If He's Dangerous (23 page)

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Authors: Hannah Howell

BOOK: If He's Dangerous
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Argus straightened his clothes and rapped on the door of the duke's library. He was as nervous as a young boy approaching his first girl. That was ridiculous, but, no matter how many times he told himself that, he remained nervous.
“Well,” said the duke as Argus stepped inside in answer to his invite, “you clean up well. Where have you been for a month then? Come.” He waved toward the chair in front of his desk. “Sit down, sit down.”
“I have been in London for most of this time, Your Grace,” he said as the duke poured them both some wine. “There were a few things that needed clearing away concerning that Cornick business. Investigating to be sure everyone involved was rooted out. Only two others and they were very minor players. They will be taking a sojourn in Canada, sent off by their fathers to avoid scandal and, perhaps, knock some sense into them. Fathers both have land there.”
 
“So, it was really just Cornick and Chuffington?”
“And those two brutes from the docks. Seems they had worked for Chuffington before. The man will hang and not just for what happened here. More and more is coming to light to reveal that he had a way of getting rid of those who annoyed him.”
The duke shook his head. “And to think he had the resources of the government to aid him in his petty vendettas. I can see why you were away for so long, but your boys had a grand time here.”
“I am sure. They have become quite good friends with Wolfgang and Axel, God help us all.” He smiled when the duke laughed. “But I was also doing a lot of work in getting my affairs together.”
“Going somewhere?”
“I hope not, Your Grace.” He set his papers on the duke's desk. “I mean to marry your daughter, but I realize, that as only a knight, I am not of a rank with her. However, I do believe I can support her well.”
Roland listened as the younger man talked of property he now owned, his finances and investments, and hinted at his work for the government. He did not tell him that he knew some of that already, for, as soon as he had seen what was developing between his daughter and Sir Argus Wherlocke, he had done his best to find out as much as he could. Having members of the man's family as guests for so long had also helped. He firmly believed you could tell a lot about a man by studying his family.
The older Wherlockes had had a lot of miserable marriages, but so far the younger ones had done much, much better. Roland suspected it was because they learned from the mistakes of the fathers. Deserted or abandoned children littered the landscape of the Wherlocke and Vaughn past, but the boys Argus had sired when he had been not much more than a boy himself were well taken care of and being given all the benefits of their class.
He had also found very few criminals in the family tree and that, considering the gifts they all had, was nearly a miracle. Max had found nothing either, except that they had a very select group of servants, mostly from just two families, and they treated them very well. That was only in the younger man's favor as well.
 
What he was not hearing was how Sir Argus Wherlocke felt about Lorelei. The girl had been shuffling about the house pretending she was not unhappy and Roland was tired of it. He would not, however, force her to marry a man who did not care for her.
Then something Argus said made him blink in surprise. “You bought the very house where you were kept prisoner?”
“Yes. It was for sale at a very reasonable price. It is actually a very sturdy house, with, as my man puts it, very good bones. It is being repaired, cleaned, and painted as we speak. I thought that Lorelei would like to be close to her family. I also have several relatives within a day's journey from there.”
“Not worried about bad memories?”
“No.” Argus smiled. “As I am hoping to be living there with a new wife, I suspect I can find ways to push them aside if they intrude. I just do not see them doing so. I associate the bad memories with the men who inflicted the injuries and they are all dead.”
The duke leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk and clasping his hands together. “That is all very impressive, Sir Argus, but, to be blunt, so long as she will not starve, I am not much interested in the financial side of my daughter's future husband. I want her happy. I want her to have children who are happy because their parents are. I want her husband to have true affection for her, for Lorelei needs that.”
“I know, Your Grace.” Argus cleared his throat, unaccustomed to speaking of his feelings, especially in front of the father of the woman he wanted. “I love your daughter, Your Grace. I fought it, ignored it, and argued it away, but none of that did any good. I love her and I believe she loves me.”
“If the amount of sulking she has done in the last few weeks is any indication, then I suspect she does. Now, you being a London man, and clearly no saint, I must ask—what about faithfulness? I know many men think they have some right to have a mistress or two as well as the wife, but that brings only misery or bitterness. I do not think I have seen many couples where both sides are content with it.”
“When I take my vows, Your Grace, I will abide by them. If I thought I could not, then I would never take them. Personally, I have never understood men who make a vow to a woman before God, the vicar, and a few hundred guests and then, as soon as the heir is born, go about their business as if they were not married. It is not just the mistress, is it? It is an utter disrespect for the person who just gave you a child. It shows the woman, most clearly, that you married her for her breeding to pass on to your child, her money, or her property.”
“That is what is behind many marriages.”
“I know, but it also reveals that the man, or woman depending on who breaks those vows, had no intention of honoring his vows or even trying to have a decent marriage. It reveals a deceitful nature and, as I said, disrespect for the woman.”
Roland sat back in his seat and looked at the man who would certainly become his son-in-law shortly. “I have always thought the same. Well, there is one last thing.”
“And what is that?”
“You have to convince Lorelei and she is not in the best of temper at the moment. A note or letter might have been welcome.”
 
“I told her I had a lot of things that needed to be worked on.”
“Day and night for a month?”
Argus grimaced. “There was some traveling to do.”
“To your new home barely a day's ride from here?”
“Damn. I did not wish to come back here until I had everything in order, until I could prove that I could give her a good life,” Argus said. “She is so high above me in rank that I had to have something to show you that would tell you that I can care for her and any children we have. I had to show her and you that I was not marrying her for anything else but her, as I had all I needed already.”
“Argus, and may I call you that now that we are soon to be related by marriage?” When Argus nodded, Roland continued, “My daughter is very similar to her mother, a woman I sorely miss. She thinks too much. I know it is odd to hear this from me, but, while I think on whether there is any sense to the cuckoo laying its eggs in another's nest, Lorelei is thinking, why has he not returned yet, why has he not at least written me? Then they snub you, or sulk alone and think the worst things about you. Last thing I heard was that you were at some orgy with a half-dozen females.” He grinned when Argus choked on his wine. “You can blame that on your sister, who seems quite fond of conversations about utterly irrelevant things. But, back to what my child is now thinking. London is full of beautiful women, she thinks. All those beautiful women, will naturally want you because you are not here. Are you beginning to understand?”
“Very much so. I have left her uncertain of me and that cannot continue. As I said, I but wished to have everything in order when we had this talk. I believe I can get her to understand the importance of that, at least the importance of it for me.”
“I certainly understand.” He smiled at Argus. “It will help your cause a great deal if you utter some pretty words. Lorelei is sharp of wit, but she is also very soft of heart. Do not think I mean that she will be ever demanding flatteries and assurances. But, right now, with you having been gone for a month with no word, she is not sure of herself as a woman and not sure of you.
“Lorelei never showed an interest in any man until you. She was polite to, danced with, and even kissed a few, but there was no real interest. I saw the interest in you from the first moment she spoke your name. It sounds foolish, but there was a shine in her eyes when she spoke of you. I stepped back and let matters take their course. Do not think I did not notice what went on. I chose not to interfere. Max also chose not to interfere. So not only do you have to deal with a woman who might be irritated that you disappeared for a month, but also you have one who, I believe, finally thought of herself as a woman, and now she is questioning that. So”—he waved a hand at Argus—“go and fix it.”
“Now I am duly intimidated,” said Argus as he stood up. “May I leave these papers here?”
“Of course. Big wedding or small wedding? In other words, quick or slow?”
“I am sure you will understand if I say I prefer quick. I have been without her for a month. But I will bow to what she wishes.”
The moment Argus was gone Roland rang for Max and smiled when the man entered only a moment later, revealing that he had probably been listening at the door. “So, he is back.” He patted the papers on his desk. “Brought everything to show he can support her well and has even bought a place not far from here—the very one he was held prisoner in. Now he just has to convince her.”
“I think she ought to make him suffer some. He should have at least written a letter or two.”
“Max, you are one of the few men I know who enjoys writing letters. But, yes, he should have to grovel a bit if only because he did not reassure her before he left. I think we may be having a wedding very soon.”
“Oh? Why do you think that?”
“Heard his sons talking as they headed for the attics in the east wing. One reason I was so pleased the fellow came back and acted like the gentleman he is.”
“Your Grace?”
 
“It seems my daughter who is not yet married is presenting young Darius and Olwen with twin siblings in less than eight months.” He laughed and poured Max a drink when the man sank down into the chair. “Do not worry, Max. Our Lolly will be fine. But, most important of all, she will be happy. The young fool loves her.”
“I heard. It is past time he recognized it.”
“At least he has, Max. And he will be making my child a very happy woman.” He held up his own drink, clinked his glass against Max's in a silent toast, and drank to the future of his favorite daughter.
Chapter 20
“I will not cry anymore,” said Lorelei as she stared up at the sunny sky through the leaves of her favorite tree.
 
It was a foolish promise because she suspected she would break it before the day ended. Night was the worst time for trying to hold to such a vow. She would lie in her bed painfully alone, aching for Sir Argus Wherlocke, needing his warmth at her side. Then the regrets and the questions would begin, pounding in her head and stealing her sleep. Regrets for the loss of something so wonderful, something she needed so badly, and questions about why she had failed to make him love her. The answers brought the bitter taste of failure, and then she would cry. She always cried. It was beginning to make her very angry.
Perhaps it is the anger I should cling to
, she thought. Anger was so much sweeter than regret and failure. Anger did not cause people to look at her with pity or try to talk to her, cheer her, or encourage her. Anger would make people leave her alone and, at this moment, she rather liked the idea of being alone in her misery.
For a moment, she tried to convince herself that Argus was just acting like a man, that he did not like writing and had not given any thought to how much time had passed. It did not work, just as it had not worked for the last fortnight. Olympia could convince her for a short time that Argus would be back, but the moment she left or even just stopped speaking, the doubt was back.
“And I am so weary of doubting,” she muttered.
Now she had to concern herself with the fact that she was carrying Argus's child.
Children,
she corrected and nearly groaned. It was no true surprise that she was carrying twins as her father had produced several sets of them. Without the father of her children standing by her side, however, she was both saddened and alarmed by the news that she would soon be a mother.
 
There would be no salvaging her reputation then. For once, Vale would be correct to say her reputation was utterly destroyed. The rest of her days would be spent as the ruined daughter of the duke, the daughter who was remaining appropriately secluded and living off his largesse. Lorelei did not even want to consider how her children would suffer for being born on the wrong side of the blanket. Being the grandsons of the duke, and she knew her father would not hesitate to recognize them as such, would not really save her children from the scorn and unkind whispers that would follow them all their lives.
That was, of course, if her father was not hanged for killing Sir Argus Wherlocke. Lorelei grimaced at the mere thought of her father's fury. There might be some disappointment revealed for the way she had behaved, but she knew most of her father's anger was going to fall on Argus's head. The hurt part of her wanted that, but her heart did not want the man it loved hurt. Certainly not by the other man she loved dearly.
The sweet song of a robin drew her attention from her dark thoughts, and she studied the little bird with its bright breast for a moment. Birds did not have trouble with men. They found a mate in the spring, raised their family, and then, next spring, found another. So beautifully simplistic. Lorelei wished people could be that way, but people had hearts that got in the way of such rational simplicity. They made rules and laws, and had morals, or at least pretended to. They also did not have to worry about the trouble their father might get into if he decided honor demanded he shoot the rogue who despoiled his daughter.
“Do you know, Master Robin, mayhap the solution to my trouble is to load Papa's pistols and shoot the miserable, rutting swine myself?”
Argus frowned as he heard Lorelei discuss his murder at her hands with, if he was not mistaken, a bird. This did not bode well for his carefully planned talk of marriage. Her father was right. He would have to try and soothe a lot of troubled waters.
“It is good of a daughter to want to take such a burden off a father's hands,” he said as he slipped into her hiding place. “I, on the other hand, would like it if you gave the miserable rutting swine a chance to explain himself.”
Lorelei looked at the man she loved and had the strongest urge to get up and kick him. Several times. Her heart leapt with joy, but her mind demanded some answers. For all the time he had been at Sundunmoor she had been the one in pursuit, although she liked to think she had been subtle about it. She would not leap into his arms now, not after a month with no word, and show him just how delighted her heart was to have him back before he had even attempted to apologize for his neglect.
“Have you come by to collect your family?” she asked as she sat up, frowning when he sat down right next to her without being invited to.
“I did not know they were still here.”
Oddly enough, his apparent ignorance of his family's presence pleased her, if only because it proved they were not the reason he was back at Sundunmoor. “They have not left. Oh, Iago and Leopold did, but your sister, Septimus, Delmar, and your sons are still here. Bened was until yestereve, but that was because he was entertaining the widow Morris. Obviously, the entertaining has ended.”
“Bened? Huh. I had not seen him as a man for the ladies.”
“Perhaps it runs in the blood.”
Lorelei wanted to kick herself now. There had been unmistakable jealousy behind those words. There was the touch of a gleam of amusement in his eyes, but he had the sense not to smile. Lorelei had to fight hard to cling to a sense of anger and outrage over being ignored for so long just to smother the blush that threatened to bloom on her cheeks.
 
“It may, but most Wherlockes and Vaughns cast such reckless behavior aside when they meet the woman they are fated for.”
Argus thought that a nice, romantic statement, but the woman he loved eyed him with suspicion. He cautiously reached out and took her hands in his. He wanted to take her fully into his arms, but, although she did not yank her hands free of his, she sat tense and unwelcoming as she watched him.
“Lorelei, I told you I had matters that needed attending to,” he said.
“Yes, although you never did tell me what they were before you left so abruptly.”
“I needed to go and see the man I work for in the government to settle the last of that business with Cornick. There were questions to be answered and more men to arrest. Then I set about the business of settling my own affairs.”
“Your business,” she said, reminding herself that a man had to do something to earn his money, even if all it consisted of was collecting rents and seeing that the harvest was good.
“Yes, my business. To sort out my finances and set them in order, to see that the house in London is soon to be ready to be lived in, and to find myself a house in the country. I bought that deserted manor I spent so much time in as Cornick's guest.”
“You did what? Why would you want to buy that place unless it was to burn it to the ground?”
“The house did nothing to me. Cornick was the cause of my misery there. It is a good house, solid, sturdy, and with some very fine lands attached, lands that can be made profitable. The man who owned it, Cornick's brother, was more than happy to have it taken off his hands. I could have played on his belief that it was a weight, producing little income, but I fear I looked at the fool and was sorry that he had been cursed with such a brother, one who had now thoroughly blackened the family name. We agreed to a price that was both fair to him and affordable for me. I have been having it repaired for a fortnight now and it is nearly ready to be lived in.”
Lorelei was not sure she could abide him living so close at hand if he did not want her to live with him. Yet, she also could not believe he would be so cruel. A little spark of hope bloomed in her heart and refused to be vanquished by the hard cold fact that he had not yet mentioned what, if anything, he intended to do with her now that he had so nicely sorted out his lands and finances.
“So you will be close at hand,” she said.
“Lorelei, I did all this for one reason. I wanted to show your father that I could care for you, financially, as you ought to be cared for. I wanted him to see that, although I am not as highborn as you, I can both support you and house you in a fine manner.”
“Argus, I cannot be your mistress.”
She halted when he placed one long finger against her lips. He looked both dismayed and a little irritated. Lorelei was not sure, but she had the distinct feeling that he was insulted but did not blame her for the insult.
 
“I would never ask you to come and live with me at Tandem House to be my mistress. I would never shame you so before your family, many of whom live close at hand, although the way I have behaved since meeting you undoubtedly allows you to think I could do so. I am bungling this, but my hope is that you will come to live there with me as my wife.”
It was what she had wanted from the start. Lorelei knew that her heart was dancing in her chest in utter joy, for it beat so hard she was amazed he showed no sign of hearing it, but her mind forced her to hesitate. Where were the words of caring, the words of love and passion? He spoke of housing her, of having enough money to please her father despite the fact that society would see him as reaching very high above his station for a wife.
Did he not know that such things did not matter to her? Or to her father? He had spent a lot of time with them all and should know what was important to her family, yet his words were all of practical matters. Unfortunately, she did not know how to get him to tell her what she needed to know, to let her see what was in his heart.
 
“Ah, you hesitate,” Argus murmured and sighed. “I have made you angry. Lorelei, I did all that for me, not you. I did it all because I had to face your father with a full purse and property. I knew you would not care, and in many ways, knew your father would not care.
I
cared.
I
needed to prove to myself that I could care for you as you should be cared for.
“It is not just that your father is a duke and I am a knight, or that you would be a prize for men far higher placed than I. It is just that I did not want you to think I was asking you to be mine for any reason other than that I want you as my wife.”
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why do you want me to be your wife?”
Argus stared at her. There was a hint of anxiousness in her voice and her face. He realized that she wanted to hear more than words concerning the state of his purse and his lands. Slowly he pulled her into his arms, ignoring the tension in her body.
“You are the only one I want to be my wife. That is the whole reason I went away to do those things. I erred in becoming so intent on that business that I never thought to send word to you, to let you know that you were still in my thoughts.”
“It would have been nice to hear what you were doing from time to time,” she said as she leaned her cheek against his chest, savoring the sound of the steady beat of his heart.
“I realize that, now that I have been made aware of how much time has passed, of how you may have thought yourself deserted.” He placed his hands on either side of her face and turned it up to his. “I worked to get back here, worked unceasingly. I but ask that you forgive a man his pride, a pride that demanded I come to you with such things as money and lands.”
“Argus.” She blushed, the words she wanted to say sticking in her throat, and then stiffened her spine. “I appreciate the fact that you wish to keep me well housed and clothed, but I need more. I have offered you more a time or two, but you never responded, never indicated that it was what you wanted. But, you see, it is not only what I wish to give, it is what I need to get in return.”
“Oh, I heard you whisper those beautiful words and I have held them close, greedily hoarding them, but I did not see myself as worthy of holding you for longer than a short time. Then I almost lost you, watched you lying there bleeding and knew there were words I needed to say to you, words I might never have the chance to say. It was then that I decided that I would get all I needed to present myself to your father as a good match. Mayhap not as high a standing as he could demand for you, but still a good match who could support you without trouble.”
“So you waited until I healed and then left, never hinting that you intended to return and marry me?”
“Perhaps not the most well-thought-out plan of action,” he muttered and then brushed a kiss over her lips, his whole body aching to take more. “I want you as my wife. I want to wake up beside you every morning. I want to make love to you every night. Name any way a man can want to hold fast to one woman and that is the way I want you. You are my sun, Lorelei,” he said quietly. “I can see a future now and it holds only you. I love you.” He frowned when tears filled her eyes.
“Oh, do not fret,” she said and gently patted his cheek. “I but cry a little because I have wished to hear you say that for so very long.”
Argus kissed her as he had been wanting to since he had first set eyes on her, devouring her mouth and reveling in the sweet heat of her kiss. The way her passion rose to meet his eased the last of his fears that he might not win her for his own. He had acted with unhesitating determination to get all he believed he needed to win her father's approval, but he admitted to himself now, that he had always been a little uncertain that he would be able to win hers.

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