Make Me Love You (33 page)

She probably shouldn’t have ended that with a half smirk. Robert flushed with livid color, but when he raised a fist to her, she thrust her chin out and snarled, “Go ahead, I dare you. I’d love to see you in jail for it. If you think I won’t scream murder to see that happen, think again.”

“Bitch,” he snarled as he walked away.

“Defiler of innocents,” she said just loudly enough that only he would hear it.

He didn’t stop. She did see both his hands form fists. And he almost broke the door to the shop he slammed it so hard on his way out. But then she’d never spoken to him like that before. Maybe she should have made clear a long time ago just how much she hated him, instead of going out of her way to avoid him. Did he think she had forgiven or forgotten the pain he’d caused her when she was too young to know how to prevent it?

She didn’t need to sniff what was in the vial he’d given her before she threw it in a rubbish bin. She didn’t doubt it was poison of one kind or another, despite Robert’s denial. He wasn’t going to stop trying to get rid of Dominic for one simple reason—because he wouldn’t feel safe until he did.

W
HEN BROOKE RETURNED TO
the town house that afternoon, she soon heard about the extra horse his lordship had come home with. But it didn’t occur to her until she was resting in her room that Dominic’s coming home with a new horse could mean only one thing. He either already had a mistress, or he’d found one that quickly today, or maybe even last night after dinner. Either way, she guessed the horse was for her to seal their bargain. She ought to go have a look at it. If she could stop crying, maybe she would.

“It’s that bad, is it?”

“Freda!” Brooke leaped off the bed with a laugh. “You’re early.”

“I made sure of that. Gabriel didn’t like taking turns driving that big coach, but I was persuasive.”

“With a clobbering or . . . ?”

“ ‘Or’ worked.” The maid grinned.

They had a lot to catch up on . . . well, Brooke did. Alfreda’s trip to London was apparently quite uneventful and summed
up in just a few words about the unpleasantness of trying to sleep in a moving coach. Brooke’s trip was too eventful, but she glossed over most of it and couldn’t manage to mention the early wedding night she’d had before arriving in London. She would, just maybe after the wedding, when it wouldn’t be so embarrassing and earn her a scolding.

But she did mention her run-in with Robert and Dominic’s exasperating behavior, ending with “He spent last night with some other woman.”

“Did he? But he’s not married yet and you haven’t made him love you yet.”

“Are you really trying to tell me what happens before the wedding doesn’t count?”

“When the wedding wasn’t his idea, when he never proposed? Yes, I am indeed. Now if it happens after the wedding, there’s an herb I’ve never stocked that is reputed to render a man incapable of performing in bed. I’ll see if I can find some here in London. I’ve always wanted to test it on someone to see if it’s true. I’ve just never met a man I dislike enough to try it on.”

“Permanently incapable?”

“No, of course not.” Alfreda winked. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

It took a moment for Brooke to realize that Alfreda was just trying to lighten her mood with nonsense. That statement that Dominic’s unfaithfulness shouldn’t count before the wedding was reasonable, though, particularly since the bargain was
her
idea.

She helped Alfreda to unpack the trunks when they were brought in. But another soft knock came at her door almost as soon as the footmen filed out. She certainly wasn’t expecting to
see Dominic standing in the corridor. He was dressed to go out, or maybe he was just returning? She immediately thought of the woman her suspicions imagined he’d been with last night—and again today? Maybe she should have asked for a horse per copulation, she thought with a mental growl.

He handed her a folded card. “I’ve accepted one of my mother’s invitations that included me. Most of her friends expect me to be in town at this time of year. Be ready by eight tonight. Oh, and dress accordingly. It’s a ball we’ll be attending.”

Brooke immediately stopped thinking about him and other women. “A party when your mother is so sick?”

“She’s improving. Go see for yourself. And it was her suggestion.”

“Do you even dance?”

“With four legs I might be a bit clumsy, but”—he glanced down at his legs—“ah, just two today.”

She grinned at his teasing. “I didn’t mean to imply that.”

“Just that I’m a Yorkshire clod who was never taught?”

She rolled her eyes and teased back, “Yes, that.”

“Well, in any case, we have a purpose in going, to show the Prince how famously we’re getting along.”

“He’s going to be there?”

“He might. He’s been known to favor Lady Hewitt’s parties with an appearance. They are old friends. So no fighting tonight, Babble.”

He walked away. She barely even noticed, the excitement of her first ball already starting to fill her. She turned to tell Alfreda, “Unpack—”

“I heard. I thought you said his mother was ill enough to warrant your rushing to London with him.”

“She was, but your recipes appear to be helping. I haven’t
been back to see for myself. My presence quite upset her, so I’ve stayed away. She didn’t like me a’tall.”

“I hated the woman who might have been my mother-in-law. My mother hated hers. You don’t need to follow suit. She’ll be the grandmother of your children. Make an effort to like her for their sake.”

Brooke hadn’t considered that. Harriet would be their grandmother, too, whom they would hopefully rarely see. So it would be nice if they had at least one grandmother to love and dote on them. She nodded and went straight to Anna’s room.

The lady wasn’t sleeping this time. As Brooke approached the bed, she saw that Anna was no longer quite as pale, and even her lips were smooth again. Her eyes were fully open and alert now, too. Maybe the doctor had misdiagnosed her. The woman definitely didn’t look as if she was dying now.

“I was wondering if you would visit your patient again.”

Was that a slight smile? “I didn’t think you wanted me to, madam.”

“I admit I don’t make a good patient. I do apologize for that.” That was a nice way to put those horrid circumstances. But Anna wasn’t going to just ignore it, either. “I hadn’t realized how preposterous the threat was, hanging over our heads, yours included. That the Regent would take everything we own, the title, the houses, the coal mines, Dom’s ships. He would leave us paupers, giving us no choice in the matter.”

“I believe he saw this as an opportunity for himself. For that to backfire on him, he would need to think he’s done us a favor instead.”

Anna grinned. “I like the way you think, girl. The same thing occurred to me. Indeed, that would stick in his craw, wouldn’t it?”

Brooke blushed only slightly when she admitted, “I can’t take credit for it. It’s your son’s idea for us to put on a good performance tonight at the ball he’s taking me to, if the Prince is there, to give the impression we are pleased with the match.”

Anna cleared her throat. “I’m not going to pussyfoot around the subject, m’dear. I’m sure you know that Dom did hope you would refuse him. He can unfortunately be excessively blunt. But you haven’t run home. So be it. I accept that neither of you really has a choice in this. So we must make the best of it, all of us.”

A kernel of doubt was in Brooke’s mind that those words were sincere, until Anna added, “And—and thank you for healing his leg
and
me. I realize you didn’t have to do either, but you’ve helped us anyway. You have a good heart, Brooke Whitworth. Amazing, considering the stock you come from.”

Brooke laughed, couldn’t help it. A compliment and a backhanded slur. But considering her own feelings weren’t far off the same mark, she said, “We don’t get to choose our stock, more’s the pity.”

“I just want my boy to be happy. D’you think you can do that?”

“If he’ll stop blaming me for the sins of others, yes, I do think that’s possible.”

“Then as Dominic said, the burden is on him.”

B
ROOKE HUGGED ANNA
’
S FINAL
words to her as she hurriedly prepared for the ball. They gave her hope. Had she found the family she’d always wished for in the Wolfes?

Dominic said they would leave at eight o’clock, and she only had a few hours to bathe, dress, and have her hair styled, but with Alfreda’s help she managed it.

After combing the last lock of Brooke’s lustrous black hair into place, Alfreda stood back and gazed at her. “You look—” Alfreda didn’t finish. It even looked as if she might cry.

Brooke grinned. “That bad?”

That got a snort out of the maid. “You’ve never looked more beautiful. Your mother has done you proud.”

That got a snort out of Brooke. “All she did was pick the color of the gown. I got to choose the design.”

“I wish she could see you tonight” was said in a mumble, then louder: “I think I will mention to your husband that he should have you painted in this gown.”

“Don’t do that. Aside from the fact that he won’t want any
record of me being part of his family, at least not hanging on his wall, his reply will probably make you angry.”

Alfreda’s brows narrowed. “What’s happened to make you lose your confidence?”

“Other than that he jumped on my bargain? Or that his anger is barely below the surface again after he ran into Robert yesterday?”

“What bargain?”

“Never mind. It was just a business deal that might win his friendship someday. I’m at least still hopeful of that. And don’t make me late.”

Alfreda finished fastening the emerald choker to Brooke’s neck. The emerald-tipped pins had already been added to her coiffure, and the bracelet sparkled on her wrist. All three of her ball gowns were made for these jewels, each in different shades of pale green with trimmings to distinguish them. This one was bordered in lime silk with silver sequins. And not one decent mirror in the room other than her small handheld one. But she trusted Alfreda not to let her out the door with anything out of place.

“You should smile when you first see him.”

“So he doesn’t notice the lack of a tucker? He really didn’t like it when I wore that evening gown without one.”

“He liked it, he just didn’t like what it did to him,” Alfreda stated without inflection.

Brooke giggled. She probably shouldn’t have known exactly what Alfreda was implying, so she quickly left the room before the maid wondered about it. And she did smile, since Dominic was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. She’d draped a thin, tasseled shawl across her chest, since she’d rather he not yet see just how low her décolletage was.

It was the first time she was seeing him in evening attire,
the black tailcoat, the dark gray waistcoat under it, and a pristine white cravat tied perfectly, and his dark hair tied back so tightly not a lock would escape his queue. Had his valet come to London, too? She tried to imagine Dominic tying that fancy cravat and couldn’t.

“You look very handsome.” She managed not to blush saying it.

“I suppose that pleases you?”

She started to frown until she realized, “Yes, of course, you will have the ladies drooling over you.”

“I’d rather they not actually do that, but as long as you’re pleased, shall we?”

She preceded him out the door to the waiting coach. The driver helped her into it before Dominic could. She sat in the seat on the opposite side of the one where she had sat in the hack the other day, expecting to be across from him, yet when he got in the coach, he still sat next to her. At least there was enough room this time for them not to be touching, though it didn’t seem to matter. He was still too close, still filled her mind too much. Just two more days and she would know if marriage to him would make any sort of difference. . . .

“You will dance with no one but me tonight.”

She glanced aside at him. “Is that normal for an affianced couple? Actually, are we even that?”

“A royal edict negates the necessity of asking, so, yes, we are, which is why you didn’t need a chaperone for tonight. My mother did offer to arrange one, but I declined. I didn’t think you would want a chaperone to overhear you pointing out prospective mistresses to me.”