Heart of the Diamond (8 page)

She knew the wisdom of her younger sister's advice. Mina's instincts were always on the mark. Still, the two of them were different, and Nicki had ever found Mina's instruction difficult to follow. Mina calmly assessed a situation, then arrived at a logical solution. Nicki preferred a snap decision and immediate follow through. The only problem with that procedure was that small imperfections had a way of cropping up, landing her in additional trouble. Her father called it being too highly strung and vowed he had worked many years at overcoming his own careless tendencies. Recalling the rather wild picture he presented in the Earl of Diamond's bedchamber the previous night, Nicki wondered at the success of his efforts.

“Nicki! I do wish you would stop drifting. I was saying how pleased Angelica will be to return to London. These years away have been quite miserable for her.”

At the mention of her stepmother, tension raced through Nicki's entire body. “I have done this for you and Papa. If I could have added one more stipulation it would have been that Angelica be excluded from your Season.”

Mina rolled her eyes heavenward. “Don't be rid . . . ”

A soft knock interrupted Mina. “Nicole?”

Nicki stared at Mina in horror, then down at her riding habit. Heart pounding a mile a minute, she scrambled off the bed and with Mina's help untucked the bedclothes. She had scarcely slipped beneath the covers when the door opened and Angelica stepped into the room.

First, she scrutinized Mina sitting straight-backed on the bed, then her emerald gaze swept to Nicki who had drawn the covers up to her chin. The pillow Nicki had held plopped to the floor to join its counterpart.

“Girls? It is so late. What are you about?” Calm, unperturbed, Angelica's tone never changed, no matter the situation.

“Angelica, we were just . . . ” Nicki floundered for a word.

“Talking,” Mina piped in with particular brilliance.

“Yes, talking. How late is it, by the bye?”

Elegant as always, Angelica wore a green dressing gown of shimmering satin and matching slippers. She crossed her arms over her chest and glanced about the room.

“Nearly one o'clock, I should think. I thought I heard a noise and came to investigate. Did you hear a horse outside, by chance?”

“A horse?” Nicki's heart gave an uncomfortable jolt. “Heavens, no. Do you suppose one of the Thoroughbreds got out of the stables?”

Angelica held on to her long auburn braid and bent to pick up a leaf from the carpet. “I should think that highly unlikely, unless someone took one out.”

Staring at the leaf as though it was an adder, Nicki licked her lips and drew the coverlet closer about her chin. “At this time of night. I should think not. Have you heard anything, Mina?”

Silence stretched long and Nicki looked at her sister, who said nothing.

“Have you, Mina?” she prompted.

“No!”

Nodding, Angelica advanced further into the room. “Are you chilled, Nicole?”

Still wearing her heavy habit and buried under the bedclothes, Nicki was quite the opposite. “I was, but now I am quite cozy, thank you.”

“Your cheeks are flushed. Are you coming down with a fever?”

Nicki longed to duck beneath the bedclothes as Angelica reached out to brush her soft, cool hands against Nicki's forehead. “I am fine, Angelica, really. You need not bedevil me.”

A shaky laugh broke the silence and Mina gained her voice. “Really, Nicki, you needn't be so short.”

Angelica straightened and smoothed her hands along the hips of her dressing gown. “Actually, your skin is quite cool. Almost as if you had been out of doors.”

After the meeting with Blake Dylan, Nicki had no patience with this cat and mouse nonsense. She opened her mouth to say as much when Mina interrupted.

“The window was open and I shut it because Nicki was cold.”

Meeting Angelica's steady, green-eyed gaze, Nicki thought she saw a flicker of despair. But that could not be. “It is time you were abed, Mina. The earl may come calling tomorrow; we wouldn't want Nicole yawning and falling asleep in her tea.”

Mina laughed, or rather gave a nervous twitter, as she climbed over Nicki to slip off the bed. “Good night, sister.”

“Good night,” Nicki responded, but Mina had already dashed from the room.

Angelica sighed and bent down to retrieve the pillows from the floor. Her gaze met Nicki's as she leaned over her and placed the pillows on the other side of the bed. “You do realize it would be completely foolhardy to embark on any more late night escapades, Nicole.”

Clenching the covers, Nicki nodded.

“Sleep well.” With one last long look, Angelica glided across the room, then slipped quietly into the hall. As the door closed behind her stepmother, Nicki curled on to her side, staring at the moonlight shining through her window in tremulous prisms of light and shadow.

Foolhardy, perhaps, but necessary. Somehow she had to make the best of an impossible situation. That is, until she arrived at a solution for extricating herself.

If only Teddy would come back. She needed him more now than ever before, but the pale-eyed Earl of Diamond had claimed Rosewood. It seemed a bleak prospect that Teddy would return to England now that all ties were severed.

All ties save one.

Nicki slipped from beneath the covers, then hurriedly unbuttoned her habit. Catching the heel of one boot with the toe of the other, she tugged off first one, then the other. She could no more extinguish her dreams than she could stop breathing. From the moment she had pressed her hand into Theodore Bartholomew's at the age of four, her fate had been sealed. Staring into his boyish face, meeting his twinkling amber eyes, Nicki wanted never to be separated from him.

In her stocking feet, she padded across the carpet to her wardrobe and opened the door. She grabbed out a nightrail, then returned to toss it upon the bed while she removed her habit.

Teddy had always felt the same connection and he would sense her need and return, just as the knights of old appeared at the opportune moment to rescue their lady loves. Teddy was her knight in shining armor, no matter what Mina believed.

Nicki dropped the white nightrail over her head, then fastened the many tiny buttons up the front. She would go along with this marriage for now. Tomorrow, she and Shelby would suffer the earl's company on their fishing trip.

After dousing the lamp at the bedside table, Nicki swiped the leaves from the sheets and climbed into bed. For a long while, she stared into the darkness.

She would not give up on Teddy. She could not. To do so would break her heart.

The earl came through the front entrance just as Nicki and Shelby reached the foot of the staircase. When he saw her, he paused. His cloaked figure filled the doorway, blocking the view of the winter morning outside. Nicki's eyes met his and she flushed.

Simms held the door. Upon seeing Nicki, he closed the door and bowed stiffly. “Will you be needing anything, Lady Nicki?”

She looked away from Blake's serious countenance to the butler. “No, thank you, Simms. We shall leave straight away.”

“Very good, Miss.” Simms bowed first in the earl's direction, then Nicki's, and swept past.

Though she forced a brightness into her voice, Nicki would rather have followed the butler. “My lord, may I present my brother, Jonathon Shelby Langley. Shelby, this is Blake Dylan, the Earl of Diamond.”

The earl stepped into the foyer and held out his hand. Shelby stiffened, but before he could plan his next move, Nicki gave him a gentle shove from behind.

“Master Shelby, you may address me as Blake. I understand you are an angler. When I was a boy it was my favorite pastime.”

Shelby took the earl's hand and gave a firm shake. He glanced back at Nicki, a slow smile crept over his impish face and excitement dawned in his shining eyes. “Papa isn't a fisherman, but Nick goes with me often,” Shelby told Lord Diamond. “She doesn't watch her pole all that well, though, cause she's always got her nose stuck in one of those books. Mother says Nick's eyesight is going to get so poor she'll do nothing but squint, and gentlemen don't like a girl with—”

“Shelby!” Nicki quickly intervened before her brother divulged every private detail of her life. “You should refrain from talking the earl's ear off before we have left the house. He is apt to cry off on our expedition.”

“It takes a great deal to cause me to back down from an . . . appointment.” Blake's silver gaze fastened on Nicki with captivating intensity. “Once I have dedicated myself to a project, I feel it necessary to follow it through to the end.”

“Some might consider such tenacity a form of obstinance, my lord.” She swallowed, but her mouth became instantly dry.

A slight smile curved his lips and the faint lines at the corners of his eyes deepened. “I prefer to call it perseverance.”

Shelby stared from Nicki to Blake. “Can we go now?”

Heat flooded Nicki's cheeks. “Of course. Em packed a picnic lunch for us. Perhaps you would carry the basket, my lord—unless you would prefer a footman to accompany us.”

“I will not hear of it. That is a fine pole you have there, Shelby. One of the first lessons I learned as a boy was . . . ”

Nicki watched with mild interest as the earl grasped the line of Shelby's fishing pole and followed the thin thread with his fingers. As Shelby strained to better see Blake's progress, he lifted the end of his pole and immediately the hem of Nicki's skirt jerked up to an alarming degree. She squeaked in distress and batted at the layers of soft velvet and muslin to keep them from traveling any higher. With swift efficiency, the earl extricated the hook and the hem of her maroon riding habit dropped to a decent level.

As Blake deftly fastened the wayward hook to the handle of Shelby's pole, his mouth twitched at one corner. “These little devils have a mind of their own. It is best to fasten them to the base—like so.”

“An additional precaution might be to leave the fishing pole next to the door until we are prepared to leave! You might poke someone's eye out,” Nicki said sternly, at the same time the thought came to her that this expedition might prove to be more stressful than she imagined.

“Safety is foremost in any sport.” Blake's eyes sparkled with deviltry. “I have an acquaintance who is quite fond of climbing . . . ”

“Just look at the time! And here's Em with the picnic basket. We had best be going if we are to catch any fish at all. Come along, Shelby.”

The earl turned to greet Em's arrival with a wry quirk of one dark brow, even as he carefully removed the picnic basket from the plump woman's stiff fingers. The arrogant man seemed completely unaware of the cook's countenance, staring and open-mouthed. Shelby had obviously been regaling the kitchen staff with tales of the Earl of Diamond's resemblance to a demon.

Nicki retrieved her ancient rod from where it rested in the corner by the door and then led the way from the house, past Blake's fishing pole propped against the wall outside, down the steps and across the cobbled drive to a path leading through the woods. She glanced back briefly to check on Shelby and found him skipping along at Blake's side, chattering, perfectly satisfied with the brief comments the earl interjected in his drawling baritone.

As she marched along the path, stones pressing lightly into her serviceable boots, Nicki forced herself to look neither left nor right, and certainly not back. She must remain aloof from the earl. This Blake Dylan was too charming by half and was someone she could come to like—very much. An impossible prospect, indeed. When Teddy arrived to rescue her, and she was certain he would come, she needed no emotional attachments to confuse her.

At last she emerged from the wood at the grassy knoll that sloped down to the stream she and Shelby frequented. When she was a girl, Nicki had thought she'd accidentally stumbled into heaven when she found this place. Now she could not resist glancing at Blake.

Did he feel the magic, too? It was almost as though the world paused and all sound ceased as she watched his gaze travel from the trees that allowed just enough sunlight to filter through their branches to brush the deep green carpet of grass dusted with a sprinkling of fallen leaves. Without taking her gaze from the earl's strongly etched features, Nicki could still see in her mind the promise of the flowers that would bloom in profusion when spring slipped by the winter chill and took a firm hold. She heard the song of the clear stream as it tumbled over stones and fallen branches, a perfect accompaniment to the enchanted glade.

Something glowed in Lord Diamond's eyes, eyes that seemed to mirror the sheen of the water, and a joy squeezed Nicki's heart. He met her gaze and some emotion unknown to her, but devastatingly exciting, flickered in those silver depths. Quickly, she looked away.

“I . . . I believe I shall take the picnic basket and go sit under my tree. Shelby, mind yourself.”

Fighting a nervous breathlessness, Nicki retrieved the basket from Blake and busied herself to spread the blanket Em had provided, weighting the ends with polished stones. She cast her line carelessly toward the water and propped her pole against a fallen log.

She had meant to remain aloof, to harden her heart against the handsome earl. No matter how good her intentions, her gaze continued to wander to Blake. Each time she looked at him she noticed something she liked. He removed his cloak and jacket and rolled the sleeves of his green shirt to his elbows to reveal bronzed forearms corded with muscle. Buff colored breeches hugged his hips and powerful thighs and disappeared into a pair of much-used Wellingtons.

Merciful heaven, what had gotten into her? This man had deceived her. Deceived her father. She should be able to maintain her distance without effort.

Yet when his eyes met hers, Nicki found she wanted to know what dwelt within those mysterious depths. The Earl of Diamond had left behind the harshness she had come to expect, instead smiling and teasing Shelby without mercy. He had become a part of her secret world—so easily it frightened her. Try as she might, she could not imagine Teddy with all his over-zealous energy managing the patience to fish. That had to be the reason she had never brought Teddy here before, even when they were children.