One Naughty Night2 (26 page)

Brendan and Dominic both groaned at the mention of such a stuffy soiree.

“I know. It’s sure to be deadly dull,” Lily said. “But we should do our duty and go. If we attend, we will receive more invitations. I can’t attend without an escort, and I want to wear my new lilac-colored gown. Dominic?”

“I’m for damned sure not going,” he answered. “I have a prior engagement. Take Brendan. It’s his turn to be dutiful anyway.”

Lily frowned at him. She could just imagine what that “other engagement” was—at a bawdy house or gambling
hell. But she could see from the hard glint in his eyes that he was not going to relent. “Very well, then. Brendan will take me.”

“I don’t suppose you’d believe I also have another engagement?” Brendan said.

“No, I would not. Besides, the assembly will not run very late. You can meet up with Dominic for all your debaucheries after.”

There was a sudden commotion in the corridor outside the breakfast room, a burst of laughter and slamming of doors, and the butler’s startled voice. Lily had just risen from her chair to see what was happening when the door flew open, and Isabel appeared there in a flurry of bonnet ribbons and red-gold curls. James trailed behind her quietly.

“I’m back!” Isabel cried. “Did you all miss me?”

“Issy, what on earth are you doing here?” Lily said as Isabel flew over to kiss her cheek before fluttering over to hug her brothers.

“You’re meant to be at the seaside,” Dominic growled when she threw her arms around him.

“Oh, it was so boring there,” Isabel declared. “I was so happy to get Father’s message saying the actress playing Hero was quite hopeless and could I come home immediately to take her place. Where is he, anyway?”

“At the theater,” Brendan said, still looking bemused at his sister’s sudden appearance.

“Then I should go there too,” Isabel said as she reached for the teapot. “I’ve been studying my lines on the journey. Now, what fun things do we have planned for tonight? Dominic, you look absolutely beastly. What have you been doing to yourself while I was gone?”

“Don’t scowl like that, Brendan,” Lily heard Isabel say as their brother led them into the assembly. “You’ll frighten everyone away. No one will want to dance with me, and I don’t get to go to assemblies as often as I would like.”

Brendan gave a harsh bark of laughter. “It would take much more than my frowns to keep your suitors away, more is the pity. None of these milksops hovering around here are worthy of you. Why did you make me come here anyway?” Brendan was never one for respectable society. Dominic was usually much more sociable.

“I told you,” Lily said. “It’s good for business to be seen in respectable places.”

“Respectable,” Brendan scoffed. “If you knew what half these fine people got up to when no one was looking…”

“I can well imagine,” Lily said with a warning glance at Isabel, who stared at them with avid interest. “But tonight it doesn’t matter. Just smile and be charming.”

“Ordinarily I would say Brendan was quite the wrong brother for that sort of thing,” said Isabel. “But Dominic has been such a bear all day, I wouldn’t trust him within a mile of such a gathering. I’ve never seen him in such a temper.”

Lily accepted a glass of punch from a footman’s tray and sipped at the tepid brew as she thought of what Brendan had said—that Dominic was out of sorts over a woman. She had no idea what sort of female could possibly have her rakish brother so overset, but she knew all too well what it felt like to be tied up in knots by passion.

She scanned the crowds of people, half hoping—or
fearing—that Aidan might be among them. Every sort of person came to the Holland House assemblies, from the queen to well-to-do merchants, everyone vying to be seen and to meet the “right” contacts. Surely even the Huntingtons sometimes attended.

But what would she do if she did see him? She could hardly talk to him, dance with him, touch him. Demand to know what he had done to get Tom Beaumont arrested, what kind of peril he put himself in.

Or kiss him senseless.

Lily studied the people around them. It was all much more subdued than an evening at the Devil’s Fancy, and a whole world away from cheap barrooms and the Lambeth night market. The young ladies, like Isabel in her pale blue organdy ruffles, wore pastels and pearls, while everyone else was a blend of dark greens and grays and purples against the men’s black evening coats. The dancers, a long, orderly line moving in a quadrille, were reflected in the gilt-framed mirrors. Conversation was subdued and polite.

Lily caught a glimpse of herself in the mirrored wall, another stylish, quiet figure in her dark lilac silk gown, and was shocked at how calm she appeared.

An older couple who were frequent patrons of the Majestic stopped to ask about the new production, and Lily was soon distracted by the talk of plays. Even Brendan seemed to relax a bit from his usual tense watchfulness at social occasions. Isabel left to dance and returned as more people came by to converse. It was all a most ordinary, pleasant evening, a world away from where Lily had been lately.

But then the doors opened and a new party appeared.
The rest of the crowd seemed to part for them, and Lily heard the ripple of whispers move through the room. “The Duke of Carston…”

She stiffened, her smile fading as she looked at the new arrivals. It
was
the Duke of Carston, seated in a large wheeled chair, his duchess walking beside him. She was a plump, pretty lady with graying brown hair that had probably once been the rich chestnut of Aidan’s, elegantly dressed in purple-and-blue plaid satin and diamonds. She smiled serenely around her as her fierce-faced husband scowled.

Behind them was the black-haired beauty Lily had seen Aidan with in the park. She really was quite stunning, an exotic lady clad in ruffled white silk and lace, but she seemed distracted as she looked around the room. She held on to the arm of a man who seemed entirely out of place in the staid assembly room. He was tall and very lean, his strong shoulders straining the seams of his expensive evening coat. His hair, a slightly darker brown than Aidan’s and streaked with gold as if he spent lots of time outdoors, was long and tied back from the stark angles of his face. A light shadow of beard covered his jaw.

And behind them… behind them was Aidan. Smiling down at the delicate, pretty little blonde at his side.

Lily’s hand tightened on her glass, and she didn’t know where to look. She wanted to turn away, pretend to be indifferent, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from Aidan’s face. She couldn’t stop the nonsensical instinct to run to him.

Oh, she was truly a fool now.

“Look how handsome Lord Aidan is tonight,” Isabel whispered in Lily’s ear. “Don’t you agree?”

Lily gave a choked laugh. “He always looks far too handsome for the good of us females.”

“But who is that other man? He looks quite fearfully wild,” Isabel said.

Lily glanced at her to see that her sister looked far too intrigued by him.

One of the ladies who stood nearby heard Isabel’s question and said, “Why, that is Lord David Huntington! The heir to the Duke of Carston. It’s quite strange he is here tonight. He never comes to London.”

The heir, who Aidan feared would never be duke. Lily studied his stony face. He looked quite a lot like Aidan, but he did seem wild, as if he were barely confined by his fine clothes and the civilized surroundings. His golden-brown eyes were full of an almost feral caution as he scanned the gathering.

He is a hermit—he drives our father crazy
, she remembered Aidan saying. The two sons of a duke, a charming rogue and a wild man. It was like something in Shakespeare.

“Lord David Huntington,” Isabel murmured. “How fascinating.”

“Don’t get too fascinated, Issy,” Brendan said roughly. “You won’t ever be meeting him.”

“Oh, don’t be so boring, Brendan,” Isabel moaned. “We are hardly the Montagues and Capulets, you know. Ouch!”

Brendan had taken Isabel’s arm and was leading her out of the room. Lily hurried to keep up.

“Who is the barbarian now?” Isabel said. She tried to twist her head around to look at Lord David again, and Lily almost laughed. If Brendan wanted to discourage
Isabel’s interest in David Huntington, he was going about it in entirely the wrong way.

“We’ve been here long enough,” Brendan said. “It’s time we were gone.”

“Well, we can’t leave without our cloaks,” Lily said.

“And I have to go to the ladies’ withdrawing room,” Isabel huffed. She yanked her arm out of Brendan’s grasp and turned toward the staircase outside the assembly room. “You just wait here and cool your temper, brother.”

Lily followed her into the pink sanctuary of the withdrawing room, where ladies were having their torn hems repaired by the maids or sitting before mirrored dressing tables to see to their coiffures.

Isabel sank down onto a velvet chaise with a sigh. “Brothers. They can be such a blasted nuisance.”

“He’s only trying to protect you,” Lily said. She automatically glanced in the mirror and smoothed her hair. She saw that her hand trembled over the brown strands. She wouldn’t have expected seeing Aidan in different, respectable surroundings with his family would affect her, but somehow it had. It reminded her of the truth of who they both were. The gulf that lay between them.

“It’s better than being alone in the world,” she murmured.

Isabel gave her a searching glance. “Of course it is. I love my brothers, even when they make me crazy. I just don’t see the need for them to behave in such a positively Borgia-like fashion whenever there’s a glimpse of a Huntington.”

Lily sighed and sat down next to Isabel on the chaise. “I don’t either. But they
are
men, and therefore by definition unfathomable.”

“Have you seen Lord Aidan since that day in the park?” Isabel whispered.

“Once or twice,” Lily answered carefully. She couldn’t tell Isabel the truth of her affair with Aidan, the long nights when she couldn’t stay away from him. No one could know about that, ever.

Unless something had happened that night when they didn’t use precautions. Then everyone would know soon enough.

No
, Lily thought adamantly. She pressed her hands to her stomach, flattened by the bones of her corset. She felt ill just thinking about it. Ill and… strangely, horribly something like hopeful. But a child would mean ruin. Besides, she reminded herself, she had never conceived with her husband or anyone else, and her courses were due soon. It was nothing to fret about.

She pushed away the thought and smiled at Isabel, who was watching her thoughtfully.

“Aidan is not an evil ogre, is he?” Isabel said. “Even though he is a Huntington.”

“No, he’s not.”

“And I am sure his brother is not either. All of that family business happened so long ago. Why can’t Brendan and Dominic just forget it?”

“Because they’re proud, I suppose,” Lily answered. “They can’t help but resent the thought that their rightful place in the world was stolen.”

“Well, that doesn’t mean I have to be so unreasonable,” Isabel said. She had a gleam in her eyes that Lily didn’t trust at all. “Do you think I could get that wild-looking Lord David to dance with me?”

Lily laughed wryly at the thought of Brendan’s reaction if Isabel took to the dance floor with David Huntington. “Only if you never want to be allowed out of the house again.”

“As if they could really stop me!”

“Besides, Lord David doesn’t look as if he dances.”

“Hmm, no, he doesn’t. But you could dance with Lord Aidan,” Isabel said.

Lily shook her head. “No dancing for me tonight. I think it’s time we went home.”

“You go ahead and wait for me outside, Lily. I have some business to attend to.”

Lily noticed some of Isabel’s giggly young friends beckoning to her from the corner. “No mischief, Issy.”

“None at all, I promise. Not tonight anyway.”

Lily nodded and made her way out of the withdrawing room. Two ladies brushed past her on their way in, and she recognized the black-haired beauty and the little blonde who had arrived with Aidan. The dark lady gave her a startled glance, as if she recognized Lily, but then the door closed behind them.

Lily turned and saw Aidan there on the landing, his palms resting lightly on the balustrade as he gazed down at the foyer below. He glanced over his shoulder at her, and he showed no surprise at seeing her there. He gave her a half-smile, and she slowly walked over to stand beside him. She knew she should turn the other way and go down the stairs, away from him, that they shouldn’t be seen talking at a place like this. But something still drew her to him.

“Good evening, Lily,” he said. “You look lovely, as always. That color suits you.”

Lily rested her hands on the railing next to his. The white kid of her gloves glowed in the shadows. She could hear the music and chatter of the party, but it seemed so very far away. She couldn’t stay there long, but for a moment it was just her and Aidan.

“I wanted to say thank you,” she said quietly.

“For what?”

“You know for what. I read the account of Tom’s arrest in the papers. I know you had something to do with it. Probably everything to do with it.”

Aidan shrugged. “I merely acted as any of Her Majesty’s concerned citizens would.”

“Very few of those citizens even want to know what happens in places like Whitechapel or St. Giles. They would never know how to track down and capture someone like Tom Beaumont.”

“I promised you he wouldn’t bother you again, Lily.”

She shook her head. “I have never known a better actor than you, Aidan.”

“An actor? Not I,” he said with a laugh.

“Yes, you. You want everyone to think you are so careless, only out for your own pleasure, no thought for anyone else.”

“That’s all very true, Lily. I am only out for my pleasure.”

“No, you can’t fool me. Not now. No one, not even a madman, would go chasing through the slums after someone like Tom Beaumont for a mere lark. Whatever you did, I am grateful.”

He turned his head to look at her, and she was shocked by the fierce, intent light in his eyes. His hands curled into fists on the polished railing. “I don’t want your gratitude, Lily.”