One Final Season (10 page)

‘Then at least we’ll never be bored,’ he said with a rueful grin.

‘At the moment a nice, comfortable attack of
ennui
would suit me very well, but will it work?’ she said rather obscurely.

‘Will what work?’ he asked warily.

‘Throwing dust in their faces.’

‘Oh, that—it depends on what they decide to do next, I suppose.’

‘How reassuring.’

‘You’re not the sort of female who wants a pat on the head and a parcel of pretty lies, my dear.’

‘I’m not
your dear
.’

‘I think we’d better hope you are, Kate. We’ll endure an unhappy marriage if it turns out that you’re not.’

‘Then why marry me at all?’

He watched her as if fascinated. ‘I never took you for a fool, however I railed at your obduracy when I begged you to marry me and got a polite “no, thank you” for my trouble, but maybe I’d have been better off respecting your intelligence less from the outset,’ he said as if in the grip of a startling revelation.

‘Are you telling me I’m
stupid
?’

‘I’d never be so ungallant. Lady Pemberley, I appeal to you—did I even hint that your protégée is a lack-wit just now?’

‘No, and I should have to reproach you for such a slur, my lord.’

‘It won’t work, so you might as well stop provoking me,’ Kate said.

‘Have you got anything interesting to say about our betrothal, then?’ Edmund asked as Kate reminded herself she wasn’t going to indulge in a redheaded temper.

‘I believe it takes a proposal from the gentleman, then acceptance on the part of the lady to constitute a betrothal. At no time tonight can I recall receiving a formal offer of marriage from you, my lord, or accepting it.’

‘Knowing that I laid myself at your queenly feet more times than either of us care to remember in the past will just have to suffice. I promised myself that last time that I’d never beg you to marry me again and it’s one vow I fully intend to keep.’

‘Which doesn’t bode well for our future,’ she said quietly.

‘I dare say we’ll rub along well enough,’ he said with a careless cheerfulness she hated. ‘You’re a fine woman and I’m in dire need of an heir or two, so you’ll hear no complaints from me. Just see to it that you abide by your vows and I think we’ll suit like ham and eggs at the breakfast table.’

‘How very reassuring,’ she answered faintly, wondering if she was meant to be flattered.

‘You wanted a marriage of convenience,’ Eiliane reminded her sneakily.

‘I did, didn’t I?’ she replied numbly and tried to comfort herself with the memory of Edmund’s fiery kisses.

How silly to find she wanted an impassioned lover after all and not the detached and sardonic husband he promised to be. Regret threatened once more, along with bitter nostalgia for the ardent, love-struck young aristocrat he’d once been. That Edmund had bombarded her with flowers, thoughtfully chosen trinkets and sent with them fervent assurances of his enduring love. Fool that she was, she’d brushed him aside as if he was an importunate boy, instead of a young man who’d one day become this mature Adonis and break too many susceptible feminine hearts, including her own if she let him. Some Adonis, she reminded herself as she straightened her shoulders and met his unreadable grey-green gaze. And some enduring love when, three years on from swearing she’d break his heart for ever if she refused to marry him, he was watching her as if she were a specimen he was studying for a paper at the Royal Society.

‘Have we got a bargain, Miss Alstone?’ he asked mercilessly.

‘It would seem so, Lord Shuttleworth,’ she agreed, refusing to let her eyes fall while she admitted he was to be her fate, for good or ill.

‘Then I’ll take a kiss to seal it with, saving your presence, Lady Pemberley?’

‘Oh, I’ll turn my back, never fear,’ Eiliane said blithely and Kate glared at her friend as she did just that. ‘I swear I can feel that furious glare of yours, Kate,’ her ladyship murmured irrepressibly.

‘I’m quite sure you can,’ Kate muttered vengefully.

Then she forgot her annoyance with her inefficient chaperon as Edmund’s lips once more took hers in a potent, passionate kiss that rendered her breathless and defenceless before Eiliane had hardly finished turning away. Shock, she assured herself. That was why she melted into his masculine arms as if formed to fit them. Yielding to the pressure of his firm mouth on hers, she opened her lips and let him invade the softness within. Her breath caught and her hands clenched in a vain attempt to stop them creeping up to caress his strong neck and ruffle his vital golden-brown hair, where it curled irrepressibly into his nape and tempted exploration.

He knew all the same; she felt it in the smile he let form against her willing mouth, the way he shifted to bring her body so close even she couldn’t mistake his arousal. It was blatant, startlingly explicit as she felt melting heat threaten to rob her of the use of her legs until she clung to him and yielded everything. His passionate enjoyment of her femininity made her feel unique and special, and she needed to know there was something more in their future than duty and the mutual respect she’d once thought so important.

‘That’s enough kissing to seal half a dozen bargains,’ Eiliane observed, even though she was staring appreciatively at a portrait of her husband as a young man that hung in pride of place over the mantelpiece and obviously not at all bored with the sight. Kate could have sworn she heard a satisfied sigh as Eiliane added another triumph to her matchmaker’s tally.

‘I’ve had enough of everything for one day, so you may do as you please about announcements, my lord. I’m tired and confused and I can’t do this any more,’ Kate confessed with a catch in her voice she hated anyone to hear.

‘Aye,’ Edmund agreed. ‘Go to bed now and ring for a posset to help you sleep. You need rest after such a day, and the one we’ll face tomorrow.’

She must be exhausted for his concern to threaten tears, Kate decided. ‘I’m not a child,’ she managed to remind him shrewishly when she turned at the door to take one last, incredulous look at her new fiancé, not quite sure if she’d dreamt up such a handsome one after the last weeks of uncertainty and self-doubt.

‘That much is blatantly obvious,’ he drawled, letting his eyes wander over her flushed cheeks and heavy eyes, now the darkest of blue with the richness and potential of what could be between them left over from that last kiss. He went on with his scrutiny of her supple young body in a way that left her in no doubt he relished every single slender curve and elegant line of her and couldn’t wait to take his bride to his bed and begin his marital duties.

‘I fear there’s a great deal to be done in the morning,’ Edmund added when he finally managed to tear his gaze from her tingling form.

‘A very great deal,’ Eiliane agreed gravely.

‘So you will call on us, then?’ Kate asked and could have kicked herself for sounding so betrayingly eager.

‘I don’t know, I thought I might go and order a new pair of boots, or perhaps a visit to my tailor and then a stroll to my club to see if I could meet up with a few old friends to pass an idle hour or two reasonably pleasantly instead,’ he was stung into replying. ‘Of course I’ll be calling on you as soon as I decently can and, if you’re still asleep after such a wearisome night as this one has been, I’ll wait until you’re awake and plague Pemberley instead,’ he added roughly as soon as he saw she was half-inclined to believe him.

‘Oh, very well then,’ she said and found herself wishing stupidly that he was coming upstairs with her, to kiss her gently into sleep as a lover might after they’d worn out the night with loving, even if he only slept chastely beside her for the brief sliver of night still left to them now.

‘Until tomorrow, ladies,’ was all he could say or do until she really was his to take to bed whenever and wherever they chose, his jade, silver and wildfire gaze told her, as it lingered on her once more and it boldly caressed and promised her all that and more until she shivered with anticipation.

‘Goodnight then, Eiliane, Edmund,’ she muttered and made her legs carry her away, before her wicked desires led her to say something foolish.

‘Goodnight, lover,’ he murmured intimately as she went past.

Almost as if, she reminded herself indignantly as she heard the echoes of the door closing behind her,
almost
as if he already had the right to strip her of her ball gown and explore every inch of woman underneath it bit by sensuous bit, while he worked her into an incoherent mess of passion and eagerness for his ardent attention. Trying not to agree with him, she ordered her weary feet upwards and went to bed dreaming of him instead of the evil she’d overheard or the scandal their betrothal would probably be entangled in by morning.

Chapter Ten

‘W
as teasing and tormenting poor Kate after such an extraordinary evening as she just weathered altogether fair of you, Lord Shuttleworth?’ Eiliane mused as she was left facing a rather self-satisfied viscount.

‘Not at all, but it made her forget those two villains and their foul schemes. I could hardly take her to bed and divert her with a night of untrammelled passion under your respectable roof instead, now could I, Lady Pemberley?’

‘Not from want of trying, so far as I could tell just now.’

‘You mean you didn’t position yourself cunningly enough so that you could see everything that went on between us in yonder mirror without Kate knowing it, my lady? How very noble of you.’

‘You’re so sharp you run the worst risk of cutting yourself I ever came across in a man,’ she condemned with a strong hint of admiration.

‘If I were that clever, I’d have taken myself off on that tour of the Continent the instant Boney set out for Elba in the year fourteen and it was open to travellers again for the first time in years, my lady.’

‘Since you’re about to become an adoptive godson to me, you really must call me Eiliane from now on instead of all this my-ladying, but do you mean it?’

‘Do I mean what, Eiliane?’

‘You have a very annoying habit of answering a question with a question that could make me regret taking your side in all this after all, I hope you know?’ she said with gentle malice and he grinned back at her as if they understood each other perfectly. ‘I meant, of course, do you truly regret not leaving the country before Kate made her come-out? If you really don’t wish to marry her, you’d best confess it straight away so we can get you both out of this betrothal without ruining Kate’s good name, or putting you beyond the pale.’

‘Is that even possible after tonight’s almost-announcement? It sounds beyond the wisdom of Solomon to me.’

‘Most things are possible if one goes about them in the right manner, but one has to know first if they are also desirable, my lord.’

‘Back to that, are we?’

‘If necessary,’ Eiliane replied implacably, letting her absolute loyalty to Kate show, even if she would think her protégée illogical as a London mob if she thought about letting this fascinating young lord slip through her fingers once more.

‘No, I’m very satisfied with the outcome,’ he replied seriously enough, ‘if not exactly delighted by the way it had to be achieved.’

‘Good—it’s my belief Kate doesn’t know her own mind.’

‘I doubt I’ll ever know what goes on in her contrary head, but I intend to guard her happiness with my life. How else would I behave towards my wife after all?’

‘Being a man of honour?’

He shrugged and looked as if honour was the last thing on his mind, but she could believe it if she chose, and Eiliane hid a smile of catlike satisfaction. None of this had happened quite as she’d expected, but Kate was engaged to a man of wit and character who wouldn’t let her lead him about by the nose at last and, for now, that would do her very well.

‘You’ll have a fight on your hands, on more than one front,’ she warned.

‘I dare say I’ll weather it.’

‘Remember that Kate’s really a very different creature under all that stubborn reserve and contrary coolness, Edmund Worth, one who could be badly hurt by a husband who didn’t understand her.’

‘I’ll never willingly hurt her, I can promise you that at least.’

‘Then I’m content.’

‘Would that I were, too,’ he replied obscurely, before bowing and wishing her a good night. Lady Pemberley retired to her splendid bedchamber just before her lord ran lithely up the stairs at a speed many men half his age would envy to join her and diverted her attention from anyone’s marriage but their own.

Edmund chose to walk home, despite the offer of his carriage from the Marquis of Pemberley when that gentleman returned home very late and found him about to depart. Apparently his lordship had been dining with some obscure official who probably had more real influence than the Prince Regent and his entire circle of raffish friends put together. The marquis obviously moved in the most exalted of political circles and, if he didn’t watch his step, Edmund might be at risk of joining them. He reported his engagement and received his lordship’s hearty good wishes, as well as a half-serious threat to horsewhip him if he ever made Kate unhappy, which he took in good part as he silently agreed that he’d deserve it if he didn’t, before he finally set out for home.

He wasn’t as weary as he should be after such a night and took a convoluted route home through Mayfair, where dawn was already stealing into shadowy corners and town-bred blackbirds and song thrushes were chirruping in readiness for performing a dawn chorus in the parks and gardens along his way like an orchestra tuning up. He needed to walk himself into at least a few hours’ sleep against the day ahead of him, so he strolled on through the dawn and the already stirring city, considering how different his life was now from when he set out for an evening spoilt by the familiar frustration of watching Kate dance and flirt with other men.

Kate had responded to him with such headlong enthusiasm tonight, or last night or whatever it was now, just as she had in his wildest dreams so many times in the past. Not being able to take that passionate response to its logical conclusion had left him with an inevitable burn of frustration and a spike of exhilaration that would keep him from sleeping properly until his wedding night if he let it. After all, self-restraint and denial were feelings he should be all too familiar with, but now Kate had tacitly agreed that their becoming lovers would be the most wondrous thing this side of paradise and it was newly minted.

Fighting both of them until he’d got his ring on her finger at last would be a gargantuan struggle, but in the meantime, he intended to make her think harder than she wanted to about that blazing attraction. Yes, if he was to suffer weeks of longing for her until he could finally slake it in their marriage bed, she could spend them considering why she belonged in no other bed but his. The very idea of her marrying another man made him so angry that his staff tiptoed about him when he finally got home and whispered knowledgeably that his lordship must be disappointed in love again to return home looking so grim.

‘Good gracious, Welland, where on earth is everyone?’ a familiar voice in the corridor outside Kate’s bedchamber demanded next morning.

She did her best to bury her head under the pillow and pretend last night had been a disturbing dream, but her memory told her she was undoubtedly engaged to Edmund Worth and nobody could have imagined those deeply sensual kisses they’d shared so enthusiastically that her body throbbed eagerly at the very memory, before she told it sternly to behave itself.

‘Surely they’re not
still
abed on such a lovely morning, especially when I managed to rise from my sick-bed with the dawn to post here hotfoot,’ the annoyingly happy and altogether too-awake voice outside asked again.

So her sister Isabella really was yelling wrongheaded observations as unsubtly as ever and it wasn’t a nightmare as she’d hoped, Kate decided grumpily. She reluctantly removed her head from its down-and-fine-linen sanctuary and rang the bell. If she was going to have to cope with Izzie in what sounded like tearing spirits, then getting dressed seemed not only called for, but just plain essential.

Evidently Eiliane agreed with her, for half an hour later all three ladies were installed in the morning room, drinking tea and eating breakfast while they came to terms with the day.

‘Don’t tell me you travelled all night just to get here at such an unearthly hour and badger us out of our nice, comfortable beds?’ Kate queried as Isabella continued to look rudely healthy and annoyingly serene whilst tucking into an enormous plate of ham and eggs.

‘Then I won’t, sister dear. Being a proper and sensible young lady now that I must make my come-out at last, and knowing what a life of dissipation you two lead, we stopped in Windsor last night and came on this morning in an attempt to cosset my failing strength, rather than arrive scandalously late to an empty house last night.’

‘You don’t look very weak to me,’ Kate said with a sceptical sniff, wishing she had half as much energy as her little sister, who was glowing with her accustomed health and vitality once more after her recent illness.

‘I either had to promise to behave like a Bath breakdown and coddle myself all the way here, or submit to setting out on my journey with the entire Mausley family in attendance, with most of Richard’s university friends threatening to act as outriders. Agreeing to spend a couple of nights on the road was a small price to pay for escaping such a ridiculous fuss. We would have taken for ever to get here, what’s more, and I’d already had enough of Bath and all those silly young boys.’

‘Proving importunate, were they?’ Kate asked cynically, knowing the effect her sister’s deceptively angelic countenance had on susceptible young gentlemen.

‘Maddening,’ her sister agreed without any sign of vanity or gratification.

‘Never mind all that,’ Eiliane put in impatiently and Kate braced herself for the announcement she was sure to make. ‘I hope Lady Mausley didn’t send you all this way alone, however much fuss you kicked up about being properly accompanied,’ she said anxiously, confounding Kate’s fears she was about to describe last night’s misadventures and unknowingly putting her in her place at the same time.

Isabella rolled her eyes at the very idea and sighed. ‘Would that she had,’ she said disgustedly. ‘If you care to look upstairs, you will find that Emily’s maiden aunt is currently lying down in your best guest chamber, doing her best to recover from the extreme fatigue of driving here from Windsor this morning at a pace quite suitable for the average funeral. Her companion, who also happens to be Miss Mausley’s former governess and as ancient and formidable a lady as you’ll ever encounter, is attending her along with Miss Mausley’s maid, who could sour milk with a single glance at the best of times and apparently this isn’t the best of times. The Mausleys’ coachman, two footmen and a postillion are being stowed wherever they can be found room even in your grand residence, my lady, and they are all awaiting what I hope will be a very speedy recovery and a swift return to Bath of the whole caravanserai.’

‘Well then, Fanny Mausley certainly sent you off in style, so I’ll grant she’s a proper and caring hostess, even if she did carelessly allow you to get the mumps in the first place, love.’

‘She certainly didn’t have anything to do with that, as I picked them up all on my own and, so long as she did actually send me off at last, that was all I really cared about,’ Isabella said ungratefully and went over to investigate the covered dishes on the sideboard for further sustenance.

‘She was probably worried you’d eat her out of house and home after so many weeks of ransacking Bath and the surrounding area for supplies,’ Kate observed with a shudder as she watched her sister pile her plate with yet more ham and eggs.

‘I’m hungry and I’d dearly like to know just what’s put your hair so out of curl this morning, sister dear,’ Izzie demanded. ‘I hope you haven’t been overindulging?’

‘Of course I haven’t and, if I had, it would be my business and none of yours.’

‘Now there you’re quite wrong, for it won’t help my début if I have to go about London apologising because my older sister’s become a toper and could disgrace us at any moment.’

‘I don’t think many are rash enough to think any of us all that respectable in the first place and I certainly haven’t taken to the bottle in your absence, little sister, and therefore I’m not feeling in the least bit liverish,’ Kate replied, the temptation to enjoy a refreshing family argument threatening to topple her dignity at any moment.

‘Then you must have got out of the bed the wrong side, sister dear, for you look about as happy about my return as a lion with a thorn in its paw.’

‘Of course I’m pleased to see you, I was really worried about you,’ Kate admitted gruffly and almost let herself weep lachrymosely over her little sister when Izzie jumped up to hug her fiercely.

‘There really was no need to be,’ Izzie assured her cheerfully as she plumped down on her chair once more and looked genuinely delighted to be back with her family. ‘In fact, it was downright embarrassing to catch such a childish illness and have to go about looking like a gargoyle for a week or more.’

‘I wager you managed to look lovely despite it, considering you have an annoying habit of coming out of any potential disaster smelling of roses,’ Kate assured her and traded an indulgent smile with Eiliane as Isabella returned to her abandoned breakfast with vigour.

‘And so do you,’ Izzie assured her absently between mouthfuls.

‘Not this time, I didn’t,’ Kate muttered darkly, but her sister’s hearing was famously acute and Isabella shot Eiliane an interrogating look when Kate became so absorbed in buttering a slice of toast she somehow couldn’t spare time to meet her sister’s eyes.

‘It’s not my tale to tell,’ Eiliane observed with a shrug, so Kate glared at her instead.

‘I accepted Shuttleworth’s hand in marriage last night,’ she announced baldly in order to get it over with and proceed with weathering her sister’s much-too-acute scrutiny of her averted face.

‘Then why are you being so cross-grained about it? In your shoes, I’d be jumping up and down with joy to secure a fine husband I could love and respect, instead of growling and grumbling into my breakfast as if I’d just lost a guinea and found a farthing.’

‘Then
you
marry him,’ Kate snapped, then wished she could climb into a hole in the floor and pull the carpet over her when she realised Welland, Eiliane’s usually imperturbable and meticulously correct butler, had opened the door after only a brief knock in order to admit her new fiancé to this supposedly joyous family occasion and just in time for Edmund to hear her disastrous comment.

He paused at the sound of her defensive remark and watched her blush with cynical eyes, before he raised his eyebrows to let her know he’d heard. He turned to smile at Isabella, as if seeing her again had put the sunlight into his morning. Maybe it had, Kate thought in complete horror at the very idea of Edmund falling under her enchanting little sister’s spell. Something even more uncomfortable than horror jagged under her confusion as well, but she wasn’t prepared to think about what it could be, not while her ridiculous remark still echoed between the two of them and the possibility she’d just hurt him again, or even that he might now think twice about wedding her after all, dragged painfully at her thumping heart. Even Eiliane looked unusually daunted.