Say You Love Me (31 page)

Startle her? Shock was more like it.

“That isn’t something to jest about,” she admonished, frowning at him.

“That isn’t something I
would
jest about.”

“But you can’t be serious!”

“Why not?”

“Don’t be obtuse, Derek. You know why. I’m your mistress. A lord in your position
doesn’t marry his mistress. It simply isn’t done.”

“It’ll be done if I want it to be done.”

That was such a ridiculously…
stubborn
statement, she almost rolled her eyes. But she was too upset by the subject to find anything amusing about it.

Of course, she’d love to marry him. She couldn’t think of anything she’d like to do more. But she knew as well as he did that it was impossible. And that he’d brought it up to begin with made her angry. How dare he tempt her?

It didn’t matter that she was a quite suitable match for him, or at least she had been before she’d sold herself in a house of ill repute in a room full of London lords. Selling herself had made her utterly unsuitable for marriage, even if he was the one who’d bought her.

“I won’t marry you, Derek,” she said in a stiff voice. “And I won’t thank you for asking me.”

“You don’t
want
to marry me?”

“I didn’t say that, I said I
won’t
marry you. I won’t cause you and your family yet another scandal.”

“Kelsey, let me worry about my fam—”

“My answer is no, Derek, and it won’t change. And I would appreciate it if you don’t stay tonight. I would like to be alone.”

He stared after her incredulously. She’d walked out on him. And she was furious. He recognized the signs. She contained it well, but she was bloody furious with him—because
he’d asked her to marry him. And here he’d thought she’d be pleased by the notion, delighted even—he’d at least thought she’d say yes.

Derek sighed. He hadn’t even gotten used to the idea himself yet, had only just figured out that he wanted to marry her, and that after a long week of freeting over some very strange feelings. What had started it was when it had occurred to him that with Lonny dead, and Kelsey aware of it, there was nothing keeping her with him other than her own honor. There would be no fear now that Lonny would enforce the bargain she had made. And she had to know Derek well enough by then to know that he wouldn’t hold that bill of sale against her. She could leave at any time, just like a normal mistress. That he’d paid a lot of money for her no longer mattered.

And that put him into a bit of a panic. When he’d realized that he
was
panicked, he’d tried to figure out why. And the answer had come to him readily enough. He’d gone and fallen in love with his mistress.

It was a bloody stupid thing to do. Even he knew that. But he’d done it anyway. And he knew he didn’t
have
to marry her. They could go on perfectly well just as they were—as long as she was willing to stay with him. But he didn’t like that “as long as.” He wanted permanence. He wanted to move her into his own house. He wanted her to bear his children. He didn’t want to hide her anymore.

But she’d said no. And she’d said her answer wouldn’t change.

By God, it
would
change—maybe not that night, though.

44

Derek stayed away for three days. Wisely, as it happened
.
It had taken that long for Kelsey to calm down. She finally determined that his marriage proposal had possibly come as a result of the Ashford incident, because of how extremely worried he’d been over her during it. The proposal had probably been impulsive, too. And now that he’d had more time to think about it, he’d realized what a fool notion it had been.

He didn’t mention the proposal again when he showed up three days later, so Kelsey decided to leave the subject alone as well. Besides, after her anger over it had subsided, she’d actually taken it as a good sign, or at least as a sign that he was growing fonder of her than she’d realized. When a man didn’t tell you how he felt, it was nice to get clues that gave some indication, and a proposal of marriage was a pretty strong clue.

They made up, as it were, though they hadn’t actually had a fight. And making love with him that night was a little more heated
than normal, was quite explosive actually, and so prolonged that they both overslept the next morning.

Kelsey arose first. Dressing quickly, she went down to see what Alicia had prepared for breakfast, with the thought of bringing a tray up to Derek.

She didn’t have a butler as that was one servant she didn’t feel she needed in her small household, especially since she didn’t receive any callers. And her footman usually saw to those duties. But when he wasn’t around, whoever was downstairs and nearest the door answered it if someone knocked on it.

This morning that was Kelsey, since someone was knocking on the door just as she came downstairs. The surprise she received upon opening it, though, was quite unpleasant for that early in the morning.

“I make quite a good detective, don’t I?” Regina Eden said, beaming at her.

Kelsey drew a total blank as far as any responses were concerned. Situations like this were
not
supposed to occur. Hadn’t Derek promised her she wouldn’t have to deal with his family anymore? And Reggie walked right in, as if she didn’t doubt for a moment that she would be welcome. And she wouldn’t doubt it. They were fast friends, after all—at least as far as Reggie was concerned.

Kelsey groaned inwardly. And all she could think to finally say was, “How did you find me?”

“Well, I went by Percy’s house first, of
course. Not this morning. This was last week.”

“Why?”

“To see if you were still in town, since I was. Nicholas had some business that came up, so we’ve ended up staying longer than I thought we would. Anyway, I went by Percy’s and the dear wasn’t in, but his butler said he had no cousin staying there with him, nor had he had one any time recently. I left a message for him to come by and see me, but he never did. And I’m not known for my patience. So then I checked the hotels nearby, and I don’t mind telling you, I made a complete ass of myself, showing up at one hotel that had a Langton registered. It wasn’t you, of course, but some lady and her niece. And she even had another niece named Kelsey, too.”

“Imagine that,” Kelsey croaked out.

“My sentiments exactly. But they’d never even heard of Percy, so, of course, her Kelsey couldn’t have been you. And after I exhausted the hotels, I checked with the better rental agencies, and they had no record of dealing with you or Percy. But then—and I don’t know why I thought of it, except that Derek has frequently attended to business matters for Percy in the past—I mentioned his name, and sure enough, he had just leased this house recently. So here I am.”

Yes, here she was, and Kelsey didn’t know what the devil to do. She couldn’t very well ask Reggie to stay for tea when Derek might come downstairs at any moment. She had left him sleeping, but he tended to wake up pretty
quickly once she was gone, as if he could sense her absence even in sleep.

And damned if a door didn’t open upstairs and Derek’s voice could be heard calling out, “Where did you go, luv? You could have at least wakened me. Kelsey?”

He must have assumed she was in the back of the house and couldn’t hear him, because the door closed again. Kelsey was about ready to expire on the spot.

Reggie had looked up, of course, at the sound of his voice, had no trouble recognizing it, and said now, “What’s
he
doing here—and up there?”

Kelsey was blushing furiously by then, and when Reggie glanced at her and saw it, she said “Oh” and started blushing herself. But then the whole picture must have formed in her mind, at least a picture resulting from her own conclusions, because she added indignantly, “Why, that bounder! How dare he take advantage of you like this?”

Kelsey groaned again, quite loudly this time. “It’s not what you think—I mean, it is—but the circumstances aren’t…please, Reggie, just go, before he comes down. I’ll explain later.”

“When later? This isn’t something that I can just ignore, you know.”

Kelsey didn’t know why it wasn’t, but she could see she wasn’t going to get out of explaining. “I’ll come by your house this afternoon.”

“You promise?”

“Yes.”

“Very well,” Reggie allowed, though she was still bristling somewhat. “But I certainly hope there is a good explanation for this, because it would be my duty to inform my Uncle Jason about it otherwise. Derek knows better than to go around seducing innocent girls of good breeding. Even our rakehell uncles drew the line at that.”

45

A
dilemma—no, ANOTHER DILEMMA—THAT
Kelsey was not looking forward to facing. Horrid lies. Once started they escalated, one leading to another, and she was so tangled in them she could barely keep track of them. And this particular dilemma she couldn’t forestall. She’d promised Regina an explanation.

But which explanation to give her? The real truth? Or the truth as Derek knew it, which was just another set of lies? And she was so sick of the lies…

She arrived at the house on Park Lane at around three o’clock that afternoon. She was expected, and was shown directly to a sitting room upstairs. A maid brought in tea. Reggie showed up right behind her.

“I want to apologize for how snippy I sounded earlier,” Reggie said right off, as soon as the maid left. “It was just such a surprise and—well, I’m sure you understand. And I’m sure there is a perfectly good explanation. Why, I wouldn’t even be surprised if Derek’s asked you to marry him. That
would
put a
whole different face on it, now, wouldn’t it? I mean, Nicholas and I—well, goodness, listen to me go on, not giving you a chance to say anything. By the by, we won’t be disturbed here—or overheard.”

Kelsey smiled at that last. She did have to worry about being overheard—that is, if she made a clean breast of it. And that is what she wanted to do, more than anything, at least with this particular Malory. But she wouldn’t do that, not without assurances.

Reggie sat down across from Kelsey, now that she’d fallen silent, and poured them each tea. She was waiting for Kelsey to begin, patiently, too. Kelsey was still searching for the right words. But there were none—at least, none to make this any easier.

“Actually,” Kelsey finally began, “Derek
has
asked me to marry him.”

Reggie beamed happily. “I knew—”

“But I won’t, and I told him so.”

Reggie blinked. “Why not?”

“Because of how he acquired me. You see, what you were told about me, it was all a lie. But he didn’t know what else to tell you at the time. He didn’t know you and I had already met previously.”

“What was a lie?”

“I’m not Percy’s cousin,” Kelsey admitted. “I’m Derek’s mistress.”

Reggie rolled her eyes and said dryly, “I’ve already gathered
that
.”

“No, what I mean is, I was already his mistress when I first met you. He bought me at
an auction in a house of ill repute, one frequented by many lords of his acquaintance. That’s why I won’t marry him. The scandal of such a marriage would be horrendous.”

Reggie took a moment to absorb that, but then said, “Scandal is nothing new to my family—but what the devil were you doing in a place like that? And if you try to tell me you aren’t a lady, that you belonged there, I’ll toss you out of my house on your ear.”

Kelsey’s eyes widened, but then she burst out laughing. It felt very good indeed, certainly wasn’t what she had gone there expecting to do.

She was still smiling when she said, “No, I wouldn’t try to tell you that. Actually, I would like to tell you the truth, but I can’t—that is, not unless you promise it won’t go any further. Not even your husband can know, Reggie. And certainly not Derek. If he does, he would insist on marrying me, and I care too much for him to bring that kind of scandal down on him.”

“But you and Derek are—what I mean is, well, why doesn’t
he
at least know?”

“Because I haven’t told him, nor will I. He doesn’t know anything about me, really, other than the few lies I’ve told him. When I made the decision to do what I did, I had to come up with a new background for myself to protect my own family from the scandal that would evolve if it was ever discovered who I really am. Derek thinks my mother was a governess, that I benefited from the fine tutors that
her charges had, and that’s why my speech is refined.”

“The gullible lout.” Reggie snorted. “He actually believed that?”

“Why wouldn’t he, considering where he found me?” Kelsey said in Derek’s defense.

“Hmmm, I suppose,” Reggie allowed. “But what is the truth, then?”

“Your promise?”

“I can’t even tell my husband?” Reggie wheedled. “I could get him to swear—”

“Not even him.”

Reggie sighed. “Yes, I promise.”

Kelsey nodded, but took a sip of her tea, wondering where to begin. Perhaps with her parents…

“My father was David Phillip Langton, the fourth Earl of Lanscastle from Kettering.”

“Good God, wasn’t he the earl who was shot earlier this year by—er…” Reggie fell silent with a cough, blushing profusely.

Kelsey leaned forward to pat her hand. “It’s all right, and quite common knowledge, apparently. Yes, my mother shot him. She didn’t mean to kill him, though. She was just so furious with him because of his gambling. He had just lost the rest of his inheritance, you see, even our home, over a stupid game of cards.”

“So
that’s
why?”

“Yes. And my mother was so shocked that she’d killed him, rather than just wounding him to punish him as she’d intended, that she backed away from him in horror and backed
right out the window that was behind her. I still think I could have prevented their deaths if I’d just got upstairs sooner when the shouting began.”

Reggie did some patting now. “It’s almost impossible to interrupt a volatile argument. The participants tend to ignore anything around them.”