turned. Naïve exuberance, indeed. She’d been a blasted
fool. Lissy noticed a bench just a few feet away and stopped
walking along the path. Then she glanced back over her shoulder at
Annie and Bella’s maid. “We’re just going to sit a while.”

She didn’t wait for either servant to reply
before pulling her friend toward the bench.

“Sitting isn’t going to change my mind,”
Bella whispered only loud enough for Lissy to hear.

She shushed her friend and continued toward
her destination. “Rushing into a marriage is the worst possible
thing you could do, Bella. You can take that from me.” She dropped
onto the bench and tugged the brunette down beside her. “It’s one
thing to turn your life over to a man you love and trust, and quite
another to do so with a man you barely know.”

“I don’t have a choice with the timing.”
Bella turned her gaze on Lissy, piercing her with her silvery grey
eyes. “Besides, it’ll be better with someone
I
choose rather
than the awful man Grandpapa has in mind for me.”

The Duke of Chatham was behind this insanity?
Playing matchmaker hardly seemed like something the domineering
duke would waste his valuable time doing. “Your grandfather?”

Bella nodded, her dark curls bobbing up and
down, her brow etched with fear. “My cousin. Johann von Guttstadt,
Count of Hellsburg.” Then she shivered. “What a perfectly apt name
that is, by the way. He is most definitely a horrid creature, as
you say. And not one I want to spend the rest of my life with. So I
have to find a husband quickly, before Hellsburg arrives in
Town.”

Rarely had Bella looked so serious and the
fear she saw reflected in her friend’s eyes was enough to alight
Lissy’s protective streak. “What about your father?” Certainly Lord
Aylesford wouldn’t marry his daughter off to someone she despised,
though Lissy’s father had done that very thing years ago, with
Georgie, hadn’t he? She quickly pushed that thought away. Lord
Aylesford wasn’t like Lissy’s father in the least; for one thing he
was mild-mannered.

Bella shook her head. “Papa has never once
defied Grandpapa. Not one time.” She heaved a sigh, and her cheeks
pinkened with panic. “So you see, I need someone to offer for me
before Grandpapa declares an edict and it’s too late.”

What an awful predicament. Even if Bella got
to choose her own husband, there was no guarantee what the man
would be like after their vows were spoken. And a hasty marriage
was the worst possible thing. Lissy heaved a sigh of her own. And
then an idea hit her. She couldn’t help but smile. “You just need
someone to offer for you?”

Her friend nodded. “You look like you have an
idea.”

“Perhaps.” Lissy shrugged. “Your cousin, this
Hellsburg fellow, he isn’t intent on staying in London, is he?”

Bella shook her head. “I believe he’ll be
returning to Prussia after he visits Grandpapa.” Then she squeaked.
“And I don’t want to be
with
him when he leaves, Lissy.”

“Or course not.” Lissy’s smile widened as her
plan became a bit more solid in her mind. “So you don’t really need
a husband, just a fiancé. One you can break it off with after your
cousin returns to the Continent.”

The expression Bella cast her spoke more
loudly than words what a ridiculous idea she found Lissy’s
suggestion. “Is that all? I just need a fellow who will willingly
let me cry off?”

Which made all the sense in the world. There
was no reason for Bella to look at her as though she was mad.

“I suppose any gentleman would gladly let me
make a fool of him. Is that your idea?”

A fellow who didn’t want to get married might
be persuaded to help. “I’d offer up Edmund on a platter, but he’s
only twelve. You don’t think your grandfather would agree to that,
do you? I mean, he
is
already a duke. That should count for
something, shouldn’t it?”

A shadow fell over the two of them, and Lissy
tipped her head up to find Fin standing before them, blocking out
the sun and sporting an annoyed expression on his handsome face.
“What’s this about Edmund?”

For the briefest of moments she was happy to
see him, and then the memory of his behavior at the Astwicks’ came
rushing back to her mind. “Uncle Fin.” Lissy’s smile faded and she
folded her arms across her middle. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you,” he returned calmly. “And
I’m not your uncle.”

Blast him. He was always calm. He could
criticize her, get her all wound up, and then just stand there,
composed as could be, looking like the most well-behaved gentleman
in existence. He was simply maddening. “You’re looking for me?” She
feigned a demure smile. “Come to apologize, have you?”

Fin’s dark eyes narrowed on her. If he were a
cruel sort of man, she’d have been intimidated by that scowl. But
he wasn’t cruel. He was Fin.

“Well, let’s have it, then. My apology.”

Fin’s brow rose, as though he was surprised
at her audacity. “Don’t even think to distract me, Felicity. What
are you offering up Edmund for?”

The problem with offering up her brother for
Bella’s ruse, she realized in that moment, was they’d have to go
through Edmund’s guardian – Fin, for any betrothal, fake or
otherwise. And that was something she was certain Fin would never
agree to. “Nothing that concerns you.”

“On the contrary, anything that concerns
Edmund concerns me.”

Bella fidgeted on the bench beside Lissy,
wringing her hands in her lap. “Honestly, it’s nothing, Lord
Carraway. We’re just being silly.”

“Silly, I believe.” Fin’s gaze never wavered
from Lissy, which made her the slightest bit uncomfortable. All
that scrutiny. “I sent you a note this morning.”

“Did you?”

“You know I did. You had a footman return it.
Unopened.”

“Highly improper to send a girl who isn’t
your niece a note, my lord.” She bit back a smile. “And I know how
you regard propriety above all things.” In fact, the oh-so-proper
Fin was the perfect candidate to pose as Bella’s fiancé, now that
Lissy thought about it. Handsome, wealthy, powerful. Chatham
couldn’t possibly find fault with Fin. “Do you—”

“As your brother’s guardian, I believe I’m
granted some leeway in regard to my correspondence with you, my
lady.”

“Oh?” Lissy blinked up at him. “Has something
happened with Edmund?”

Fin’s eyes darted from Lissy to Bella and
back again. “Might I have a word with you alone?”

He wouldn’t leave until she gave it to him,
that much was evident from his stance. There was nothing else for
it. “Very well.” Lissy heaved a sigh as she pushed off the bench.
“I’ll be back in a moment, Bella.”

Fin offered his arm to Lissy, which she
regarded with the warmth one might welcome an approaching asp.
Begrudgingly, she took his arm anyway. It was, after all, the
proper thing to do.

“What is it?” she grumbled once they were out
of earshot from Bella. “Pray tell, Fin, what reprimand do you have
prepared for me today? Let’s get it over with, shall we?”

Fin closed his hand over Lissy’s fingers on
his arm and directed her towards a copse of trees, not far away.
Her delicate hand clutching the crook of his arm reminded him at
once of the way Georgie had always held on to him, and that memory
echoed though his soul, warming him from the inside out. Good God!
What the devil was wrong with him? “You make it sound as though I’m
forever reprimanding you.”

“Because you forever are,” she returned, not
even bothering to look up at him.

A slight pain twisted Fin’s heart. He didn’t
enjoy chastising her, but… Well, someone needed to rein her in, to
keep her from destroying her own future. She’d received very little
direction from her late father, and though Georgie had tried her
best with Felicity, the flaxen haired imp had always possessed a
stubborn streak and a mind of her own. A mind that he didn’t
understand the workings of in the least, and one he wasn’t certain
she used or heeded all the time. Lissy raced headfirst into one
thing after another with very little, if any, thought to her
actions. An impromptu trip across the Atlantic to visit her late
mother’s family, a hasty marriage to a man her sisters had never
met nor approved of, and now cavorting with blackguards like
Haversham. “I just want what’s best for you,” he said softly as he
drew her to a stop and spun her to face him.

Lissy scoffed, but she did at least raise her
cerulean gaze to meet his. “I am perfectly capable of taking care
of myself, Phineas Granard.”

That he wasn’t so certain of. She might be a
widow who’d seen more of the world than others of her age, but
Lissy was still young and still rather flighty. “Perhaps,” he
agreed, just to appease her. “But all the same, it’s not a good
idea for you to be in London all alone.”

“I’m not alone. I—”

“No, you’re not.” He squeezed her fingers.
“You have me to look out for you.”

“I don’t need you to look out for me.”

The one thing all three St. Claire women
possessed was an unfortunate stubbornness they could have only
inherited from their father. “Lissy,” he pleaded, hoping she could
see reason. “Be sensible. If Beckford and Juliet were in Town, I’m
certain he’d see to your escort. Had things turned out differently,
I’d be your brother, the same as he is. Besides, you’re Edmund’s
sister. I just want to make certain you’re safe.”

Her pretty eyes softened, but just for a
moment. “I am perfectly safe, Fin. I know you think I’m a ninny,
but there’s more to me than what you give me credit for.”