Scandals of an Innocent (32 page)

“I fear that your mama will not be able to bear it,” Miles said, “but you are no true marchioness.”

Alice drew back a little and stared at him, perplexity in her blue eyes. “Whatever can you mean, Miles?”

Miles laughed. “My esteemed cousin Freddie, the sixteenth Marquis of Drummond, is currently alive
and well and sailing for an island in the East Indies. In his letter he told me that he had falsified his own death to escape his debts, has married his mistress and she is
enceinte
with what might well turn out to be the next Drummond heir.”

Alice sat bolt upright, heedless of the bedcovers falling around her. “How dare he!” she said wrathfully. “The deceitful, irresponsible scoundrel! I would like to give him a piece of my mind!
He
wished to wriggle out of his obligations and so
you
were compelled to pay his debts instead. That is monstrous unfair! I hope you renounce his title and his debts at the same time, Miles, and send the creditors to hound him in the Indies!”

Miles drew her back down to his side. The warmth of his body helped soothe some of the quivering indignation and anger within her.

“That is the good news,” he said. “We are not as debt-ridden as I had thought. Nor do I have the Curse of Drum hanging over my head anymore so we shall be spared the superstitious dread of our respective mothers.”

He rubbed his cheek gently against Alice’s and she felt herself relax further, sliding down in his arms. “For one thing only I am grateful to Freddie,” Miles said, “for if I had not believed myself to be Marquis of Drummond and so desperately in debt that I was about to be thrown in the Fleet, then I would not have sought to marry you, Alice, and found myself the happiest of men against all expectation or merit.”

Alice smiled reluctantly. It was difficult to resist his words. They made her feel very warm inside. “Hmm, you have a point.”

“I hope,” Miles said, “that now you find you are not a marchioness after all but merely the wife of a lowly baron you will still wish to be wed to me.” He lowered his head to hers. “Can you bear it?”

Alice put her arms about his neck and drew him closer. “I think I will have to endure it,” she whispered against his lips, “even if I am not entitled to any strawberry leaves at all now.”

“Then I think you must love me very much,” Miles said, “and there is something I want you to know.” He frowned a little, as though he had something difficult to say, and suddenly she felt a little afraid, as though she was not sure she wanted to hear it.

“What is it?” she said. She knew Miles must be able to feel her heart pounding since she was held so close against him. He pressed a kiss against her brow, smoothing back her hair so that he could cup her cheek in one tender hand. Alice shook to feel the strength of the love in him, the love that she knew at last was utterly and completely hers.

“You may remember that before we were wed you asked me if I would be able to be faithful to you and I said that I did not know,” Miles said. There was a smile in his hazel eyes now and they were so warm with love that Alice could feel herself melting inside. “That was never good enough for you. So now—” he held her in a tight grip “—I give you my answer. Alice Vickery, I will love you and only you until the day I die. I pretended to myself that it was your money that I needed, but that was a lie. It was you, Alice, that I could not bear to lose. I want no one else and I never shall.”

“I think you have persuaded me, my love,” Alice
whispered as her lips met his. “You speak very well for a mere baron. And after all—” she smiled “—I am only a housemaid turned heiress myself. I told you I was no lady.”

“And I told you I never wanted one,” Miles said as he kissed her again.