Deceiving the Duke of Kerrington (Ladies of Deception) (17 page)

When she was
finished gathering her stuff, Noelle draped a dark cloak around her slender
shoulders and said, “I came through the servant’s door and found that part of
the house quite deserted. If you are quiet I’m sure you can escape undetected.”

“Thank you, I’ll
be careful. Oh, and your new lady’s maid is named Esther. I think you’ll get
along with her quite nicely.”

“Godspeed, Hope.”

And with that Hope turned and quickly
made to escape the Brattondale’s townhouse and her former life completely; if
only she could escape the pain that was permanently branded on her heart as
well.

Chapter 21

It had only been
a week since he had bid Noelle farewell, but to Pierce it felt like an
eternity. He hadn’t planned on seeing her for yet another week but knew he
couldn’t hold out that long. The first few days she had been gone he had kept
himself busy instructing the servants to freshen up the chapel and making
preparations for their wedding trip to France but he quickly realized that no
amount of busyness could keep his desire to be with her at bay. He impulsively
decided to return to London and surprise her, spending the entire trip
fantasizing about how delicious it would be to hold her soft body in his arms
and kiss her pert mouth as he inhaled her fresh scent.

Due to their
late start, they didn’t arrive in London until well past an appropriate hour to
pay a call to the Brattondale’s so Pierce instructed his driver to take him
directly to his townhouse on Grosvenor Square for the night where he slept
fitfully, much too anxious to be reunited with Noelle.

The following
morning Pierce was up early. Tucker had helped dress him in tan breeches and a
dark brown tailcoat, his cravat expertly tied in the mathematical before he
left the house whistling in anticipation for the day ahead. He walked the few
blocks from his house to Noelle’s and when he arrived the butler showed him
into the drawing room where he could wait for Noelle. He sat down on the rose
colored settee and smiled at the remembrance of the first day he had called on
the Earl of Brattondale with the intention of meeting his future wife and the
encounter with Noelle that ensued.

The memory of
her in her white day dress with her hair cascading down around her in untamed
rivers of honey made him even more eager to see her, to touch her. He looked up
expectantly as Noelle and Esther walked into the room, quickly coming to his
feet and closing the distance between them. He smiled at her, his dark eyes
sparkling with merriment.

Noelle watched
as the duke smiled charmingly at her revealing straight, white teeth. He was
every bit as handsome as everyone had said he was, but she couldn’t help
comparing him to Soren, to the handsome American who had stolen her heart. The
duke was taller and broader than Soren, but where his eyes held a gleam of
wickedness, Soren’s emerald eyes had always seemed to sparkle with barely
contained laughter. As she stood assessing the duke and comparing him endlessly
to Soren, her heart ached anew with the fresh grief of her loss and she tried
to remind herself that that part of her life was in the past and had to stay
that way forever. It would be best if she forgot about Soren completely and
embraced this new life, this new man standing in front of her.

Pierce reached
for her hand and brought it to his lips where he placed a soft kiss to the
inside of her wrist, allowing his lips to linger longer than what was deemed
appropriate. Noelle couldn’t help herself as she recoiled inwardly at his
overly familiar touch. She pulled her hand back suddenly when she found she
could no longer bare his touch. When Soren touched her she felt nothing
repulsive, only tingly, like every nerve was on fire and alert to his every
movement. When the duke touched her she just felt flat.

Pierce squinted
his eyes and looked at her, her aloofness bothering him greatly, especially
after being apart for so long. He wished there was some way he could get Esther
to leave them for a time so he could pull her into his arms and kiss her as he
had been envisioning doing for the last week.

“I know I said I
wouldn’t be here for another week but I found I couldn’t stay away from you any
longer, love.”

Love? Apparently
he and Hope had grown more comfortable than she realized. She knew she’d have
to set him straight, for she didn’t want him to expect more from her than she
was willing to give. “That’s nice of you to come all this way to see me but I
really must get going, I have an appointment with my dressmaker and don’t want
to be late.”

Noelle’s attempt
to dismiss Pierce confused him. Was this the same girl who had so reluctantly
parted with him back at Ridgecrest Manor? He looked at her closely and noticed
the way she avoided looking into his eyes, the way she stood with her arms
crossed rigidly across her chest as if she was impatiently waiting for him to
leave. Well if she thought that was the case, she had another thing coming.

Turning to
Esther he said, “Esther, would you mind fetching a pelisse for Noelle? It’s a
little chilly out and I’d hate for her to catch a chill.”

“But your grace,
it wouldn’t be proper for me to—”

“Now, Esther.”
He ground out between clenched teeth.

“Yes your
grace,” she said as she scurried out of the room to do his bidding.

The minute they
were alone, Pierce wasted no time. He stepped forward and pulled Noelle into
his arms, “Oh how I’ve missed you, my minx.” He bent his head and eagerly found
her lips and kissed her with all of the pent up passion he possessed. He was so
distracted by the feel of her soft lips at first that he failed to notice that
she wasn’t responding, or for that matter that he wasn’t experiencing the same
tidal wave of passion he had previously experienced either.  When the fog of
desire finally cleared from his mind he realized that she stood stiff and
unyielding in his arms. Never before when he had kissed her, not even that
first time in this very same room, had she ever been so unresponsive and never
before had he felt such lack of passion, it was as if there was no emotion
involved when they touched. He heard an alarm sound in his head as he pulled
back to gaze into her amber eyes; eyes that usually sparkled with life were now
dull and unwelcoming.

Pierce dropped
his hands from her person as if he had been burned and took a step back, “I’m
sorry…it’s just that I…” he stammered.

“Yes,” Noelle
replied coolly, “I trust you will not allow it to happen again before we are
properly married.”

Pierce reeled
back as if she had slapped him. Where had his passionate Noelle gone? The girl
who so eagerly and hungrily partook of his kisses with an intoxicating mixture
of innocence and barely contained passion?

“What’s the
matter Noelle? Has something happened?”

Noelle could see
in his face that he was genuinely concerned for her. She didn’t have the heart
to hurt his feelings and instead opted to tell a small lie, “I am just not
feeling well.”

“Why didn’t you say
so? Shall I ring for tea?”

“No, no, I think
I just need to lie down for awhile. If you wouldn’t mind sending word to the
dressmaker that I won’t be able to keep my appointment then I think I’ll just
go lay down. Thanks for the visit and have a nice day.” And with that she
hurried out of the room, leaving a stunned Pierce gaping after her.

The
disappointment that invaded his mind and heart at the reunion wouldn’t ebb. He
felt sick inside as he thought back on their past encounters, on the fiery
passion that they had shared. He thought about how unassuming and likeable
Noelle had been at Ridgecrest manor and the lively badinage they had engaged
in. She had been so different from any other woman he had ever known but today
she felt like a stranger. The concern he felt on her behalf was immense and so
he quickly took leave of her house hoping to find a way to distract himself
from his fretting.

Pierce walked
agitatedly back to his townhouse where he instructed his groom to ready his
carriage so he could drive into town. His first order of business was to
purchase a large bouquet of pink roses to be sent over to Noelle. The light,
delicate shade of pink reminded him of the color of her soft creamy skin after
he had thoroughly kissed her. He had to keep reminiscing on their time together
in the country to reassure himself that nothing was terribly amiss, that her
sudden alteration in behavior was truly due to illness and not something more
formidable.

Next he drove to
Oxford Street to make a purchase he had been contemplating ever since Noelle
had told him of her penchant for writing. He alighted from his carriage and
strolled into Gillow’s to pick out a Bonheur du jour for Noelle. It didn’t take
him long to pick out the perfect writing desk for her; the dainty George III
desk was made out of a rich mahogany imported from the West Indies and featured
a central section bookshelf flanked by two cupboards veneered in tulip wood.
The drawers featured turned brass handles and the desk sat atop elegant squared
tapering legs mounted on brass castors. It was perfect—the desk radiated an air
of elegance and beauty that reminded him of Noelle. He couldn’t wait to see the
look on her face when he presented it to her.

After purchasing
the desk and instructing it to be delivered to his townhouse on Grosvenor
Square he left hoping to find something to distract him from the persistent
ache in his heart that warred with the persistent desire to be with Noelle.

***

Esther flitted
around the room retrieving discarded articles of clothing as she occasionally
sent an annoyed glance in the direction of the testered bed. Noelle had been
laying face down on the plush cover pane, her body racking with sobs ever since
Lord Kerrington had left nearly an hour ago. She hadn’t been able to pry any
information from her mistress about the encounter but secretly wondered what
had occurred in the short time she had been gone retrieving her pelisse that
had disheartened her so.

Quite frankly,
ever since Esther had gone in the room to begin Noelle’s toilette that morning
she had sensed a change in her demeanor. Her eyes that had been so alive were
lifeless and dull. She was morose and almost unfriendly in her dealings with
Esther and had shown not even the slightest bit of excitement about her appointment
with the dressmaker to begin assembling her trousseau. And, there was no talk
of Pierce or the upcoming wedding and that by far unnerved her the most.

Ever since
arriving back in London, all Noelle seemed to be able to do was talk about Lord
Kerrington with a dreamy, love struck look on her face. And Esther couldn’t say
she blamed her, if a man as handsome and fine as Lord Kerrington was to become
her husband, she’d be walking around distracted and smitten as well. The
thought of such a glorious man kissing her made her cheeks instantly flame with
heat and so distracted was she that she hadn’t even noticed that Noelle’s
crying had finally ceased and the room had become eerily silent.

“Esther are you
listening to me?”

Esther guiltily shook
all thoughts of the duke out of her head and walked over to the side of her
mistress’s bed, “I’m sorry milady, what was it you were saying?”

“I was saying
that I want to leave.”

“And where do
you want to go? Are you sure you’re feeling up to it?”

“I’m not really
ill you twit, I just couldn’t stomach another minute in that vile man’s
presence.”

Esther gasped
audibly, had she really just heard Noelle correctly? She didn’t know what had
happened to change her mood so drastically in such a short time but all she
knew was this behavior was completely out of character. “Are you sure you’re
feeling well milady?”

“As well as can
be expected, now stop asking me that. I want to you to come with me.”

“Come with you
where?”

“To Shepard’s
Bush. I have a—a friend I need to see, it’s urgent.”

“I’m not sure
that’s wise milady, won’t your father object to such an outing?”

“Oh it’s not
like he has to know. The only way he’d find out is if you were to say
something,” Noelle squinted her eyes at her and assessed her coolly, “You
wouldn’t rat me out would you?”

“Of course not,
but what about the stable boy? Won’t he tell your father where you’ve gone off
to?”

Noelle swung her
legs over the edge of the bed, “No because he won’t know, we’ll tell him we’re
just going for a ride through Hyde Park and that Devon is meeting us there to
accompany us.”

“Very well, milady.
But there is just one thing—”

Noelle rolled
her eyes, “Pray tell, what is it?”

“I can’t ride a
horse.”

            Noelle had no sympathy for
Esther and her lack of skill. She was so keen on getting to Hope in Shepard’s
Bush that she was determined to drag Esther along on the back of her horse if
that’s what it took to get them there. They were halfway to the mews when they
were interrupted by Devon sitting atop a chestnut mare.

            “Good day Noelle, where are
you off too?”

            Noelle rolled her eyes
impatiently before turning to stare up at her brother. “We were just off on a
ride through Hyde Park.”

            “By yourself, unchaperoned?”

            “Well, it’s actually quite
good fortune that we ran into you because I was hoping you might be able to
accompany us.” She hoped with everything in her that he would say that he had
other plans and leave them be so they could sneak off without further
interruption, but apparently luck was not on her side.

            “What a marvelous idea! We
haven’t gotten to go riding together since we’ve been in London this season and
it’s such a fine day to be out. Perhaps you should go grab a bonnet to shield
yourself from the sun.”