A Scandalous Deception (7 page)

That was most likely true. Then again, if
Beckford was in Town, Haversham might very well keep his distance
from Lissy without being warned to do so. “I can’t imagine that
even Luke Beckford would want you spending time with Lady
Felicity.” And he wouldn’t. Rogue that he’d been in the past,
Beckford did seem concerned about his wife’s little sister.

Smugness exuded from the marquess and Fin had
the overwhelming desire to crash his fist into the man’s jaw. What
in the world was wrong with him? He was hardly the violent sort.
Yet today he’d already threated to call Sebastian out and had the
urge to punch Haversham in the face. Watching after Lissy was not
conducive for one’s health.

“Not that I have to explain myself to you,
Carraway, but the lady and I were just talking last night. Nothing
more. So you can turn your stiff arse around and get out of my
way.” Then he pushed Fin from his path and disappeared into the
card room.

Fin stared after the marquess. Haversham
might have just been talking to her last night, but Felicity was
certain to approach the man with her mad scheme for Lady Arabella
Winslett. And then what? She’d find herself a pariah, that’s what.
He started toward the card room himself, but a hand on his arm
halted him.

He looked over his shoulder to find Sebastian
standing there, shaking his head. “You’re honorable. He’s not.
Don’t start something you’re sure to lose.”

Fin scoffed. “I’m not about to let him ruin
her good name.”

“Then keep a closer eye on her, but don’t
engage
him
. Have you lost your good sense? He’s not the sort
of man you can reason with.”

Reason had never entered Fin’s thoughts. “I
was trying to threaten him,” he grumbled.

Sebastian shrugged just a bit. “If I didn’t
find your threat credible, neither will he. Besides, the last thing
you want is to have your name splashed about the society pages as
having been caught brawling with the likes of him. He never pays
pointed attention to any particular lady, and he moves from one to
another like a bumble bee pollinating a garden. He’ll move on to
the next flower in the blink of an eye. Just wait it out.”

But he couldn’t wait it out. That might have
been an option if Lissy hadn’t decided the villain would make the
perfect candidate for her ridiculous scheme. Not that he could
divulge that bit of information to Sebastian. He couldn’t take the
risk of putting Lissy or Lady Arabella in an unfavorable light. “I
can’t take that chance.”

Fin shrugged out from his cousin’s grasp and
quickly entered the card room. Haversham sat at the far end of the
room at a
vingt-et-un
table, a lit cheroot hanging from his
mouth.

Fin took a deep breath and then stalked
across the card room. He pushed Haversham’s shoulder.

The man glanced up from his cards and scowled
at Fin. “You are a nuisance, Carraway.”

There were certainly worse things one could
be called. “You have a daughter,” he began.

“A fact of which I am most keenly aware,”
Haversham drawled.

“When she’s of an age, you’ll do your best to
look out for her. I’m just doing the same.”

“Except the lady in question isn’t your
daughter.” Haversham’s smug expression was more than grating. “Nor
is she even a relation of yours.”

“And yet I’m looking out for her anyway.”

“And why is that?”

“Because someone has to,” Fin replied.

“And Beckford’s in Derbyshire.”

“And Beckford’s in Derbyshire,” he
agreed.

Haversham heaved a beleaguered sigh. “If
you’ll leave me alone so I can get back to my game, I’ll promise to
leave the lady alone.”

“On your honor?”

Haversham chuckled. “I have no honor, but
you’ll have to take me at my word anyway as I have nothing else to
offer.”

That, Fin supposed was true, and likely the
best offer he would get from the marquess. He nodded his head in
acceptance. “In that case, I’ll thank you and wish you good luck
with your game.”

An enigmatic expression crossed Haversham’s
face. “Very well, then I’ll wish you good luck with yours. Whatever
it might be.”

Lissy pinched her cheeks as her reflection
stared back at her, though she wasn’t really seeing herself. Ever
since she’d left Clayworth House, her mind had been a jumble. Which
titled gentleman owed Lord Clayworth a debt? A debt large enough
for Cordie to call in the fellow’s vowels in order to help Bella?
She said the man spent most of his time in the country. Who in the
world could he be? Someone she knew, or…

A scratch sounded at her door and she
automatically called, “Come.”

“My lady,” Annie said as she stepped into
Lissy’ chambers. “Crawford says Lord Carraway has arrived.”

Fin! Hadn’t she seen enough of him today?
That was, of course, rhetorical. She’d seen enough of him in the
previous twenty-four hours to last her a month, perhaps a year.
“Please inform Crawford that I am not in at this hour.”

Annie made a face. “He’s not here to call on
you, my lady. He’s here to escort you to the Rotherbys’.”

There were no less than half a dozen events
that night. How in the world did Fin know she meant to attend the
Rotherbys’ soiree? She folded her arms across her middle. “That
infernal man,” she grumbled. Why was he so insistent on hounding
her? She wasn’t his ward. She wasn’t his sister. She wasn’t even
his niece. No matter she’d known him nearly all her life, she
wasn’t anything to him. Not really. What she did and how she did it
was none of his concern. “Please inform Crawford that I will be
taking the Prestwick coach and that I am in no need of his
lordship’s escort.”

Annie bobbed a quick curtsey, then slid back
into the corridor.

Saying the words aloud had felt a bit
liberating, but Lissy knew they were of no consequence. If Fin had
come to Prestwick House, intent on escorting her to the Rotherby’s,
it wouldn’t matter what she said. If she refused his carriage, he’d
simply follow her there and watch after her anyway.

Heavens! Shouldn’t he be focusing on some
sort of legislation? Some sort of act? Some upcoming vote? She
heaved a sigh and dropped onto the edge of her four-poster, waiting
for Annie’s inevitable return.

An intelligent woman wouldn’t fight the
unavoidable, but giving in to his will irritated her to no end. It
was no wonder Georgie had refused him time and again… Well, up
until she sent him a letter when he was in India, finally agreeing
to marry him. Was it possible her sister had missed his overbearing
ways after he’d left for Bombay?

Just like clockwork, a scratch came at her
door. “Come,” she called half-heartedly.

Annie stepped inside her chambers once more.
“His lordship says that if you’d rather take the Prestwick Coach,
he’ll send his back home. “

“But he’s escorting me, whether I like it or
not.”

Annie nodded, a pained expression on her
face. “I am sorry, Lady Felicity. Crawford tried his hardest to put
his lordship off.”

“But Lord Carraway is most determined. And
stubborn.”

Her maid nodded once more. “He is that, my
lady.”

Finally resigned to her fate, Lissy pushed
away from the edge of the bed. “Then you’d better get your wrap,
Annie. He’ll insist you play chaperone.” As though she could ever
be in danger in Fin’s staid presence. “I’ll meet you
downstairs.”

Fin paced Prestwick House’s pink parlor. The
room was an atrocity, something Juliet had designed years ago to
thwart unwanted fortune hunters from calling on her. Why she’d
never redecorated the room was a mystery. Not that Fin generally
cared one way or the other about Juliet’s decorating tastes, but
this evening it gave him something to focus his frustrations on.
Well, something other than Felicity.

All afternoon, thanks to his debauched
cousin, he’d imagined pressing his lips to Lissy’s. He’d wondered
what it would feel like to pull her into his arms, have her lithe
form pressed against his. And then he’d imagined more. How soft her
skin was, the scent of her hair spread across him in his bed, the
taste of her on his tongue, the gasp she would make and the look in
her eyes as he thrust inside her.

Damn it all. It
had
been too long
since he’d bedded a woman. Sebastian had been right about that. But
how was Fin to know it would just take his cousin’s flippant
suggestion to start his imagination down a path he’d never traveled
before?

He shouldn’t even be here. He’d told himself
it was to make certain Lissy was safe from the lecherous men of the
ton
and her own flighty ways. But who was going to keep her
safe from him?

“Uncle Fin!” The waspish sound of her voice
from the threshold made him stop mid-pace.

“I’m not your uncle,” he repeated the words
he’d said a million times over throughout the years. With all the
thoughts darting in and out of his mind all day, thank God he
wasn’t her uncle. He was, apparently, depraved enough as it was. At
least they didn’t share any blood.

Fin turned on his heel to find her standing
just inside the parlor, her slender arms folded across her middle,
lifting her bodice and putting her charms on display. Damn it all,
Sebastian had been right. Felicity was most definitely
not
a
child. Her
décolletage
made him lick his lips, and would, no
doubt be the cause of more than one sleepless night in Fin’s
future.

“Lissy.” He cleared his throat, like a green
lad might upon seeing his first pretty girl. Good God, he sounded
like a dolt.

She heaved a sigh, looking more than a bit
petulant. “What
are
you doing here?”

Hoping that she wouldn’t be as radiant as
she’d been in his daydreams, and failing miserably. “I—um—Well, I
thought it would be nice to escort you to the Rotherbys’.”

“Meaning you don’t trust me not to get into
trouble on my own.”

Right now, he didn’t trust himself.

“It’s just a soiree, Fin.”

Somewhere he found his voice. “You’re the one
forever telling me I should be more social.”

She rolled her eyes, but her lips quirked up
to a charming smile, the combination of which Fin found more than
endearing. Dear God. His mouth went dry as he stared at her. Had
she always been so lovely, right beneath his nose? If so, how the
devil had he ever been so blind? Was it because he’d seen her so
frequently over the years that he’d never noticed that she had, in
fact, become a woman? A strikingly beautiful one at that?

Guilt and a bit of shame washed over him. Was
he really lusting after
Lissy
? In the same home he and
Georgie had made love? Damn it all, he was destined for hell.

“Fin?” Her voice was softer this time, laced
with concern as she crossed the floor to stand before him. “Are you
all right?” she asked, touching a hand to his cheek as though to
determine if he was ill.

There was no need for her to check his
temperature. He was nearly on fire, just standing there with her
delicate hand on his face, her pretty blue eyes staring up at him.
“I’m fine,” he said, though he didn’t shake her hand off, as he
should.

“I think we should call for Doctor Watts.”
She frowned. “You don’t look at all like yourself.”

He didn’t feel at all like himself, but the
last thing he should do was make her aware of the fact. Fin stepped
back from her and shook his head, hoping to find the bantering
partner she so naturally was most days. “You don’t think I’ll fall
for that, do you, Lissy?”

She blinked at him, looking completely
bewildered. “Fall for what?”

He forced a smile to his face. “Trying to
make me think I’m ill so I’ll abandon you tonight. You’ll have to
do better than that.”

Confusion flashed across Lissy’s face, a
frown settling on her brow, and Fin ached to take her hand in his
and soothe away her worry. But that would be the worst possible
thing he could do.