Pleasures of a Tempted Lady (7 page)

Meg sucked in a breath, then she wrenched her head to the side for long, silent moments. This time her eyes were vague and unfocused and he knew she wasn’t seeing the countryside. He remained quiet, allowing her to process the information, fighting with himself to keep from reaching for her and offering comfort.

Bored with the conversation—or, rather, lack of conversation—Jake turned to his window and began to point at the grazing sheep they were passing, his lips moving as he counted in an undertone.

Will remained still, quiet, sitting straight and stiff as the carriage rolled along beneath him. As much as he hated to be the bearer of this news, there was more that she wouldn’t like. So much more, and most of it would make him look like a fool in her eyes. No, more than a fool. A complete ass.

He sighed, resolute and determined, as she turned back to him.

“Why?” she asked, her voice quavering.

Pain radiated in those stormy gray eyes, so sharp and compelling that Will couldn’t stop himself from touching her. He leaned forward and gathered her hands in his own, squeezing gently. “She was forced to. She was placed in an impossible situation—told that as Serena, she’d never be able to return to London, never make a good marriage, and worse, none of your sisters would have the opportunity, either.”

“My mother told her this,” Meg said. It wasn’t a question, but Will answered as if it was.

“Yes.”

“Where is my mother now?”

“Serena brought all your sisters to London, but your mother has remained in Antigua.”

“So Serena… became me.” Meg blinked hard.

“Yes.”

“So who am I, Will?”

“You’re Meg.” His answer was automatic, because who else could she be? He squeezed her hands in his own, running his thumbs soothingly over her palms. She had small, delicate hands, but for the first time, he saw the calluses and redness of her skin. The sight of those beautiful hands marred by work made him want to throttle the man—that unnamed captain—who’d done this to her.

“I’m sure London society won’t look approvingly on twin sisters with the same name.” Her chest rose and fell on a heavy sigh, and she lowered her voice. “This isn’t a good idea. Please. Stop this folly, Captain Langley. Stop the carriage and allow me to go to Ireland like I’d planned.”

Will glanced at the boy. His head rested against the back cushion, and he was still gazing outside, but his eyes were half closed. He was nearly asleep.

He turned back to Meg. “Call me Will,” he murmured. “Like you did before.”

She tore her gaze away from him. A blush crept across her cheeks. He wanted to touch her, to kiss away that warmth there. God, she was beautiful. Even more so than she’d been years ago. He’d thought her the most beautiful woman in the world then, but now… He couldn’t even pinpoint what it was about her. Everything, from her gold
curls and the smattering of freckles across her nose, to her gray eyes and slender but curvaceous form, appealed to him.

He’d grant her anything. Anything but what she’d just requested.

“I’m not stopping this carriage. You need your family, and they need you.” He leaned forward, and his voice was firm, filled with the confidence that he wouldn’t fail her this time. “I know you’re afraid. But I’ll protect you. I promise.”

She closed her eyes. “You don’t understand.”

He fought off the annoyance that filled him at those words, and his voice was calm, matter-of-fact, when he said, “That’s because you’ve explained very little to me.”

“Please know that that’s for your protection. I promise you. Please trust me.”

Such anguish glowed in her eyes that his anger drained away instantly. “I do trust you, Meg,” he said softly. “The problem is, I don’t believe you trust me.”

Will was right. She didn’t trust him. Through no fault of his own—he was the strongest, most steadfast man she’d ever known. But she’d spent so many years trusting only herself, Jake, and Sarah, that she’d forgotten how to let anyone else in. She’d forgotten how to trust. It wasn’t as simple as just opening up to him, either. She just might do that if she didn’t have Jake to worry about.

Will cleared his throat, and when she glanced at him, he said, “There’s something else…”

The obvious distress in his expression turned her blood cold. “I thought learning that my sister had stolen my identity would be enough for one day.”

His brows rose at the cynical tone of her voice. She’d surprised him—the side of her that was a cynic hadn’t existed back when he’d known her.

“It can wait,” he murmured, “but not for very long. It’s best I tell you this before we arrive in London. I’d prefer you hear it from me rather than…” His voice faded, and he glanced at Jake. Meg looked toward the little boy. His head had lolled forward uncomfortably. She plumped one of the carriage pillows on her lap, took Jake into her arms, and laid his head onto it.

The boy shifted, and his eyes fluttered open, but she murmured to him, “Sleep, dearest,” and gently combed her fingers through his hair. Soon he drifted off again.

“You care for him,” Will observed quietly.

“He is everything to me.” Meg looked down at Jake, and love for him surged through her. He was so innocent, despite all the horror he’d experienced in his short life. And while most people thought him an idiot, Meg knew the opposite was true. She hadn’t known many children other than her younger sisters years ago, but in many ways his mind was more advanced than other children of his age. Surely few six-year-olds could work the difficult mathematical operations Jake could solve.

She looked back up at Will. “He likes you.”

Will shrugged, but his pleasure at her statement was clear in the tipping of his lips and the brightness of his dark eyes as he glanced fondly down at Jake.

“Whatever it is, you should tell me,” she said, stroking the silky strands of the boy’s hair. “I might as well leap into the lion’s den as prepared as I can possibly be.”

He flinched subtly at that. “Your sisters and their husbands aren’t lions.”

“Their husbands?” Meg frowned. “My other sisters have married, too?”

Will nodded gravely. “Phoebe is married to Mr. Sebastian Harper—he was once well known as a rake about town, but she has, much to my surprise, tamed him.”

Meg could tell that Will had been involved in their relationship. How close was Will to her sisters, anyhow? Eight years ago, Serena had known him only on the most formal terms.

“And Olivia is married to the Duke of Wakefield.”

Jerked from her thoughts, Meg choked on the air she’d been inhaling. “What? Olivia?”

He nodded, and she slumped back in her seat, her fingers stilling in Jake’s hair. “Sweet Olivia,” she mused. In truth, she’d been afraid to ask about Olivia. After a bout with malaria as a child, Olivia’s health had never been strong. And to think she’d married. To think she’d married a duke! “A duke?” she murmured. “Now that is something…”

Will smiled. “It is indeed. They are very happy together, too.”

“How long have they been married?”

“Only three months. But they are famous in London.” He chuckled. “Your sister’s illness has gone public, and contrary to expectation, people have gloried in the romance of it all. It’s said theirs is the most romantic society match of the century.”

“Really?”

Will nodded.

“And what about Jessica? She’s only nineteen. Is she married, too?”

“No, not Jessica. Although your brothers-in-law have been fighting off suitors by the horde.”

“Well, that’s not a surprise.” Jessica was not only the most beautiful, but she also possessed the most outgoing, gregarious nature of all the Donovan sisters. Meg had always predicted that when Jessica came of age, it would be a struggle to keep her free from scandal.

“I’m glad she’s not married,” Meg murmured. “She’s too young.”

“You sound like your sisters,” Will said. “But no one’s worried. No man has struck Jessica’s fancy yet.”

Meg narrowed her eyes. “You seem very well versed in the goings-on in my family, Captain Langley.”

“I am well versed in the lives of all of your sisters.”

“How did that come to pass?”

“Well…” He gave her an uncomfortable smile. “It has to do with that bit of news I think you should know.” He hesitated, then asked, “Are you certain you want to know? Are you sure it’s not too much for one day?”

Meg’s body tensed all over. Jake felt it and mumbled in his sleep. She put a comforting hand over him and looked at Will. “Just say it.”

Will took a deep breath. “Nothing came of it,” he said. “Nevertheless, it’s public knowledge and therefore something you should be aware of.”

She nodded, hoping he would continue, because she had no idea what he was talking about.

“After you and Serena left London eight years ago, I waited to hear from you for months. I finally received a letter. It was from you.”

“But… I didn’t send you any letters,” she whispered. She’d wanted to. Lord, how she’d wanted to, especially at the beginning, when she’d dreamed nightly of freedom.

Will shook his head. “No. I know that now. It was…
Mrs. Donovan. Your mother. She was already planning for Serena’s future. In the letter, she wrote that your sister, Serena, had been lost at sea.” His Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed. “Several years later, I sold my commission. I thought you were still alive, Meg. You and I had been communicating for years. I really believed it was you, not your mother…” He clasped his hands tightly together in his lap. “Two years ago, I was ready. I was free of the Navy, wealthy, and finally in a position to—” He stopped abruptly and stared at her with eyes brimming with grief. Each word emerged with clear effort. “I wrote to you and asked you to be my wife.”

She simply stared at him, on the verge of being unable to understand. How could it be? She’d always dreamed of marrying him. He’d as much as promised marriage during their liaison, but they’d both known it would be years before he would be in a position to marry. She’d been willing to wait.

He’d finally proposed to her. And yet, he hadn’t really proposed to her. He’d proposed to her
mother
, pretending to be her.

Nausea twisted in her gut. “Oh, God.”

“You answered my letter, saying yes, you wished to marry me, that…” He bowed his head. “… that nothing would make you happier. Six months later, you arrived in England.”

“But I didn’t…”

“You didn’t. Serena did.”

“Oh, God,” she repeated, her voice a raw whisper. “And Serena was pretending to be me.” Misery rushed through her, a flash flood of bitterness. “You were engaged to my sister, then. But you didn’t end up marrying her. Did anything…? Did you…? How…?”

“I knew right away that something wasn’t right, and Serena felt extreme guilt about her deception. She finally told me the truth, and we called off the engagement, which sparked a tremendous scandal. Her subsequent marriage to Stratford added fuel to its fire.”

All these years, she’d wished for nothing but the best for her four sisters. But now Meg was furious. She was a forgiving person, but to hear in the course of a few moments that Serena had taken everything that was hers… her identity, the man she loved…

She glanced at Will and then away. He wasn’t the man she loved any more than she was the woman he loved. That had been long ago.

In any case, Serena hadn’t married him.

“How long did the engagement last?”

“About two months.”

There was that, at least. Meg couldn’t even begin to think of how it would have affected her if Serena and Will had actually married.

She took a shaky breath. “I’m glad you didn’t marry her.”

“So am I, Meg. We would have both been miserable. Stratford is the only man for her. And you…” He broke off.

How had he intended to finish that sentence?
You’re the only woman for me?
But was she? Neither of them could know anymore. She wasn’t the same Meg who’d loved him so long ago.

But she remembered him. Her body remembered him. He sat on the squabs, his bearing straight, so tall his head nearly brushed the ceiling. His hair matched his eyes—dark as chocolate but highlighted with streaks of amber. His face was narrow but masculine, with sculpted cheekbones
and a straight nose. She liked his eyes the best, though. Those amber-tinged eyes had always melted her all the way through to her heart.

“All of it is past,” he said. “Years ago, after you and Serena left London, Stratford and I became good friends. None of that has changed, and I’ve had the honor of befriending all of your sisters as well.”

“I see,” she murmured. Despite the vast distances separating them, she’d never felt so separate from the Donovans—and even from Will—in the past eight years as she did right now. With a sudden pang of longing, she missed Sarah. Sarah had been her confidante, her best friend. Her
sister
.

Her real sisters were strangers to her now. They seemed like a distant dream, unreal and unattainable. And Serena, her twin and once the closest person in the world to her, had stolen the essence of who she had once been.

How could Meg face her now?

Chapter Five

T
hat night, they stayed at an inn at Exeter. Meg’s nerves were taut and bristling. The day after tomorrow, she’d be in London. She’d see her sisters. Soon, Caversham would discover her whereabouts… and then…

She needed to find a way to ensure Will and her family’s safety, as well as Jake’s. But try as she might, she couldn’t think of one.

Perhaps she should have run away from Will when she’d had the chance. But with him so close, she couldn’t think in the ruthless way she’d learned from Caversham. It was difficult to contemplate running from Will, the man she’d wanted to run
to
for so long.

They secured two rooms—one for Meg and Jake and another for Will. Jake had been quiet and well behaved. She hadn’t quite known what to expect from him—he wasn’t used to long carriage rides through green countrysides, but he’d surprised her with his relative calm. She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised. Until now, Jake had lived
a life of unpredictability—he, as well as his mother and Meg, had never remained in one place for more than a few months at a time. Always, Caversham would take them somewhere new—somewhere they wouldn’t be found.