The Lady Forfeits (13 page)

Jennifer Prescott claimed to have seen Gabriel unclothed in the past and had remarked how he was more muscular than he used to be. Even more damning, she’d revealed that he possessed a birthmark upon his left thigh. How did she know that piece of damning information when Diana herself did not?

‘What are you thinking?’

Diana was very aware of how his body remained pressed so firmly against the length of her spine. But
the earlier euphoria she had felt had very definitely faded! Gabriel’s closeness now made her aware of the shallowness of his breathing and of the hardness in his body as he waited for her answer.

She drew in a ragged breath. ‘Is it true that you have a birthmark upon your left thigh, my lord?’

‘Damn it!’ he snarled.

‘Do you?’

‘Yes!’

‘Dear God…’ She pulled out of his arms and moved away from him, uncaring if she upset him, just needing to distance herself from him. To be allowed to think.

Gabriel gave her no time in which to do that. ‘Diana, this is not what it seems.’

‘Then tell me what it is!’ She looked up at him with bewilderment. ‘I trusted you, Gabriel, I put my faith in you…’

He immediately became aloof and distant. ‘Nothing that has happened here should prevent you from continuing to do so.’

‘Then please explain to me why it is that woman knows of a birthmark upon your thigh which you admit does exist?’ A small part of her brain realised she was acting very illogically, but the jealousy that was rushing through her was making her ignore rationality and go straight to heated accusation!

Gabriel ran a frustrated hand through the heavy darkness of his hair. He was not accustomed to being questioned in this way. In fact, he had sworn long ago that he would never try to explain himself to anyone ever again.

Except…Jennifer’s taunt had sounded so very damn
ing and he realised that Diana had already accepted so much on his word alone. She had absolutely no reason to trust him so blindly, beyond the belief that Gabriel had no reason to lie to her…

Damn Jennifer Prescott! Damn her to hell and back!

His jaw clenched. ‘Did you never escape the confines of the schoolroom when you were a child to swim in the local river in your underclothes with the children from the village?’

‘No.’

Somehow Gabriel had known that would be Diana’s answer; she had been far too occupied, from a very young age, with the care of her father and sisters, to have the time or inclination to behave like a child herself.

‘I did,’ he said evenly. ‘Often.’

‘And your uncle’s wife was one of the children from the village who also swam there?’

‘She was Jennifer Lindsay then, of course, but, yes, she was one of the children who came from the village to swim.’ Gabriel’s tone was challenging rather than apologetic.

As if he expected Diana to immediately doubt him…

She was still too shaken by her own wildly see-sawing emotions to know what to think. What to believe.

Until she came to Faulkner Manor the young woman from Gabriel’s past had been faceless and nameless. To discover that woman was now married to Gabriel’s uncle was disturbing enough. To now learn that Gabriel had shared much of his childhood with the youthful Jennifer Lindsay was even more unnerving.

He would have been aged only twenty when the
scandal occurred. A young buck, no doubt eager for adventure and physical conquest. Jennifer Prescott was an incredibly beautiful and sensual woman now, and there was no reason to suppose she had been any less so eight years ago. How could the younger, virile and more adventurous Gabriel have possibly resisted her?

Diana had been so certain earlier that his word was to be trusted. That he had no reason to be untruthful. Indeed, that he was not a man who cared enough about anyone or anything enough to ever feel the need to lie or prevaricate.

But she could not deny that Mrs Prescott’s taunts had shaken her confidence somewhat concerning Gabriel’s version of past events. She desperately wanted to believe him. She needed to do so if there was to be any future for the two of them.

Yet, at the same time, she had to admit to the fact that a few seeds of doubt had been sown in her mind…

She shook of her head in an attempt to rid herself of unwanted thoughts, her gaze no longer able to meet Gabriel’s. ‘We can talk of this later—’

‘We will talk of it
now
, Diana, or never.’ He appeared a complete stranger to her, even the bare expanse of his chest and arms doing little to lessen the chasm widening between them.

Diana frowned. ‘There is so much more now for me to consider…’

‘Such as?’

‘Mrs Prescott’s beauty is undeniable…’

He scowled darkly. ‘I have no interest in that woman. I never did, nor will I ever have any interest in her. You either accept my word on that or you do not.’

Diana looked at him closely. His expression was totally uncompromising: his eyes glacial, cheekbones drawn tight, his mouth a hard and unforgiving line above the arrogance of his jutting jaw.

Yes, totally uncompromising, and if Diana should doubt him, she knew he would be unforgiving.

She sighed. ‘It is most unfair of you to pressure me in this way when so much has already happened since our arrival here.’

Was it unfair? Gabriel considered. Diana had learnt so much more about the past since arriving at Faulkner Manor. Was it too much for her to simply take his word this time that something was so, simply because he said that it was?

Perhaps, he acknowledged grudgingly.

But Gabriel had not sought, or wanted, anyone’s good opinion of him for the past eight years. Pride dictated that he could not ask for it now, even from the courageous young woman who had agreed to become his wife.

‘Will you not consider, Gabriel,’ Diana continued huskily, ‘how you would feel if the roles were reversed? If, perhaps, Malcolm Castle was to reveal to you his knowledge of a mole upon my left breast?’

‘I am already acquainted with that mole myself,’ Gabriel pointed out tautly.

Her cheeks warmed delicately. ‘Yes, you are…’

His eyes narrowed. ‘And if that gentleman and I
were
to converse on the subject, would he indeed be able to reveal his own knowledge of such an item?’

‘Certainly not!’ Her cheeks were now awash with colour.

‘Then I fail to see the significance of such a comparison,’ Gabriel said, hiding his relief at the news he was the first to gaze upon the beauty of Diana’s naked breast.

He had not cared for hearing that Castle might have beaten him to it. He had not liked in the slightest even the thought of another being so intimately acquainted with the tender curves of her body. His violent feelings on the subject seemed to indicate an engaging of emotions that was completely unacceptable to him.

He straightened swiftly. ‘I believe it is time you left now and allowed me to wash and change in preparation for dinner.’

Diana was no longer sure she even wished to go downstairs for dinner. Untrue! She knew that she had absolutely no desire at all to sit through a meal that promised to be uncomfortable at best and unpleasant at worst! But to make her excuses now would not only make her appear weak in the eyes of Jennifer Prescott, but unsupportive of Gabriel too.

Of course, Diana knew that the other woman had deliberately set out to cause dissention between herself and Gabriel, and she had undoubtedly succeeded; the earlier closeness that had existed between them had been badly shaken by the seeds of doubt that had been deliberately and maliciously put into Diana’s mind. Doubts she dearly wished that she could dismiss as easily as she had everything else Gabriel had told her. But with the unreasoning jealousy still raging through her, she felt unable to do so.

That her feelings had been warming towards Gabriel she could not deny—how could she when she melted
into his arms every time he so much as touched her! Yet it seemed that every tentative step they made towards a closeness, a regard for each other, was immediately nullified by something, or someone, which then resulted in a complete lack of understanding between them.

She had so enjoyed being given the freedom to touch and kiss him earlier, his masculine beauty so very exciting, his skin beneath her fingertips having the texture of steel encased in velvet—

‘Diana!’

She gave a start as Gabriel’s rebuke cut through her remembered enjoyment of those earlier caresses. ‘As you suggest, I will leave you now.’ She was deliberately dignified as she walked to the adjoining doorway.

‘Perhaps you would like to wait for me in your bedchamber and we can go downstairs together?’ he suggested. ‘Unless you would prefer to go down alone and see whether my uncle’s wife does not have some other remembered anecdotes of our idealistic childhood that she wishes to share with you?’ he added caustically.

Diana barely repressed a shudder at the thought of any private conversation, on any subject, taking place between herself and that woman. ‘I will wait in my bedchamber for you.’

‘I thought perhaps you might.’ Gabriel’s soft taunt followed her from the room.

Her head remained high, her composure only deserting her once she had closed the door behind her and crossed the room to sink gracefully down upon the side of the bed.

She should not have come to Faulkner Manor!

Would she have preferred to remain in ignorance,
then? To have married Gabriel, only to learn later of Mrs Charles Prescott’s identity as the woman from his past?

She just didn’t know the answer to that question yet…

‘W
hat on earth are you doing, Gabriel?’ A frowning Jennifer Prescott, attired in a silk gown the same deep brown as her eyes, halted in the doorway of the dining room.

Gabriel barely glanced at her. ‘What does it look as if I am doing?’

‘I am sure that the table was perfectly set as it was!’

She glared her irritation at him, but he was unconcerned. He had requested Reeve to remove his place setting from the head of the table to the middle, so that he would now sit opposite a pale-faced Diana rather than down the length of the table at his uncle’s wife.

He had been aware of her scheme as soon as he entered the dining room with a quietly composed Diana upon his arm. The obvious intention had been to make it appear that Jennifer and Gabriel were the host and hostess and Diana a mere guest.

‘If I am to look across the table at anyone, then I would prefer it to be my fiancée.’ He pulled Diana’s
chair back and saw her comfortably seated before strolling around the table to wait to take his place once the attentive butler had seen to the seating of Mrs Prescott.

Gabriel was completely aware of Diana’s continued silence and how her cheeks still retained their earlier pallor. He had reluctantly accepted that it was he, even more than the vindictive Jennifer Prescott, who was to blame for her distress. The time it had taken him to wash and change before coming downstairs for dinner had also given him the opportunity to rid himself of his anger and consider things from Diana’s viewpoint. He had behaved badly earlier, when he’d continued his stubborn stance that she could believe him or not about Jennifer Prescott’s knowledge of his birthmark. It was no excuse for his arrogance that he had reacted out of habitual self-defence after eight years of keeping his own counsel.

He also admitted to feeling disquieted by Diana’s mention of the man from her past. The more he considered Malcolm Castle, the less he liked him. He certainly had not appreciated hearing even the suggestion that he might have such intimate acquaintance with her body! So, much as he might still baulk at any further need to explain himself, he knew that, having realised his errors, he should have apologised to Diana before they came down for dinner. It was an apology that would now have to wait until this interminable dinner was over. He sighed inwardly.

‘I realise that you have been…busy with other things this evening, Gabriel,’ Jennifer said, waiting until after the soup course had been served and the butler had left the room before attempting to engage him in conversa
tion. ‘Too busy, I am sure, to have found the time in which to visit your mother?’ Her smile appeared smugly complacent.

Gabriel glanced at her with distaste. ‘Then you would be wrong, madam.’

‘Oh?’

He frowned at the unmistakable sharpness in her tone. ‘I was with my mother for some time earlier.’

‘And how was Felicity this evening?’

He had not imagined it; there was now a definite defensive edge to her manner. ‘Sleeping, as you said she might be,’ Gabriel answered slowly, aware of Diana’s frown as she glanced across the table at him. Because she, too, realised there was something strange about his aunt’s behaviour?

‘No doubt you found her much changed in appearance?’ Jennifer continued to probe.

Gabriel’s jaw clenched. ‘No doubt.’ He gave up all pretence of eating as he instead turned in his chair to face his uncle’s wife. ‘What interested me more was why, when my mother is so obviously not well, there was no nurse in attendance in her bedchamber?’

‘Charles dismissed both the nurse and doctor some months ago. Felicity is so much better now that they were both deemed an unnecessary expense,’ she explained airily as he glowered.

His eyes narrowed. ‘Deemed unnecessary by whom?’

‘By Charles, of course.’

‘I was not aware he was a medical expert?’

‘Do not be ridiculous, Gabriel—’

‘I do not consider it in the least ridiculous to be con
cerned as to the lack of care my mother has been receiving these past few months.’

‘Exactly what are you implying?’ Angry colour now mottled Jennifer’s cheeks. ‘That Charles and I are somehow responsible for your mother’s retreat from society?’ She gave a disgusted snort. ‘You know as well as I do the reason for Felicity’s malaise is that her only son was forced to leave the country in disgrace, thereby causing her husband to sicken and die only two years later.’

One of Gabriel’s hands clenched on his thigh beneath the table. He had to fight to stop himself getting up, placing his hands about Jennifer Prescott’s throat and then squeezing the very life out of her! No one had ever before dared to even hint at what she just had openly stated.

Was he to blame? He could believe past events might have affected his mother that way, but he remembered his father’s rigid, emotionless stance only too well to be convinced his own departure for the Continent could have had anything to do with his premature death.

‘But perhaps you would prefer to discuss this matter later and in private?’ Jennifer suggested. ‘I am sure it is not necessary that Lady Diana be made privy to all the family scandals in one evening.’

It was impossible for Diana not to detect the note of triumph in the older woman’s tone at Gabriel’s pallor at being accused of causing his parents’ suffering. But Diana did not believe it for a moment; her own father had been deeply in love with her mother and been broken-hearted when she left him. However, it had not killed him and neither had Gabriel’s absence killed his
father. It was deliberately cruel of his aunt to imply that he was at fault.

She also realised she had been thrown temporarily off balance earlier by Mrs Prescott’s spiteful remarks about Gabriel’s birthmark, but just this past few minutes spent in her vindictive company had finally enabled Diana to see it for exactly what it was; a means of hurting Gabriel, as well as driving a wedge of misunderstanding between the betrothed couple.

And she had so nearly succeeded…

Her gaze was cool as she looked down the length of the table at the other woman. ‘I am sure that every family has its secrets and scandals, Mrs Prescott. Including my own,’ she added drily. ‘But our relationship is such that Gabriel and I do not have secrets between us.’ She reached across the table to lightly touch the back of his hand, her heart aching as she saw the agony of emotion in the depths of his eyes as his gaze flickered across to her.

‘I somehow find that very hard to believe,’ Jennifer said scornfully.

‘Perhaps that is because you have always found dishonesty so much easier to understand?’ Gabriel rallied to toss the insult at her.

He had foolishly allowed himself to be momentarily shaken by his aunt’s taunts—a loss of his normal control that Diana had not only masked by deflecting Jennifer’s attention with her own conversation, but acknowledged privately by offering him her tacit and gentle support with that light touch upon his hand. Considering how disagreeably he had behaved towards her earlier, that
support was breathtaking. He was fast discovering she was indeed a diamond amongst women.

He turned his hand and captured the slenderness of her fingers within his grasp, the intensity of his gaze holding hers when she looked across at him in shy enquiry. He gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze as he reiterated his resolve to apologise to her as soon as possible for his earlier bad temper.

‘Might I remind you
I
am not the one who was disowned by my own family!’

He should have known that Jennifer would not have allowed his insult to go unchallenged. ‘There is only your father, the rector, and he was ever blind to your faults.’ Gabriel eyed her disdainfully. ‘Can my uncle be equally as blind, I wonder?’

She bristled defensively. ‘Charles and I are very happy with our marriage.’

‘Indeed?’

Angry colour once again darkened those creamy cheeks. ‘You will see for yourself when he returns from town.’

Gabriel snorted. ‘I have absolutely no intention of still being in Cambridgeshire when my uncle returns.’

‘No?’

‘No.’

‘Because you are too much the coward to face my husband, perhaps?’

Gabriel’s eyes glittered fiercely at this slur upon his honour. ‘If you were a man, I would call you out for such an insult!’

‘If I were a man, there would be no reason for the insult!’

‘You—’

‘Gabriel.’ It was Diana’s softly spoken warning that brought an end to what was rapidly becoming an intolerable heated row.

He drew in a deep, controlling breath and forced himself to calm down. ‘Diana is quite correct; we are digressing from the point.’

‘And what point was that?’

His mouth tightened ominously at Jennifer’s obvious sarcasm. ‘That there was not so much as a maid present when I visited my mother’s rooms earlier and I am not satisfied with the level of her care.’

‘I have told you—’

‘I would also be interested to learn why and by whom my mother’s companion was pensioned off four months ago. Perhaps it was another of those decisions Charles made so arbitrarily?’

‘How on earth do you know about Alice Britton?’ she gasped.

‘I believe I asked why and by whom, not how I happen to know of it.’

Dark brows rose haughtily. ‘Charles decided she had become too old to perform her duties any longer and sent her away.’

‘But did not replace her?’ he pressed.

‘There’s was no need when I am here to keep dear Felicity company,’ his uncle’s wife simpered.

Gabriel would as soon see his mother in the daily company of a venomous viper! ‘And when Charles decided to dismiss Miss Britton, did he also provide her with a suitable pension?’ As Gabriel was well aware, Alice Britton had been with his mother since Felicity
was a small child, first in the nursery, then as lady’s maid and latterly as her companion. Not only was it doubtful that the elderly woman would have the means to keep herself in retirement, but now that he had seen the situation here for himself, he could not believe that his mother would ever have agreed to her companion’s dismissal.

Jennifer gave a derisive smile. ‘As you know, what happens in this household ceased to be any of your business long ago—’

‘I will take that to mean he did not.’ Gabriel’s jaw was tight with disapproval.

‘Take it as you wish,’ she shot back as the butler returned to remove their soup dishes.

The more he learnt of the happenings in this household the past four months, the more he began to fear that Miss Britton’s concerns for his mother were fully justified.

‘I can see how concerned you are for your mother, Gabriel.’ Once again it was the softly spoken Diana who took charge of the conversation after the butler had left the room. ‘As such, I am sure that my own maid will be only too happy to sit with your mother until other, more permanent arrangements can be made.’

‘That is not necessary, Lady Diana—’

‘I do not wish to seem rude, Mrs Prescott…’ Diana’s voice became firm as she turned to address the older woman; she had suffered quite enough of this woman’s opinions for one evening! ‘…but I believe you will find my remark was actually addressed to Gabriel.’

She flushed at the obvious put-down. ‘Even so, I am
sure it is completely unnecessary for you be inconvenienced like that.’

‘My dear Mrs Prescott, I assure you I do not consider it in the least an
inconvenience
to relinquish my maid to the comfort of my future mother-in-law.’ She steadily met the older woman’s gaze.

Diana had become firmly convinced during dinner that the atmosphere she had sensed in Faulkner Manor since their arrival was caused by the malice of Jennifer Prescott. Admittedly, having Gabriel return so unexpectedly must have been something of a shock, but that still did not explain why she was so determined to ruin any chance of happiness for him, especially as Diana was now utterly sure that Gabriel had not been guilty of any past seduction of her.

The other woman did not appear to be unhappy in her marriage; on the contrary, her earlier claim that her marriage to Charles Prescott was a happy one, despite its unusual beginnings, seemed to indicate the opposite was true, spoken as it was so convincingly. So what had happened eight years ago and why had Jennifer Prescott lied about it?

Diana turned to look across the table at Gabriel. ‘Perhaps we might consider taking your mother back to London with us when we leave? I am sure that a change of scenery might help—’

‘Felicity’s health is far too precarious for such a long and arduous journey!’ Jennifer protested sharply.

‘Again, I do not wish to sound rude.’ Diana unblinkingly returned the older woman’s resentful gaze. ‘But I believe it is for Gabriel to decide whether or not his mother is well enough to travel back to London with us.’

‘My husband is now the master of this household, not Gabriel.’

‘Forgive me. I was led to believe it was Mrs Faulkner’s home, and that you and your husband were but guests in her household,’ Diana remarked.

Jennifer gave up all pretence of politeness as she rose angrily to her feet. ‘How dare you question me in this way?’ The skirts of her dress swished as she stalked around the table towards Diana. ‘Just because you have a title and a grand manner does not mean—’

‘That is
quite
enough.’ Gabriel rose to his feet to step in between Diana and the rapidly approaching harpy. ‘I advise you to regain control of your emotions forthwith, madam, or I will be forced to do it for you,’ he warned her.

It took several moments for his aunt to regain her composure. ‘I apologise for my outburst, Lady Diana. I was merely…concerned that you do not seem to understand the fragility of Mrs Faulkner’s condition.’ This condescending adage completely negated her apology. ‘I am sure it would be most inadvisable to even think of moving her at this time.’

Gabriel had to admit—in view of his mother’s lack of consciousness when he’d visited her earlier—to being somewhat surprised himself at Diana’s suggestion that they remove his mother to London. He watched his wife-to-be stand up and move gracefully to his side, her fingers resting lightly in the crook of his arm as she turned to answer the other woman smoothly. ‘I apologise for speaking out of turn, Mrs Prescott.’ She turned to him. ‘I am sure your aunt is wise to advise caution in regard to your mother, my dear. And no doubt she is
also correct in her opinion that your mother does not need the services of my maid, either.’