The Letter (26 page)

She tapped her finger on her lips. “That meant I was thinking.”

“No, to a man that means you want a kiss.”

“What are the two of your making so much noise over?”

Michael stood. “Mother, if you come across dozens of cats frolicking in the halls, you can blame Diana. How was your day?”

“
Mon Dieu,
cats make me sneeze. How many did you say?” Sinking onto a chair, she removed her gloves. “My day was lovely, but long. I had some interesting visits with my friends.” She gave him a meaningful look.

Ah, her mission had been successful. “That is good to hear. I hope you are not too tired. Diana’s parents will be here this afternoon and I’m sure they will wish to see you.”

She turned to Diana. “Are you comfortable with this, my dear?”

“I am nervous, very much so, but Michael convinced me I have nothing to be ashamed of. I just hope I remember that when I face them.”

Michael reached for her hand. “I will stay with her for a few minutes and then give them some time alone before I return with Jamie. You can come in with me then, Mother.”

“Very well. If you will excuse me, I want to freshen up.”

Alone again, he lifted her chin with his finger and lowered his lips to hers. He could spend the remainder of his life sitting on this sofa with his mouth on hers, but then he would be neglecting other delicious parts of her. Like her neck. He kissed his way to the soft pale skin below her ear.

“Michael?”

“Please, do not ask me to stop.” He nibbled on her earlobe and she shivered.

“Smell me.”

What? She held her hand up to his face. He pressed his nose to her wrist and inhaled. “Ah, vanilla. May I lick you?” Without waiting for permission, he swiped his tongue over her skin. “Delicious.” Her little shiver pleased him.

Leaning back, he quirked a brow. “I could spend the day with my nose buried against your neck when you wear that scent, but you have me at sixes and sevens. What are you about?”

She tilted her head and studied him. “Are you bemused?”

The devil, but she kept him entertained. “Do I need to be?”

“I think it would be for the best.”

Now he was wary. “You have my undivided attention.”

“Well, that is just it. I want your attention divided so when I tell you I will be visiting Christ Hospital next week, you will say, ‘That is nice, my dear’. Then you will go off and do whatever it is you do, never realizing what you have agreed to.”

He tried to assimilate her words. Why did she need to go to a hospital? Was she sick? That could not be right. Christ Hospital was not a place for a woman of high birth. She said visiting, but what the hell for?

“How long is it going to take you to speak, my lord? Shall I request tea? Perhaps tell cook to delay dinner.”

The hurt and frightened kitten he had dragged home was finding her claws. It was about time. “I’m wondering why you wish to go to Christ Hospital.”

“I want to visit the Blue Coat School with Fanny. She goes there on her half day and teaches the boys to read. I think I might like to do so, also.”

He was going to have a little talk with her maid for putting the idea in Diana’s head.

“I know what you are thinking, and if you so much as say a cross word to Fanny I will…I will…blast, what will I do?” Her eyes brightened. “I have it. I will never let you sniff me again.”

A burst of laughter escaped and she glared at him. “My pardon,” he said and pressed a finger over his lips.

“You must not blame Fanny. It was not her idea, and she almost swooned when I told her I was going with her next week. Now, she thinks you are going to murder her. I would prefer you didn’t.”

“So, it was your idea and I should murder you instead?”

She grinned. “Precisely.” Her smile faded. “I am not asking permission, Michael. I don’t feel I must, but I did not want to go behind your back. I need a purpose and this may be it. I would be teaching the children to read. I won’t know until I try it, but I think helping homeless boys would give me great satisfaction.”

He could give her a purpose, a very important one as his wife. He could also give her satisfaction, something he had already proved. “No, Newgate is not a safe area for you to be traipsing off to.”

“Traipsing off to?” She stood and backed away. “I had hoped you would understand and be happy that I might have found something useful to do, but I repeat, I do not need your approval.”

There was no way in hell he was going to let her put herself in danger. Newgate was filled with unsavory characters. The thought of her being robbed or worse accosted, even raped, terrified him. He rose and approached her.

“You want to find something useful? Marry me and your days will be filled with things to do. Or you can sit on your bottom, eat bonbons and read penny novels all day. I don’t really care. But you are not venturing into that part of town.”

She moved away, putting a chair between them. “You are not my husband. You cannot dictate to me. I had ten years of being told what I could and could not do, and I am done with it. I am almost nine and twenty, old enough to make my own decisions. If I want to go to the Blue Coat School I will, and you have nothing to say about it.”

Oh, he had much to say about it, but comparing him to Leo was too much. “I. Am. Not. Leo. I am concerned for your safety, not endangering it. It is a hare-brained idea, Diana, and I forbid—”

Michael scowled at her retreating back. She almost barreled over Smedley in her haste to leave the room. Bloody hell, he had handled that badly, but the thought of her being anywhere near the prison gave him the shudders.

“What is it, Smedley?”

“You have a visitor, my lord.”

Michael took the card from the silver tray and glanced at it.

“Take him to my study, and tell him I will be with him shortly.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Frustrated, he pushed a hand through his hair. He was only trying to protect her. Why was that so difficult to understand? Once she thought it through, she would realize he was right. He strode to his study thinking he probably should have called her idea something different than hare-brained. “Not the best thing I could have said,” he muttered.

“What should you have said, my lord?”

Startled, he looked up to see Marlowe standing in front of his desk. “My pardon, I was thinking aloud about something.” He strode into the room and took a seat behind his desk, indicating to Marlowe he should sit. Opening his desk drawer, he removed the draft and placed it in the middle of his desk.

“Your name is on it, I have signed it, but the amount is still blank.” Would Marlowe bite?

“I’m listening, my lord.”

“Daventry, please. I have a little problem I think you can help me with.”

“I won’t agree to anything illegal.”

“I would not ask that of you. For the next month or so, I need you to do your best to divert a certain lady’s attention from me and mine.”

“If you are referring to Lady Hartwell, I find myself…open-minded.”

The man was not at all stupid. “I am.”

Marlowe glanced at the draft. “What are you proposing?”

Time to set the hook. “One of two things. An additional five thousand pounds added to this draft, or I write it for forty-five thousand pounds.”

The American did not blink. “I have a grasp on what I’m to do to earn the five thousand pounds. It’s the additional twenty thousand that has me wondering if you English are as peculiar as I’ve heard. I’m almost afraid to ask the reason for your generosity.”

“It is simple. The five for taking Serena, that would be Lady Hartwell, off my hands, and the extra twenty for allowing me to invest in your company.”

“Why would you want to do that?”

“I have good instincts and they are telling me Marlowe Shipping is a good investment. You lost approximately ninety thousand pounds worth of goods in the fire and you’re missing one ship. On the other side of the coin, you have four more warehouses, one in Virginia, one in South Carolina and another in Boston. Then there is your second London warehouse, now under heavy guard. One of your ships recently left China filled to the brim with tea, silks, and various other goods, your second ship—”

Marlowe held up a hand. “I know where my ships are. Hell’s fire, Daventry, you couldn’t have learned all that since I last saw you.”

“Considering I had never heard of you or seen you before then, I would have to disagree.” Although he had learned to expect it, sometimes Johnston still amazed him. After reading his report on Marlowe Shipping, Michael was determined to invest in the company.

“That’s all there is to it? I keep Lady Hartwell busy and let you invest in my company?”

“Yes, that and never tell a soul about Leo’s marker.”

“I never planned to, but I wasn’t the only man in that game with Brantley.”

“I can only hope they were too foxed to recall my cousin’s wager.”

Marlowe held out his hand. “We have an agreement.” After shaking hands, he said, “Am I to assume you will see to my invitations?”

“You will receive one for each event my lady and I attend.”

“Just like that?”

“I am an earl. When you inherit, you will find there are benefits you never considered. Tell me, do you know of the Blue Coat School at Christ Hospital?”

“Yes, I’ve taken a few of their boys. They do a decent job of teaching mathematics and navigation. Why do you ask?”

Michael stood. “It came up in a recent conversation. I would have rather it hadn’t.” He saw Marlowe out, and then returned to his desk. Ten minutes after attempting to concentrate on the rents report Johnston had compiled, he tossed it aside.

All he could think about was how Diana’s eyes had sparkled with excitement when she told him she was going to the boys’ school. With his refusal to consider it, he had stolen that light. Better that than risking her safety, however. She would come around when she realized he was right.

She needed a purpose? What the hell did she mean by that? She had him, Jamie, and when they married, she would manage his household. He grinned. Why wait? He would tell his mother to subtly turn those responsibilities over to Diana.

Once she was busy with all he had planned for her, she would forget this foolish idea.

Chapter Twenty-One

Diana’s first thought when her parents walked into the room was how much her father had aged. Her knees buckled, and she grasped the back of the chair for support. Her mother stopped, stared, and then rushed forward with her arms outstretched. “Daughter, oh, my daughter, it really is you.” Diana was enfolded in her mother’s embrace. She closed her eyes, inhaled the familiar rose scent and tried to hold back her tears. It had been so long, and she had believed this day would never come.

Opening her eyes, she looked over her mother’s shoulder. Her father stood next to Michael, an uncertain look on his face. He hesitated and then came forward.

“Papa?”

He lifted his hand as if to touch her, but dropped it back to his side. “Can you forgive me, Daughter?”

Not trusting herself to speak, she nodded. He wrapped his arms around the two of them and Diana was once again their little girl. She lifted her tearful gaze to Michael. After giving her a slight nod, he slipped out of the room.

The first few minutes were awkward, their words tentative, but soon her mother’s conversation, always chatty and amusing, eased the tension. Any talk of Leo and the night that changed their lives was avoided, and she was thankful for it. What was there left to say?

Diana relaxed against the sofa, listening to her mother, but stealing glances at her father. He stared at her as if memorizing her face, as if he feared she might vanish in front of his eyes.

She had always been his pet, his favorite little girl. She used to tease him, telling him that was easy to say as she was his only little girl. There had been a time when she believed him, but then he had renounced her and later, ignored her letter asking for help.

“Why didn’t you answer my letter, Papa?”

Her mother ceased speaking midsentence. Silence as thick as a dense fog filled the room. Diana’s heart pounded with apprehension. She hadn’t meant to ask the question so soon, had intended to ease into it. The last thing she wanted was to lose her parents again, but what if his answer wasn’t one she could forgive?

“I never received a letter from you, Diana. When did you send it?”

Profound relief flowed through her. Michael had guessed right. That rat, Mr. Bloodstone, had never sent it. “It is no longer of concern. You’re here now and that is all that matters.” She would not make him feel guilty for something not of his doing.

Obviously pleased a crisis had been averted, her mother cheerfully picked up where she had left off. “When the doctor came out and told Mr. Branson there were three babies, the poor man swooned, falling face first on the floor and breaking his nose. To this day, our farm manager’s nose is bent.”

Diana exchanged an amused glance with her father, both long accustomed to Lady Rotharton’s ramblings. Leo had tried to take away everyone dear to her, but in the end, he had not won. She prayed there really was a window in hell and at this very moment, he watched.

Later that night, Diana sat in her window seat recalling the events of the day. She had never dared to hope she would be reunited with her parents. Michael had given her this gift by taking it upon himself to visit her father and telling him the truth. Under no circumstances would she have found the courage to do so. For that, she could never thank him enough.

She was still angry with him, however. He had no right to dictate to her. If she wanted to go to the Blue Coat School, she damned well would. Ten times over, she had earned the right to make her own decisions and she would not give that up. Another reason not to marry.

A knock sounded on the connecting door. What did he want?

“Yes?”

“Open, please. I would like to talk to you.”

“I am not dressed.”

“Nothing at all?”

Blasted man. She opened the door.

He looked her up and down. “I confess to being disappointed. You are clothed. That discussion is for another day, however.” He held out his hand. “Come sit with me.”